General Forum

What is that one card that still brings that gut wrenching feeling to your stomach when you think about it or see it?

if you are like me, I grew up as a 6-8 year from 1977-1980...I didn’t really value cards other than playing with them, trading them and carrying them around in stacks with rubber bands wrapped around them. 

I have 3 Ricky Henderson rookies that are just pure trash now, but the one card that still pains my heart is my Joe Montana rookie. It has a couple creases along the top because I must have stepped on it along the way, after decorating my entire floor, wall to wall, with all my cards. 

Runner up moment...in 1986, standing in a K-Mart check out line, I grabbed a pack of cards and begged my mom to drop a whopping 50 cents on a pack of Fleer Basketball Cards....I remember opening them, thinking they were ugly and never bought another pack. Years later, I found them in a box and while I missed out on the Jordan rookie, I did score a Ewing and Byron Scott rookie in 1 pack. 

What is your heartbreaking card from your childhood? 

My brother and I had between us three rookie Walter Payton cards during our teenage years. After many years of holding these cards, I returned two of them to my brother because he felt ripped off and I retained just one. I have always wondered about what the fate of the two returned cards.

In late 1996-97 I purchased a pack of Topps Chrome for a friend. It contained the Kobe rookie. A card I will never have because it shot up to crazy prices. (I might be able to get one if they turn green, maybe). I tried to get him to trade it to me instantly but he never did. 

Then there's this: Cards lost to flood with pictures. 2003-04 Topps used to be my favorite Topps set. Now I can't see it and not think of the damaged cards. 

Even though I've replaced some of the damaged cards, my enjoyment of them is ruined forever, because every time I see them it instantly brings me back to that horrible night. 

1992-93 Upper Deck #1 Shaquille O'Neal. I chased that card for years, and I finally got it...on February 2nd 2002. That one hurts because I lost my dad to cancer on February 5th, 2002. He was already in the hospital when we went to the card show, and he insisted I go...we were all planning to go together that weekend, we didn't know he would not ever be coming home from the hospital. Even though he insisted that we go I now regret it immensely. In fact, it is one of the many contributing factors to why I stopped collecting the NBA several years later. Even now, in 2018, thinking about it- and writing about it, including this post...still bothers me. I suspect it always will. 

And of course, because it seems I'm not allowed to ever be too happy...the flood I mentioned? Guess what day it was. February 5th, 2015. 

I sold a bunch of cards during a lengthy bout of unemployment back in the early 2000s. The only one I really regret parting with now was my Wayne Gretzky rookie card. It was far from mint but re-acquiring a comparable one today would cost me about $400-500 and I only got $100 for it at the time. It is the only O-Pee-Chee hockey card I don't own from the years 1973 through 1990.

How many Bird, Magid, Dr J. cards did my friends and I tear off the villians to give Bird his own card? Between the 5 of us that collected in my immediate neighborhood it must have been 2 dozen...

Scott

The Bird/Magic/Dr.J card still gives me nightmares.  For Christmas in 1980, I received a wax box of 1980-81 Topps Basketall cards from my folks.  I remember opening the wrapping paper and spending the day opening all of the packs.  Of course as a 12 year idiot, I seperated all of the cards. arrrrrgggg.  Damn you Topps!!!!!!  I recently told my Dad how much an unopened wax box is now worth and he almost fainted. lol.  I also got a wax box of 1980-81 Topps Hockey that day.  Funny... I don't have nightmares about of those cards.  I still have all 72 of the team picture inserts. lol

my favorite baseball team is the Phillies, as a kid growing up, i have several Mike Schmidt rc's... however the Dodgers were arch rivals and I hated Ron Cey, so i kept poking his eyes out on all the cards- it wasn't until i was an adult to realize what i did LOL.. and now had to go out and buy one keeping Ron's eye's in tact. 

Growing up just about the same time period as you...flipping cards at recess was big at my school. I distinctly remember my "tape card" had a 79-80 OPC Gretzky rookie as the top card in the stack.

when we were kids, cards were toys, so they were played with and loved.

I have a full set of 80-81 topps basketball built as a kid (separated)- looks great in album with tobacco sized pages

mark

No particular card, but there is (was) a green metal index card file box that contained my 1966-69 Topps baseball, 1966-67 Philadelphia football, 1966-67 Topps football, 1968-70 Topps football, and some pirates trading cards (not Pittsburgh, but real ones) that was stored in my mom's storage chest. Someone in the extended family took it - no one's owned up to it - and there went my cards.

Of much more meaningful value is an 8mm film of my brother and I playing in the snow outside our home in Del Rio, Texas, from 1966! That's gone, too.