BY MARK A. LARSON
I collect baseball cards … Have for many years … Never thought I’d ever give up any of my “prime” collection … At least until recently.
You see, not too long ago I parted with an old friend – the 1975 Topps mini set. Like most collectors, cards of certain years or sets hold a special place in my heart. The minis had a starring role in a personal play called “Memories of My Youth.” I was 16 then.
I’m 27 now, and within the last year I finally came to the conclusion that I was never going to reach a hobby goal I had set for myself way back around 1973: to collect every baseball card ever printed. I think at first every collector sets unobtainable goals. Maybe it’s the naivete of youth, but then that’s what makes the world so wonderful.
Once I made the decision to concentrate my baseball card collection on major, legitimate, national sets of current players – Topps, Bowman, Fleer, Donruss and a few earlier ones – and sell off the rest of my collection, it didn’t hurt as much as I once feared it would.
However, parting with the 1975 minis did momentarily take me back to the spring of that year when I was a sophomore at Saratoga High School in Saratoga, California.
I was part of a small group of collecting friends in Saratoga that included myself, Troy, Rich and to a lesser extent, my younger brother, Dan.
Troy, Rich and I were the same age, went to the same school and attended all the northern California hobby shows together. We were friends within the hobby and outside of it.
Yet there was one more thing. We were also friendly competitors within the hobby. Friendly foes, so to speak.
It was unwritten and rarely spoken of, but we would always try to outdo each other with our collections. Troy, especially, prided himself on being a wheeler-dealer. Sometimes it meant being the only one to obtain a card at a show that all of us needed and wanted. Other times it would consist of finding someone in the neighborhood or at school who was willing to part with his cards because they were “kid stuff.”
In fact, I was nearly one of those who sold out to Troy. When I first met him in 1973, I quickly became what he called his “secret source” for new hobby material.
Rich, who I hardly knew at the time, didn’t know until later that I was Troy’s new source of cards. (As it turned out, Troy was a bit too enthusiastic. His initial interest in my cards convinced me to stay in the hobby and not sell my collection to him.)
This friendly competitiveness led to what I considered a personal hobby coup in the spring of 1975.
When I bought my first packs of cards in March of that year (approximately), I was startled and appalled to find that Topps had shrunk its cards. What I didn’t know was that I lived in a section of California that was being used as a “test” market for a smaller version of the regular 1975 Topps 660-card set. The cards were identical in every way except about 10 percent smaller.
I bought pack after pack, but was in no particular hurry to complete my set since I knew there would be cards available throughout the rest of the spring and summer. Then I read a classified ad in The Sporting News that changed my entire outlook and set my somewhat devious, competitive mind to work.
The For Sale ad described a limited edition “test set” of miniature 1975 Topps cards – only available in certain areas of the country.
“Eureka!” Troy and Rich, while buying some of the minis, didn’t know they would soon run out and be replaced by the regular-size Topps set. At least, that’s what I fantasized.
The price for the mini set in the ad indicated it would be well worth my while to buy as many as I could afford. Now it was my turn to get ahead of my collecting rivals … er … buddies. Eat my dust, guys.
So my brother and I quickly proceeded to scrounge up our meager funds and load up on minis. We soon found out, however, minis were already in short supply at several neighborhood stores. I ended up buying perhaps 2,000 cards, which was a lot for me back then.
Meanwhile, it was a chore for me to keep my mouth shut about the mini test set in front of Troy and Rich. Perhaps they never suspected my conniving ways, for by the time the minis had completely disappeared from the store shelves in our area, both of my friends were closing in on completing their sets.
Had they been reading The Sporting News or hobby papers too? Possibly, because when we finally began discussing the mini situation, they didn’t seem surprised at all. Maybe my perceived “hobby bonanza” wasn’t such a secret after all. Oh well.
The minis became the rage of the hobby in the summer of 1975 and I used them to good advantage. I remember trading them for many mid-1960s cards I needed. Even as late as 1983 I was still trading mini duplicate superstars such as the George Brett, Jim Rice and Robin Yount rookies for my wants in early 1960s Topps superstars. Not to mention my recent $300 profit on the set.
Still, even considering the money, when old friends such as my mini set say goodbye, there’s always just a slight bit of reluctance to let them go. For me, the minis with their small size and colorful design will always evoke pleasant, distant memories of that spring over a decade ago when my shrewd competitive side came into play … in a good-natured, fun way.
I still keep in touch with Troy and Rich – who still collect – even though I now live in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and they live in San Diego and Madison, Wisconsin, respectively. And even though the minis are gone, my friends and those precious memories of my youth will always remain.
• • • • • •
See related article on BaseballCardFun.com entitled:
“BASEBALL HOBBY NEWS — 1975: A Colorful Year for Cards and Baseball”
Click Link Here
• Originally Published in Nov. 1986 “Baseball Hobby News” •
THIS ARTICLE FROM “BASEBALL HOBBY NEWS” MAGAZINE IS REPRINTED WITH THE PERMISSION OF BOTH THE EDITOR/PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR. IT HAS BEEN RETYPED, BUT NO CONTENT HAS BEEN CHANGED (EXCEPT FOR VERY MINOR ADJUSTMENTS, CORRECTIONS TO TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS AND CHANGES TO GRAPHICS). COMMENTS OR INFORMATION IN THE ARTICLE MAY BE OUT-OF-DATE.
To keep up-to-date on additions to BaseballCardFun.com, subscribe below*
* Your email address will never be shared and is only used to announce new articles
BaseballCardFun.com 