This 1978 Joe Morgan is one of my original baseball cards, which is part of a pile that includes the 1978 George Brett in my profile. Unfortunately, someone took a hatchet to this card. And unfortunately, that someone was me. I do remember, however how it happened. The upper left corner of this card had gotten bent and, even at a young age, I had realized that might detract from the desirability (and thus, tradability) of the card. To correct this problem I simply took a pair of scissors and trimmed the edge off with the defective corner. But now the border on the top was uneven with the side. I had to trim the same amount off of the left edge, then a bit more...
When I dug this card out of its shoebox I just cracked up. I remember thinking that this card looked pretty good immediately after I had finished doctoring it. In hindsight, it looked more like Ralphie's glasses in "A Christmas Story" after he had shot his eye out with his BB gun. I can't remember if I had actually offered this card as tradebait or not, but I can imagine the response it might have generated from the school bus crowd.
Now this card is worth more as a laugh then as a baseball card but I wouldn't part with it for anything.
When I was a kid, my little sister had to have ball cards because I did. In order to keep them separate, I wrote her name across the top in pencil (I was smart enough not to write on mine). She passed away about the time I grew up and a few years after that I got back into ball cards and ran across a few of those (I know I'd traded some off before that). Those cards have no value, but I'd never let them leave. I know what you mean about the Joe Morgan card.
ReplyDeleteI have a 2nd year Kareem Abdul Jabbar - when he was Lew Alcindor - that has a child's crayon scrawl on part of it. While the mark renders the card worthless I still appreciate and will never part ways with it.
ReplyDeleteThe collector's obsession with things being in mint condition misses the point. Cards were meant to be a way for kids to get to know players and were meant to be 'used,' traded and played with.
I wouldn't trade my original cards, few of which are in mint condition, for perfect versions.