Happy Mother's Day, everybody. To remember my mom, today on Sports Card Investor
I have dusted off my old sports card albums from when I was a kid. The cards that she took me to
card shops to purchase, and I'm going to show you the best of these cards today
My name is Jeff Wilson. By day, I invest in tech companies, and at night, I invest in sports cards
Join me on my journey to profit from the hobby we all love
Hello, sports card investors, and welcome to another episode. This episode, this is one that's really special to me
And I have had a lot of fun the last couple of days preparing for this episode because
I took out all of my cards that I had as when I was a kid and went through those cards to pull
the best cards out for this episode. In fact, take a look. So here in my closet, buried under my
clothes, I still have the original boxes of cards that I held all of my cards in when I was a kid
Look at these. These are, these have aged the test of time. Look at that. I've even got some
unopened wax in there. Like I got another one of these guys here. It's absolutely crazy. All that
red, that is all 1990s Donruss. That was my set. I got all kinds of crazy stuff in here. Let me show
you the best of it right now. All right. So we're going to get into that in just a second, but first
I want to remind you about the Instagram contest we are currently running. It ends tomorrow. It ends
Monday at midnight. The contest is available to everybody, not just members, anyone out there
You can go be part of the contest. We're giving three months of our Market Movers data tool
plus three months of our full membership program away for free, plus a Luka Doncic rookie card, an Optic Luka Doncic rookie card
We're giving all of this away for free. It's worth over $200 to one person who goes to our Instagram page
SportsCardInvestor on Instagram, and who finds the post that we're telling about this contest
who likes the post, who follows us on Instagram, and who comments three of their friends in the post
tags three of their friends in that particular post. So pause the video, go to Instagram now
if you haven't already, follow us, like the post, tag three of your friends
I would love to hopefully give you the three months of Market Movers
plus the Luka Doncic card. All right, so today is a little bit
of a trip down memory lane, remembering and celebrating our mothers. I'm going to talk a little bit about my mom and some of the cards that these are
I'm excited to show you these cards today. This is, these are, I pulled out some cards that I didn't even remember that I had
Some of these cards that you're going to see today are cards that I have literally not set
my eyes on in 30 years, in 30 years. And I just pulled them out of boxes over the last couple of days to go through them for
the first time. And I've actually got some cards that kind of surprised me, some cards that are pretty
decent that I probably should have had in top loaders. And I didn't. I just had them in cardboard
boxes. But I'm excited to show these to you. And also my team, my sports card investor team is going
to give a little bit of a celebration of their moms in this episode as well and how their moms
help them get into sports card collecting. My mom, Vanda Bayless, she was an absolutely
absolutely incredible mom. And I lost her last year to brain cancer. It was an incredibly difficult
time, as you can imagine. My mom was fantastic. She was a huge supporter of me and everything I did
And honestly, one of the things that makes me most sad about losing my mom is that she would
have gotten such a laugh out of all of this sports card investor stuff that I'm now doing
because I launched all of this last summer and she passed away last spring. So she never knew
that I was doing any of this. But what she did know was that I was a huge, huge baseball card
collector as a kid. And that's what would be so funny to her. What would be so funny to her was
that this passion that I had as a kid that she helped support. She helped support by taking me
around to card shows and by taking me around to card shops all the time. She helps fuel this
passion. And I think she would think it was so damn cool and funny that I'm now into this
professionally again as an adult. My mom was an incredible woman. She was a trailblazer. A lot of
my business skills I learned from her, a lot of my entrepreneurial skills I learned from her. She
was one of the first women lawyers in Sarasota, really in Florida. There weren't many women
lawyers. She went to law school. She was one of the founders of the Sarasota County Women's
Lawyers Association in Florida. She was a huge volunteer, guardian ad litem. And she in fact won
a statewide award in Florida for a pro bono volunteer of the year for the state in the early
1990s because of all the great volunteer work she did. She was truly, truly an inspiration
Vanda Bayless, an amazing, amazing woman. Her impact on me was profound and her impact on my
sports card desire was profound as well. She would always support me through crazy things that I got
into and crazy passions and crazy endeavors that I had. And sports cards were the biggest when I
was a kid. They were the biggest. They dominated my life when I was a kid. And so it was so much fun
to open back up these boxes with sports cards. I want to show some of these to you. I have to tell
you one story real quick. My first job ever was at a sports card store. Right when I turned 14
This is how crazy into sports cards I was right when I turned 14 years old and I was eligible to
work as a minor in Florida. The very first thing I wanted to do was go get a job at a sports card
store Like I could not wait till the day I turned 14 So I could actually legally work and go apply for jobs at sports card stores That how sports card crazy I was And I did and I got a job at a local sports card store
and honest to God, it was one of the most exciting things in my life. And the very first day I got to go
to that sports card store for work, that was one of the most exciting days in my life
It unfortunately had a sad ending. It was the only day of my life
that I ever worked at a sports card store. And what happened was I went into the sports card store
I was 14 years old and the owner left me the store. It was just me that day
And these two kids, probably 18 years old, like older high school kids, came into the
store and one of them came up to the counter and started asking me to see like a million
cards, you know, that were in the card case. And so I'm pulling cards out. Well, the other's got a backpack on and he's going around the corner into the other part
the store and just cleaning the store out. And I was 14. I didn't even know this was a possibility
I didn't even know that this like people, I didn't, it didn't even register to me that this
could even possibly happen. So of course, when the owner came back and discovered what happened
and that he had been cleaned out of inventory, that was my last day working in the sports card
store. My one and only day as a sports card store. But I remember my mom drove me to work that day
and my mom picked me up from work that day. And you can imagine I was pretty devastated
when my mom picked me up from work that day. I was so excited going and so devastated coming back home
But my mom held my hand through all of that and she lifted me up and she always, you know
always wanted the best for me and it pushed me on to the next thing. And here I am all these years later
and getting to do the sports card thing again, getting to work in a sports card store
of different sorts, right? Getting to do this channel and doing it the right way
and it's a celebration of her. Anyway, thank you for taking the moment
to enjoy that memory with me. It's really special to me to just be able to talk about my mom
and I'm so sad that I've lost her. But thank you for taking that moment with me
Okay, let me show you some cards because this is what I'm excited about doing
I went through these cards. This is like, let's just get right into it. This is fun. This is fun
So I found this was one of the piles that I pulled out. And I'm just going to show these to you
I walked out memory lane. I was an Astros fan. This is a Craig Biggio rookie card, I believe
That was from, what is that? Is that 89 Donruss? That was a Craig Biggio rookie card
I was an Astros fan. That's a Barry Larkin rookie card, I believe, from 87 Tops
I found a little Michael Jordan there from NBA Hoops. Notice none of these cards were stored well, right
Look at the little corners. And of course, like a lot of us
we didn't necessarily think about storing cards back then. Now this one, this one I'm actually really excited about
I've not looked this up to see if this is worth anything. You know, at first I just saw it as an Elway card
like no big deal, but then I flipped it over. It's a Manning rookie card on the back
I have, I literally just found this. Like I just found this in that giant cardboard box
full of cards. I just found this card, but that's pretty sweet
Like, you know, with how, I mean, it could be worth nothing. I literally have no idea
I have not looked it up yet. I got to go to my market movers data tool and look this guy up, right
I remember this Nolan Ryan 5,000 Ks. 90 Donruss was a big set for me
I have the whole set. I just, I bought packs of 90 Donruss like they were going out of style
I have so many 90 Donruss cards. And this one was a big chase card in 90 Donruss
Sammy Sosa rookie. I found a couple of Griffey rookies from 89 Donruss
of course, you know, once again, I didn't store any of my cards and top loaders or anything
because we weren't worried about the condition back then. It was just, I was taking these to
school every day. Ozzy Canseco, the Canseco brother. I remember, you remember Jerome Walton
He was a big rookie prospect at the time. He was, this was a chase card. Jerome Walton was a chase
card. Never really, you know, never really had the career that people thought he was going to
But this was maybe one of the first rookie bust types of cards
I don't know. From that era. I was a Broncos fan as a kid
So Craig Morden, he was a little bit before my time. He was the Broncos quarterback, you know, back in the 70s, late 70s, I think early 80s
I don't know how I got that card. That's an old one, but that's his first. I think that's his first card with the Broncos
Man, Len Dykstra, he was a crazy dude. I have a lot of 86 tops. A lot of 86 tops
That was a big collection for me. Just think that, thought that was a cool card
I love this card. I love that card. The Bash Brothers. The Bash Brothers
Remember the Bash Brothers? That was such a fun card. That was such a fun time
I love that card. Oh man, Rafael Palmeiro. Rafael Palmeiro. That was before the, before the, well, I mean, I don't know if that was before the steroids
That was before we knew about the steroids. Um, uh, this one I put, well, first of all, Jeff George, you know, that, that was, you
know, another NFL expectations, never quite met story, but this was one of those wild
card cards. Do you guys remember wild card? You remember that set? That was a pretty crazy set
That was fun. And then this, uh, Rocket Ishmael, man, I loved watching that guy
He was one heck of a player, wasn't he? Uh, classic. Uh, I remember these classic cards
In fact, I got some more to show you in a second. That was a crazy set. Leaf was huge. Remember this, the Travis Fryman rookie in Leaf
This was a massive chase card. I was so excited when I got this Travis Fryman card in Leaf
I think this was his rookie. I remember Travis Fryman's rookie in Leaf was a massive chase card
And I think that was it. I don't even remember what type of card this one was
Select, score select. I've forgotten about this set. Interesting. And then look what I found
I found a couple of Jordans here in my box. I mean, again, not preserved at all
because why would I preserve sports cards when I was a kid, right
I just, it wasn't a thing. But I found that Jordan there. I found this random Dale Earnhardt card
Another Jordan from Skybox. A Jordan from NBA Hoops. Mike Musina, top prospect
That was a chase card. Remember that? People were crazy about him that year 91 upper deck I found a John Franco That a I think that a John Franco rookie card What is that 85 tops I think this is 85 tops
Yep. Frank Thomas rookie card. That was a big one back in the day as well
Emmitt Smith rookie card. I love the Emmitt Smith rookie card because of course Emmitt Smith was my boy, Florida Gator
So I loved, I love collecting Emmitt Smith and man, what a career he had
Vince Coleman. I think that's Vince Coleman's rookie card. Leaf 86. I think that is, yep, that's Vince Coleman's rookie card
I love the Cardinals. They had Vince Coleman. He was, gosh, you know, so I used to play a lot of RBI baseball
Vince Coleman and Ozzie Smith on the Cardinals. And didn't they have that pitcher who pitched us sideways on the Cardinals
like the sidearm pitcher? I forget who that was. Who did they have? Didn't they, well, in RBI baseball
didn't the Cardinals have the pitcher who pitched with a sidearm that was really difficult to hit
Am I remembering that correctly? They were the team to play with in RBI baseball
Vince Coleman was so fast that he could hit any ball and it was a hit
You'd get a first base instantly. No one could catch him. Greg Olson. Greg Olson, that was a chase card, right
That was a big chase card. Bowman Dawson. He is the godfather of Tyler, who was on my team
And he was a great, great player. And I found that card today. Pretty cool to have that card
So check this out, guys. This was, remember this set? Remember classic baseball
This was the very first classic set. And I had a complete set of this
I think I had traded away the big chase card in here that got to crazy money
I remember when I was a kid, it became worth crazy amounts of money, like a few hundred bucks
which of course back then was crazy amounts of money that there was a, I believe it was a Bo Jackson rookie card in there
that everyone was chasing. And I also have, by the way, the, I think, what is the next set of it
Unfortunately, I think I traded the Bo Jackson away when I was a kid. So I actually don't have the most valuable card
in that one anymore. So I had a complete set and now I'm missing the one card that everyone was chasing back then
But the funny thing was, I remember I bought this, these cards actually were part of a game
They weren't meant to be like true sports cards. They were part of a game
And I remember going to, I bought the actual game in a toy store
And then I found out later that the cards were actually worth a lot of money. So I remember those
All right, you guys wanna see, this is funny. You guys wanna see my first attempt
at sports card investing from when I was a kid. And one of the biggest sports card investing mistakes
perhaps I ever made. This was my first attempt at sports card investing
when I was a kid. I decided that Juan Gonzalez, Juan Gonzalez of the Texas Rangers
was gonna be the next great thing. And so I did exactly what I do today, which is if I zero in on a player who I think is
going to be the next big thing, I buy a lot of his cards
Look at this. And Juan Gonzalez was my guy. I thought Juan Gonzalez was going to be the guy for the Texas Rangers
And so I literally, that's my first foray into sports card investing when I was a kid
When was this? In 1991. In 1991, I loaded up on Juan Gonzalez cards
I thought that I was going to get rich on Juan Gonzalez cards. Look, by the way, look at these top loaders
I've had these cards. These cards, these are the original top loaders from 1991. That is the original label from the sports card store
that I bought these cards at in 1991. So you can see how yellow these top loaders are
because these like literally I have not removed. These are 1991 top loaders
These have sat in my basement and in my attics of my various places I've lived
in my paternity house room in college. They sat there in these boxes, in these top loaders
It's really funny. And here's the other crazy thing, by the way, I doubt this card is even worth $4 today
So what I, it clearly shows what I paid for it in 1991
And I don't think it is worth $4 today. But I do remember my mom taking me to baseball card shops and baseball card shows in Sarasota
Florida to buy Juan Gonzalez cards. And you know what? You know what's funny
Juan Gonzalez was actually a great player. He actually had a good career
And I recently read an article that was talking about like the 10 most underrated players
in Major League Baseball history. And Juan Gonzalez was on the list
So I kind of was right about Juan Gonzalez, except for the fact that his guards never
did much because, you know, he had a great career, but nobody really seemed to care
Hey, here's some other interesting ones I found. These ones I actually moved into top loaders when I found them earlier this week
And obviously, the rest of those, I need to move some of those into top loaders as well. But remember Pacific Picks
That's a Thurman Thomas rookie card, Pacific Picks. Another Sammy Sosa rookie there
Another Thurman Thomas rookie. Those were interesting cards. You remember those? High Pro
High Pro cards. Jeff George. Jeff George rookie card in High Pro
Bernie Williams, rookie. Tim Hardaway, rookie. There's a Jordan that I found
All-Star Game, 89 Jordan. It's, man, it's fun going through these old cards
Ricky Nathiel, I loved Ricky Nathiel. He also, by the way, was a Florida Gator. Receiver for the Gators
Went to the Broncos. This was his rookie card with the Broncos. So I was a fan of Ricky Nathiel for that reason
Tom Gordon, he was a big... Remember these cards? Remember these ones
That's a Roger Clemens. These were like the jam back in the day. People love these
Sport flicks, they were called. These 3D cards. Remember those? Man, those were fun
Let's see. What is this? 89 score, I think this was. I had a lot of these
Yeah, 89 score, I believe that set was. Was it 89 or 88? That was 88 score
I think I have a complete set of 88 score. Bo Jackson, rookie card
I think that was his rookie card. In Donruss. Another Emmett rookie
Will Clark rookie. A couple Ken Griffey juniors. you know, just, man, just kind of
oh, I collected this one because look at the spelling of Jeff. Oh guys, check that one out
Check that one out. That was, that right there was a dream card for me when I was a kid
It really was. I loved that card and I traded. I didn't pull that
I had to do a bunch of trading for that card I forget what I traded for it but I remember I traded a lot of cards because this especially back then that was worth a lot I think it was worth more back then than it is today Although recently the price of this bow card has gone on a run
So it has become worth more than it used to be for sure
But man, what an awesome card. And I traded a lot of cards for that back in the day
I was so happy when I got that card. That was maybe my personal biggest chase card back in the day
Nomar Garcia Parra, rookie card, upper deck. Awesome stuff. Awesome stuff. Couple more things to show you
I found some complete sets that I owned. Look at this. I've got a complete set of 89 hoops
which actually now would be worth going through and pulling a couple of the cards like the Jordan out of there
I found a complete set that I owned of 90s Skybox. Again, probably not preserved real well
because they just were in these boxes and they're shifting around in the boxes and everything like that
I found this special promo card of Barry Sanders and Joe Montana
This was an upper deck promo card. And these actually have some value if they're in gem mint condition
which I believe these are. So they may be worth, well, maybe that's got a centering issue there. But the corners and everything on these are super sharp
Look at this old screw down case. Do you remember the old screw down cases before they had like the magnetic, you know, touch cases and all that stuff
These were promo cards. They weren't part of the regular set, card one and card 500
I remember that was like just for dealers. And I remember there was a card dealer in Sarasota that had gotten that as a freebie from Upper Deck
and had sold it to me. And then finally, I found these
I found these and I actually think that these could have some sneaky value
This is an early set of soccer cards. So I went to London with my mom and my whole family
we went to London in 1986. And of course I was super into sports cards
So we went to Harrods and you could see the actual, the price sticker on there from Harrods in London
In 1986, we went to Harrods and she let me buy some sports cards
And of course, all they had in London were soccer cards. So I bought soccer cards in 1986
And we know that soccer cards are kind of getting hot again. So this is what these guys look like
And I mean, they're in pretty good shape. And there's, I've been able to, I've looked around like on eBay
and there's almost none of these in existence. So I don't know, it'd be kind of interesting to see
if there's, you know, if there's any value in these. Pretty cool, pretty cool set
And then another one of football greats. So anyway, yeah, so there you go
So anyway, hey, everybody, I hope you enjoyed that trip down memory lane
And listen, I have one of the really cool things about what I'm doing now with SportsCard Investor
One of the things my mom would be proud of is the fact that I have been able to build this company up quickly enough
where I've been able to hire some employees to join my team
to provide great jobs during a time, as everyone knows, when, you know, unemployment's going up
and jobs can be a little bit hard to come by. And it's thanks to you. It's thanks to all of you who watch this channel
It's thanks to everybody who subscribes to my membership program. You have helped me and helped us be able to provide some awesome jobs
to folks who I've hired in the last few months to help make my membership program even better
And I want to bring a couple of them on right now to share their own memories of their moms
and how their moms got them into sports card collecting. Hello, sports card investors
Kelly Francis here. Wanted to give a huge shout out to a very special woman in my life, my mom
on mother's day i just wanted to thank you for all of the times that you supported me while i
played my sports as i was younger as well as taking me to the card shop almost every weekend
when i was a kid so i could collect pokemon cards you didn't understand it but you let me do it and
for that i say thank you for my machamp first edition hologram this one's for you mom hello
everyone this is tyler from the sports card investor team and i just want to give a huge
shout out to my mom for Mother's Day. You know, I'm so thankful for all the years that she took
me to the different card shows and the different card stores in the area. And I honestly don't
you don't think I would be where I'm at today if it wasn't for her. So I just wanted to give her a shout out for Mother's Day and just tell her that I love you. It's Tyler from Sports Card Investor
I just want to share a message about my mom and how much I've appreciated her. She isn't exactly the biggest sports fan, and I don't think she's ever really understood why
sports cards would be exciting to anybody. However, she has been extremely supportive of me
and everything that I've done in my life, including most recently signing up to join the Sports Card Investor team
And just a little something that I keep. This is an Anfernee Hardaway plaque, dual plaque, of some pretty, I don't know, inconsequential cards from my childhood
But, you know, my mom always picked up packs for me when it was my birthday. She knew that I was really itching to rip something, and I had a big Penny Hardaway collection when I was little
So I still have it to this day. I really love my mom and wishing her the happiest Mother's Day
I just want to give a big thank you and I love you to my mother, Jeanette
She's been just amazing, obviously, in my life. And thank you for not throwing away all my cards, you know, from the late 80s, early 90s
I appreciate that. I'm sure I still have to get some in the attic, but who knows if they're worth anything
But I really appreciate you supporting me through all these crazy ventures
And certainly when I was younger as a kid to have all the cards and do all the things and go all the shows
You've been great. And I can't thank you enough. Love you, mom. Ah, love that
Love that. What an episode. Thanks for joining me today, everybody. I really appreciate it
I hope you are having a great Mother's Day with your mom. I really do
And just a final reminder, if you have not entered the Instagram contest yet
go do that now. Go to SportsCardInvestor on Instagram. Find the post where we're talking about the contest
Follow SportsCardInvestor, like the post, and tag three of your friends. You got to do this before Monday night
I want to hopefully give you the three months of my membership and market movers and that
Luka Doncic rookie. Have a great Mother's Day, everybody. I hope your week gets off to a
wonderful start and I'll see you back in a couple of days for my next episode. Take care