Do people still collect baseball cards?

We're doing some house cleaning today, and I just came across a box of baseball cards--mostly Topps cards from the mid-'70s. I recognize some names: Mickey Rivers, Dave Winfield, Lee Mazzilli.

I don't know. I have about 5,000 from my childhood sitting in the closet.

I purged my childhood collection a few years ago, but I've got some cards possibly worth some money just sitting collecting dust - well, their protectors are collecting dust. No idea where to sell these things without taking a bath.

This is relevant to me. I have a ton of sets from the 80's and 90's.

I think the problem is that everybody has closets full of cards from the 80's. A closet full of cards from the 50's would have some value. Cards from the 80's will make a nice noise if you clip them into the spokes on your bike.

These are from the '70s--mostly 1975-1978. Condition is average-ish.

I found a couple autographed cards I had forgotten about while cleaning the house yesterday. Nothing that's going to make me rich.

Remember the ridiculous "collecting" that occurred in the early 90s? Jesus, that was dumb.

I'm not into baseball cards, but I have a good friend who is. Generally, mid-70's and later are worthless.

The store goes something like this: When sport-card collecting took off ~20 years ago, someone somewhere discovered a huge stash of millions of NIB 79's and newer cards in a warehouse, thus devaluing the whole era of cards.

Or something close to that...

Appleseed wrote: Remember the ridiculous "collecting" that occurred in the early 90s? Jesus, that was dumb.

I remember when there were only 4-5 lines of cards. You could spend between $0.60-$1 to get the dull finish cards with the crappy gum or spring for almost double that and get some nice glossy Upper Deck packs with the UD hologram logo. I have a E36 M3load of stuff from the late 80s through the 94 strike. My idealistic image of baseball was rudely corrected then. I have a few complete sets and some nice rookie cards somewhere. I just went through multiple huge moving boxes full of Starting Lineup figures I still have in the packaging.

Ive got some Starting Lineups also.

My one wax box of early 80's O-Pee-Chee hockey cards is worth more than the whole bunch of 70s,80s, and 90s baseball cards I have.

I remember watching this guy on his late nite show years ago screaming and yelling such things as you could get a bazillion cards for only $99:

http://www.donwest.org/

In reply to drainoil:

Holy E36 M3, I haven't heard the phrase "wax packs" in WELL over a decade haha. I remember pondering those random assortment of cards that guaranteed good odds at rare cards. Glad I didn't fall for that.

Lancer007 wrote: In reply to drainoil: Holy E36 M3, I haven't heard the phrase "wax packs" in WELL over a decade haha. I remember pondering those random assortment of cards that guaranteed good odds at rare cards. Glad I didn't fall for that.

When I was 10-11 years old I'd go to our corner Tom Thumb store with some lawn mowing money and thats how most were sold at that time in the wax packaging. Thats where I got my wax box of hockey cards. I wished I had bought some of the non sports cards there as some of those are now worth something.

I imagine that sports cards are like comics. All the valuable ones are from before people actually collected them. I think every single issue that was published of "Superman dies" is currently in a closet with the owner thinking they will retire on it.

Pogs. Thats where the money is at!

FWIW, it seems there actually is a market for Pokemon cards??!?!!?

In reply to logdog:

Oddly enough, the only pogs I have from my comic book store days are the Simpsons ones. I have most of a set. I got them because I like the Simpsons and thought they looked cool.

In reply to Appleseed: Exactly!!