My Sports Card Collection is Worth Pennies

Sports Cards Were Not Investments

As a young child I loved sports cards, specifically basketball.  I had more cards than I had space in the house.  One of my best memories would be when JC would go to the 7-11 and buy me packs of cards from the 1986 Fleer basketball set.  Aside from this being one of the more valuable sets of all time, there was a stick of rock hard gum that came with every pack that I looked forward to.  I also used to memorize tons of info about players.  Who else would know that Mark West’s birthday was 1 day away from mine?  Nance and I also thought John Bagley had the best name in the league.

As I progressed more into card collecting I’d make sure I purchased Beckett which would provide some idea of valuation for these cards.   At the time players like MJ and Magic cards would actually be worth money.  By today’s standards, these cards didn’t appreciate into anything worth talking about which is disappointing because card collecting was frickin’ awesome.

I remember stories of my dad being a card collector and how his parents threw out all of his cards.  I think this happened to me except it happened gradually over time and I was OK with it.  I’m sure there were some valuable cards that were trashed because I specifically remember having almost every card of the 1986 Fleer set.  Remember though that I was 4-5 years old collecting these and even if I did have them they were likely to have pen or a full crease through them.  I also collected Magic cards which are worth even less than basketball cards.  Here are a few cards that actually remained as part of my collection.

 

My Sports Cards

1986 Fleer – Michael Jordan

You’d think this card would hold some value but it didn’t.

 

1972 Topps – Oscar Robertson

I card I bought from a dealer.  Great player but too late in his career to be worth anything.  Incredible stats though.

 

1986 Fleer – James Worthy

My last card from the aforementioned 1986-87 Fleer set.  I’m a bit confused on why this set produced MJ’s rookie card because his draft year was 84′.  Either way, other rookie stars included Hakeem and Barkley not to mention studs like Ewing, Magic, Bird, and Isiah.  I wish I would have kept better care of these cards.

 

1991 Skybox – Michael Jordan

One of my favorite sets.  It’s bizarre they used the same picture as the 86′ card above.  I thought the backgrounds were awesome as a kid.

 

1991 Donruss – Randy Johnson

I didn’t collect much baseball but stumbled upon a young Randy Johnson.  “Cause I bumped into him and all I had on me was this samurai sword… And you’re not gonna not get Randy Johnson’s autograph, Right?”

 

1992 Score – Sammy Sosa

I never knew Sammy was on the Sox is why I included this card.

 

1991 Skybox – Kurt Rambis

My personal favorite because of the striking resemblance to Bill Schmidt in his playing days.