[swjrp10]

I remember when I was a kid, maybe 11-12, my lcs on the northside of Chicago had a quarter machine where you'd get a random card that was between two pieces of cardboard. A few "hits" in the machine included some big named rookies from 89 score football, 90 leaf baseball, etc. I'd always have a quarter or two left over from buying a few packs and save it for the machine.

When I got my Jerry Rice RC, I ran all the way hope. I couldn't believe my luck. I still have the card to this day. It graded out a BGS 7 years ago. One of my most cherished cards.

wow the times they are a-changin' lol We had a gas station up here with one of those, but they also put auto/relic hits in it too...I literally put quarters in that thing EVERY DAY (and this was only like 4 yrs ago lol), pulled a Peyton Manning Finite jsy out of it, I was quite jazzed lol

---

My much younger step-brother who still lives with my father and his fiance knew nothing about sports or collecting at all until this past christmas. I was at a loss for what to get him, so I purchased a Cam Newton refractor auto out of Topps Chrome and gave it to him. He now calls once a week to talk cards with me for a half hour or so and calls me everytime he pulls something out of a pack of retail he picked up at the grocery store.

I just find it amazing how much excitement he gets out of pulling a jersey, where as I pulled a silver ink Andy Dalton patch auto out of Gold Standard and was pissed I didn't get my money back.

I read the baseball boards on here and blowout, and I see all the rage over the way the kid handled the Bryce Harper /5 red auto pull (http://youtu.be/1xPNL4by4kk ). And I can't help but feel disgusted at those people, I wish I felt that excited when I pull a nice card.

I hope some 5 year old pulls the Andrew Luck Super auto out of Chrome next year and smashes it to all hell if he enjoys doing it. To each his own!

great story, I wish my bro and I got to have convos like that!

[bennyfunk]

So...you live in a town with a population of 800 or so people and you're "against" retail? I find it hard to believe there is a wide selection of card shops around...

[swjrp10]

heck I live in a town of 10K plus and we dont even have ONE lol

[ace3m]

WOW, I got jumped on big time for this one lol I've been at school for a couple of weeks and hadn't checked this. And yes, a bunch of you all are definitely misunderstanding what I'm saying.
I started collecting and still have many cards from those days in mint condition. I'm only 24 now so I'm all about the younger generation collecting. What I said, or atleast meant, is that I hate it when cards are wasted on kids WHO will damage, throw them away, not give them the care they deserve. JUST THE SAME, I hate it when cards are wasted on ADULTS WHO will damage, throw them away, not give them the care they deserve.

THE MAIN POINT I WAS MAKING ABOUT RETAIL:
All of us get these killer cards in a couple packs of retail as kids, adults, whenever so we get into the Hobby big-time. We grow as a collector, spend thousands at hobby shops and on cases, and never get as good of cards as those retail hits. I just don't agree with card makers giving retail packs the BIGGEST & BEST hits to get us hooked, then nothing but decent/good cards in the hobby cases that serious collectors spend thousands on, that's it.

SURPRISINGLY ENOUGH, THIS THREAD WASN'T TO EXPRESS MY HIDDEN HATRED TOWARDS ALL THE YOUNGER GENERATION HUMAN BEINGS ON THIS PLANET LOL.

Some ppl love to find a thread, twist some semantics, and use it as a forefront to tell why "you're bad & I'm a good upstanding citizen with values that should be expressed as a closeted reprimand to you, but really to let everyone know what a perfect human being I am"

[pbean]

sorry, but I won't apologize for my thoughts on this thread.

I honestly feel that any "irresponsible" child or adult can get their hands on cards at any LCS or mass merchant and treat cards poorly, but since they did spend their hard earned money they are completely entitled to use them in any manner they see fit.

Do I cringe when I see how some cards are treated yes, but when I get a card graded "Gem Mint" it reminds me how special a card can be

How does a LCS customer differ from a Walmart customer ??? Cash is cash, and the card companies are starting to realize this.

Why shouldn't a guy who's been laid off for 6 months and had to stop collecting be able to buy a $20 blaster and enjoy the same benefits as someone who has bucket loads of money and shops solely at an overpriced LCS ???

[ace3m]

sorry, but I won't apologize for my thoughts on this thread.

I honestly feel that any "irresponsible" child or adult can get their hands on cards at any LCS or mass merchant and treat cards poorly, but since they did spend their hard earned money they are completely entitled to use them in any manner they see fit.

Do I cringe when I see how some cards are treated yes, but when I get a card graded "Gem Mint" it reminds me how special a card can be

How does a LCS customer differ from a Walmart customer ??? Cash is cash, and the card companies are starting to realize this.

Why shouldn't a guy who's been laid off for 6 months and had to stop collecting be able to buy a $20 blaster and enjoy the same benefits as someone who has bucket loads of money and shops solely at an overpriced LCS ???

I don't disagree with you as far as the financial issue, that's the reason I've had to quit purchasing for the last 3 yrs or so, as I'm in college using loans to scrape together every bit of gas I can get to get there.
Also, I don't buy from a LCS either as they are overpriced, I still buy from retail or blowoutcards.
My beef, again, is with the card companies, as they are the reason the LCS prices are so high, as evidenced by blowout's lawsuit against UD when they stopped selling to websites that sliced prices. You should be able to spend that same $20 on a few hobby packs and have the same chance of hitting something huge, but it's my experience that's usually not the case though.

[jplarson]

WOW, I got jumped on big time for this one lol I've been at school for a couple of weeks and hadn't checked this. And yes, a bunch of you all are definitely misunderstanding what I'm saying.
I started collecting and still have many cards from those days in mint condition. I'm only 24 now so I'm all about the younger generation collecting. What I said, or atleast meant, is that I hate it when cards are wasted on kids WHO will damage, throw them away, not give them the care they deserve. JUST THE SAME, I hate it when cards are wasted on ADULTS WHO will damage, throw them away, not give them the care they deserve.

THE MAIN POINT I WAS MAKING ABOUT RETAIL:
All of us get these killer cards in a couple packs of retail as kids, adults, whenever so we get into the Hobby big-time. We grow as a collector, spend thousands at hobby shops and on cases, and never get as good of cards as those retail hits. I just don't agree with card makers giving retail packs the BIGGEST & BEST hits to get us hooked, then nothing but decent/good cards in the hobby cases that serious collectors spend thousands on, that's it.

SURPRISINGLY ENOUGH, THIS THREAD WASN'T TO EXPRESS MY HIDDEN HATRED TOWARDS ALL THE YOUNGER GENERATION HUMAN BEINGS ON THIS PLANET LOL.

Some ppl love to find a thread, twist some semantics, and use it as a forefront to tell why "you're bad & I'm a good upstanding citizen with values that should be expressed as a closeted reprimand to you, but really to let everyone know what a perfect human being I am"

I don't think this thread reveals any sort of hidden hatred but in the original post you mentioned great cards wasted on kids and the thought of them being mishandled made it a waste. I think it's a good learning experience for kids to learn how to take care of things. The hobby is big enough for folks like us who penny sleeve + top loader + team bag them or sub cards for grading as well as folks who don't.

I am TOTALLY against retail! Anyone agree?

I'm against seeing retail cards in low security areas for slimey pack searchers to go to town looking for hits and I'm against retail with their odds generally being worse than hobby for any inserts/parallels/gu/auto cards.

[chasescardcave]

Now when I was younger and I pulled a jersey card I wouldn't stop talking about it. It made my WEEK! I would call all my relatives and tell them even though they didn't care.

[magneto2]

I have never really scored a huge hit in retail but, about 2 years ago in a blaster I got 3 auto's in one pack! This was baseball Topps Heritage and one of those hits was a red auto numbered to 62. My son who is now 4 helped me pull the card in my icon. He loves football cards! Ironic huh. I think hitting the big card in either retail or at an LCS hobby shop depends on luck mostly. I see the point about taking care of the card and agree some ppl just think its cool to pull that card and destroy it. But way back when I started collecting I bought boxes at Cost Plus before Costco. But the majority of my greatest pulls have been at a LCS.