They still wore stirrups. Cable was still new to some folks. The Braves were on The Superstation. And there was a baseball card shop in any town that had a few thousand people living in it, or nearby.
Like thousands of others across the country, Jim Caple was a little caught up in the suddenly red hot card market as the 1980s headed toward the finish line. He bought a set of 1988 Topps cards and stuck them in a closet. Twenty-seven years later--still a bit of a collector--he opened it up for a peek into the past.
We all know anything from 1988 is worth about what you might have paid for it back then--if that--but the industry and baseball itself was on the precipice of change.
Opening the box and peeking through the 700+ cards still lined up neatly inside--with no holograms or shiny coating--was a trip down memory lane.
It also revealed a lot of truths about what was to come. Here's his column, Off Base.
