General Forum

Does anybody recall the National Card Collecting Association? Or ever knew about it at all? I'm guessing the latter is much more likely.

The NCCA started in 1981 by a couple of guys in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I was a kid at the time, and I'm unsure how I heard about it. It was only $5 to join. As a member, you got a quarterly newsletter and could buy the 1981 Topps, Donruss and Fleer baseball sets at a discounted price. You also got a handy, dandy membership card, so you could look all official!

I was also a member in 1982 and again bought the Topps, Donruss and Fleer sets at a discount. I got another membership card and was totally shocked that nobody was impressed when I whipped that baby out for identification! That year, they also took a reader's suggestion to print some addresses of people who wanted to contact other collectors by mail. Through that, for a couple of years, I had a baseball-card pen pal who lived in Massachusetts. He was a kid like me.

After 1982, I got older and spent less time on baseball cards and more time on other interests. I forgot to renew my NCCA membership. I'm unsure what happened to the NCCA or my friend from Massachusetts, but I'm curious if there's anybody here who might've been a member.

I was not in this club but I was in a club which I believed was called Cardboard Gold back in 1983 or 1984.  They used to sent out a newsletter periodically and I think you got some cards upon sign up.  I believe they were based in Washington State.  I remember the guy who started the thing wanted to obtain a copy of every card ever printed, and he would offer to buy cards in builk at a penny a piece.  Not sure if this is the same Cardboard Gold group that now makes supplies.

I would love something like this.

I remember there were attempts to start a national card collector's association years ago, but none of them really lasted long term. I would like to see such an association that had some clout and could put pressure on the card companies regarding quality, distribution, and costs of products. Also a way to hold dealers and online sellers accountable by providing a 'Better Business Bureau' tracking system for unscrupulous dealers and providing a certification system for quality and reputable sellers. Probably not possible, but had this started 40 years ago, we may have a much less chaotic hobby today.