General Forum

Recently I was sorting an older set of cards. Before the "value" of cards were realized, card collectors did all sorts of things. Just because a card was written on, pin holed, taped or anything that changes it's value, Do you automically throw it away? Now I'm not saying we look for these cards but maybe instead of trashing them, we save them just because of their history. Why did Art Howe have a witches hat?, Why does a card have a beard penned in, or How about the #30 punched thru it? What about names numbers and symbols written on the back? I never thought about it  until today, That these cards may have an interesting trail of history. What were previousl owners thinking and doing?

Here's part of a collection of about 50 cards I have that have some form of writing on them. I can't bring myself to throw them away and I'll never trade them so they sit in a small box on my sorting desk. They do make me wonder about their history.

I collect vintage, but almost exclusively pre-war, and I love cards with marks and holes. I have a 1933 Goudey Indian Gum Geronimo card that has a pin hole in the top center. The card actually has more of a story to it, the kid who owned it stamped his name and address on the back. I did some research and tried to track down his family to give them the card, I didn't get a response unfortunatly.

http://packwar.blogspot.com/2015/11/vintage-card-of-month-1933-goudey.html

Excellent story. Thanks for sharing.

Something I have thought of, which I am sure has been done before, is including a random oddball in a trade with a note. The reciever adds to a thread here when he/she got the card, and where they are and must include it in their next mail out with a similar note and have it continue. In theory we could track this cards adventure around the world. I even have a card sitting around in mind. Some Kevin Costner knock off "chrome" card.

Like "Where's George?", but for a card?  I like it 👍

I have an 83T Ryne Sandberg RC that some kid scratched out 3B with a pen and wrote 2B that I value much more than random scribbles or even just sharp corners.  I enjoy the enthusiasm and accuracy of whoever the original owner might have been.  Some intentional defects make a card more valuable, others don't.

I also have a Ryno card with writing on it (not my RC though). Off the top of my head, I want to says it's an '88 Donruss Diamond Kings subset card. I got it in a trade from by best friend in high school. He'd had it for 4-5 years but had written his name on the back when he got it. He was a Cubs fan but he traded it b/c he got another one in better condition. I remember him every time I see the back of the card.

As for the "Where's George" idea, eventually the card will just disappear. I've been in a couple of pass-it-around threads over the years. The longest one went on for over 2 years. Then the card disappeared as did the last couple of members that had it. It's not like it was a valuable card either. It was a badly damaged card from the mid-2000's. It was fun to track it and we did pics with the card itself. It got pretty creative. People would take it with them on vacation and then send it on when they got back. My picture was of the card sitting on top of the spare tire on my Mom's Mail Jeep, which has a USPS logo on the tire cover.

I have often thought about the history behind a cards . When I was a kid my mom would write my name on everything that I took to school to make sure I didn't lose it . I had some Star Wars cards that I wanted to take to school so I wrote my name on the cards figuring that is what my mom would want to do . I still have those cards in my collection. 

I really like the replies, very interesting, not sure why I thought everybody would just trash them.

Meanwhile, the "pass around idea" really intrigued me. I think I'm going to dig up some old blankfronts or backs and start this idea up again with a twist. Thinking, each owner dates the card, hometown & state, and adds a 1-word comment [ like Fave team, nickname, weather, auto, whatever...somewhat clean of course...ex. ~BOB~]. Keeping writing small, then pass it on with your next mailing until the blank front or back of card is absolutely full. Then mail it back to me, I'll post it for everybody to view. Sound interesting? I'll start with my next mailing. Gotta get rid of those useless blank front/back cards somehow. lol.

Hopefully I can find the the cards from the 50s which I peformed "artwork" on.   I also have to track down the cards one which my older typed the players' current teams as they were traded since the cards were produced.   Kids simply do things like this.