I used to collect baseball cards. Yeah, I know that’s not unusual. Lots of boys (and probably some girls) did that. But, over time, my collecting turned into something mildly insane. It wasn’t just buying packs down at the corner store, sticking them in a shoebox and trying to get all the Reds players, or whatever. Oh no. It started that way, but in 1975 it turned some kind of crazy corner.
That summer, when I was 12, I decided I was going to amass a complete set: all 660 cards that were released by Topps that year. So, I made my own checklist, which was typed if you can believe it. I had every number from 1 through 660 hand-typed by yours truly on a piece of paper and would mark off each card number as I obtained it. Getting all those numbers marked off became a full-on obsession. It’s all I thought about, and that’s not much of an exaggeration.
And when you get down to the end, where you only need 15 or 20 cards, it becomes MADDENING. You buy pack after pack after pack and not a single number gets marked off. Topps also had what they called rack packs, available at places like K-Mart. Here’s what I’m talking about:
As you can see, six cards are visible in each pack: three on the front and three on the back. So, I’d beg my parents to drive me around to stores in other towns to try to track down the elusive cards. If I could actually see a needed card through the plastic it was a beautiful day. Otherwise, I’d have to just roll the dice, keep buying regular packs, and hope for the best. We also did some low-grade trading between friends. I’d gladly give up a Mike Schmidt card, or a Pete Rose, for some second-string outfielder I still needed to complete the set. But a lot of those guys didn’t take care of their cards, and they were appallingly bent and scuffed. And I can’t have that.
So, anyway. That was the summer when the obsession took hold. Then, Steve and I moved into ordering vintage cards through the mail from dealers. I think we saw an ad in The Sporting News or something and sent off for their price list. It was something called The Trading Card Company in Dearborn, Michigan. Oh, we did a lot of business with them during the early days of the mania. The hobby was nothing like it is today. It was small and the prices for cards were low. I can remember receiving a 1957 Topps card from them for a player named Moe Drabowsky. I couldn’t believe it! Something inside my brain exploded. It felt like I was holding some kind of impossible magic in my hands. 1957! Had this been some kid’s card, back during the Eisenhower era? I romanticized the shit out of it and was fully hooked.
Eventually, I was subscribed to two hobby magazines: Sports Collectors Digest (still in existence?) and The Trader Speaks. I believe SCD came out every two weeks and was fairly thick: probably 90% ads from dealers offering cards for sale. I’d go through those things with a goddamn highlighter, and spent nearly every cent of my paper route money on baseball cards. The Trader Speaks was for a more advanced collector, and I couldn’t afford most of the stuff advertised there. But I loved reading about it. It also smelled really good, the ink and the paper etc. That was one great smelling magazine!
So, it got way out of hand. But I quickly built a nice collection. I liked the 1950s Topps stuff, and early 60s too. But I also had some items from the 30s and 40s, and even some old tobacco cards from 1910 or whatever. I have a Cy Young card if you can believe it. And Ty Cobb. I started running ads of my own in SCD with lists of things I wanted to buy. So, price lists arrive by mail, and my mother would frown with concern. What’s going on??
But, beer and girls and music eventually caused my first obsession to fade a bit. However, I became equally crazed about music. This album triggered it. It wasn’t exactly the same, but close. I didn’t really think of it as collecting, the way I had with baseball cards. I just wanted to build the best music library possible. I wasn’t attempting to complete sets. It’s a small difference. But, make no mistake about it, I was FULLY obsessed and equally ravenous to find missing items. I can remember my dad joking that he was going to have to install support beams in the kitchen of our house because of the weight of all that vinyl in my bedroom above.
What’s your relationship with collecting? Do you collect anything? Have you ever? I can’t afford it anymore. It’s a young man’s game. Or a millionaire’s. I still have the tendency in me, it’s just lying dormant at the moment. Also, what’s the most extreme personal collection you’ve ever seen? I mean… people can become crazed with this stuff. Believe me, I know. How about bizarre collections? Tell us all about it in the comments.
And I’m calling it a day, my friends. I don’t have the podcast back yet, but expect it any minute now. Hopefully, I’ll be able to upload it before I leave for work. Stay tuned.
Wait! Here’s the Thursday podcast. I’ve decided to make it available to everyone. You know, so non-patrons can hear what the second weekly podcast sounds like. Here’s the summary:
In this one, I tell you about the plans I’ve made for the new year, including my travel and writing goals. I also discuss previous New Year’s resolutions, and why I don’t do ’em anymore. Thanks for the support! And thanks for listening.
Hey, I kinda like this one and have decided — on a whim! — to make it available to everyone. Just so you non-patron folks can hear what the Thursday shows sound like. Enjoy! And don’t forget this part:
Need twice the Jeff Kay? We’ve got you covered. Just pop on over to patreon.com/jeffkay, sign up for a $4 (or more) monthly donation, and you’ll immediately gain access to the Thursday shows. They’re a full 30 minutes each, and only available to supporters at Patreon. It’s a lot of fun, so do it up!
I hope you guys have a great weekend! This week eats it from the ass in, and I’ll be happy to get it into the proverbial rearview mirror. Sheesh. If I could only write about everything in my life…
I’ll back on Monday.
Now playing in the bunker
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I was into cards: Baseball, Football, Star Wars, KISS, Welcome Back Kotter, Etc. And model building. And then as you say – music came along. And then it became records, tapes, books, magazines. I don’ buy much today. And I sometimes miss reading music magazines every month.
Comic Books. I had probably 500 or so, when I stopped getting them. Every week, after church, my father would go a newspaper shop for his Pittsburgh Press and Washington Post. I was allowed 2 comic books. I started collecting, or amassing them through the ’50’s. All the neighborhood kids would come to my basement and read comic books, because their parents wouldn’t buy them any. The collection sat in an old cabinet in the basement for years. Then when I went off to college, my mother started giving them away! When I discovered it, I almost killed her! They would have been worth some money, today. She had no idea.
Elvis plates (yep), shot glasses, Springsteeniana (bootlegs, picture discs, picture sleeve singles, record store promo materials, etc.). The shot glass collection is the only one still growing, due to the wife’s obsession with it – every new place we travel I pick one up. She has over 400 now and I have started to look into designs for wall racks to display them properly (of course these exist).
And thank you Jeff for the reminder about Catastrophe. I watched season 1 and then kind of forgot about it. Just rewatched S1 and now giddy about two more season’s worth of this gem.
I collected Elvis plates briefly, but the fuckers don’t stand up to daily use, and start to fade in the dishwasher. I’ll be damned if I’m gonna hand-wash ’em every day. Now we just use them for the bulldogs — hey, at least we feed the beasts — ya feel me Reva?
jtb
I have haphazardly collected vinyl since I was 12 years old. That makes 32 years, almost 33. I’ve hauled that shit around from move to move ever since I left home at 17. I have never sold any of it off either, someone will make a nice chunk of change when I croak if they know what some of it is worth!
I used to work with a guy who had spent his lifetime (he was about 60) collecting those plastic models you build from a box of parts – aircraft, tanks, ships, cars. His 4 or 5 bed suburban home was, with the exception of the couple of rooms he lived out of, stuffed floor to ceiling with tightly packed rows of the things. All unmade in the boxes, he didn’t actually make them, just collected them. After he’d collected all the Western and Japanese models, he embraced the internet to collect more obscure models from Eastern Europe and small Asian countries.
I did wonder what would happen if his house caught on fire. With all that plastic it would create an unexpected 5-alarm tire dump scale fire in suburbia.
A while back I was looking at model kits I use to have in the mid 1970s on ebay. They were going for 5 or 6 times what my parents paid for them. It’s amazing that many still exist in the box.
I have too many CDs, 3500 to 4000 I estimate. I started buying them in 1984 and still have them all. I liked having a lot of music available to me, but of course now everything is available with a single click. I think I bought one CD in 2018, and only then because I wanted some signed artwork!
I don’t considered having a lot of music, or a lot of books, being an obsessive collector.
I know rich folkers who collect records (now called vinyl) compulsively: one guy, my age, in particular. If Stax reissued a Carla Thomas album with a remix of the Booker T. Jones keyboard part way in the background, he has to have it. He’s burst the seams of his house and constructed outbuildings: the yard goes on forever. Actually, he’s not rich: he just used to be.
I used to collect baseball cards, comic books, book books, albums, coins, and wives: the last took care of the preceding. The collections exploded like a thousand suns and now are part of someone else’s obsession. I’m down to collecting sentences: not jaywalking or mopery, but this kind, correctly used I think. At least I’m trying.
I’d also like mo’ drabowsky, but you can’t always get what you want.
John
Never really had what I would call a collection of anything when I was young, but after my kids were all raised(7 kids over 33 years)I started collecting various things. I would go through a phase of obsession with each thing until it’s designated space was full and then find another interest. I’ve gone through kaleidoscopes, dice, marbles, jewelry, perpetual calendars(those are all over the house)wind chimes, nail polish, candles, paper dolls, vases, and crystal knick-knacks that I can think of off-hand. I also buy a lot of coloring books and colored pencils, but I use those up, so, not really a collection? So, as my kids and hubby say, I collect collections. But it’s cheaper than hubby’s motorcycle and shooting pool, which are his interests, so he doesn’t complain. 🙂
I’d say 7 kids qualifies as a collection all by itself.
Not really a regular collection, but I always pick up a patch whenever I camp somewhere cool or visit a national park or monument—places like that. I’m actually pretty good about sewing them onto my pack, but I’m running out of room.
Albums and footballs here. Due to being downsized out of my job and having to move to Raleigh, the wife and I are also downsizing. I’ve been in contact with a local vinyl shop about buying up all my Lps (with the exception of a couple of picture discs, bootlegs and signed discs). In the 70’s every time I went to Columbus to visit high school buddies my first stop was Magnolia Thunderpussy and Singing Dog to fill up the back seat of the car with music.
I started collecting footballs when I was a kid and dad took me to a Browns game where a ball ended up coming right at him in the stands and he ended up with it. I have NFL footballs from every Commissioner’s era including the original Duke, several Super Bowl balls and a 75th anniversary ball. Selling all those on ebay. The kids had no interest in either.
Rolling Stones memorabilia for the past 45 years. Books, albums, magazines, etc. All stored in pristine condition.
Jeff, I worked with a man who had baseball cards. His son now does the same. I don’t know the correct term but he had some set that was worth a bundle. I lost touch with them but I did proofreading work on their books. If I find it ill forward you a copy.
Nice collection. Say, you don’t happen to have Mick Jagger’s soul do you? I understand there was a transaction.
jtb
For many years, my extreme collection has been bitter memories….exes, bosses, co-workers, landlords, grocery store employees, police officers, neighbors….that I have developed extreme hatred for that I have never let go of. I keep a list. One by one, they will get their comeuppance, when I have enough money from lottery winnings to do so. And that woman who sold me ten losing Powerball tickets last month. She is number one right now.
AWG, I doubt that clerks have a great deal of influence over which numbers are going to be drawn, but if you suspect collusion (I do, but in a different case) and, on the off-chance that you don’t win the lottery, you could send number one a small sample of number two. It might brighten her day.
John
Oh yeah..,,I have a lot of number two saved up!
I was buying records regularly back in the old days, and CDs after that, but I only have a few hundred of each. I wasn’t actively “collecting,” just buying music that I liked and never getting rid of anything. I still do this with books.
A friend of mine has a brother in law who is… autistic? OCD? Definitely a hoarder anyway. He works for the government and makes good money when he’s not locked out of work. He went through a period of obsessively buying cameras. He has a large collection, possibly hundreds, of high end professional digital cameras. Most of them are new, never opened, and most of them are several years old and obsolete.
In high school I started collecting bulldogs. They are all packed away now because they were a bitch to keep dusted. A few special ones are on display.
For years now I’ve collected cards and pictures, mostly gift cards, that move. Remember the Jesus picture your crazy aunt had? Look at it one way its praying Jesus, move it a centimeter it’s crucified Jesus. Left right, left right, hours of fun. “Look Momma, I made him clap”. The gift cards are getting hard to find now. The one I couldn’t figure out how to steal was of Home Depots stock car and driver. It was on and covered the whole front of a Coke machine.
Are you at least feeding the bulldogs?
….any article that depicts the shape of a bulldog. Geez, you guys make my life difficult.
Woof.
Bootleg live and studio recordings.
Conflict simulations (boardgames) from Avalon Hill, SPI, GDW, etc.
I’m not much of a collector. I’ve tried, but it just doesn’t “take.”
I did make it a mission to collect the 1990 Donruss set through single-pack purchase. I got everyone except Mike MacFarlane and had to trade 9 or 10 of my duplicates to a shop for it.
I knew a guy who collected board games, closets and closets full of board games (no duplicates.) He had a sub-collection of chess. Did you know there are different versions of chess? Like different rules and pieces? According to him most Asian countries have their own version.
I’ve collected a few different things throughout my life, but nothing obsessively (isn’t that what everyone says?).
When I was a kid, my buddy got me into the beer-can-collecting craze of the ’70’s, and I had a few hundred cans at one point. My little brother, not to be left out, collected soda-pop cans. For the American Bicentennial, 7-Up issued a special series wherein the back of each can featured a small part of a mosaic image; if you collected all 47 cans and stacked them in a pyramid, they formed an image of Uncle Sam. My brother completed not one but two complete sets, which were stacked up against our bedroom wall until one night when the cat knocked them all over onto the hardwood floor, immediately above our parents’ bedroom. At 2AM.
My brother consumed a lot of 7-Up that summer of ’76, and now suffers from a rare but very patriotic form of diabetes.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v359/redsfan323/701976set.jpg
My dad, growing up under poor, post-Depression parents, really holds onto stuff, and seems to think EVERYTHING is an heirloom: rusty Coleman lanterns, broken hay rakes, both blocks AND tackles, flashlights which use batteries that are no longer made, galvanized minnow buckets. The contents of his basement could easily ‘accessorize’ a dozen new Cracker Barrel locations.
Yeah, I suspect collusion as well, but in an even different case.
I too was caught up in the beer can collecting of the 70’s. Sold that collection
to buy a moped. Sold the moped to go towards my first car. Wise decision. So,
many years later, when my wife said I needed a hobby, I promptly began collecting
beer cans again. This time only cans produced between 1936-1965. (flat top or
“punch top” cans that needed an opener). I now have hundreds on shelves in
my Lair. And need more shelves.
I got into coin collecting when I was a kid but not in a huge way. In the 80’s and 90’s I would buy the occasional proof set and would get one as a present sometimes. About a year ago I decided it was taking up too much room so I tried to sell it and was disappointed no one was willing to offer even book value for what I had. I just thought about all the time wasted and decided NO MORE collectibles for me…