Reliving My Youth At the Card Shop

I had the day off yesterday so after lunch with a friend I decided to hit up a card shop that while in the area, isn't exactly in MY area.  I'd visited SMP Sportcards (@SMPSportscards) a couple of times before, but this time the shop owner was in.  I had plenty of time to dig in and found some low-end gems.  I'm not posting all of them, but I had to post these beauties.

Acetate cards have become popular over the last handful of years.  Let's not forget that they have been around for more than 20 years.  I like to keep cards of Mountaineers in their college uniforms but don't care much once they are in NFL uniforms.  I made an exception for these.  As a teen, packs of these cards were a bit more expensive than I was willing to pay.  Since they're not worth much it probably wasn't a bad decision.  They are mine now.

When I first got into sports, Dale Murphy was my guy.  I didn't keep all of the cards that I had as a kid, but I bought these three autographs back shortly after they came out.  Even through multiple card purges since then, they have remained in my collection.  I added a fourth autograph today.

I'd been in the shop for awhile before I saw this card.  He mentioned that prices are not as marked on some things, so I asked about this card.  He told me $20 and that if I wanted to see eBay going price, he'd match it.  I was happy at $20, so I had him take it out of the case and I added it to the stack.

Before I sat it down I flipped the case over...

SERIAL NUMBERED OUT OF 10!!!!

I don't have many of the cards that I had before I was a teen (or even a young adult).  The two that I've had the longest are a Bill Ripken F-Face that I pulled from a pack myself in 1989 and also a Rickey Henderson rookie.  There's a third card that would have made the cut but somehow, I lost the card.  It's the only card I believe I lost.  It had to have been when we moved.  I've been intending for years to "replace" the card by picking up another copy and I did so yesterday.

Sure, it's only a $15 card.  It's worth way more than that to me, even though it's not the original copy that owned.  I'm sure that every time I'm looking through my cards and come across this I will smile and momentarily relive the innocence of youth and the hobby.  It was a good time, when it was just about COLLECTing cards and having ones you enjoyed instead of worrying about how much everything was "worth."

Happy collecting!