[tate31nym]

When my dad (dob 1958) played Little League, after the game he'd get a pop and a pack of cards.
We found a photo album that he evidently got for Christmas, and filled it up with how he spent his summer vacation.
It starts out like this:


Sure am glad he wrote those reference numbers on them so they would correspond with the index!
He says those were his favorite pulls that summer, so they got top billing.

I thought I remembered him having the Ryan rookie from this set, but no such luck (at least we haven't found it yet if he does...another photo album perhaps? I really want to say he does have it somewhere, I distinctly remember a set of cards that he wrote his initials on!)
He does have some great looking cards from 1968-1971. Sadly, none for trade. But wonderful memories for him and lots of fun for me!

[aprirr]

The cards are great and the story behind them makes them even better. Thanks for sharing!

[tate31nym]

Looks like he has almost half of the 1968 set, including both Mantles.
I asked him if he had a Johnny Bench RC, and he remembers putting that one on his bike spokes.
If I don't find the Ryan in another book, I'll bet that he traded it.
He grew up a Yankee fan on the Jersey shore, can't keep those Mets around!!

[DrMitchJ]

The Provenance of those cards, regardless of their unique numbering system, makes the collection a prized 1/1 series. Cherish it well, and pass it down, always recording the newest owner/guardian's name to the album. Eventually one of your future offspring will have a little piece of their ancestor's past childhood to call their own. That will be an amazing tangible gift in the digital future.

BTW: Very jealous! Wish I had my Dad's baseball card collection!

BTW #2: There's a guy (Larry, Lawrence, I can't remember his name) from the past who collected comic books during the 1940s and boldly inscribed his initials on every cover. Most collectors today would cringe at the thought of the mutilation of their collectible-ness. But it turns out, due to the storage, brightness of the pages, the otherwise immaculate condition found in this collection these LL (double L) books are very valuable and an extra rare treat due to their Provenance.

[rmpaq5]

These are sweet, I remember doing the same type of thing to my cards as a kid and wished I had them lying around still. When my friends and I got together and pulled our cards out we would initial the back most times so we'd remember whose were whose. I know a few Gretzky rookies become personalized! Those are a great family collection and hopefully that album will be around for many years!

[zeprock]

Great story. I have many cards from that era just like that in my collection that I wrote on when I was just a youngster. I crossed out team names and wrote in their new ones when they changed teams. 20 years ago I bought my cousin's baseball collection and got a bunch of cards that I had traded to him 10 years prior that had my writing on them. All cards from 1967-1972. As you can tell by my sig, I too like the 1968 set design.

[exposfan09]

I too would have been lost without the index! Thanks for the great story