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.
