and why did they throw cards away???!!!

[redsoxocd]

so here is a clip from a conversation that I had with my Grandfather yesterday:

Me: Grand-Daddy, did you ever collect baseball cards
Him: Hell no, I would get them in bubble gum and throw them away
Me: WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU DO THAT!!!!! YOUR OLD, YOU PROBABLY HAD STUFF LIKE MICKEY MANTLE ROOKIE CARDS AND OTHER GREATS!!! I COULD HAVE INHERITED MICKEY MANTLE ROOKIE CARDS AND OTHER GREATS!!! WHY WOULD YOU THROW THEM AWAY! THAT WAS SO STUPD!!!
Him: calm down, They didnt mean much to me, they're only cards
Me: A MICKEY MANTLE ROOKIE CARD IS NOT "ONLY A CARD" ITS THE CARD

Then I went into my bedroom to ponder this for a few minutes and ended up getting even more mad and screamed: I CANT BELIEVE YOU THREW THE CARDS AWAY!! THAT WAS STUPID!!!

and then i dropped the subject for the night.

Why would people throw their cards away!!!!

[Williamsburg2599]

so here is a clip from a conversation that I had with my Grandfather yesterday:

Me: Grand-Daddy, did you ever collect baseball cards
Him: Hell no, I would get them in bubble gum and throw them away
Me: WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU DO THAT!!!!! YOUR OLD, YOU PROBABLY HAD STUFF LIKE MICKEY MANTLE ROOKIE CARDS AND OTHER GREATS!!! I COULD HAVE INHERITED MICKEY MANTLE ROOKIE CARDS AND OTHER GREATS!!! WHY WOULD YOU THROW THEM AWAY! THAT WAS SO STUPD!!!
Him: calm down, They didnt mean much to me, they're only cards
Me: A MICKEY MANTLE ROOKIE CARD IS NOT "ONLY A CARD" ITS THE CARD

Then I went into my bedroom to ponder this for a few minutes and ended up getting even more mad and screamed: I CANT BELIEVE YOU THREW THE CARDS AWAY!! THAT WAS STUPID!!!

and then i dropped the subject for the night.

Why would people throw their cards away!!!!


Different people collect different things. Some people like cards, but what about the people who collect bottles, stamps, etc.., They might find it appalling if you threw away a rare stamp or bottle, but you wouldn't give it a second thought when you did it.

[MadHatter]

Don't forget - if people DIDN'T throw so many of the cards away back then, they wouldn't be as rare - and thus not as valuable.

[redsoxocd]

Don't forget - if people DIDN'T throw so many of the cards away back then, they wouldn't be as rare - and thus not as valuable.

yeah, i know but they would still be great cards to have, i'm going to call my great grandmother, who is 83 (and LOVES baseball) tomorrow and ask her if she ever collected cards.

[Aaron44]

That is a strange story. All I can say, is that some people don't like cards. I switch hobbies all the time. I have been collecting cards for about 4 years, and NEVER threw away a card.

[nyyfan]

wow. I have a story kinda like that. My grandma told me that her dad collected baseball cards and had a bunch of old brooklyn dodger cards and had mantle cards. When he left to go mining his wife threw everything away.

[EricDavis]

You guys just don't understand how baseball cards were viewed back then. They weren't valuable pieces of memorabilia. They were pieces of cardboard with pictures of players on them. They were things that made your bike sounds like a motorcycle. They were companions to the real prize. Gum! It's just the way it was.

[Dalkowski110]

The only reason my Dad collected was to keep his memories. But he kept them. As well as all the scorecards and yearbooks (which we still have). Ironically, his 1950's sets were saved...but ultimately a majority were destroyed by water damage. As a result, we go to great lengths to rebuild his old sets.

[AutographCollector]

After my dad graduated high school and then left the "nest"... my grandmother threw everything out. Complete sets, and all. To this day, if I mention the words "Baseball cards" around him.... he gets teary eyed.

[Stray Cat]

For 2 years we had tickets to the Pirates games at Forbes Field, I kept every program for years. My dad was in the Army so we moved a lot, they got tossed. I'd love to have them now. Bummer. :sigh:

[redsoxocd]

After my dad graduated high school and then left the "nest"... my grandmother threw everything out. Complete sets, and all. To this day, if I mention the words "Baseball cards" around him.... he gets teary eyed.

thats depressing. in june my school put on a musical (urinetown) and after it was finished i was talking to my friends dad and he was telling my about how he never collected cards but his dad did, and his mom threw them out when he went to college....very sad stuff

[Captain Cold Nose]

thats depressing. in june my school put on a musical (urinetown) and after it was finished i was talking to my friends dad and he was telling my about how he never collected cards but his dad did, and his mom threw them out when he went to college....very sad stuff

One of the oldest stories in collecting, thousands of stories like this. Comic books, too. One reason comics from the thirties and forties are so rare were so many were sacrificed for their paper for the war effort.

[MadHatter]

My Dad, of course, had similar stories when I was a kid. He used to tape the cards to the wall of his room... or in the spokes of his bike... or who knows what else. They weren't considered valuable back then. The idea of keeping them as an investment really popped up in the 70's/80's. Of course, mass-production stifled that.

I don't fault older generations for doing this. I'm sure I do the same thing with coins.

[ironman]

The high numbers of the 52 topps were also dumped in the Atlantic Ocean.


http://oldbaseball.com/refs/5253printing.html

[DaClyde]

Keep in mind that way back then, the gum was probably actually chewable, rather than the 2" sticks of sugared weather stripping we got in the 80s.

[Dalkowski110]

"Keep in mind that way back then, the gum was probably actually chewable"

Dad describes the gum as the following:

"It was chewable if you either sucked on it first or put in some water to soften it up. Remember, we got big slabs of gum, not sticks. It tasted good, but it wasn't really chewable straight from the wax pack. I remember Bowman gum was a lot better [than Topps gum], though."

[Matt1901]

Do you throw away cereal boxes? Some people collect them, and there might be some that will be worth hundreds of dollars in forty or fifty years.

[Captain Cold Nose]

Do you throw away cereal boxes? Some people collect them, and there might be some that will be worth hundreds of dollars in forty or fifty years.

Both Post and Jello produced quite a few cards in the early sixties. I know one is worth much more than the other. The Hostess cards of the 70's only go for a premium if the panel of three is complete.