Thrift Treasures 89: What’s In The Box?! |

Thrift Treasures 89: What’s In The Box?!

When I hit thrift stores and find sports cards, they are usually stored in two ways: stuffed into small bags and priced per bundle or just left in a box and marked with a price. On a recent trip, the latter was the form in which the cards were found. Behind the counter where they keep the ‘good” stuff was a box marked “Baseball Cards” The Box was one of the eight-section sorter boxes, which by themselves usually cost $3-$4 each. The $7.99 price tag on the box intrigued me as I felt this was worth the purchase if there was anything remotely of interest inside. So I waved down the clerk and said, “What’s in the box? Here is essentially what I saw. It was a hoard of Donruss cards, lots of 1988, a good number of 1987, but also some 1981 through 1983. I also took a quick peek and saw a stack of 1980s Minor League cards. I closed the box and bought it. As one could imagine, the stacks contained just what you would expect, lots of Hall of Famers mixed in with a bunch of 1980s common guys. In all there were more than 65 Hall of Famers — the typical 1980s mix of Rickey Henderson, Dave Winfield, Tony Gwynn, George Brett, Mike Schmidt, Andre Dawson, and of course Rollie Fingers and his mustache. There were two 1977 All-Time All-Stars cards, ones of Rogers Hornsby (trimmed) and Lefty Grove. The Minor League cards were fun as usual. A bunch of guys whom I had never heard of, and a few who actually made it to The Show, headlined by Devon White and Randy Myers. One interesting card is this one of then Mets farmhand Randy Milligan, who would eventually become a member of the Baltimore Orioles. What makes it interesting? Look at those stats and all that biographical information! Even the card of El Paso trainer Pete Kold has more words. Oops. If you have been following my collecting journey you know that rookie cards of everyone — EVERYONE — are what I like to collect. What better way to fill a few dozen holes that to find loads of stuff from the 1980s. There were guys whom I hadn’t heard of, such as Marvis Foley and of the White Sox and Ricky Peters of the Tigers. There were lots of solid Major Leaguers like Curt Schilling, Ken Caminiti, Jack McDowell, Mike Greenwell, Mark Gubicza, and John Kruk. And ot course there were rookie cards of Hall of Famers — remember recent HOF classes have rookie cards from the “Junk Wax” era — Roberto Alomar, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz. Surprisingly the cards are NOT thrashed. There are probably more than a million of each 1988 Donruss card, making them relatively worthless. But these miscut ones are of some — minimal — interest. And we’ll finish with a few current Major League coaches shown during their playing days. Total cost of these treasures: $7.99 You can see more Thrift Treasures posts Here