CARDBOARD DREAMS: A Retro Baseball Card Documentary
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- Опубликовано: 20 ноя 2016
- This was my senior project when I was a student at Rutgers Newark.
Take a look into the baseball card collecting craze of the glorious '80s... Long before social media, iPhones and cable TV there was just ... simple hobbies and CARDBOARD DREAMS. ~ Enjoy. 
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The guy that paid 15 bucks for the Mantle and Mays got the deal of a lifetime.
Imagine this. Right across the street from middle school was an arcade. In 1975 we had pinball and air hockey. We had it better back then.
yes. thank you. just what i needed. i miss this era. videostores arcades card shops and mall life. i lived for it everyday.
It’s 2021 now and I just watched this documentary for the first time. So many memories I have during this time in my life, going to all the card shows around and card shops… this documentary brings me back to those times and I loved every minute of watching this, so thank you so much for posting this one! One of my favorites on RUclips
Couldn't have said it any better. Some special times in Toledo for me. I still collect 🤣. That one kid at the end had it right.. I was the one collecting Conseco and Fedorov and should have been going vintage 😆. It's true tho, while I'm nostalgic, it sure is more fun for me collecting players I can actively watch.. If I could go back in time, first place I would go is to some of those big, old card shows tbh ☺️
I don't know how I ended up here but man it was worth it!
I love how spot on the older crowd was at the time in saying invest in vintage. While all these younger collectors were chasing the new rookies the older collectors were chasing Jackie’s and Mantle’s…while the young rookies all crashed the vintage stuff went to the moon…they were so right haha
Sounds like both groups were chasing the players they were connected to.
This is amazing. I was 13 when this would have been made. What's fascinating is that nothing has really changed. I was certainly one of the kids who liked older card, but they were just out of reach financially. I still have a 71 Thurman Monson that I bought at the time, and every time I went to the card store i would look at the 73 Dwight Evans rookie wishing I could afford it.
I love the fact that there was NO SLABS at this point, what a beautiful thing so much more simple and fun. What I would do to go back in time where a Canseco rc would fetch 100 150 bucks or for that brief period where Greg jefferys rc was the hottest card around lol what a great video. Everyone invthe hobby needs to see this point blank period
If you are in it for the money then you missed the point
@jasonsmith2439 then I guess I missed the point then . Sounds ridiculous. I have an extensive collection and yes I worry about value it's part of the hobby
I was big into collecting in 1990, I hand collected all the major sets that year.
worthless now. haha
Hey, this was a great video. Everything seemed so pure to me back then (I was 8 or 9) but now I see how even then, adults were saying "things aren't the same anymore." I catch myself saying that now, but I believe its a bad mentality. There are positives in everything (even the card industry today) and its really up to us to avoid getting old and cynical. Opening a pack of Topps baseball every spring will always be meaningful!
I think there is nothing new or good about this era. 90s was the last greatest decade in my opinion.
Nice presentation Anthony.
It was the same thing throughout the entire continental US at that time. You captured it. The guy at 23:33 really understood the hobby at that time and it's future. Unreal that a Babe Ruth card costed the same as a Jose Conseso Donruss rookie at a show. Wish I had a time machine some days.
This was great! thank you for posting! Took me right back to 1990.
Stuff like this is what makes RUclips so great. Thank you for sharing!
Wow, love this. I am going on my 35th Anniversary of collecting baseball cards. And I will never stop.
Thank you for this upload. I was 14 1990. Takes me back.
I was 13 in '90 and started ripping packs of 86 Topps but only started getting serious about it in 89 with that year's Topps, Donruss and Fleer. Oh, let us not forget the wonderful inaugural series of Upper Deck! Amazing times and the great memories that still help carry me through hard times. Take care, friend.
God, I MISS the pre-internet era of collecting. Going to the shop and seeing new cards, old cards and talking with the shop owners about cards. The shows were awesome too. You'd see something you've never seen before. Then youd go home and play on you bikes, with your friends and whatnot. The golden age of socializing. Yeah it's IRONIC that I'm saying this on the internet lol
I caught it at the tail end when we still had some card shops in my town and the odd card show here and there (not the biggest town).
My brother got me into it. Idk what it was-something about the rush of pulling a card of your favorite player, or this idea that you were going to find a card that would become historical, like the next OG Honus Wagner or something of that ilk. It was an exciting time.
And then baseball took a major blow that I personally don’t believe it ever fully recovered from: the revelation that many top players were using performance enhancing drugs. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was like fans of baseball had been duped. This high-flying era of left-and-right dingers was a lie.
The card values soon began to plummet in the aftermath. After the MLB cracked down on the PEDs and other ethical trespasses (like using corked bats), baseball fell into a boring dead ball era, and so the market tanked further. I didn’t enjoy watching baseball as much anymore. I was buying cards, but not connecting with the hobby like I had been. It didn’t sit well with me looking at the now-disgraced juicers and HGH’ers. I also didn’t enjoy the new crops of players coming in either. When you’re conditioned to watching guys like Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, and Sammy Sosa crushing it all the time thanks to drugs, legitimate play doesn’t do much for you. I also learned that I was decisively crappy at baseball with no chance of making something out of the sport in my own life, and that definitely had an impact on how I viewed baseball and card collecting. It was like I waking up from a beautiful dream into a harsh reality.
I still bought packs here and there, but almost exclusively of Topps Allen & Ginter because at least Topps could read the room and knew that the mediocre players wouldn’t sell the cards; the packs featured really rare pulls that included hair samples from legends like Abraham Lincoln.
Then I pulled my grail: a Stephen Strasburg rookie card. It was worth $50k at the height of its value, but settled around a cool $10k for a while. Not sure what I was thinking at the time, but I somehow believed holding onto it would pan out better in the longrun. After all, what if Strasburg became the next Nolan Ryan?? Nope. During his first, over-hyped season, Strasburg became injured, needing Tommy John surgery which requires a 12-18 month recovery time, which coincidentally was also more than enough time for the card to lose a tremendous amount of value.
Several years later, I sold it for a paltry double digits of dollars, a far cry from its five-figure height. Baseball burnt me again.
And here I am, about to pull the trigger on getting rid of my collection. I still have the collector’s spirit, but I’ve moved on to collecting retro music gear and electronics.
Baseball and its cards gave me some heartbreak, but it’ll never take away the joy that it had also given me...what a magical time.
Exactly. The internet has added protection for buyers. Easily look up comps and not get over charged. It’s also added bad aspects to the hobby. All in all, just be happy the hobby is still around!
Exactly, I remember my dealer was charging $7 a pack for 1991 Stadium Club series two baseball because you could pull a Bagwell or Plantier rookie card. And yet I still bought them 🤦♂️
@@carolinatarheels7903Haha dummy. 😂
Wow, brought me back to when I was a kid
legend has it his phone is still ringing
this old video pumped me up!
This video made me sad, watching all these suckers wasting their money on cardboard thinking it was an "investment," having no idea that almost all those new cards would be worthless.
I was one of those suckers. I loved collecting and putting sets together and didn’t so much invest but thought that they were going to be worth something. I probably spent thousands in the 90’s and ended up selling a pallet full of 5000 count boxes for $5 a box. I should have been buying original Jordan’s each year for $125 a pair rather than buying worthless cards.
I’m so happy this was documented wish there was more
Good times....simple great life, less stress, low drama living.
All these people in the 80s thought those cards were going to be the next Mantle era cards... now a Canseco rookie is worth about a dollar and Mantle n Mays keep going up in the 10s of thousands
Good luck buying Canseco's 1986 Topps Tiffany for buck. Even the 1986 Donruss still demands $10.
@@bravesfandevotee23 Topps Tiffany holds value because they were printed in such short numbers. 86 Donruss definitely wouldn't be worth $10, not raw anyways. I could get them for maybe $4
@2682shark yep, think we were all guilty of that. I'm 40, started collecting in 87, and I still have all my old cards, binders, etc. and I have tons of up and comers from that era set to the side, I was certain I would be able to retire early from these cards. Tons of Jeffries, Maas, Van Poppel, Zeille etc. and now they're not worth the cardboard they were printed on. 20 years from now people will likely be saying "who the hell is Luis Robert, Wander Franco, Yordan Alvarez, etc."
crimsontide1980 I dont think it will take 20 years for people to forget those big name but it might take 2 gennarations for them to not be comman names
Thanks for sharing, I remember these days fondly. The days before grading and cardboard dreams.
This video looks older than what it appears, the kid is obviously opening 1990 Topps, and some 89 Bowman in the opening scene as he sits on the bleachers breaking that junk wax.. Me and him are around the same age then, good memories. I still collect, however I did take a 20 year hiatus from the hobby from around 1997 to 2016, lol but I started collecting again and it really is a fantastic hobby and I would encourage any kid that loves sports to give it a shot. And you know over that hiatus I really forgot how enjoyable the hobby was, it's just not very sociable when you're in your mid to late teens - your new hobby then becomes girls, then you have a family, midlife crisis, then one day you find yourself in your late 30's in the card aisle at Walmart and you buy a few packs of cards and then all the good memories come rushing back and you forgot how much fun the hobby was and then you're addicted all over again - but this time you have more money hence all the cards you wanted as a kid, lol...... At least that's my story briefly summed up, lol.
Wow what a great documentary thanks for sharing every collector needs to watch this video 👍👍
June 2021...and history starts to repeat itself. The crash until the next 30 years
Love this documentary! Such a great insight into the past and present of the "hobby", thanks for preserving it on YT!
This was awesome
Ohhhh how the Mantle and Mays rookie prices have changed since this video!!!!!
All the young people are right now wanting all the big rookie cards
Thanks for the video. Been collecting since 1972 and mostly collect 1973 and older.
All the kids at this show were looking for Jerome Walton, Dwight Smith, Brien Taylor, Kevin Mass, and Eric Anthony. All busts. I still enjoy collecting from this era...Topps Tiffany
Wow, didn't realize that was Mike Gordon from Gordon's Sports! I did his Parsippany tuesday night shows from 1996-2001! Back when a box of Pokemon base was $125. $1800 for 1st Edition shadowless boxes.
Great Video. Really enjoyed this!
Geoff is rubbing his hands together..
I miss these days because every mom was selling their sons 1950’s-1960’s sports cards in ziplock bags at a garage sale and selling them for $1 for 100 cards because they were cleaning out the attic and they had no idea even then that cards were worth anything. You could scoop up thousands of cards for so cheap. Now everyone sees a baseball card and it’s automatically $1 a common because they don’t know the card is a common.
19:10. He said 86-87 Fleer. Was he talking about basketball? We may have a time traveler, folks.
Basketball card collecting as well as football and Hockey got big in 1989.
But yes, lol that was great!
Thank you for this
Sports Card Shows in the mid and later 80's were insane... I was a kid, born in 1980... It was when price guides first came out... thats why there is a dramatic difference in value between pre-1985 cards and the cheap mass produced cards 1986-current. I couldn't imagine being a broke ass 30 year old 80's dad with 3 kids, shitty job, and high mortage rate seeing cards worth $1000's of dollars that you used as BB gun targets as a kid... The quiet ride home from the Card Show, stopping to get cheap beer because you only have $11.86 left until Friday and its Sunday.
25:31 that's what's still driving the hobby today.
4:15 I had a sweet mullet like that back then. Chicks dig mullets and Canseco rookies.
Killer jam for for the first minute.
great trip into our past.
The card I always wanted as a kid was Don Mattingly’s 1984 Donruss, but I couldn’t afford it. Now I have several of them.
22:12 1990s ebay lol.
33 years later... the messages are exactly the same. Don't buy strictly for "investments"...enjoy the cards.
Sounds just like today, very little has changed lol
If anything it's progressed almost completely to an investment market and true collectors are almost nonexistant. The only real collectors are the guys who have been doing it for decades. All the people newer to the hobby are in it for gains and that's about it
@@crimsontide1980 not true
@@johntutugang From what I'm seeing and hearing daily I stand by my statement. Not many people out there at all collecting purely for the enjoyment of collecting , it's all about what a card is worth, it's about whether it's gradable, if it doesn't have 4 perfect corners, perfect centering and surface then people don't want it. People are investing in players that haven't even had a minor league AB yet, just based off of potential and nothing else. And if they don't play to potential then the value drops off significantly. If a talented player gets called up and he knocks the cover off the ball but he's older than 24 then people won't invest in him because the likelihood of said player getting in the HOF is slim to none since he will be past his prime before he can hit certain milestones in his career. People rarely invest in players just be abuse they're fun to watch or exciting , it's all about Hall of Fame probability and that's about it. Sure there's a small handful of people out there who complete sets and checklists but it's so few and far between its almost nonexistant.
@@crimsontide1980 I think your right but I also think your wrong - I think good mix of both.
I agree. It's hilarious because it's so similar to today.
Wow Here in 2021 and to hear that story that a metal in a mays Rookie together sold for $15
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. History seems to repeat itself. Perhaps someone is putting together a documentary today with some guy saying how is it that unproven player X’s cards regularly sell for more than original rarer cards of Ruth and Cobb.
Look at the crowds. I remember Twins fest in 1992. There were thousands waiting to get in the door.
@23:25 He looked like he was ready to smack the guy for insinuating that he collected Kirby Puckett just for the money ha.
9:45 these are the guys that call me with a garage full of '88 Donruss and I have to burst their bubble by telling them how little they are worth today.
Now they sell for 20 a box. Crazy what the pandemic did!
Dude I had cases upon cases of those rack packs from 88. Toys r us had them for like next to nothing and I bought them all. Ugly cards too.😂
I remember these days. Ed Walsh used to have shows at Convention Hall in Asbury Park, N.J.
Oh man. I remember buying every Greg Jeffries I could find back the.
The guy at 23:32 about kids just seeing the money and not collecting. If he only knew what card shows would look like with 8 year olds carrying around briefcases and slabs 🤦♂️
It would be great to interview all these guys 2023 and here what they think about the card market today.
19:20 fast forward to 2017. Oh, how times have changed. ha ha
Now in 2023, I realize I’m one of the dumb kids who preferred the new vs the old cards. Nonetheless, I’ve started collecting again, but only the cards from the “junk wax” era purely for nostalgia. It’s just incredible that I can finally buy the Donruss Canseco rookie and Upper Deck Griffey Jr. cards for super cheap and appreciat owning them. Gotta say that I’m enjoying my childhood through sportscards from the 80’s and 90’s and I don’t care what people think of it. Sportscards now really seem to be about profits and less for the love of the team, athletes and hobby. $3000 for a Trey Young card!!! That’s just disappointment waiting to happen!!! Not going to buy into the hype anymore!
Fellow junk wax collector - Cheers!
Just like stocks
lol, I have that Baseball Card Monthly with Will Clark on the cover sitting right next to me from, how bizarre, lol.
I had that one
These guys/kids were talking strictly baseball cards. I remember collecting back then, basketball and football were completely secondary, no one wanted them. You could buy basketball and football for vertually nothing back then. Man...how the pendulum has swung.
I was buying hockey, Gretzky rookies for $50 Lemieux for $10, the Beckett had to exploit it and make a monthly magazine and suddenly 1990-91 O Pee Chee Premier were selling for $15 a pack when they were supposed to be $1.29.
I liked the guy at 13:38 with the table of Broder cards. I remember there were pop up overnight card shops in my town that had tons of them and just laid out on tables. People would buy a few and then they would just go under the table and replace it with the same card. Like printing money because they were usually $1-$5 a card. I was so awestruck as I had never seen them before and gladly forked over the money because none of my friends had them. What a terrible waste of money. I remember some shows would ban the guys selling Broders because they were illegal.
Wonder if any of these card shops is still around. Prolly not but i think the guy with the mustache shop would be. He sounded smart and knew alot bout the card business and what not to do if u dont want to go out of business.
Yes. He’s still around in Livingston, NJ. Great guy.
(17:50) Great version "Take Me Out To The Ball Game"!
I wonder what happened to that kid that said his favorite set was 86-87 fleer. He knew something most people didn’t apparently. Beautiful set I wish I could have kept some of them
Very nicely done Anthony. A+. If these dopey collectors doing box breaks and paying 300 for a Jason Domingo rookie cards would just watch your video, they could learn a few things. They are doomed to repeat history
I think it's pretty funny how moronic they were and are actually. Glad I stuck to 52 Mantle's, Mays, 51 Bowman Mantle and stayed away from buying 100 Jason Domingos cards. LOL. There is a dope born every minute. It made it so easy for a simple guy like me to become a multimillionaire with so many numskulls
Dewey Oxburger Thanks. Glad you enjoyed.
I am sittng here watching this in 2022 and when I was 9 I worked my ass off for a Hank Aaron rookie in mint conditon for $600 and man a 52 Mantle for 10 k it goes for up to $15 million plus now. My god times have changed.
Do you still have them?
@@AnthonyVenutolo No my fucking neice destroyed them. I spank her with a stick and i almost got kicked out of the house for disciplining her. 1994
In the 90's I was buying new and vintage.
Yah I loved my older players back in the day
14:25 "I don't know if there will ever be an oversaturation of cards".... welp... sure missed that prediction! Junk Wax era of cards hit and now those late 80's and 90's cards are worth pennies... IF you can even sell them!!!
Lol not all them are worthless and i sell junk wax from the late 80's and early 90's all the time the demand is high plus a psa 10 of any HOF rookie or the ped rookie's from the era are worth a lot more then penny's you might want to look the market up sounds like you haven't in a few years....
@@johnsmith-oh2xo PSA is limiting the amount of 10s they put out because they look like morons for having pop counts for Luka and Ja rookies in the 5-figures.
The amount of wax boxes that you see at the show in the video look exactly like all of the modern junk where every table has 50 of the same box and then there is more with retail boxes. 30 years and it’s exactly the same.
@@carolinatarheels7903 This is junk wax era 2.0
I really miss Cable Access TV.
Take me back
If they only knew then what they know now.
That all the cards after 1980 would be worthless?
@@mobus1603 I love vintage as much as the next guy but, there are new cards that are worth thousands and old cards that are worthless.
4sight is a hell of a thing.
What’s funny to think about is the people that said back then the kids are only in it for the money and they only care about what the Beckett says. I wonder if some of those very same kids are still in the hobby
It’s the same thing the older crowd complains about now, the kids are just in it for the money
I wonder what they will say now. With latest boom.
I came here for this comment. Fortunately, some of us expected the “new boom” and its certainly paying off. I scooped up LOADS of 80’s cards/boxes over the past several years, thank goodness!
@@Futureman75 i did too I just don't know what to do with them all
Especially the lady that said that Topps is coming out with more and more sets each year. If she knew how many cards and sets Topps produces now her hair would be straight. And that they are the exclusive with no competition.
@@carolinatarheels7903 I wonder that myself
Someone should use this audio and today’s influencers in the hobby.
Scary how this repeats.
I had this on VHS, it’s 2021 and the “Hobby” has gone to grown men fighting in parking lots, Big Box Stores completely stopped putting cards on shelves or even selling them, “Investors, Flippers and Breakers” have ruined the Hobby, we are headed for a Junk Wax Era 2.0, cards sent to PSA 6 to 8 months ago that were hot as fire, are now dead and flooding eBay, and it’ll get worse, PSA is a year out, once all those cards come back and floss eBay, Sellers will be dumping them and trying to recoup some of that $, so wait..but those cards that’s were selling for half a house, for pennies on the dollar, also buy Vintage Stars, HOF’ers, upcoming HOF’ers..stop chasing Zion and such, you are going to get burned in the end.
Wow ... You had this on VHS?
As someone who builds and collects sets, hasn’t bothered me one bit since I finished my first set in ‘97. Lot of ups and downs in the 24 years I’ve been in the hobby but the same set builders/collectors haven’t gone anywhere
Exactly and why I have repeat customers on my eBay store because people want complete sets. Anything from 1995 and on that didn’t have short printed rookies always do well. Heck I can even sell 1993 Topps football sets for $50 Buy it Now no problem.
that mantle now is worth like 20 million
@19:14 kid say 86/87 Fleer! I wonder how many Jordan RC's he had?
Gandalf Giacobbe ya if that kid kept a few sets he'd have a few bucks.
@@12thman75 He probably sold them a few years later for weed
He’s was probably talking about baseball. Couple good cards in those sets.
23:32 kid was 100% right!
24:11 that statement man...Jose Canseco prices the same as Babe Ruth!?? 😩
Back then the Canseco rookie was huge!!!
Whish my mom would have said I want buy you cards but I will put 5 bucks into the stock market for you
Just think if they had put all their money in Mantles. Year?? I am guessing 1991.
Does anybody know the name of this guy? 5:08
Marijuana was never "scorned" by the PEOPLE!!!
22:21 Whatnot before Whatnot with all the junk shitty lots being sold.
And..... Yes they over saturated.... And more cases (yes, cases) are being discovered on the daily. You are more likely to find a box of red bordered 1990 Donruss then ANYTHING manufactured in 1990.
When dealers had stacks of 100 of 1987 Topps Barry Bonds Rc's.... Should have been an eyeopener.
This is when Mr.Mint Alan Rosen was buying everything from pre 1980 for next to nothing. He made millions off a bunch of schmucks who wanted to sell their childhood vintage collections to invest in Jose Canseco's and Ken Griffey Jr. Rookies.
Look at the ads in old Baseball Card magazines. You could preorder 100 of any player you wanted and that was through just about every dealer that advertised in there alone.
1988 Donruss. There was an article in Beckett one time of a guy that wallpapered his entire two story house and basement with them.
@@carolinatarheels7903I have literally tons of 88 and 90 Donruss.
Funny how these days there are actually prominent millionaire investors who buy cases of cards hoping to pull that 1 of 1 card that they will immediately sell for a profit.
It’s amaziing how wrong these guys were lol
Man 15$ for a 51 Mantle & Mays? That guy must be rolling over in his grave right now lol.
Mantle rookie for $10,000 lol
Go CUSE 🍊
2023 here. Boy that guy saying the quip about there never being oversaturation because the companies know better...goddam that did not age well at all, neither for the junk wax era nor anything after 2020 especially lol!
Upper deck was still printing 89 Griffey rookies on 1990 stock. Sheets at a time. Lol And they were still producing 89 cases in 1990 because they were like printing money.
Now a days you can’t give away baseball
Shows that adults talk the same garbage back then as they do know. Talking crap about kids and their motives and not being true collectors. I hear the same garbage today. The funny thing is, the adults talking crap today are the kids seen in this video. Funny how 30 year old video sounds identical to the garbage I hear today. The irony. If I see a kid collecting cards, I’m stoked to see a kid collecting cards. Could care less what the kids motives are.
Exactly, yet the dealers today weigh 400 pounds and stink up the show and not just with the crap they spew.
If you became a dealer then technically you are not a investor. You don't go into business unless you see at least some possibility to get a return on your money. I don't care how many of them say it's for the love the hobby, you have to make a pay check unless you are rich.
Great point But there is a difference between having a passion for something and going into that business in which you are passionate about to make money as opposed to just going into that business just for the money.. I believe that most that go into a business they are passionate about have a greater success rate especially when it comes to collectibles and things of the like, rather than the guy going into the business just for the money with no passion for the cards etc.. I think that was the general point and sentiment of the older guys saying that and I agree because I was a kid back then and now I'm a bit of an older guy ha. That is my take at least.
They were all so very wrong about the way the industry would move on.
Didn't need the first 60 seconds...
Didn't need this comment..