General Forum

Ok here’s my attempt to bring some more postitivity to the forums. Today lets find out everyone’s holy grail that they were able to get as a child. How’d you get it? Do you still have it? And obviously what card is it?

Mine is Ryne Sandbergs 83 Topps rookie card. I bought it when I was 10 or 11. It was by far the most money I’d spent in a single card. I think it was around $10. The cards honestly not in great shape it’s probably in ex condition but I treasure it. I got it from a little card shop on Main Street in Ames where I grew up. This is also the place I bought my first wax box(91 Topps baseball)

Ok let’s here yours!

As a child, hmmmm, prolly the biggest "Holy Grail" was when my Pop purchased the 1970-71 Topps NHL set for me.  It was my first complete set and it included my first Jean Beliveau card and my first Pittsburgh Penguins cards.  Yes I still have the Beliveau and the entire set.  Although I have had to replace some of them as I wrote on some of them as players switched teams.  Oh I still have the ones I wrote on as well, to me they are more valuable than the clean replacement ones.

My stepdad took me to work one day but on lunch we went to a local card shop. As we were looking around there was Jerry Rice’s rookie card. Now at the time the card was somethibg like $80-100. Which I didn’t know I was just a kid but when the shop owner told me I was crushed. To me it was a million.  My SD talked to him and got it to $50 (I think). I was the happiest kid. I still have the card.  Still in the same case it came with the day we bought it. 

My holy Grail that I got while still technically a child was 1996-97 Topps NBA#111...the series 1 checklist. It was super short printed and not even included in the factory set, which I believe was the last factory set issued for the NBA. I eventually traded for it when I was either 17 or 18 years old. It took me almost a decade to hunt down, which seemed like forever at the time. 

My childhood holy Grail that i got as an adult was a Jeff Gordon autograph. I began collecting NASCAR autographs in 1994 and always wanted Jeff's, but it was too expensive for me. I finally got one in 2016, on COMC. They don't really know NASCAR and had mislabeled it, they didn't think it was a real autograph I suppose. (The set is labeled correctly now) There was also a slight crease in the white margin which was marked, but is barely noticeable in hand. I ended up spending $13 and change on it. If it was a standard size card I bet it would have been more, but it was a box topper size. I'm still kind of in shock, a few years later, that it really happened.

I've shared this before on Jerry Rice, but I bought three '86 Topps wax packs back in 1990, and pulled two Rice RCs. I traded one of them quickly to the card shop owner for a Bob Hayes 1966 Philadelphia RC and another card that now escapes me.

As for a response to the OP? The Hayes transaction has to be it because as a child it was the only card I really wanted and never pulled.

My Holy Grail card from my childhood would definitely be the 1989 Fleer Err card of Bill Ripken.  I think I paid $5 for it in 1989.  Its a fun card and is my favorite still.  

When I say the Err card, I am referring to the one with the actual words on the bat nob.  

I bought a boatload of that Fleer trying to get that card, never pulled it.  Finally in 2015 I bought one of them boxes that has a buncha old packs at a local Target.  There it was the card I tried so hard to get.  I hadn't thought about that card for many a year and I really did not need to keep it, I just enjoyed the chuckle I got when I pulled the card.  Sold it for $35 later that year at a card show in which I was a vendor.

AUTOGRAPHS2000 wrote:

My Holy Grail card from my childhood would definitely be the 1989 Fleer Err card of Bill Ripken.  I think I paid $5 for it in 1989.  Its a fun card and is my favorite still.  

When I say the Err card, I am referring to the one with the actual words on the bat nob.  

For me it was my tenth birthday when I received a 1985 Topps Clemens rookie. So exciting!

For me.... a Wayne Gretzky Topps Hockey Rookie Card.  I bought for it for $5 a Flea Market in 1981 (when I was about 14 years year old).  It was most expensive single purchase I had ever made at the time.  I needed it to complete the set.  It's still the most valuable card in my collection.

As cliche as it is the holy grail for me is the 1989 Upper Deck Griffey RC!