Any Sports Cards Collectors Here?

[The Feral Slasher]

I started collecting baseball and football cards as a kid in 1978. Completed those sets from wax and cello packs. During the spring of 1979, I bought complete sets of 1976,1977,1979 baseball and 1977 football from Renata Galasso after seeing her ad in baseball digest. I remember them all costing around $18-24 per set. Then I got a 1975 Topps baseball set from Paul Marchant's ad in the Sporting News for the incredibly low price of $27 ! And they were all beautiful gem mint cards. They were in better condition than any of my other sets. I also bought a 1974 set out of a TSN classified ad for $35. But they were VG-Ex condition with lots of dinged corners. And they smelled like cigarettes. I went back to the wax packs for the 1980 & 1981 sets and then went back to ordering the sets by mail from 1982-1985. I ended up with Topps, Fleer, & Donruss baseball complete sets from 1974-1985 including all the traded and update sets. Plus complete Football sets from 1977-1984. By 1986, I discovered cars and girls and lost interest in collecting and ended up selling them all to Howard's coin shop in Ohio for a couple of grand so I could buy my first car. I really wish I would have kept that 1975 set though. Now every time I see PSA 9 & PSA 10 cards from that set selling for hundreds or even thousands of dollars on ebay, I wonder if one of those gem mint cards used to be mine. Sigh.

Fast forward to 2001 and the internet boom along with the the ease of buying cards on ebay and I was hooked again. Now my collection consists of Pirates and Steelers cards from the 70's & 80's, and 90-92 Pirates (both graded and ungraded) with emphasis on Clemente, Stargell, Parker (boyhood favorite), Bonds, & McCutchen. I've also been picking up a few Julio Rodriguez PSA 10's here and there. My best purchase so far is a PSA 9 OC (off center) Stargell rookie that I won for $67 about 15 years ago. I actually bid $300 on it and was shocked at the lack of interest. All because of the OC qualifier. It actually has nice centering from left to right and very sharp corners. But it has almost no border at the bottom. I still think it is a very nice looking card. There's 3 different PSA 9 (centered) Stargell rookie cards for sale on ebay now. They are all listed at over $24,000. I plan on holding onto that one for awhile.

One of the more unique items that I have acquired is Manny Sanguillen's very first minor league canceled paycheck from 1964 in the amount of $30 with one of his first professional autographs on the back. I got it for 25 bucks. I think someday I'm going to donate this one to a Pittsburgh Sports Museum. Maybe I can get a free lifetime pass out of the deal.

damn all that PSA talk just blows my mind . The Manny sanguillen paycheck is very cool

[In the Corn]

I started collecting in 1978. My dad usually worked one or two days at home each week, and I think he bought my brother and me cards to keep us occupied. We moved the summer of 1979, and I'm sure I invested a lot of allowance money in cards, as I didn't have any new friends. I collected hard until 1986-87, and then started college. I spent way too much allowance and umpiring money on cards as a kid. Now, I have a lot of cards from that area. I have a big lawyers filing cabinet (24 drawers) filled with cards and about 6-7 three ring binders with the star cards from the area.

One of my cooler items in my collection is a Willie Stargell star from the 1979 We Are Family team. I grew up in Pittsburgh, so Stargell and Parker were my guys.

[revo]

yeah, I've got a closet full of cards and comics. No clue what to do with them.

My cards are all late 80s-early 90s though. No one wants that shit.

Also interested in comics, especially Marvel silver age. Spiderman, X-Men, Avengers, Thor, Fantastic Four, etc. Lemme know....

[revo]

I started in 75. Have multiple sets from 75-80. The 76 set(s) were ordered directly from Topps...still have an original box they came in. Others from late 60s early 70s too.
Jumped back in in 89 for a couple years & now only buy a couple packs every now & again. Lots of unopened boxes & even a few cases of various 89 stuff.
Willing to part with many/most.

Definitely inteerested in the 1975-1977 sets, as well as the late 60s/early 70s cards. PM me.

[revo]

Went on a frenzy this week, bought a 1958 Topps Roberto Clemente last night, and a bunch of 1970 Topps the other day.

[revo]

I am amazed that anyone else knows about Renata Galasso..i bought cards from her in the mid 70s.... probably from baseball digest or maybe Sport magazine.

Yeah, same here! My friends and I used to admire her collection, but don't think I ever bought anything from one of her ads. Also the fact she was a fellow Brooklynite was nice.

[revo]

I started collecting baseball and football cards as a kid in 1978. Completed those sets from wax and cello packs. During the spring of 1979, I bought complete sets of 1976,1977,1979 baseball and 1977 football from Renata Galasso after seeing her ad in baseball digest. I remember them all costing around $18-24 per set. Then I got a 1975 Topps baseball set from Paul Marchant's ad in the Sporting News for the incredibly low price of $27 ! And they were all beautiful gem mint cards. They were in better condition than any of my other sets. I also bought a 1974 set out of a TSN classified ad for $35. But they were VG-Ex condition with lots of dinged corners. And they smelled like cigarettes. I went back to the wax packs for the 1980 & 1981 sets and then went back to ordering the sets by mail from 1982-1985. I ended up with Topps, Fleer, & Donruss baseball complete sets from 1974-1985 including all the traded and update sets. Plus complete Football sets from 1977-1984. By 1986, I discovered cars and girls and lost interest in collecting and ended up selling them all to Howard's coin shop in Ohio for a couple of grand so I could buy my first car. I really wish I would have kept that 1975 set though. Now every time I see PSA 9 & PSA 10 cards from that set selling for hundreds or even thousands of dollars on ebay, I wonder if one of those gem mint cards used to be mine. Sigh.

Fast forward to 2001 and the internet boom along with the the ease of buying cards on ebay and I was hooked again. Now my collection consists of Pirates and Steelers cards from the 70's & 80's, and 90-92 Pirates (both graded and ungraded) with emphasis on Clemente, Stargell, Parker (boyhood favorite), Bonds, & McCutchen. I've also been picking up a few Julio Rodriguez PSA 10's here and there. My best purchase so far is a PSA 9 OC (off center) Stargell rookie that I won for $67 about 15 years ago. I actually bid $300 on it and was shocked at the lack of interest. All because of the OC qualifier. It actually has nice centering from left to right and very sharp corners. But it has almost no border at the bottom. I still think it is a very nice looking card. There's 3 different PSA 9 (centered) Stargell rookie cards for sale on ebay now. They are all listed at over $24,000. I plan on holding onto that one for awhile.

One of the more unique items that I have acquired is Manny Sanguillen's very first minor league canceled paycheck from 1964 in the amount of $30 with one of his first professional autographs on the back. I got it for 25 bucks. I think someday I'm going to donate this one to a Pittsburgh Sports Museum. Maybe I can get a free lifetime pass out of the deal.

I started as a kid in 1977 with baseball and Star Wars. I remember my grandmother buying me an entire box of Star Wars cards from the local deli for $10!

I stopped collecting cards & comics around 1984, then picked it back up sporadically in the early 2000s, but switched to buying autographs, especially auto'd baseballs. I bought from reputable dealers on eBay, but now that I'm in this facebook group called "Out or Safe" where autograph experts serve you up the verdict, which is usually bad. I'm terrified to post my stuff for fear I got hosed, lol. I won't bother with autos anymore because seeing the sheer amount of forgeries in this group is unreal.

[madducks]

I started as a kid in 1977 with baseball and Star Wars. I remember my grandmother buying me an entire box of Star Wars cards from the local deli for $10!

I stopped collecting cards & comics around 1984, then picked it back up sporadically in the early 2000s, but switched to buying autographs, especially auto'd baseballs. I bought from reputable dealers on eBay, but now that I'm in this facebook group called "Out or Safe" where autograph experts serve you up the verdict, which is usually bad. I'm terrified to post my stuff for fear I got hosed, lol. I won't bother with autos anymore because seeing the sheer amount of forgeries in this group is unreal.

For the same reason, I don't collect autographs either. Although I still managed to accidentally acquire a handful of autographed Pirates photo's and cards that I've either bought as part of an ebay lot or I just really liked the card or photo and it was less than $20 and I didn't care if the autograph was authentic or not.

Plus I got an autographed Joe Montana poster courtesy of my ex-wife who worked at the local hotel where Montana & his wife stayed when he was in town for his high school hall of fame induction about 15 years ago. I actually had two of them and gifted the other one to my nephew. Not sure what happened to that one. Knowing my nephew, he probably hocked if for 50 bucks.

If you really want to gain some insight into how corrupted the autographed sports memorabilia business is, I highly recommend that you read Operation Bullpen by Kevin Nelson.

[revo]

Ugh, not sure I want to. I have a couple of Mantles, DiMaggios, Ted Williams, Mays, etc. that I fear may be all fugazi

[Sour Masher]

yeah, I've got a closet full of cards and comics. No clue what to do with them.

My cards are all late 80s-early 90s though. No one wants that shit.

I was in the same boat years ago. I had three milk crates full of boxes of cards and I was moving out of this crappy apartment I shared while in grad school. I saw a kid, about 8 or 9 and I gave two of them to him. He was elated. I kept one crate filled with all my EC comics, and the cards I thought might be worth something one day, but cards from that era were just so mass produced, most of them are worthless, even my tops 1992 draft pick Jeter rookie that I was so happy to pull is only worth a few bucks.

[the heat]

1980 All-Star game at Dodger Stadium we had seats towards left field line. Got there for batting practice. Jim Rice tossed a ball to the crowd where I got it.
On the way out going up the stairs behind the broadcasters Drysdale is making his way out via stairs. I asked him to sign the ball...and he did. Don't think he stopped for any other autographs. Still have the ball.

[madducks]

Ugh, not sure I want to. I have a couple of Mantles, DiMaggios, Ted Williams, Mays, etc. that I fear may be all fugazi

Even the real autographs are difficult to sell because a lot of buyers don't even trust the reputable sellers. Not because the reputable sellers are dishonest. But, because even the reputable sellers get duped. One of the topics covered in "Operation Bullpen" was how, during the 1990's, fake autographs were being sold on The Home Shopping Network.

from Wikipedia:

Operation Bullpen was an FBI investigation into forged celebrity autographs and sports memorabilia that ran from 1999 until 2006. The investigation uncovered $100 million worth of fraud that occurred in the United States.

Wayne Bray, a memorabilia shop owner, met master forger Gregory Marino in 1994. The two became friends, and went into business selling forged Mickey Mantle autographs among other items. A large number of the forgeries were made by Marino, who could perfectly copy signatures on sight and worked 15 hours a day to produce forgeries. Marino estimated that he made over a million forgeries during their operation.

Another notable figure was John Olson, who forged around 10,000 autographs, the majority of which were Muhammad Ali.

In addition to tracking down forgers and distributors, the FBI also targeted authenticators who knowingly authenticated forged memorabilia for the ring.

During the investigation, it was discovered that forged memorabilia was being sold through trade publications, shopping channels and even retail stores. In one official team store, an estimated 75 percent of autographs purported to be from MLB players and other personnel were fake.

In April 2000, the FBI made an announcement about the operation, with investigators estimating that anywhere from 50% to 90% of memorabilia in the industry was fake.

The operation was finally ended in 2005, after shutting down 18 forgery rings and confiscating $15 million worth of fake memorabilia. Ultimately, over 60 convictions were made due to the investigation

[revo]

Even the real autographs are difficult to sell because a lot of buyers don't even trust the reputable sellers. Not because the reputable sellers are dishonest. But, because even the reputable sellers get duped. One of the topics covered in "Operation Bullpen" was how, during the 1990's, fake autographs were being sold on The Home Shopping Network.

Yeah, exactly. I don't think they were crooks, I think they may have been rubes, too.

[heyelander]

I've got a bunch of signed balls... a lot are fading at this point. The only ones I know are real are Carlton, Mays, and Banks as I got them signed in person, and I'm pretty sure my Damon ball is real because it's a team ball I got it from the Wilmington BlueRocks, and it has Damon's signature twice as it was passed around the locker room.

[madducks]

My uncle has a baseball signed by the the 1963 NL All-Star team. It has signatures from Clemente, Aaron, Mays, McCovey, Snider, Musial, Koufax, Drysdale, Marichal, Spahn, and others.

My grandfather got the ball from Stan Musial himself at the game. My grandfather grew up in Donora, PA and was good friends with Musial's brother and even dated Stan's sister before he met my grandmother. The 1963 MLB All-Star Game was played at Cleveland and it was Stan Musial's final season. So, a group of guys from Donora, which included my grandfather and his brother plus Stan Musial's brother, got seats behind the NL dugout courtesy of Stan the Man and drove two hours to Cleveland to see the game. At the game, Musial gave each of them an NL team signed baseball. And my grandfather gave it to his youngest child, which was my 11 year-old uncle.