THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

I stopped when each manufacturer started putting out 5 different kinds of sets and charging more than a 14 year old could reasonably afford.

Ah...one of life’s most torurous decisions was Topps, Fleer, or Donruss? I still remember being crushed when Topps went from 33 cents to 35 cents per pack. 3 packs of cards and 1 piece of penny candy for a dollar was all I ever wanted!

People who know me from this blog normally associate me with my physics of baseball work.  Little known to all of you is that I am a pretty serious card collector, with nearly every Topps card from the period 1954-1998 (with a major gap in 1963).  I also have lots of Bowman’s from the 1950’s, especially the greatest set of all time, the 1953 Bowman color set (there was a companion b&w set that year that I also have but in poor condition).  But my favorite sets of all time are the 1955 Topps (for nostalgic reasons) the 1961 Topps (which I pieced together one card at a time), and the 1959 Fleer set (the Ted Williams set).

I grew up in the 80s and collected cards back then too...and gave it up in the early 90s.  I think lots of people have that same experience.  Most people didn’t come back to the hobby, I did though.  But instead of collecting current cards, I’d consider myself a collector of vintage cards, mostly 1920s and 1930s.  It is very different than ripping packs, “investing” in rookies and such, although there are portions of it that are somewhat similar (getting “low pop” high grade cards for instance).