That nostalgic rush (is ending)

  

The main reason I have collected cards as an adult for the last 20 years is for that nostalgic rush.

 

That's what I've been chasing all these years -- that feeling of collecting cards when I was a kid, pulling pictures of the players from that time and storing them in my collection. Collecting modern cards of modern players is fine, but if that's all I was doing, I would've given up by now.

 

But I have been collecting those original sets from my younger days -- and sometimes even before I started collecting -- for the last 20 years, too. And I've just about run out of the major sets to chase. I've almost run out of "new" cards of my guys.

 

1983 Donruss is the last stop as far as major sets that came out during my formative years as a fan, which I consider 1975-83 (1975-85 if I want to be a little more casual about it). It's the only major release from this time period that I have not completed.

 

The other day I received around 40 cards from the 1983 Donruss set in a TCDB deal. All I had to give up was some extra Dodgers -- I will accept that trade proposal anytime. I've been enjoying the rush of seeing all those familiar faces again, in pictures I had never known until the moment this week when I looked at the card.

 

Bask in the feeling:

 

 My guys from the '70s on an '80s product. All of them greeted me on cardboard during the first one or two years of my fandom (granted Hrabosky was a Cardinal and Watson an Astro). There's a place in my baseball heart for all of them.

 

 

Those guys who are '80s guys through and through (I know, I know, the Dale Murphy rookie card). That's how I associate them anyway. So fun to pull these names again.

 

 

Even a couple of '60s guys showing up in a 1983 set. Obviously I didn't know them until the '70s.

 

 

Hot young stars who I read about in magazines -- you know the ones, "Top Future Stars of the '80s," etc. OK, maybe Dan Meyer wasn't in there much, but every once in awhile a scribe threw a bone at the Mariners.

 

 

 Guys we saw in the postseason, some even in the World Series.

 

 

Speaking of the World Series, here are some definite World Series guys. We won't talk about Elias Sosa's World Series moment, but I am happy to talk about George Frazier's for as long as you'll sit for it.

 

 

Here are some guys we talked about -- my brothers, my friends and I -- who are almost never mentioned anymore, except by people who are as old as I am. Of course and as always, youngsters, it's your loss.

 

 

A guy I never pulled way back then -- because he's a One-Card Wonder! Probably would've known every factoid about Terry Bogener if I pulled this card in 1983, but it's now 2025 and I don't have the time I once did.

 

 

 And a guy with a card that I can't believe I am just finding about now.

 

 

Finally, a numbered checklist, which you can only find during that period that I love so much (oh, and in much earlier years, too).

 

 

A number of other guys who I just didn't get around to including. 

However, all of these cards put me past the halfway mark in collecting this set. Pretty amazing considering my total of 1983 Donruss was around 20 cards for like four decades. Just like 1982 Donruss, I may just ended up purchasing the whole set to be efficient, but for now I'm enjoying collecting it bit by bit. (Hit me up TCDBers!)

 

Because once this set is finished, that will be it. Sure I'll still have some nice oddball pursuits, from Kellogg's and Hostess and TCMA and a couple of other '80s food issues.

 

But the stuff issued in wax packs that lived at the drug store or corner shop, that you walked or biked to with the coins and dollars in your pocket, that sometimes included gum or a sticker, that you opened on the way back or if you had will-power in your bedroom once you got back, that you stacked in order of preference or batting average or team, that you traded with friends or siblings, that you stored in a shoebox under your bed ... that's nearing an end.

 

I don't know what's going to happen when I can't find new-to-me cards of my guys. I guess that's another mystery to collecting that is yet to be solved.