Comments on: How did your dad pass the trading card torch?

By: steve santucci

steve santucci — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 18:56:05 +0000

Though we never really shared the hobby he did in away pass the torch, Back in 1982 we went to a local hobby shop. He looked at a group of old cards and asked to see the Mickey Mantle….It was his 1967 topps card. With a short comment about the $15 price tag hi bought it. When we got home he talked about how he collected cards and had grocery bags (the old paper bag kind) full of them and how they flipped them and used them in their wheel spokes. My Grandmother through them out as all Mothers due> to this day I have that card and built around the stars of the 67 topps set. It is one of the few fond memories I have with my father and an experience I remember to this day.

By: afff

afff — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 07:46:06 +0000

Unlike most collectors out there I got my first experance from my grandfather. The way it started was that I would some how talk my mother in to buying a pack of anything (garbage pail kids even, lol) every once and awhile, in which this started my taste for collecting but the true experiance came from my grandfather when I was around 10 or so. When we were at my grandparents home, I was looking at some of the cards I had brought a long when he came up to me and and was interested in what I was doing. He didn’t say to much but he said that he had some thing that I need for my collection, after he came back from getting the card he then handed it to me a 1980-81 OPC #163 of Gretzky/Dionne/Lafleur (unprotected and a little banged up) and told me to take good care of it (as I was known to put a few in my bike spokes from time to time, haha). The card that he gave me was not a major RC of anyone or some super short print but it was important to me because he was the father figure in my life, even to this day i still have it in a penny sleave and top loader. I will look at the card from time to time just to remember that day and I am looking forward to the day that I will give it to one of my children in hopes that it brings them the same feeling it brought me when I received it.

Great topic as I useally don’t tell this story a lot because I like to keep this personal but that being said I’ll say Happy Fathers Day to all the fathers/father figures out there that are or are not collectors.

By: Andrew Strong

Andrew Strong — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 23:53:23 +0000

For my Father and I, sports was how we related, from the time I was 6 years old I was doing card shows with him and he would help me build my collection.

On Christmas Eve 1992 (I was 9 years old) we were on our way back from my Grandmothers and had to stop for gas, when my dad went in to pay he picked up a few packs of 1993 Stadium Club Football, when he opened them he pulled a First Day Issue Dan Marino Members Choice card #246. I was and am a huge Marino fan and this was a huge pull at that time. He could have sold it for well over $100 at that time (back when a cad sold for what it was worth), but when I woke up Christmas Day I found it tucked away in my stocking. It was my #1 card then and 20 years later (as I write that I am shocked it has been that long) there is not a dollar amount that would get this card out of my collection.

I have a 4 year old son and cant wait to pass along the joy of collecting to him, I wish the hobby was like it was in 1992, but there is still parts of it that are fun for kids of any age. I collect anything of anyone with the last name Strong (our last name) and this collection is for my son, I have over 20 game worn Strong jerseys (full jerseys not cards) as well as 90% of all cards ever made of anyone named Strong, with 5 Ken Strong 1/1 Cuts Autos!!!

Love the topic, Happy Fathers Day to all the Fathers out there.
Andy Strong