3 most expensive BB cards - I think I had one many years ago

[packman]

https://twistedsifter.com/2021/01/the-most-expensive-trading-cards-ever-sold/

I remember buying those cards way, way back- had a lot of fun with them, trading and gambling with my friends. We played a game with them, pitching them against a wall and if your card leaned against the wall , you claimed the spoils of those pitched and failed to lean. I really believe I had the Mickey Mantle card, but didn't give it much value except as a worthless baseball card.

And that square , dry piece of pink gum with it - well, that was the real treat.

[Lochloosa]

1. We used to attach them to the spokes on our bikes.

To get that varoom sound.

[Brother Buzz]

2. Baseball cards, and how we learned to avoid paying sales tax

A pack of baseball cards cost a nickle, and our sales tax was 4%, which kicked in at, like, seventeen cents. We could purchase three packs of baseball cards and pay no sales tax, but paid a penny if we bought a fourth pack. It didn't take us long to figure we could buy the three packs, leave the store, then reenter to purchase another three packs of cards and stiff the governor; pound sand, Pat Brown.

My older and smarter brother tried to talk his way around the tax by explaining to the store owner that because the cards contained bubble gum, it was food, which wasn't taxed. She chuckled and said chewing gum was taxed the same way baseball cards were.

[JimGinPA]

3. I Collected BB Cards For Awhile...

I stopped collecting about the time my first son was born but I still have bunch - mostly Cardinals, but I have a bunch I need to look through again. My oldest are from like '61 & I have some Stan Musial, Bob Gibson & Lou Brock etc. in my team sets from the early 60's.

I also found a card (NL Batting leaders) with Hank Aaron, Ken Boyer & Bill White on it in one of those team sets from back then the other day when I heard Aaron had passed.

But when I was a kid I put 'em in my bike spokes too.

[malthaussen]

4. Numbering of BB cards had real consequence.

It was common to carry your cards around in a deck in numerical order, with a rubber band around them to hold them together. Accordingly, the #1 card every year tended to be scarred by the rubber band (and by wear-and-tear that cards in the inside of your stack wouldn't get).
One year (I misremember which), the Ted Williams card was #1. It has accordingly been the hardest card of his to get in decent condition.

-- Mal