A Quick Note on the Decline of Baseball Cards

[joelsabi]

did anyone flip for baseball cards or was that just a geographic phenomenon in the early 70's, being that my dad was stationed in a military base in Japan. Was flipping cards done over in the 48 contiguous states back then or ever?

When I look on the internet flipping comes up with what is below, but when we said flipping it was like what you did with pogs awhile back, trying to flip a card with another card. when you flip the card, the card became yours. lots of fun and lots of abuse of the cards as you can imagine.



Flipping Cards
There are certain skills that you might spend scores of hours perfecting in childhood, which are totally meaningless when you grow up. Flipping cards was once on of the top of the list, a critical childhood skill that has no place in the world of adults. It is an activity that can be done by anyone, but to be done well requires finesse and a truly subtle touch.
Rules are simple; from a standing position, the first player takes a card, holds it along his side and then, with a flip of the wrist, lets it drop to the floor. It lands, with the picture facing up (heads) or the stats facing up (tails). The second player then flips and tries to match the card. If they match (both heads or both tails), player #2 wins the cards, if they did not match, the cards goes to player #1.

[sox83cubs84]

No one has mentioned flat, powdery, cardboardish bubble gum. I recently opened a 30-year-old waxpack and chewed the gum. Nasty, but tasted just like 1979.[/quote]

Warren, at a show in the early 1990s, my wife won a slew of $1 bets over successfully chewing (and swallowing) a stick of gum from a mid-1970s Topps basketball wax pack. We challenged Mr. Mint to a $100 bet on her doing the same with a stick from his famous 1954 Bowman card find. The Great Mint One declined.

Dave M.
Chicago area

[jonincleve]

my personal opinion on the decline of baseball cards is the decline in baseball in general. the kids today do not have the attention span for baseball. it is too slow. plus now with computers and the internet plus fantasy leagues. why hold a baseball card and look at the stats when you can get on the net and look up anything. take all that and then over-produce everything in the 80's and 90's and bam, over supply and no demand.

that being said, i love to collect baseball cards from all era's t206 through current. as for current cards i only collect 1 set normally topps heritage. as for value the only cards that i think will hold their value are the autograph cards. my personal collection has hand signed cards vs the 'sticker' cards. if anyone wants to take a look i have a bunch showing on my site jfkcollectibles.net under autographs for viewing.

take care
john

jonincleve@sbcglobal.net

[Soonerfan65]

I hope the players and coaches don't get swamped with autograph requests at the cookout, to the extent that it ruins the event for them and becomes embarassing. I would guess that a couple of the better known prospects would be targets for that, if they're there. It would be different if they weren't about to play a six-week schedule, during which anyone going to even one or two games will be able to get all the autographs they could hope for. Me, I've got my season pass, and have plans to get to about 25 games this year, including fifteen days when I'll be on vacation from work and doing nothing but watching Baseball, Mon-Sat.

I saw Rusty Ryal the other day, btw, and he let me hold his 2008 AFL Championship ring; it had a pretty nice stone in it.

Rusty Ryal's grandpa was my high school baseball and basketball coach; saw Grandpa today at Wal-Mart and we had a nice chat about Rusty.

[GoTigers]

I bet we're only a couple years away from seeing insert cards
that award complete game used wrist bands, hats, bats, etc. It's got to be headed that way.

[godwulf]

Rusty Ryal's grandpa was my high school baseball and basketball coach; saw Grandpa today at Wal-Mart and we had a nice chat about Rusty.

Very cool. Another nice thing about the AFL is that you sometimes run into the parents and grandparents of the players, at the games. I had a nice time chatting with Evan Frey's parents - he's in double-A Mobile now - during the Fall League last year, and they were super nice people. Evan had been playing in South Bend and Visalia, and I warned him about the humidity in Alabama. He said if it meant a promotion, he'd deal with it.

[OaklandAsFan]

The Diamondbacks prospects are back in their usual place, with the Scottsdale Scorpions, this year, after playing with the A's, etc, on the Phoenix Desert Dogs last year - so, since I'll mostly be following those guys around, I won't be coming to Phoenix Muni as often as I did last year, of course. I'll still be coming out there when the Scorpions are visiting, or when the Scorpions are playing in Surprise, or some ungodly, out-of-the-way place like that...looking at my schedule, I'll be visiting your ballpark at least eight times during the season.

Of the DBacks guys, Brandon Allen (who has been the big club's everyday First Baseman for a few months now) is gonna get swamped by auto-seekers, I think it's safe to say. There are really no big names on the DBacks roster, other than him.

the golden boy Steven Strasburg is gonna get swamped.

[chakes89]

And from what I have heard about Strasburg, he isn't shy about telling autograph seekers how he feels about them.