General Forum

I agree with the statements about this site being so awesome to unload those cards to those who want them.  I'm thrilled to trade 20-30-50 of those 'junk wax' era cards for 1 or 2 cards from today that I need.  I started collecting in that era and the '81-'86 sets seemed so out of reach for me and i never thought (back then) I'd ever be able to afford them because I thought their prices would always go up, up, up.  Now, I have the full sets and the extras have been a blessing for others.  When I started here 4+ years ago, I was trying to finish my '86 set from when I was a kid.

Based on his sigline, I believe our member Ian was born in the 2000s. I'm going to try not to think about the fact that I had already been collecting for 15 years by time he was born...and trading online already for a few years too. I joined the internet side of the hobby community when I was 15 years old, but that was back in the year 2000, when we finally got a computer.

A few years ago I gave some of my duplicates to a cousin who was born in the late 1990s. Some of the cards he referred to as old I got new...and as we were talking I realize he never got to see Michael Jordan play for the Bulls, for example. (it was a Jordan card that he was referring to, his 1996-97 SP base card in fact)

Time is relative, really. How many people are around today who collected 1952 Topps baseball, for example? There can't be many, and probably even less who have never left the hobby like I never did. The farther back you go the harder it will be to find people who actually have any memories of the cards from when they were new. When you get back to the cards of the 1880s it's not possible for the original collectors to still be around. Their memories of getting the cards and collecting are lost forever.

I remember when the concepts of parallels, autographs and relic cards were all introduced. I consider myself lucky in that regard. I got to see most of the all-time greatest in most sports compete live, something that people just discovering the sports now (like I did with hockey) won't ever get to experience. There are no players left in the NBA who were active when I started watching. My first draft class, the impressive 1996 class, they are all done too, as are the 1997-98 class. NASCAR may or may not be done now. My first season was 1993, and there are none left who were competing then on a regular basis. Derrike Cope still makes the occasional Cup start, but the last time he was relevant to a season was 1999. I got to experience the glory days of almost weekly card shows. When you could find cards everywhere and everywhere.

Now that they are gone, I miss those days. I got to experience something better than we have now, and I miss it. In some ways I almost envy the people who didn't get to experience that, because they can't miss what they never knew. I do.

Personally, I view the 1992-98 time period as the best in the hobby's history for sports cards, with the best time for non-sports cards being before WWII. However, that's mostly from an NBA only standpoint. I realize other sports vary, although NASCAR also falls in that era- I think 1994 is the best season for NASCAR and 1996-97 for NBA. I'm glad I got to experience them firsthand. I don't know yet which season was best for the NHL. Interestingly, my second season in both NASCAR and the NBA were my favorites. 2017-18 is my second season in the NHL, but I don't think this year's cards will be my favorites. There just aren't enough of them, extant or in my collection, for that to be the case. I am going to keep an eye on which season ends up being my favorite, and eventually get a post out of it for Cardboard History. Once I determine which one it is.

Billy, on the subject of age, the last MLB player older than me, Bartolo Colon (44), was released by the Rangers today.

I'm part of that renewed interest in that era.  I started collecting in '88, and I didn't have enough money as a kid to get all those cards.  I'm going back now and filling in a lot of holes.  One of my projects right now is to complete a set for every year since 1988, and there are lot of cards that I'm still needing.  Sites like this are awesome for obtaining those cards through trade.  For a point of reference, though, these are the last boxes I've purchase:

1992 Fleer football

1992 Ultra football

1993 Fleer football

2017 Update baseball

2018 Opening Day

1996 Donruss football

There's a pattern there as I'm going back in time to find cards I need the cheapest way possible.

The first player in MLB that was younger than me (read - he was the first player to play in the najors who was born after I was born) has been in the HOF now since 2016.

There are no major leaguers older than me. Last one that was older than me was Jamie Moyer.

Bartolo is a youngster to me.

I'm really going to be feeling old when Devin Booker retires. He was the first player in my two (at the time) sports that was born after I became a fan of the sport. I'm not sure how many are older than me in my sports, but there's probably quite a few as I'm still in the age bracket that can still be near the end of a career....and I'm two months older than LeBron, so the fact that he's still able to do what he does makes me feel better, LOL.

If enough of the junk wax gets tossed then you have a shortage. This was bound to happen and I do save it as cheap as it is right now. 

Trust me, there's no shortage.  I don't have any milk in my refrigerator right now.  It doesn't mean there's a shortage.  It just means I haven't been to the store.

It was a sad day for me when Calgary released Jaromir Jagr. He is not as old as me but almost and he was truly the LAST of my "younger" years of the NHL. At 47 some point this year, I have learned as Billy states that time is relative, things I do and say even my wife scrunches her eyebrows at. References or jokes that I still get all of my family at times do not understand. I blissfully enjoy opening anything before 2010, the oldest to date that I have opened was 91-92 UD hobby. I have some 97-98 stuff I have opened as well but it is hard to find (at a fair price) I did see two hobby boxes of 79-80 OPC NHL in Edmonton last month. $12,000 a box ......... I SO WANTED THEM!!! Old is Old, but young people always like old, and iof they can afford to get old they will, regardless of junk era or not.

I read quite a few blogs and I have seen the change too, cards that weren't worth a penny 30 years ago are now on people's wants list. They got used for trade fodder so often they just disappeared in to people's collections never to be seen again.