What's on your Mt Rushmore of cards from your childhood?

[slugger3469]

I was putting a list together of cards that I MUST obtain for my PC sometime. Got me to thinking about cards from back in the day.

I'm 35, so my collecting days started in the early-mid 80's. When I was a kid (10-14), I remember practically drooling on the showcase of the LCS wishing I had the money to buy them.



I came up with my Rushmore pretty quickly:

1986 Donruss Jose Canseco
1987 Fleer Will Clark
1991 Stadium Club Frank Thomas
1986 Topps Traded Bo Jackson



a few "rules" when creating your Rushmore:

Make it "age appropriate", IE card was HUGE at the time. Not a card that blew up 10 years later.

No autographs or g/u cards. We ALLLLLL want a Babe Ruth prime jersey 1/1.

If possible, make it a base card or non-numbered refractor (EX: 1993 Finest)

Enjoy the read!

[fire60]

1989 upper deck griffey
1985 topps mark mcgwire usa

[hotshot]

1992 Donruss Elite Series Frank Thomas
1990 Topps Frank Thomas NNOF
1993 Score Select Triple Crown Mickey Mantle

[Hallco]

I'm 43 and cards were just cool to have/trade/play with (and sometime literally destroy!)when I was a child. At that time I remember these as being big time: (all Topps)

1971 Thurman Munson(awesome action shot not normally seen on cards!)
1976 Hank Aaron(final regular Topps release!)
1977 Reggie Jackson(Mr.October 1977...5 HR in the WS are you kidding me?)
1978 Paul Molitor/Alan Trammell.(EVERYONE wanted this card..2 superstars!)

[ToppsCollector1]

My list would be kind of hard seeing as I started back in 2006

2006 Alex Gordon
2007 Derek Jeter
2008 Topps Johan Santana No-Hitter (you never said anything about SPs :)!)
2012 Topps Roberto Clemente SP

[squirtr]

Gonna hijack this OP. Remember Mt. Rushmore has 4 faces so 4 cards!!!

[squirtr]

I'm 33 so I can't use much of my youth, cards were pretty easy to get in the early nineties, not much to chase. But these were it.
1990 Frank Thomas NNOF
1987 Fleer Billy Ripken
1986 Donruss Jose Canseco
1989 Upperdeck Ken Griffey Jr.

[douglasfir]

A non auto/relic? That's heresy! ;)

[charnick]

not gonna count ultra rare errors like the Frank Thomas NNOF card, so i'll just go with what i remember having/wanting when i was a kid:

1989 UD Griffey Jr. (of course)
1985 Topps Mark McGwire Team USA
1990 Leaf Frank Thomas
1987 Topps Bo Jackson

i could easily swap out the last one for three of the more common (but still sought after by me/my friends) errors of the day, the 1989 UD Gary Sheffield RC with the upside-down SS, or the Dale Murphy reverse image, or even the 1990 Donruss Juan Gonzalez reverse image error.

p.s. i'm 38.

[douglasfir]

1993 upperdeck sp Jeter.
89 upperdeck Griffey
1994 flair Arod (before all the corruption)
1993 flair wave of the future Piazza

I'm 30.

[brianj]

The only card I really remember as a kid was a Mike Piazza "in the zone" or "zone" insert it was probably late 90's. I remember looking at in beckett and it booked at $30!

Damn I wish I still had that card.

[GoBeavs]

Interesting idea. Here's what I recall "wanting" in my youth.

1973 Mike Schmidt
1980 Rickey Henderson
1984 Fleer Kirby Puckett
1989 Fleer Billy Ripken FF

Thought of including the 89UD Griffey, but I already had a few of those as a kid. I'm 41.

[Housemiller33]

1980 Topps Ricky Henderson
1984 Donruss Don Mattingly
1984 Fleer Update Roger Clemens
1984 Fleer Update Kirby Puckett

[tke1600]

1989 upper deck griffey
1985 topps mark mcgwire usa

These on top of 1990 leaf Frank Thomas. All were out of my reach when I was younger but I picked up both the Griffey UD and 85 Mcgwire later on in life!

[Griffey Fan]

1995 Pinnacle Swing Men museum collection inserts..

Ken Griffey Jr
Frank Thomas
Cal Ripken Jr
Kirby Puckett

One day,I'll finish the set.

[callou2131]

1982 Topps Traded Cal Ripken Jr.
1986 Donruss Jose Canseco
1987 Fleer Glossy Bo Jackson
1984 Fleer Update Roger Clemens/Kirby Puckett
Im 37
All cards that I couldnt afford when they were "hot" I am trying to remember their Highest prices.
Ripken about $250
Canseco $125
Jackson $125
Clemens and Puckett $400-$500

[adamt326]

I have 3 of my 4. The Frank Thomas NNOF would be #4

http://i322.photobucket.com/albums/nn427/adamt326/adamt326%20Blowout%20Bucket/Baseball/BillyRipken.jpg
http://i322.photobucket.com/albums/nn427/adamt326/adamt326%20Blowout%20Bucket/Baseball/JeterSP-1.jpg
http://i322.photobucket.com/albums/nn427/adamt326/adamt326%20Blowout%20Bucket/PC/GriffeyBGS95.jpg

[hongkongfooey]

got into it in mid 1994 at the ripe age of 8.

1994 Upper Deck Mantle Griffey auto
1995 Bowman's Best Refractor Hideo Nomo
1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold Chipper Jones
1997 Donruss Signature Century Marks Chipper Jones

I dont think I'll ever own the mirror gold chipper

[thewild3]

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c38/djrulz/Kevin%20Maas/img376.jpg (http://media.photobucket.com/user/djrulz/media/Kevin%20Maas/img376.jpg.html)

http://i812.photobucket.com/albums/zz43/mess0312/Baseball/Inserts/1991UpperDeckSP1MichaelJordan.jpg (http://media.photobucket.com/user/mess0312/media/Baseball/Inserts/1991UpperDeckSP1MichaelJordan.jpg.html)

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h86/2corey0/Personal%20Collection%20NFT/Absolutely%20Untradeable/piazzafleer.jpg (http://media.photobucket.com/user/2corey0/media/Personal%20Collection%20NFT/Absolutely%20Untradeable/piazzafleer.jpg.html)

http://i822.photobucket.com/albums/zz149/DetroitTigers56/griffeyrc.jpg (http://media.photobucket.com/user/DetroitTigers56/media/griffeyrc.jpg.html)

[TarjetasBéisbol]

Started collecting cards in 1975.

1976 Mickey Stanley, first card I ever pulled from a pack, I remember opening the pack and seeing the card.
1975 Ron LeFlore, the "wow, this guy was in prison" card.
1969 Denny McLain, loved that card, not the greatest role model.
1974 Doug Griffen, my sister found it on the playground and I was amazing to have a card from the previous year. It's all mangled with rough edges, still have it.

[Patsfan]

1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr Rc
1990 Leaf Frank Thomas Rc
1986 Topps Cecil Fielder Rc
1987 Topps Barry Larkin Rc

I now have all 4 !

[signal_fifty]

1986 Topps Traded Will Clark
1986 Donruss Jose Canseco
1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr
1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr

[djdevon]

I see a lot of Griffey Jr. seekers. I think you can get a factory set of 89 UD for around $40. Every set has Griffey Jr. right in the front. A PSA 10 Griffey Jr. usually goes for around 225.00 approximately?

So using mathematics, you could buy 5 sets and maybe you get lucky and get a nice 10 our of it.

[jeffmagley]

OP if you need that 86 donruss Canseco pm me your address and I'll send it to you. I busted a few boxes about 4 years ago just for fun and have a few laying around

[Ziveus101]

...........

[RemyX266]

The easy part is only rookie cards for my old days, only listing regular series cards, not traded/update:

1982 Topps Cal Ripken Jr.
1984 Donruss Don Mattingly
1985 Topps Roger Clemens
1986 Donruss Jose Canseco

[Melagoo]

First Bobby Orr card ... vey early 70's along with Dave Keon Ken Dryden and Rusty Stubb LOL ...

[sheetskout]

1980 Topps Rickey Henderson
1983 Topps Ryne Sandberg
1975 Topps Robin Yount
1978 Topps Paul Molitor / Alan Trammel

Not necessarily the most important cards of my generation but the ones that defined me the best.

[free2131]

1982 Topps Traded Cal Ripken
1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey, Jr.
1985 Topps USA Mark McGwire
1987 Donruss Greg Maddux

[Antmoon5]

1975 Topps George Brett
1975 Topps Robin Yount
1984 Topps Don Mattingly
1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr.

I'm 37, soon to 38, and those '75 cards were on my want list for a long time.

[Jopeal]

One card: 1998 e-x Essential Credential Future Ken Griffey Jr.

[montej1695]

Cool Thread, thumbs up to the OP!

Here are mine:

1) 84 Donruss Don Mattingly
2) 80 Topps Rickey Henderson
3) 86 Donruss Canseco (How could anyone 35-40 not have this on their list?)
4) 87 Topps Tiffany

[JohnRyno]

R.Kelley's Sheets

[bubbs11]

1997 bowman chrome Travis Lee
1983 topps Ryne Sandberg
1995 bowman Andruw Jones
1999 ud ultimate victory Rick Ankiel

Actually pulled the Lee, wouldn't sell it still for the feeling it gave me! (I was 10)

[Gordo]

My 2 cents..

Canseco 86 Donruss
Mattingly 84 Donruss
83 Topps Boggs
83 Topps Gwynn

I remember buying a pack of 82 Topps for $3 or so and pulling the Ripken back in 1990. $3 was a lot of money for a pack of cards for me back then. It booked for 12 bucks and I sold it for $7 right back to the shop owner so I could buy more packs. I chose to buy cheaper overproduced 1990 crap, lol.

Edit: 34yrs old here

[mfw13]

Started collecting in 1977, but there was nothing particularly "difficult" to collect back then. Once you had saved up enough money, you went down to the corner store, bought two wax boxes, sorted the cards, and voila, you had your complete set for the year.

As far as singles go, I was born and raised a die-hard Giants fan....so the cards I wanted the most when I was a kid were all of Willie McCovey's cards, since he was my favorite player.

So my four would have been:

1960 McCovey RC
1962 McCovey (hi #)
1966 McCovey (hi #)
1969 McCovey white-letter variation

[ILOVEBEER]

1989 upper deck ken griffey jr
1991 topps stadium club frank thoma thomas
1991 Upper deck michael jordan
1989 Fleer Billy Ripken error

[Morgoth]

1993 Finest Nolan Ryan refractor
1990 Topps NNOF Thomas
1997 UD Game Jersey of Griffey
1991 Score Mantle Auto

[DSizzle31]

1986 Topps Traded Wally Joyner (he was my favorite player)
1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr
1990 Score Bo Jackson football/baseball
1990 Leaf Frank Thomas



I'm 36 years old.

[WillBBC]

Great topic. Growing up in the 90s...

89 Upper Deck Griffey (obvious choice)
84 Donruss Mattingly (grew up right outside NYC, card sold for huge coin way back when)
1993 SP Jeter
1994 SP Alex Rodriguez

I'm adding a fifth...

01 Bowman Chrome Pujols Auto/RC. Man--my local shop had one for about 350 bones around January, '02. I wish I picked it up at that point!

[JohnRyno]

I remember vintage being the big thing when I was a kid. Opening packs or boxes never seemed like a big deal back then. The traded Ripken RC was a huge deal in Baltimore obviously. Any big player's RC was huge- Mantle, Banks, etc... I'm saying big and huge a lot.

[katho54]

1986 Donruss Jose Canseco
1985 Topps Kirby Puckett
1987 Fleer Mark Mcqwire
1986 donruss Barry Bonds

[callou2131]

1990 Score Bo Jackson football/baseball




I'm 36 years old.

Forgot about that one! That was like a $25 card until everyone realized that every neighborhood kid had 3 or 4 of them

[rondog2001]

1984 Donruss Don Mattenly
1985 McGwire oly card
1986 fleer update Barry bonds
1989 UD Ken Griffey jr