Hobby Articles

The Clemens deal turned out to be a good one as next up for Bryon was this Billy Martin rookie card, one of Mickey Mantle's teammates from the 1952 Topps set, and a card that consistently fetches decent prices.

Road trips, illness, pages and pages of opinions and suggestions, upwards of 150 emails and messages, and a moment or two of self doubt later, Bryon dusted off the lot of thirteen 1967 Topps cards and finally sent them packing.

Patience is certainly a virtue and not heeding the calls to accept shinier cards of lesser value or to bring Billy Martin back, Bryon waited for the right trade to come along and it came in the form of this PSA 9 card of Ted Williams and Jim Thorpe.

The card, featuring the two legendary athletes, is from the 1959 Fleer Ted Williams set and has an average eBay selling price of $268, according to VCP.

In 1940, Gum, Inc. issued a bigger and better follow-up to their previous year’s landmark release. The 1940 Play Ball set featured 240 cards of current players and retired stars.

Taking notice of much more active trade activity for higher priced cards in the vintage category, Bryon steers towards pre-war and picks up card #87 of Hall of Fame, screwball pitcher Carl Hubbell in PSA 7 form.

In 1989, a fresh breed of cards were introduced that changed the hobby forever. Tamper-proof foil wrapping, holograms, glossy card stocks, and lowered production runs ushered in this new era.

Leading the charge and the face of this new generation was the first card in the set of rookie outfielder Ken Griffey, Jr. This card would go on to become one of the most recognizable and popular ever.

Given its history and iconic nature, it seems only right that it make its way into this story and with Junior hitting his 600th homerun two days prior, the timing couldn't be better.