This Ol' Box: A Look At What Remains From My Original Collection Part I

It really dawned on me today that my blog as totally strayed away from the "memories" part of what this blog is partly about. I can't honestly remember the last post that wasn't either a box break or a mail day. I started this blog to talk about my fond memories of a hobby that has been with me most of my life. I decided to start up a new a series today and it will continue into the forseeable future. Without further ado....here's the first Installment of "This Ol' Box"

 

This Ol' Box definitely has stories. You see what's in this box is the final remains of what was my first collection. I collected heavily from 1990-2011 and regrettably decided to sell of the majority of my collection to start a new collection, game used memorabilia. You can look at the archives from years ago and see that I had a pretty dang good collection if I do say so myself. Now it's hard to sell EVERY single card in my collection and this box encompasses the cards I never sold and it's the only link left to my original collection. Some of the cards I kept for sentimental reasons, a lot for purely financial reasons (not in the way you think, in the "it's not worth putting this up for auction to get a $1.00 kind of a way) but every card in this box is here for a reason and I thought it would be fun to dig in and A) What's actually in here and B) why I decided to keep it. Each installment will consist of 5 cards that I pick at random and the series will continue until the box is completely done. I thought it would be a fun and unique way to look at back at what was a huge time of my life. So let's get started

99-00 MVP Game Used Souvenirs Kevin Garnett 

 

We'll start with an oldie but goodie. I know EXACTLY why I kept this card. It was my first ever Game Used Memorabilia card that I added to my collection. I bought this back in 1999 when we still actually had Card shows and if I recall I paid $40 for it. I was so jealous of my friend Kenny pulling a Terrell Davis Game Used Jersey Card out of an Upper Deck pack at Target and my cousin pulling a James Posey Draft Day Used Hat card out of 99-00 Skybox Dominion that I just had to add a memorabilia card to my collection since I had zero luck pulling any. Keep in, this was ANY kind of memorabilia cards were still considered holy grail pulls, so even though this is as generic as generic can get (it was used in a game used Wolves game, but there's no guarantee KG touched it) it was still a pretty desirable card. So simple yet so awesome. It will always hold a special place in my collection.

1998 Bowman Preview Ken Griffey Jr.

 

I was HUGE Griffey collector when I first collected. I sold most of my good ones, but the lower level ones I decided to keep rather than sell for a few bucks. I can't remember if bought this at a card show for a dollar or two or made a trade with a friend for it, but here it is. It's not the regular Bowman base card but rather the Preview insert that was inserted into packs of Stadium Club if I'm not mistaken (I could be wrong). There will be a ton of low level 90's  and early 2000's inserts of Griffey in this box.

1996-97 E-X 2000 Allen Iverson RC

 

One of my favorite sets EVER. I owned the Kobe and Jordan of this as well but sold those as those were worth slightly more than A.I. This set is so amazing and is one of the coolest designs I've still ever seen. Rather than sell this for a couples bucks or so I decided to keep it. Glad I did, because it's the only E-X 2000 card I have in my collection now.

2008 Donruss Sports Legends Al Cervi Autograph (#75/619)

 

Honestly..I don't even know who Al Cervi was. I bought it because it was cheap auto of a Hall of Famer who played in the early days of the NBA. I figured I'd rather keep it than sell it for a modest price. This was a "Pre Panini" Basketball card as Donruss still owned their own company and though they didn't have an NBA Licensed they made basketball cards under their various Legends/Golden Age/Americana Lines.

2005-06 Lou Williams SPX Auto Game Used Jersey RC (#187/1499)

 

So this was a strictly "potential" purchase at the time. Williams was cheap, but he was a straight out of high school player and I figured for a few bucks it would be worth it to pick up a nice Auto/Jersey Rookie Card of him in case he pans out. I didn't sell it because while "Sweet Lou" has developed himself into a pretty good role player, he didn't explode into an all star or anything and it was just not worth putting it out to sell. One thing I'd like to point out is the numbered..it's numbered to 1499! Jeez that's insane. I don't even think Panini has numbered to 1499 autos for anything anymore!

And that'll do it for the 1st installment. I think this is going to be fun to see everything I kept. It certainly brings back awesome memories that's for sure!