What do you miss most about the Hobby?

What do you miss most about the hobby of days gone by?

Personally, I miss buying packs and trading cards with friends for my favorite players, and not really caring about the values. Then sorting and stacking, memorizing stats, and then going home to show off my loot to dad.

Also, I miss the feeling I had when I first discovered and began learning about tobacco and caramel cards. They were all so fascinating and novel to me. I remember the first time I saw a photo E90-1 Young portrait, or when my first "good" prewar card (W514 Jackson) arrived in the mail. Definitely got the heart pumping a few ticks faster than normal!

And you

I miss paying $24 to get Joe Dimaggio to sign 3 items, $6 for Mickey Mantle or $10 for Ted Williams. I could actually afford to get autographs at shows on my paper route money back then.

Everything about my Pre-Viet Nam collecting
Buying Packs, looking at the cards and reading the backs.
Hunting for that one common player you want, walking around with a Topps Mickey Mantle Tatoo on your hand and not washing your hand as long as you could go. buying a pack on the way to school to open later at lunch or on the can. etc. etc. etc. Putting cards in your spokes to make your bike sound like a cardboard motor,lol, Begging my mother to buy armour franks so I could get another armour coin,.
Baseball was a big part of my youth and I guess I'm trying to relive it to some extent. Us, obsessed card collectors are just kids at heart, are we not.

Like most I miss going to the corner store and buying packs. My biggest thrill as a kid, finally saving up $3.60 so I could buy a whole box of 1972 Topps cards. Can't remember what series it was, but I was on a bubble gum high for a week.

I also miss being able to find a show every week. Yes, most of them were small and crappy, but you could find other collectors to talk to and when the big shows rolled around, it was heaven.

My first big show, and at the time I didn't realize just how big, was the spring of 1982 Willow Grove show. I got see just about every card I had only read about before. There was a Wagner there along with all the other big cards of the day. I remember seeing a table that had a complete set of t3s and seeing lots of 19c cards that weren't even in the books I read.

I even miss the early days of eBay, especially before they bought paypal. Great finds and deals to be had. Not anymore.

I bought my first couple of packs in 1966, remember it well, pulled a Sonny Siebert and I was off and running. By 1967, I had turned 8, had a paper route and was picking up discarded pop bottles for spending money. I used to turn every penny into 1967 Topps cards. My favorites were the 6-pack wax trays at the A&P for .25. I remember buying and buying packs and never being able to get some of the Cardinals (Shannon in particular). Of course the eight year old had no clue about series and such. Great memories, I guess what I miss most is the ability to be excited about new cards to any degree. It was great being a kid.

I'm with Jay regarding shows. Back 15 - 20 years ago, there was one or more card shows (mostly small, but some big) every weekend in the DC area! The heck with mowing the yard on weekends back then!!
Val

hmmmm... can't really think of anything.

Bicem wrote:hmmmm... can't really think of anything.

I mostly agree with Jeff - in general today's version of the hobby is much better and more satisfying to me in most ways.

However, if I am forced to conjure up some nostalgia, two things come to mind. One has already been mentioned - the great thrill of buying and opening packs when I was a kid. The second involves the first real card dealer I used to buy from. I was just a kid and he was a real quality guy. My Dad used to drive me to his house when I had an appointment, where he would have some fantastic cards spread out in his kitchen and living room. I would spend a long time going through his binders, singles, sets and team sets for sale. That personal interaction is largely gone for me now. I'd say 99% of the cards I've bought in the last 2 years have been purchased from someone I have never met. (Lest we get carried away with this nostalgia, I would like to point out that 90% of the card dealers I ever met, I wish I had never met. Mostly just a waste of time. For the most part, I'm not sad about that part of the hobby going by the wayside.)

i also miss ripping open a pack and not knowing what surprises await. could be a shaq o'neal redemption card, could be a griffey rookie...could also be duplicate john kruk cards . the yearning for a "premium" pack like 1990 leaf or 1989 upper deck before the chase cards era.

these days since we collect in singles we know what we're getting, the biggest question is whether an sgc40 has a hidden crease or is that raw vg/ex card really vg/ex. the thrill is waiting till the auction is over to see whether your bid will get it done, there's no payoff imo.

I usually am just a lurker but though I would chime in on this. Some of the things I miss, the anticipation of the new cards coming out and buying the packs to see what they looked like.

Going to the flea market and seeing authentic Goudey Ruths and Gehrigs and T206 Cobs. You could get Ruth for $125, don't remember what Gehrig cost and Cobb was $80.

I miss pulling cards of my childhood heroes out of packs. It was a great thrill to pull rose or Brett out of a pack.

I miss being able to find older cards from yard sales and people your parents knew.

Lastly, I think one of the things I miss the most is when I first started collecting, it was so exciting the first time I saw a 1965 Hank Aaron or a 1958 Mantle or the first Goudey or T206 you saw. Now, there just aren't too many cards I have never seen and it just isn't as exciting.

The first time I ever saw a 1965 Aaron, I had to have it. Plucked down my $6 and I was on top of the world. Now I have seen thousands of them and they just aren't nearly as exciting as they used to be.

vintagechris wrote: Now I have seen thousands of them and they just aren't nearly as exciting as they used to be.

Sadly, internet porn has had the same effect...

My favorite hobby as a kid was going to the used book store and sorting throught the boxes and boxes of cards they had donated to them, purchasing them for 1 cent apiece while my mother went antique shopping. Found a 1960 hoyt wilhelm beat to hell and was hooked. I managed to get the entire 1976 football set that way (except for Largent and Payton).