Pages

Saturday, June 29, 2013

My First "Valuable Card"- 1994 Fleer Ultra RBI King Frank Thomas

When I was a kid and collecting, I always wanted to own a card that was considered a "big hit". My collection was modest, and honestly in the early 90's there wern't many "high ticket" cards to own. As inserts got increasingly popular and became a staple of packs though, the demand for some of the harder to find insert sets grew and "high dollar inserts" were very desirable. I bought pack after pack hoping to pull the "motherload". One of those hard to find 1 out of bazillion packs insert cards. I had little to no luck until I finally hit the "big one" but not in a traditional way. Everyone remembers the card cubes that retail chain stores like Wal Mart used to carry. You got like 200 cards, mostly junk, but they'd always put superstar base cards in the front to entice you to buy them. 95% of them weren't really worth what you paid for, but this particular cube had this Frank Thomas insert card displayed. My heart jumped when I saw it, I then grabbed a Beckett and saw what they had it priced at. $75.00!!! I couldn't believe it. My lucky day!! I vividly remember a cube that had the exact same insert but of Carlos Bearga. I quickly snatched my find (I don't remember the price point, but it had to be no more the $5.00) and ripped open the cube to touch my beauty. Frank Thomas was one of my favorite baseball players to boot (even liked him over Griffey who was my 2nd) so this was beyond awesome. The insert itself is very nice looking. Makes me miss the days when companies put actual thought into their insert sets. This was my first "big card' as I'd never had a card worth more than $20.00 at the time. It was my favorite card for years. Unfortunately, I honestly don't remember what I ended up doing with it. I either traded it way down the road or even sold it but I no longer had it. Maybe one day I'll buy it again and relive the memories that card brought.

No comments:

Post a Comment