Stuff....oh my (as Mick would have said). I had thousands of baseball cards from the 50s and early 60s. My dad would get me cases of the bubble gum cards from a wholesale house he knew so it wasn't bought at retail. Then as the baseball season went on I could trade duplicates for special ones like the ones of the player in the tv cabinet or the all star cards, even the umpire cards. Then in about 1958-60 my next door neighbor, a lawyer who was older than my dad and big time Gator came over with cigar boxes filled with "tobacco" baseball cards. His collection from his childhood. They were small and smelled like tobacco. I had some very valuable cards but didn't know it. I remember having about 4 or 5 Mickey Mantle Tops rookie cards as well as many others. The boxes were stacked in my little bedroom closet one on top of another. Came home for Thanksgiving and they were gone. Mom threw them all out. "You're not a kid anymore and they take up space." Even worse, after grad from college I was working at a firm downtown. In the office next door was a nice old man, I'm about 23 and he's near 65. He brings in a signed Babe Ruth baseball. And photos of him and his wife with the Babe. His wife was somehow related to the Babe as in a cousin and they got together during spring training. He said he'd give me one day the baseball and other stuff he had since he had no son, but then he died. I couldn't ask for the ball. There is a silver lining. I met his daughter a few years later and she was smoking hot and very shall we say accommodating on our first date.
My mother was a pro at throwing away good stuff went I went off to college. However, most of my good baseball card ended up between spokes on my bicycle.
In my office that I still have at UF even though I am retired I have a Luis Aparicio autographed card and a Hoyt Wilhelm autographed card. Hoyt made the autograoh circuits so his autographed card is not worth much except for sentimental value. Luis Aparicio autographed cards do have some collector value though. Not many autographs out there. It was a Christmas present from a friend that bought it the year before Little Looie made the HOF. The guy that sold it to my friend wanted to buy it back. I have a Jim Hunter (later known as Catfish) Topps rookie card that I got for a dime. At the time I didn't know that it was his rookie card but I liked him as a pitcher and $0.10 wasn't a lot of money. It is in good shape and it is probably worth about $10. I have it somewhere safe from my long deceased mother. The best card I had was a 1955 Roberto Clemente rookie card in decent shape. I had to trade a lot of good cards to get that when I was in first grade. A friend of mine had it and I loved Clemente. It went out in the trash. Thanks, mom. I guess that is why they are so valuable now. I had lots of Mickey Mantle cards but not a rookie card. Also all thrown out.
Yep, got a Wilhelm autograph at a card show at a motel on SW 13th. Got Kaline and George Kell on 47-53 Exhibits. Got a Joe D and Spahn ‘46 Leafs (not autographed). For what it’s worth I have a ‘69 Fresno Giants autographed team photo with George Foster and Steve Stone and a few others who had a cup of coffee. I was the stadium announcer
