Card of the Day: Don Money 1971 Topps #49

Card of the Day: Don Money 1970 Topps #645

Even Gordon Gekko Has A Card

One of the coolest characters to be played on film has to be Michael Douglas’s character Gordon Gekko, at least from a business standpoint.  I saw the first Wall Street back in 2004 when I was a senior in high school.  At the time I didn’t really get it, but after seeing it more and more I understood what it was about.

Yesterday I went to see the sequel, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, and I really enjoyed it.  I thought it was a great addition to the first.  After Gordon Gekko is released from prison for insider trading, he looks as if all he is doing is promoting his new book.  He tries to make you believe that he’s out of the game for good, but in reality he’s in control of it all and is just sitting in the shadows watching for the perfect time to strike.  I also thought it was cool to see Charlie Sheen’s character Bud Fox make a return from the original film.

As for cards, you can find a Gordon Gekko playing card in one of the Oddball sets.  I’m surprised that Upper Deck never did anything with him for Prominent Cuts.

Topps Treasury Basketball Money Rip Cards

If you look at the product info sheet on the Topps website, you will see that Topps created “Money Rip Cards” in their brand new 2008-2009 Topps Treasury basketball card product.  If your lucky enough to pull a money rip card, their could be $20.00 to $1,000 inside.  To the person who pulls out the $1,000 bill, if you check out eBay for $1,000 bills you will find that a $1,000 bill is worth a lot more than face value.  If you want to get the most out of it, I would sell it.  Not unless you collect coins and paper money and want to keep it for your personal collection.  

How sports cards help the world

Sports cards are one of the best learning tools in the world.  Think about it for a moment.  They teach, reading, hand-eye coordination, organizational skills, money management, and how to interact with other people.   

I remember opening my first pack of baseball cards back in the early 90’s, right when I was starting school.  These cards really helped me learn how to read and write.  Since I was so young I really didn’t recognize the pictures of the players but in order for me to figure out who they were I had to learn how to read. 

Sports cards are also great tools for hand-eye coordination.  Have you ever seen a pack of cards?  As the years have gone by, packs have become more and more complicated to open.  Years ago, packs of cards used to by wrapped in wax.  It wasn’t too hard to open the back and pull the cards out.  In today’s world, packs come in foil, boxes, clamshell casing, etc……  Trying to open these packs can be great practice with your hand-eye coordination, especially for younger kids.  Also, have you ever tried getting a card into a penny sleeve?  Sometimes it can be difficult to get a card in a sleeve and then place it in a top loader.

If you were like me when I was young, I just put my cards in an old shoebox and put it in my closet.  Over the years when I got more and more into collecting, I knew that I would need to develope organizational skills so I knew where I could find my cards.  Now, I don’t use shoeboxes at all.  I have boxes for my baseball and foootball cards.  Each sport is separated and is no longer mixed.  Since I am a Phillies and Dolphins fan I keep those cards in a special place I can get to fast.  If you are just getting into collecting and your worried you won’t be able to stay organized, don’t worry, you will develope the organizational skills as you go along.  Thats what happened to me.

Money is what makes the world go around.  Collecting sports cards will really teach you money management.  It can help you learn how to save for a special card that you plan to buy.  Collecting can also help you learn how to sell something and make money.  If your lucky, and have a card shop near where you live, collecting can teach you about how a business works.

Collecting cards can provide a great social experience.  It doesn’t matter whether you buy, sell, or trade, you will need to interact with people to acquire the cards you want.  You can interact with them in person or over the internet.  Card collecting can bring people out of their shell.  Some people are very quiet, but when you touch a subject that they are interested in they could talk all day about it.

As you can see, card collecting has a ton of benefits.  They can teach a lot that you need to survive in the world.  There aren’t too many things in the world that are fun to do, and helps you learn at the same time.

Traded for bats

On the news this morning I heard about a player named John Odom.  He is a minor league player who was just traded from the Calgary Vipers to the Laredo Broncos.  You would think that if Odom went to the Broncos the Vipers would get another player or perhaps money in return.  Thats not the case here.  In return the Vipers received 10 maple bats valued at $69.00 a piece.  This has to be one of the strangest trades ever made in baseball.  I wonder how many bats Alex Rodriguez is worth?