Pay to be nostalgic - it's cheap and fun

[zff4]

I can't pass that Orioles store on the park grounds, the one outside the park, without dropping a few bucks on old unopened Topps baseball cards. They sell them for either a buck or a buck fifty a pack and they are now selling 87, 88 and 1989.

What an interesting perspective to current baseball events to open an 87 pack and find as I did, a painfully skinny Barry Bonds. Or a cocky looking Mike Hargrove or Lee Mazilli.

You learn something in every pack. I was really happy to get this card:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y78/ChadFinn/0e25b065.jpg

BJ Surhoff, 1987, a "future star" for the Brewers and here's what I didn't know: he started as a catcher! How cool is that? And now we know BJ played every position on the field except for pitcher. What a great guy BJ was.

So feed that nostalgia if you want, and you can do so cheaply with a few bucks at the Oriole store outside the park. Nothing beats a few minutes with some brand new old cards, and quite frankly, most of the time I say, "who the hell is that?" Don't eat the gum though.

[Moose Milligan]

I can't pass that Orioles store on the park grounds, the one outside the park, without dropping a few bucks on old unopened Topps baseball cards. They sell them for either a buck or a buck fifty a pack and they are now selling 87, 88 and 1989.

What an interesting perspective to current baseball events to open an 87 pack and find as I did, a painfully skinny Barry Bonds. Or a cocky looking Mike Hargrove or Lee Mazilli.

You learn something in every pack. I was really happy to get this card:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y78/ChadFinn/0e25b065.jpg

BJ Surhoff, 1987, a "future star" for the Brewers and here's what I didn't know: he started as a catcher! How cool is that? And now we know BJ played every position on the field except for pitcher. What a great guy BJ was.

So feed that nostalgia if you want, and you can do so cheaply with a few bucks at the Oriole store outside the park. Nothing beats a few minutes with some brand new old cards, and quite frankly, most of the time I say, "who the hell is that?" Don't eat the gum though.

I absolutely love 1987 topps. That was the first year I collected cards...I still buy the packs, just like you do. Last year I bought the 1987 topps Tiffany set and Tiffany traded off Ebay. I also bought an unopened box of 1987 topps cards, too. I was bummed I only got one Ripken.

Here's a great blog entry from the guy at the Baseball Card Blog. He ranked all the sets from the 80's and 1987 topps came out on...top... http://baseballcardblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/one-set-to-rule-them-all-1-1987-topps.html

As far as BJ...very highly touted catcher from UNC.

How good was BJ Surhoff in college?

A list of the 80's ACC Men's player of the year awards:

1982 James Worthy North Carolina Basketball

1983 Ralph Sampson Virginia Basketball

1984 Michael Jordan North Carolina Basketball

1985 BJ Surhoff North Carolina Baseball

1986 Len Bias Maryland Basketball

1987 Riccardo Ingram Georgia Tech Football/Basketball

1988 Danny Ferry Duke Basketball

1989 Danny Ferry Duke Basketball

1990 Clarkston Hines Duke Football

Some really impressive names on there. Sandwiched by MJ and Len Bias, that's extremely impressive company.

[zff4]

What's nice about that store selling old unopened packs so cheaply is that when I take the kids to a game, we all get a couple of packs before the game and open them up after batting practice. Now it's a family tradition to buy card packs before a game and see what we all got. Sometimes I get a few extra packs (heck they're ony a buck and a half) and give them to whomever is sitting next to us if they look like nice folks and we all open our packs together. Great way to break the ice with the people sitting next to you.

Yeah, 87 was a fun year. There was also a Storm Davis card in there too. On the back of the card it says, "Storm's nickname was derived from a character in a book his mother was reading while pregnant." Sounds like something Vin Scully would say about a player.

[lovetoaster]

Don't eat the gum though.

I actually bought a pack of 1983 Topps in about 1994 or 95. I got a Tony Gwynn rookie and just for the heck of it, I ate the gum. It still tasted the exact same, but it kind of fell apart after a few minutes.

[Boston Dave]

Great thread. Makes me want to stop working and go reacquaint myself with my card collection.