About once a year or so, I confess to my latest addiction inthis space.
Last year it was rotisserie baseball. I'm happy to report I'mgetting treatment _ my wife yells at me daily when I try to remotemy way to ESPN's `Baseball Tonight.'
Sadly, I'm not getting any better. I traded Ken Griffey (I wishnow it were Sr.) about three weeks ago. The poor schlock is on paceto hit 742 homers and I simply couldn't stand for that type ofproduction. I was short of my usual collection of 13-homer, 62-RBIguys. Trading Griffey seems to have taken care of that problem.
In my latest fad/addiction, I've become a two-packs-a-dayperson. Not cigarettes. I'm talking two packs of sports tradingcards. Wax packs, they're called, although there isn't any waxsealing the Upper Deck basketball packages I've been opening.
The good news is that I'm actually losing weight. I have fewergreenbacks in my wallet, which means I'm dropping weight, sometimesseemingly 5-10 pounds.
Oh sure, I've hauled in a Chris Webber Power in the Key out ofFleer Ultra. Retails for $50, according to the Bible, uh, excuseme, the latest Beckett price guide.
I've unwrapped about a dozen cards in the $10-$35 range. Butfor every Anfernee Hardaway Skybox rookie, there are a dozen Jo JoEnglish seventh-year NBA Hoops cards. My $18 Michael Jordanretirement card is counter-balanced by the largest stockpile ofVinny Del Negro cards this side of Vinny's mother.
I don't know why I collect these cards. They take up space (Ihouse them in two sizable Tupperwear containers). They take up mymoney. They take up my time (sorting, filing and putting behindhard plastic).
My wife says I'll never sell them and she's right. I'll probablygive them to my kids, who might see fit to check the oil with themug of a $10 Jerome Bettis Action-Packed.
Like most of us 30-something collectors, I began when I wasyounger. In fact, all those shoe boxes of old cards paid off whenmy older brother, Jack, fished through 'em about 10 years ago andput the most valuable ones behind hard plastic. Hello O.J.Simpson, Terry Bradshaw, Dr. J, Ken Griffey Sr., Reggie Jackson,George Brett and Robin Yount rookie cards.
Jack says we have 1969 cards of, among others, Lew Alcindor($550) and Wilt Chamberlain ($200), but most were defaced by smileyfaces and beards authored by me. I suppose that makes my firstwriting experience memorable.
We figure we have about $7,000 in cards from the '70s, so thereis money in this gig. But these days cards are mass produced andthe market's flooded with a zillion brands. Topps no longer rules;in fact, Topps makes some of the weakest cards. Except if you'retalking Topps Finest, which sells for a not-so-fine $13 a wax pack.
I'm not sure how kids can afford to collect. But a local vendortells me he gets a healthy number of rug-rats in his shop and a feware pulling out $20s like sticks of bubble gum.
And that's another thing. You may get a $10 Johnny Kilroy out ofUpper Deck (it's the one of Michael Jordan sporting a wig andglasses), but you can't chew away your disgust of one more GregKite with a slab of gum. There isn't any gum in there.
I'm not alone in my card-hording tendencies. One of my neighborscollects. He told me he was at a card show in Spokane several yearsago and an elderly woman was buying Upper Deck baseball, seekingGriffey's rookie card. She had opened 7-8 packs when my neighborasked if she would mind if he purchased one pack. She hesitantlyagreed. She bought the remaining five packs, which yielded noGriffey, but probably a handful of Orlando Mercados. My neighborluckily unveiled a Griffey and then had to endure a nasty swipefrom the lady's purse. 'She was mad,' he said.
My dealer (makes me sound really sick, doesn't it?) tells meabout a 60-year-old lady who has taken a liking to Webber andHardaway rookies and buys 'em up about once a month. Same guy tellsme about some dude dropping $500 in his shop one day.
Three of my office mates are card-mongers. They come in everyMonday and tell me of their acquisition of Rick Mirer or of somefancy First-Day Issue, Gold Embossed, All-Rookie Subset, ElectricCourt, Randomly Inserted, Signature Series, promo card of SteveScheffler.
This makes me uncontrollably jealous, so I have to whip out myFoil Stamped, Limited Print, Digitally Enhanced, 3-D, Chris BermanAll-Nickname Team card of Felix Fermin.
I get goose bumps just thinking about it.
