I have a confession to make.
When I was a young kid, I would swipe coins from my mother’s purse to feed my habit: buying baseball cards.
At first it was just nickels for a wax pack of five cards and that gold ole flat stick of stale bubble gum. Then I got into the heavy stuff: the 25 cards wrapped in cellophane (sans gum) for a quarter. At one point it got so bad I would buy a box for $5.
I was reminded of these transgressions by an article from the Sports Illustrated “Collectibles” page on the “Top 5 Iconic Cards from 1967 Topps Baseball.” Of course, at one point I had each of these pieces of cardboard: the Tom Seaver “rookie star” card (I wonder how his teammate, Bill Denehy, feels about this claim to fame, being partnered with a Hall of Famer), Ernie Banks, Carl Yazstremski, “Bob” Clemente, and Rod Carew’s rookie star card (with Hank Allen).
I ended up selling that set — just a handful of cards short of completion — to pay for my wife’s engagement ring. Looking at the current values, it might have been a mistake, financially speaking. The value of just those five cards adds up to more than $791,000. And that doesn’t take into account all the “lesser” cards, with players like Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Jim Palmer, Whitey Ford, and dozens more. With that amount, we could have bought a very nice home (or two).
Boy, I feel better having gotten that of my chest. Forgive me, ma.
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