10 Favorite Baseball Cards Growing Up

When I was growing up, I was a HUGE Baseball Card collector.  I had thousands upon thousands of cards.  I'm not talking about just a few shoe boxes filled with some, I had so many my mom had a special closet built for me just so I could keep all my cards.  Over the years I have grown a pretty nice collection.  I wouldn't say I am sitting on a gold mine, but I have a few nice pieces.

Over the years my collection has dwindled down quite a bit.  Moving houses, going to college, getting married, and other things.  I just recently pulled out my collection and have been looking at all of the cards that I refused to part with.  I wanted to start a collection with my oldest son, something we could do together that would help him gain an interest in sports.  While looking back at my collection I found some cards in my "Favorites" box that I couldn't help but laugh at when I saw them.  Why the heck would I cherish a 1993 Bobby Bonilla card so much?!?! It was weird that every card I looked at, I felt a close attachment to it.  So I decided to do a list of my favorite cards ever growing up.  These are all cards I owed and still own today.


10.) 1992 Tripple Play Cecil Fielder

Now this is one of the cards that I lost in a house fire 2 years ago. I remember this card had a trivia question on the back of it asking "What other current Detroit Tiger has spent time playing in Japan?" and of course the answer is Bill Gullickson! The answer was underneath the question but was written backwards where you would need to hold it in front of a mirror to display the answer.  This card right now is worth around $8.00




9.) 1989 Topps Gary Redus 

The First card I ever got.  It's a funny story how I got into card collecting.  I was 5 years old.  I was at Bennigan's and up front there was a box of toys that kids could grab from on their way out.  I remember reaching in there and not wanting any of the plastic junk that was in there.  I noticed baseball cards though.  I watched baseball, I loved the Rangers and the Tigers.  I rummaged around looking for a Tiger or Ranger card, I didn't care who it was it just had to be one of those two teams.  I didn't find one and my mom told me to hurry up, so I grabbed the last card in my hand.  Gary Redus. This card has a little more value than some cards because he was such a spare player and this was such a spare card that a lot of people now need it to complete sets.  There were tons made, but a lot of kids would just throw away a Gary Redus card or let it get bent up and torn.  So now when people go back to complete their sets they might just buy this one off ebay from a seller asking $1.00 I still have this card though.  It is a little dinged up, but it is in my binder full of valuable cards. Most people look at me a little funny when they see it in there, but after I tell them why, they understand.









8.) 1989 Fleer Billy Ripker FF Error Card

This card was so awesome! I remember I had the card with the error blocked out.  I knew there was something wrong with it, but I didn't know what.  I brought it to my card shop in Fort Worth one day and asked the guy what was wrong with it, he told me that it was an error card and there was something written on the bat that Fleer had to edit out of the picture.  He then went on to show me what the card was supposed to look like.  I wanted it so bad, but it cost $150.00 and my mom refused to pay that much money for a card, and then when she found out what was written on the card she definitely did not want to get it for me.  I recently purchased this card, error and all.  It was such an awesome feeling when it came in the mail.  I am sending it off next week to get graded.  It should come back around an 8 or a 9, which means I will be the owner of a 1989 Billy Ripken F.F. Error Card just like I wanted back when I was a kid. It is now worth................................... $75.00 at the top of the market, mine is probably in the $45-$55 range.  So I guess my Mom was smart to not buy it for me 20 years ago.

7.) 1991 Upper Deck Oil Can Boyd

Not much to say about this card really except that I always laughed when I saw the name Oil Can Boyd.  He was never anything special, he was a JAG his whole career. This card is worth about the same now as it was in 1991, $0.10 but it is still cool I think.













6.) 1992 Donruss Ivan Rodriguez

Pudge has been my favorite player my entire life.  He made his debut around the same time I started watching baseball. I remember trading my friend Justin dollar bills in the lunch line at school if he had a $1 bill with a #7 federal reserve number and I didn't.  I have literally thousands of Ivan Rodriguez cards, but this one stands out because of the way I got it.  I remember one morning waking up to get ready for school, I was in 2nd grade and on my dresser I noticed something that wasn't there when I fell asleep, an 8x10 photo of Pudge autographed, "To Joe My #1 Fan" signed Ivan Rodriguez and this Donruss card also signed.  My mom had got it signed for me the night before.  I'll never forget how excited I was that morning.  I lost this card and the photo a few years ago when my in-laws house burned down.  That card now autographed is worth around $70.00. I since then have went out and bought this card to replace in my collection, minus the autograph of course, and it's worth about $1.50.  But I have plenty of Pudge autographed memorabilia , so it's ok.

5.) 1991 Score Bo Jackson Bo Breaker

How cool was Bo Jackson? Probably the greatest athlete the NFL and MLB have ever seen.  Could have been a HOF in both.  Just the look of this card as a 6 year old kid was so awesome.  I always wanted to break a bat over my knee, Bo made it look fun to strike out.  Aside from Pudge, I probably have more Bo Jackson cards than any other person.  This one right now sits in my collection worth $15.00




4.) 1985 Topps Mark McGwire USA Baseball  1987 Fleer Barry Bonds RC 1989 Leaf Sammy Sosa RC

                                               

These 3 men are the faces of the Steroid Era in Baseball, but for a long time I bought into their hype.  I put these 3 cards together not because of steroids, but because I received all 3 of these cards at 1 time. These have got to be the 3 most over hyped cards in the history of card collecting. I remember after that HR race in 1998 people saying these cards would be worth $1,000 each easy. NOT TRUE!  For my 13th Birthday my mom bought these for me and it was freaking awesome! I know how much they cost back in 1999 for all of these cards it was probably in the $400-$500 range.  I still have all 3 of these cards and if I were to ask half of that for them I would be laughed out of a store.  I could probably get $100 (at most) for my Bonds and $15-$20 for my Sosa and right around $50 from my McGwire.  I could care less for any of these 3 guys, but in 1999 I was all about Bonds and Sosa.  I never really cared for Big Mac but he was the HR king at the time and I had to have that card.                                                                                                                   

#3 1990 Topps Frank Thomas Error Card

                                                                                               

I will start out by saying I never owned this error card, but I would love to one day.  If I ever hit the lottery that will be one of my first purchases.  This card retails for right around $3,000 for a card graded an 8 out of 10. A 10/10 would be worth a minimum $10,000. The chances growing up running across this card were that of finding a needle in a haystack.  But I do own this card error free and it is still worth a good bit of money, and even more now after his recent induction to the MLB Hall of Fame. I loved this card because of the error card. And always thought about how cool it would be to have both next to each other in my collection.  My Topps 1990 Frank Thomas card is valued right at $40.00 but like I said, should increase in the next few months. 

#2 1994 Topps Nolan Ryan

This card was so awesome to me for a couple of reasons.  First it was Nolan's last Topps card and on the bottom it says 27 Major League Seasons.. That's pretty incredible.  27 years.  The other cool part about this card was the back. All the red areas were highlighted to show that he led the league in that category that season.  I remember trying to memorize his ERA, Wins, and Strikeouts each season.  This card today ungraded goes for around $10.00 Mine with a grade of 9 runs around $30.00

I have tons of Nolan Cards, but this is by far my favoirte!



#1 1993 Upper Deck Ivan Rodriguez

Other than the Oil Can Boyd and Gary Redus cards, this one is probably the least expensive on the list, worth about $5.00 with a grade of 10/10.  Mine is a 7/10 which pretty much makes it worth the price of the paper it is printed on.  But this card is my favorite card ever. This is still the coolest card I have ever seen.  Just seeing my favorite player set up behind the plate with his eye black and classic Pudge look, makes this card the coolest one I have ever seen.  I remember I only bought full sets of Topps cards, and a friend of mine had this card.  I wanted it so bad and he wouldn't trade it with me.  I think I went through about 20 single packs of Upper Deck cards before I found this one.  It has always and will always be my favorite.










3 Honorable Mentions

1991 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Sr. 

I just loved this card as a kid.  Looking at Sr. and Jr. out on the same field at the same time.  I always thought that was pretty cool.  This card now is worth about $0.49 but it means a lot more to me.









1993 Topps Bobby Bonilla

No clue why, but as a kid I always thought this card was cool.

Card is worth a nickle at most!









1993 Joe Dimaggio 30 Card Box Set

This set was so cool. It came with a little plastic distorted card that you had to use to read the back of some of the cards.  There was a lot of history in this box.  Although I always have and always will hate the New York Yankees, this was such a neat set that taught me a lot about The Yankee Clipper.







All the above prices are from graded cards.  All my cards on this list have been graded by PSA or are in the process of being graded by PSA.  I recommend that if you have sports memorabilia that is sentimental or has actual cash value, to send it off to be graded.  The cost varies depending on where you send it.  I use PSA because they are the best and most traders want to trade PSA graded cards and merchandise.  They also authenticate Autographs.  I have a Chipper Jones 8x10 and a Tom Glavine 8x10 being sent off to them right now.  The cost is $10 per item, but can add major value to the item and/or keeps them protected when they send them back in their case, so it is well worth it.