I may be an adult who collects trading cards but I don’t like my trading cards to remind me I’m an adult.
Here’s how:
Most of the cards I value the most, almost all my favorite sets and all my favorite players, come from three decades — the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. These are the cards that produce the greatest memories when I look through them in my collection.
But looking for memories after that gets a little dangerous. The 1990s is full of adult concerns, worries and incidents … and all that angry music. I can say the same for the 2000s, 2010s and 2020s. Best just look at the cards and be done with it, don’t start dredging up memories, you’re not gonna like it.
So when I looked for cards that interested me in the latest Diamond Jesters’ Time Travel Trading post, I instinctively picked cards from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. I didn’t even realize I was doing it. They were just naturally the ones that appealed to me.
’60s
I wasn’t alive in 1961. But I was born in the 1960s. Those are my first memories, the few that I own. Most of the cards from that decade that I can make a connection with are the “old cards” I saw as a kid in someone else’s collection.
’70s
1976 Topps Tony Taylor
I was a kid in the 1970s. All of my kid memories reside in the ’70s, so obviously I love the decade. I also own most of the cards from the ’70s — I would like to own more but dealers have started to treat the decade like it’s a gold mine.
I’ve already finished the 1976 set. But Tony Taylor is an upgrade.
Upgraded version on the left. Time Travel Trading is generally not the place for upgrading, but I decided to look into it for this card and I was rewarded. It’s tough to see on the scan but my original Taylor is not only off-center, but it’s got sneaky little bends and creases and a corner looks like it was once dipped in a puddle.
’80s
1986 Topps Glossy Send-In John Tudor
I’ve written about my connection to the ’80s many times before, I began it as a teenager and ended it as a recent college graduate. The majority of the greatest times of my life are in this decade, and if that wasn’t enough, there were more cards to collect than ever.
This is one of the few 1986 Glossy Send-Ins in my collection. I got off the Glossy Send-In train after the initial set in 1983. But I try to add the others when I can. I just noticed with this card that the Glossy Send-In set jumped from 40 cards to 60 cards in 1986, which is where it stayed for the duration. That’s a lot more cards for an adolescent!
1986 Topps Football Tommy Kramer
Staying in 1986, a year in which I was a college student and worked in the cafeteria at the Student Union, mostly making grilled cheese and omelets and flirting with the staff. Football card collecting? Nah, what was that?
But I’m making up for lost time. I have a 1980s football binder, with a smattering of Topps cards for each year and I add as the mood strikes. 1980s football doesn’t quite remind me of good times like 1980s baseball does, but the back half of the decade certainly does.
And that was my TTT stash this time around. I’m glad it’s still going strong. It’s one of the great blog inventions that hasn’t been mucked up by other social media or whatever. May it always be there for me to remember the best decades.