Collecting Baseball Cards In The 1980s ...A Whole New World, Part 1 Of 2

Hi Folks, 

   

   I hope everyone has been keeping safe during the pandemic. Our best thoughts and prayers are with everyone that have been affected and impacted by this difficult time. 

   Today, I hope to put a little bit of levity and perhaps a bit of laughter into your day, even if some of that laughter is directed at me, during my journey back into time to give you a glimpse of what it was like when the Earth was just dinosaurs...and Baseball Cards! 

   Yes, the 1980s. For those of us in the 40ish range, we remember that decade as a magical time, for the most part, but looking back, there was pain, waiting, confusion, and all that stuff, but wow, there were deals! In the days before professional grading existed, it was a Wild-West out there, but if you were at the right card shows, you were golden! 

   For the purpose of this article, I will tell you that when I started collecting in the early 1980s, I was in my pre-teens, so it gives you an idea of the mindset that I approached the hobby with at that time. Prior to taking an interest in collecting, my previous memories of baseball cards was a 1976 Topps Glenn Abbott baseball card that reminded me of the Wicked Witch in the "Wizard of Oz", which is why I probably put Elmer’s Glue on the card, somewhere around the time I was 5 or 6. Also, I was quite puzzled by the 1976 Topps Ty Cobb card, which said, "Ty Cobb OF" on the front, and I was always confused..."OF" what? What did "OF" mean? ("OF" meant Outfield, I found out a few years later, of course!). I still have these cards, because these are what sparked it all. 

   Fast-forward to around 1982, when "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson, was blasting from every Camaro in Queens, New York (NYC), and after seeing my hapless New York Mets in person at Shea Stadium for the first time, something put me into a complete baseball card trance! I found a lot of the old cards I had, and they looked like they took a tumble in the wash, which they actually might have, and then I decided I needed to go to the candy store and get some cards. 

   Wax Packs and Rack-Packs were the flavors of the day, and I opened pack after pack, putting the cards in team order, and still not realizing the importance of condition. 

   Fast-forward to around 1983 (when "Karma Chameleon" was now the tune blasting throughout my borough in NYC)! After ripping open some 1983 Topps Wax packs, a friend and I had a good laugh about the name of one of the players..."Wade"...how could a great player be named, "Wade"? Well, it was Wade Boggs, and boy, were we ever wrong! 

   At the same candy store where we bought cards, they also sold magazines, and they had a magazine specifically called, "Baseball Cards". I pinched myself to see if I was dreaming, but I wasn't. I bought this magazine, and read it cover to cover on my walk back home. What I found out and read about made my head tilt side-ways in the same way that a dog does when you ask them if they want to go for a walk! 

   What was it that left me with a completely dumbfounded look on my face? What made time stand still for me?

   Let's talk about that in Part 2, "Collecting Baseball Cards In The 1980s...3 Fond Memories, Part 2 Of 2", which you can read here: http://blog.cardboardandcoins.com/2021/12/collecting-baseball-cards-in-1980s-part-2-of-2.html

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year to all!

Thanks, be safe, be healthy, and be well!

   

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BLACK FRIDAY SALE! 25% Off & FREE SHIPPING on Cards, Coins, and More!

Hi Friends,

   We have some great news! Our Black Friday Sale starts NOW! 

   We are offering you 25% off your order and FREE SHIPPING...on all orders, regardless of size...using code BLKFRI25OFF at CardboardandCoins.com

   If you have a Collector in your life, nothing makes a better gift for them than what they actually collect, whether it's Baseball Cards, Football Cards, Basketball Cards, Hockey Cards, U.S. Coins, Pokemon Cards, Comic Books, or all of these! 

   Not sure what to get them? A Gift Card makes a great choice, so they can buy anything they want! Our Gift Cards can be found HERE.

   If you are the Collector, then you have definitely come to the right place to pick up some incredible gifts for yourself, at some very low prices! 

May you have a Very Safe and a Very Happy Thanksgiving!

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The Many Baseball Stars We Have Lost So Far In 2020

Hi Friends,

   I hope everyone has been keeping as safe as can possibly be during this absolutely crazy year of 2020.

   Between the Coronavirus/Covid-19, the economy, and the social/racial justice movements going on all over our great Nation this year, sometimes, you wake up wondering, "what will this day hold?"!

   The world of Sports is a fantastic diversion that many of us enjoy watching, debating with other fans, and cheering for our on-field favorites! However, even the sports world has had a very difficult year, with some very untimely losses, such as that of NBA Superstar Kobe Bryant back in January, which almost feels like it was 2 years ago!

 
  The world of baseball was not immune to losses, and I started to realize after waking up today and find out that HOF Superstar Joe Morgan has passed away! Just this weekend, HOF Yankee pitching Ace Whitey Ford passed away. A week before that, both HOF Ace Bob Gibson and Ron Perranoski passed away. During the summer, we lost one of my personal favorites, HOF New York Mets pitching Ace, Tom Seaver, and a week before Seaver, it was Lou Brock!

   The year began...on January 1st... with the passing of Don Larsen, the pitcher who threw a perfect World Series game for the Yankees! Then, on through the Spring, it was Tony Fernandez, Jimmy Wynn, Al Kaline, and Bob Watson! Is this year for real?

   All of the losses are huge for the sport of baseball, and of course, the families of these players, to whom we send our most sincere condolences. However, as I mentioned, growing up in Queens, New York, as a lifetime New York Mets fan, I can identify with and feel the loss of Tom Seaver, "Tom Terrific", for several reasons, beyond the most obvious ones.

   When I was born (1971), I had missed out on the Miracle Mets of 1969, and was not "conscious" of the Mets until the late 1970's, when I began attending games at Shea Stadium, and by that time, Seaver was traded away and most of his "hey days" were behind him. However, when he pitched for the Mets on Opening Day in 1983, I was there with my best friend at the time, as well as my Dad. Ironically, Tom Seaver passed away from Dementia, which is the same illness that my Dad passed from, just last year!

   We can all just imagine these great players, assembled on a big field in the sky, striking each other out and battling it out every day from now on until the end of time! All we can do is hope that the remainder of 2020 is a little more merciful to the rest of us, and to leave our favorite sports stars with us just a little bit longer!

Thanks, be safe, be healthy, and be well!

   

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Baseball Cards Years and Manufacturers Ranked by Strongest and Weakest Cardboard!

Hi Folks,

   For those of you that have been collecting for many years, or for those that collect vintage baseball cards, at some point in time, you might have noticed a trend among certain years of baseball cards, and among certain manufacturers. There are just some years of cards that are close to impossible to find with sharp corners, without paint chipping... cards that will hold up if you look at them the wrong way!

   For the sake of "Vintage", which I have defined as 20 years or older, I've ranked the Top 3 strongest cardboard years with the manufacturers, and I have also ranked the Top 3 weakest cardboard years with the manufacturers. Included in deciding these ranks are considerations of the wear and tear effects of what I call "Pokemon" corners (rounded corners), wavy edges, and easy creasing. Again, please remember, this is from my experience of collecting, buying, selling, and handling thousands upon thousands of these cards over the past 30+ years that I have been in the hobby.

TOP 3 STRONGEST CARDBOARD BASEBALL CARD YEARS AND MANUFACTURER:

1) 1983 FLEER: After a decent showing in 1981 and 1982 with their first 2 re-emergence years in the hobby, the Fleer set from 1983 is built to last. This is extremely fortunate, because 3 major Hall of Famer Rookie Cards (Wade Boggs, Tony Gwynn, and Ryne Sandberg) are included in this set, among many other major HOF Stars. There is something different and almost space-age to the 1983 Fleer cards, and they can "take a punch" and survive, unscathed. The Winner!!

2) 1991 UPPER DECK: Another set in the 3rd year of the company's baseball card set issue, the 1991 Upper Deck issue is made of quite a strong cardboard! Although they were certainly over-produced, there are still some great cards in this set, like the 3rd year Ken Griffey Jr. Card, as well as another HOF'er, Jeff Bagwell, with his rookie card in this set.

3) 1969 TOPPS: OK, I had to throw one in for Topps, and honestly, with 50 years of time on them, these cards have held up extremely well, but, whatever Topps did in 1969 did not last, because the 1970 Topps cards went downhill!

TOP 3 WEAKEST CARDBOARD BASEBALL CARD YEARS AND MANUFACTURER:

1) 1976 TOPPS: My absolute favorite set, as I remember going to a store as a 5 year old and buying a pack (I wish I bought a few cases...what was I thinking??). However, even with 1976 cards acquired via set breaks, which is where a majority of cards on CardboardandCoins.com come from, there is still a major inherent weakness to the corners and the paint on these cards, and errant creasing building from the corners inward. Unless they are stored in a sleeve and a top loader, avoiding any type of handling or exposure to air, these cards are tough! The 1975 Topps card stock was not nearly as bad, however the 1976 Topps and the following year, 1977 Topps, were the two worst, in my experience.

2) 1977 TOPPS: As mentioned above, this is another set that yields very easily to excessive handling, and also, to open air exposure. Paint chipping is more evident on the 1977 cards vs the 1976 cards, but these are slightly less susceptible to errant creasing.

3) 1970 TOPPS: After a relatively banner year for cardboard strength in 1969, the 1970 Topps became one of the most crease-likely cards that have been made. The cardboard is not necessarily super weak, but there is something to the internal structure of the cards that makes them develop stacking creases, as I call them (creases that build in size and spider out across the card). It seems the lower/earlier series of the 1970 Topps baseball cards are the worst (perhaps due to the lesser amount of handling on the higher series?)

   Aside from having to deal with the issues highlighted above, I would not want the composition of baseball cards to be anything but cardboard...but to the manufacturers, we ask; Please try to copy the formula that made the 1983 Fleer baseball cards the "Iron Mike Tyson" of the baseball card collecting hobby!!

   How has your experience been with the Cardboard treasures that we all know and love? I'd love to know!


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New MLB Baseball Expansion Teams: Omaha? Cuba? Japan? Where? Why? How?

Hi Folks,

   I hope your favorite baseball team is doing as great as you hoped they would, thus far, and so early in the season still!!

   Sometimes, we take it for granted if we have a favorite team within visiting distance, and I don't mean "day-trip" visiting, rather, I mean locally (30-60 minutes away, maximum). Personally, I grew up visiting Shea Stadium as a kid to see the New York Mets, and now it's Citi Field. So for me, I think sometimes I take it for granted that my team is "right here".

   Some folks have gone through the grieving process for teams that were "right here", for example, the Brooklyn Dodgers, the New York Giants, and then there are the folks in Montreal, a big baseball city, that bid farewell to their Expos. Did Montreal Expo fans roll their allegiance behind the Washington Nationals? Did they start flying down to DC to watch their Nationals play? Maybe some of them, but for the most part, it had to hurt. Growing up in New York, I heard stories from folks that were die-hard Dodgers fans in the 1940's and 1950's, and when the team relocated to Los Angeles, these fans went through a very sad period of time that only a true Baseball fan can "get" and understand. Many of the former Brooklyn Dodger fans refused to move their allegiance to the new L.A. team, but many of the same folks refused to become Yankee fans, due to the intense rivalry that existed for so many years (some of these rivalries split families in half!).

   However, in 1962, when the MLB expansion brought baseball to Queens with the New York Mets, a large amount of old Brooklyn Dodgers fans found some love once again for the game of baseball, no matter how hapless the Mets were in those first few years.

   Recently, the Baseball Commissioner, spoke about the next wave of cities that the MLB will be expanding into. There are a few places that make a lot of sense, as far as locations of new teams, but it makes me wonder about the mind-set of some folks that grew up without a local team.

   For example, can you imagine growing up somewhere like Omaha, Nebraska, which is an All-American city like any other Metropolis in our great country. Who would you be a fan of when you are growing up? Well, you have the Kansas City Royals, about 200 Miles and a state away, or the Colorado Rockies, 500+ Miles Away. Who do you choose? Well, if you grew up before the MLB Expansion put the Colorado Rockies team on the Baseball Map, then I guess it would have been the Royals?

   Here's my first point; from the standpoint of the actual structure of two leagues and 3 divisions each, you need to have 6 new Expansion teams. Mathematically, there is no other fair way to do it, because the way it works now, an extra team in your division makes achieving one of the wild cards that much more difficult. We're not going back to just an East and West division per league, so 4 teams will not suffice. We need 6, but where can they be? Better yet, where should they be?

   #1 Well, my first pick is Omaha. It's prime for a team, and even though there is not a population explosive region surrounding Omaha, it will lure folks from Lincoln, Des Moines, Sioux Falls, Rapid City, and other mid-size cities surrounding it by a stretch of Interstate. The stadium may not require 50,000 seats, but as far as playing in the heart of the country, you cannot get much more "central" than Nebraska on the map.

   #2 How about New Orleans? You can argue "why?", with Houston a few hours down I-10. But, hey, there are the NBA Basketball New Orleans Pelicans...and the Houston Rockets. There are the New Orleans Saints of the NFL...and the Houston Texans. Why not MLB Baseball? Perhaps they can be called the New Orleans Cajuns? I am getting hungry just thinking of the potential ballpark fare....clams, oysters, garlic crab....Yum!

   #3 Aloha. How about Honolulu, Hawaii? As a gateway to the Far East, Honolulu would be a great place for a team. Aside from a large enough local population, scores of folks would catch games when on vacation in Hawaii. It might also be the next jumping point for the next big stars from Japan or Korea, who are trending towards the West Coast (Shohei Ohtani went to the Angels & Yusei Kikuchi went to the Mariners). What would the team be called? Maybe the Honolulu Hulas? Scratch that. Perhaps the Honolulu Polynesians? The New York Mets are the New York Metropolitans. Perhaps the Honolulu Polynesians can be called the Polys?

   #4 Next Stop, Montreal. Montreal is a huge market with a ready-built fan base. Like I mentioned earlier, I sincerely believe that Expos fans did not decide to stay with the franchise chain and become Washington Nationals Fans. Maybe a few, but not the majority. Baseball has a rich history in Montreal, and there is a big drive going on now and discussions regarding where the new stadium would be located. This one already seems to be in motion. I wonder if the old Expos mascot, Youppi! would split time between the Montreal Canadiens NHL team games and Montreal baseball games? He/She/It was a huge part of the fan experience at Olympic Stadium during the time of the Montreal Expos.

   The next two may be a stretch, but remember, baseball is becoming global, and these two cities are inevitable.

   #5 on my list would be Havana, Cuba. Just 90 Miles from Miami, the love that the Cuban people have for the game of baseball rivals the love that we have for the game. It was meant to be for an MLB team to be based in Cuba, and the time has come for this major step forward to happen. It does not have to be political...it's all about baseball!

   #6 on my list may be outlandish, but follow me here. Tokyo, Japan. Another city in another country that eats, sleeps, and dreams baseball. They already have the infrastructure, and would have an MLB team. I know it is far away. But, for example, an East Coast team can head out West, play the California teams and Seattle, then, play the Honolulu team, then the Japanese team, or the same in reverse. These would be long road trips, of course. Then Team Tokyo would have a longer road trip, hitting multiple cities before heading back. They would have 3 major road trips per season, followed by 3 long stretches playing at home, hosting the other teams, one after another.

   Honorable mention teams were Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, which are also huge baseball countries, as well as Korea and Australia. However, this is just my thoughts on where I'd like to see new teams, and these countries could also be interchangeable.

   What are your thoughts? Where do you think the new teams will be located?
   Better Question: What do you think their Baseball Cards would look like?

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