Tuesday, March 12, 2019

The Origins Of A Cardboard Addict: Are You Toploader Worthy?

Yada , Yada, Yada,

It was 1995 and the start of the peak of my collecting. I had just learned more and more about sports and the players which transferred over to my love of collecting. I think that is the key for kids today to get into collecting. Get them to love a sport, show them the sport in trading cards of their favorite team and players and boom, you have a foundation.

That's exactly how mine was built.

It wasn't built on nothing. If that was the case I probably wouldn't be collecting as I needed that crossover to be interested. Seeing my favorite players on TV then being able to physically have them in hand on a piece of cardboard...sign me up!

The only one thing from the 90's  i can remember that was built on nothing was on TV and was a "show about nothing". That show, Seinfeld.

The show premise was an easy one. It featured the fictional life, though some events were based on real happenings, life of a stand up comic, Jerry, who lives in Manhattan's Upper West Side and features a variety of characters including his best friend George Costanza, former girlfriend Elaine Benes, and crazy neighbor Cosmo Kramer among some other unique personality run ins. The show didn't really have an ongoing premise from episode to episode as most were based off of daily adventures of life.

I watched many shows at the time, especially comedies, but I couldn't get why so many loved Seinfeld. That's until I became an adult.

At the time though, it was the most talked about comedy and was one of the highest rated TV shows overall between 1994-1998 which explains why in 1995 I heard so much about it. Even teachers at school would talk to their students about the previous nights episode. They would quote it. They would break it down. They would act out George's crazy antics or enter the room like Kramer entered Jerry's apartment. No kidding on this either especially my math teacher Mrs. Corliss. She was madly in love with the show and knew my dislike of it and always tried her best to get me to like it.


"No A For You!"

But, as I said, I grew to liking the show just how I grew to appreciate more things from the 90's. Things that I missed out on or didn't like I feel the opposite about now. Things that I enjoyed and loved are twice as loved now.

One of those things I started to really appreciate more, 1995 Summit Ground Zero Parallels. The parallels fell 1:7 packs in 1995 Summit football which I bought a ton of at the grocery store in my youth. I have also busted a box as an adult as well. There are 200 cards in the parallel set overall and thanks to @CardpocalypseNC I was able to knock a few more down. I guess you can say he "took em out".


Hello Rodney

Looking at shiny cards is like looking at the sun. You don't stare at them. They are too shiny. Ya get a sense of the shine and then you look away

I think if Elaine had collected this parallel set, she may have asked herself if they were "Toploader worthy." At one point I did have mine in toploaders back in 1995, but as the values dropped over the years, they moved into a binder where I think they look better showcased that way.

I still have such a long ways to go with this set with only have 11 cards towards it, which I think I lost some over the years, but I will try my best to get it done. I guess you can say my set went into the pool since 1995, there was some shrinkage! And if you have any kicking around or spot any at card show and Can Spare Me A Square, we can talk about a trade or you can always donate :) I would appreciate either. The link to my needs is HERE.

Serenity Now!

Now that the show has grown on me as an adult and with so many revival of shows coming from the 90's recently, one of the latest is the Mad About You revival, I would enjoy to see this one come back to life. Especially since the show ended so terrible they gotta do better than that for a finale. I guarantee that fans old and new would tune in.

Today, while the rest of you will be chasing the big hits from 2018 and 2019, I will be looking at, sorting and enjoying 90's cards and having a Festivus for the rest of us!

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