So here’s a short Thrift Treasures post that’s been sitting in my queue for a while.  About two months ago while hunting treasures in the California’s south bay cities of Campbell and San Jose, I went to a Salvation Army that I only get to maybe once every two or three months,

Judging by the throngs of people I run into there, it’s definitely on the radar for treasure hunting folks. Sometimes it’s people looking for jewelry, other times its people seeking art or anything else they can flip on eBay.  I dabble in some of those areas as well, but head straight for sports stuff regardless of the circumstances.

During this trip, there were no cards. BUT there were two card-related items … which of course I had to own.  Which is why I am even writing this.

Granted these items were in the area designated by store employees as the “Collectibles” and their prices relative to the rest of the second-hand items int he store seem a tad inflated. But during my decade-plus of treasure seeking I’ve never seen these, so they were mine.

Here we have the first issue of Beckett Basketball featuring some player you may or may not heard. Michael Jordan graces the cover of the first every Beckett Basketball, which is the March/April 1990 issue.  These aren’t rare. You’ll find them at various card shows and on eBay of course.  But for $5.50 I figured I’d bite.  Especially since it was kept in pretty good shape.  The cover is stiff.   The articles inside talk about how the basketball card market has grown to a state where a magazine was warranted.  And of course there is the price guide.  I won’t go over everything, but I will answer the question that is on your mind: How much was the 1986-87 Fleer Michael Jordan rookie card worth then? Answer: $175, high book.

The other magazine t also cost me $5.50 is the premiere edition of the Topps Magazine.  Some of you may not have even been born — sad, but true — when Topps had its own Magazine. Well, here it is, the first edition — featuring Jose Canseco on the front.  The inside has a strip of cards that featured various players, primarily one George Kenneth Griffey Jr. and a pull-out poster showcasing every single one of the 792 cards that make up the 1990 Topps set.

While there are all sorts of cool little tidbits in this magazine, it is worth noting that there is a short article on the highly-coveted 1990 Topps George H.W. Bush Yale.

In short, the story says that President Bush is a baseball fan, he played on the 1948 Yale University team that went to the College World Series, and Bush’s grandsons apparently asked someone why President Bush didn’t have a baseball card. Word got to Topps; Topps made just a few of the cards and delivered them to President Bush. The article says the cards are not for sale to the public and that they likely would never reach the secondary market.  The author does, however, speculate what collectors would pay for “the rarest baseball card Topps ever printed.”

This entry was posted on March 1, 2014 at 6:41 pm and is filed under Thrift Treasures with tags baseball, baseball cards, Beckett, George H. W. Bush, Michael Jordan, Thrift Treasures, Topps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.