But I’d read that this set had a few throwback cards dedicated to Oakland old-timers I do know a bit about-Dennis Eckersley, Reggie Jackson-and the A’s were priced more competitively than my hometown Red Sox were.Ī case of Topps Series 2 contains 12 boxes, each made up of 24 packs, which in turn each hold 14 cards. I don’t root for the A’s, and can name only a player or two from their current roster. For $18.75, I’d secured the rights to any cards depicting members of the Oakland Athletics. Like the other dozen or so participants in this “break,” I’d purchased a stake in the cards. Byington, an affable father of seven, was about to open a case of 2019 Topps Series 2 live on streaming video. I’d been under the impression that the card industry had all but died out around the time I went off to college, eclipsed in the adolescent imagination by Nintendo 64, Pokémon, AOL.Īnd yet, here I was, staring at the tightly framed hands of Billy Byington, the proprietor of Gargoyle Card Breaks. Though I was once a middle schooler with a pack-a-day habit, whose heart raced whenever I crossed the threshold of Gilbert’s Sports Nostalgia in suburban Boston, the last time I tended to my card collection, Bill Clinton was president and Barry Bonds was a speedster with some pop. If that sounds like the only activity more tedious than sitting through four hours of pitching changes and batters calling time, I shared some of your skepticism. I opened my laptop, navigated to, and prepared to watch a pair of rubber-gloved hands in East Wenatchee, Washington, open an entire case of baseball cards-more than 4,000 cards in all. O ne night not long ago, with my 3-year-old son finally asleep and my wife wisely heading to bed, I settled onto the couch, beer in hand, to catch some baseball.

Value of sports trading cards