[mouschi3]

The first cardboard hunting expedition I can remember was with my dad. Yesterday after church, I took my family to visit my folks, and we reminisced about it. My dad looks at it favorably, while my mom ... not so much.

The year: 1990. We bought up so many Mother's Cookies packages like nobody's business! There were the Jose Canseco and Will Clarks that we loved, but there were also Nolan Ryans. I believe a dealer had told us that the rarest of the Nolan Ryan set was #2 of 4, and could always be found in the 5th box on the pallet. I guess that makes my dad a grandfather pack searcher, lol!

Here is the Nolan that was so highly sought after:



Then there was the time that Nick and Bryan down the street pulled a Canseco that I didn't have. I begged and pleaded with them to trade it to me. They would just laugh and ridicule me as to how much "Jose Can-Strike-Out" sucked.

Then, my dad came home.

With a bag of Mother's Cookies....

....that had a ... WILL CLARK. William freaking Nuschler Clark. The guy that Nick and Bryan collected the most. My, how the tables turned quickly I was able to do a trade with them finally!

I had those cards for years, until I eventually sold virtually everything I had, but the memory of dad bringing home more cookies than any family should ever have in their pantry at any given time is a memory I will not soon forget.

I will always have a soft spot for Mother's Cookies cards. I now own all of the Cansecos ever made, though I'm sure variations exist that I do not have.

What is your Baseball Card Hunting Expedition story?

[nolan5000]

The first cardboard hunting expedition I can remember was with my dad. Yesterday after church, I took my family to visit my folks, and we reminisced about it. My dad looks at it favorably, while my mom ... not so much.

The year: 1990. We bought up so many Mother's Cookies packages like nobody's business! There were the Jose Canseco and Will Clarks that we loved, but there were also Nolan Ryans. I believe a dealer had told us that the rarest of the Nolan Ryan set was #2 of 4, and could always be found in the 5th box on the pallet. I guess that makes my dad a grandfather pack searcher, lol!

Here is the Nolan that was so highly sought after:



Then there was the time that Nick and Bryan down the street pulled a Canseco that I didn't have. I begged and pleaded with them to trade it to me. They would just laugh and ridicule me as to how much "Jose Can-Strike-Out" sucked.

Then, my dad came home.

With a bag of Mother's Cookies....

....that had a ... WILL CLARK. William freaking Nuschler Clark. The guy that Nick and Bryan collected the most. My, how the tables turned quickly I was able to do a trade with them finally!

I had those cards for years, until I eventually sold virtually everything I had, but the memory of dad bringing home more cookies than any family should ever have in their pantry at any given time is a memory I will not soon forget.

I will always have a soft spot for Mother's Cookies cards. I now own all of the Cansecos ever made, though I'm sure variations exist that I do not have.

What is your Baseball Card Hunting Expedition story?

TanMan my friend, you always have such interesting stories to share with us!! Thanks!!

[zeprock]

1989. Nissen put out their baseball card set and you would get one card included with each loaf of Nissen bread. Of course you could see the card through the bread wrapper so loaf (pack) searching was a given. I went to the local bakery thrift store where they sold "day old" bread and bought more than 200 loaves over the course of a couple of weeks at 25 cents a loaf. Ted Williams was the spokesperson for Nissen and he was the big card in the set along with the Gregg Jefferies rookie and several Mets and Red Sox players (Strawberry, Cone, Boggs, Clemens, Greenwell and Burks). I put together dozens of complete sets (I still have some) and donated all the bread to a local food cupboard and a Rescue Mission.

[mouschi3]

1989. Nissen put out their baseball card set and you would get one card included with each loaf of Nissen bread. Of course you could see the card through the bread wrapper so loaf (pack) searching was a given. I went to the local bakery thrift store where they sold "day old" bread and bought more than 200 loaves over the course of a couple of weeks at 25 cents a loaf. Ted Williams was the spokespeerson for Nissen and he was the big card in the set along with the Gregg Jefferies rookie and several Mets and Red Sox players (Strawberry, Cone, Boggs, Clemens, Greenwell and Burks). I put together dozens of complete sets (I still have some) and donated all the bread to a local food cupboard and a Rescue Mission.

That is cool stuff! I wish they did more food/regional issued cards again.

[djohn]

That is cool stuff! I wish they did more food/regional issued cards again.

I agree, there really aren't as many food product and other "oddball" cards as there used to be. I remember Texaco put out a set that you could get a pack with gas fill-up. I must've gone to more Texaco's that summer to get cards than ever since. I would go in and get the 5 gallon minimum and get my pack of cards. I also remember getting boxes of Kelloggs and Post cereals for the cards and trying to convince my parents we needed Jimmy Dean sausages so that I could get the UPC and send in for their cards.

[zeprock]

I agree, there really aren't as many food product and other "oddball" cards as there used to be. I remember Texaco put out a set that you could get a pack with gas fill-up. I must've gone to more Texaco's that summer to get cards than ever since. I would go in and get the 5 gallon minimum and get my pack of cards. I also remember getting boxes of Kelloggs and Post cereals for the cards and trying to convince my parents we needed Jimmy Dean sausages so that I could get the UPC and send in for their cards.

I ate a bunch of those Jimmy Dean sausages too just for the cards. Those and the cereals and the Drake's snack cakes. I had to complete all of those sets and I did. My first venture was in 1972 when I was about twelve years-old and I got a Babe Ruth 3D card in a box of Kellogg's Danish Go-Rounds. Those tasted good and I put that entire set together. The 1972 Kellogg's All-Time Greats set. Ruth, Gehrig, Cobb, Walter Johnson, Cy Young, etc.

[garrisc]

I think it was late 80's early 90's French's Mustard put out a set. I never completed it due to they taped the card to the outside of the bottle and the cards "disappeared". I do still have the Ripken/Smith card around.

Scott

[madamson]

Master Bread.........my dad used to buy 8 loaves at a time for the family. 2 ready to roll and the others in the freezer. Used to burn through that bread to get the next round disc of my favorite Minnesota Twins players! My mom used to get torqued at me trying to manipulate the loaves trying to figure out who was in it!

Another "hunt": My 9th birthday My grandparents had made the trip home to visit and they told me that my "gifts" were all wrapped up. I was excited...to find that my "gifts" were wrapped up in a, wait, what is that...a sleeping bag? Yep, that's what it was...a sleeping bag...that was kinda lumpy in areas. So, I unraveled it and dove in head first. Wax pack by wax pack I pulled out, followed by cello's also. The year...1985. I bet I pulled out a dozen or so of each. I was ecstatic! Both baseball and football packs were about to be mine! It was awesome. If I ever find the picture of it, I'll post it. If I remember correctly, it's basically my hind quarters sticking out of the bag digging out the treasures.