Guys being dudes: Couple of brothers open a pack of baseball cards to find extremely rare card.

This video is wholesome as hell. Love, LOVE to see it. I’ve been semi-aware that baseball cards have made a big comeback, but I didn’t realize it was to this level. And I couldn’t be happier that this kind of interaction exists again.

When I was growing up in the 80’s/90’s in Sheboygan, every dude in the neighborhood that I that lived in collected baseball/basketball/football cards. And we all got together in our free time to trade cards and rip open new packs. There was a card shop in downtown Sheboygan called ‘Cards and Collectibles’ that we went to as often as we could find a parent to drive us there. Some of my fondest memories are rooted in that store. Honest to God I can still smell the shop if I think about it hard enough. Just the right combination of stale gum, cardboard, comic books, dust and probably a hint of Asbestos. We’d go there, buy a bunch of packs of cards, then retreat to someone’s house and start ripping open packs and trading cards like we were on Wall Street. Hours and hours and hours of looking through binders and making offers.

Now if you read any books about the rise and fall of baseball cards, the problem with the market as a whole started in that era. Companies began producing WAY too many cards. The market became completely oversaturated. When I was 10 years old, all of the cards from the 50’s and 60’s were worth a ton of money because they were rare. Not as many were produced, and probably 50% of those ended up in bike spokes or being thrown away. Ipso facto, all of those cards were worth $100 or more. Well in my adolescent brain, I figured that the same would be true for all of my cards by the time I got to be the age I am now. I can recall thinking, ‘even my common cards are going to be worth $50 a piece!’ Oh young Jonathan, you ignorant slut. Due to the aforementioned market saturation, it turns out 90% of the cards I (still have) stored at my parent’s house are worth about as much as Dogecoin. Here I thought a 1994 Topps Bob Hamelin card was going to be my retirement plan. Gah, skunked again!

Anyway, despite that shattered dream, I am happy to see that cards are a thing again, and it would appear that the industry learned from it’s mistakes. They include ultra rare ‘1 of 1’ or ‘1 of 5’ cards that are worth a ton of money if you’re lucky enough to get one like these kids were. But watching these guys sit at their kitchen table opening packs of cards together hit me with a wave of nostalgia. Fun times.

PS: Low key my favorite part of this video is Mom not having any idea that this card is apparently worth $50k plus. If you gave me $50,000 at 10 years old I would have retired on the spot. That’s gamechanging money even by today’s standards for that age. To think, this kid can now pay for 6 weeks at a private college of his choosing.

Double PS: This card was the my white whale when I was a kid:

1989 Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card. I have no clue why it was considered to be so valuable, but if I would have ever opened a pack and found this bad boy I would have sh!t.