Earlier this year I set aside a handful of baseball cards to be carried around in my wallet until my next birthday. These “wallet cards” have already racked up some good memories and are beginning to accumulate a nice collection of creases and corners softer than a Krispy Kreme donut. I broke them out of their leather home at a recent minor league baseball game. While I didn’t find any seatmates with their own, we had some great conversations which is one the goals of this project. The thought that goes into selecting a wallet card lends itself well to starting conversations and there are plenty of examples existing online.
One such collector that I was unaware of in this endeavor is famed sports announcer Bob Costas. Costas has long been a fan of Mickey Mantle and has carried a 1958 Topps All-Star card with him for a few decades. He recently spoke with SABR about his wallet card and the video can be viewed here. For those wanting to see the card, an interview at The University of Texas’ ShortHorn leads off with a picture of him holding it up at an event.
You can read about the adventures of other collectors’ wallet cards in the links below. Most are on the Blogger platform and seem to have cropped up around the time of the Baseball Card Breakdown post that originally sent me down this rabbit hole.
- Baseball Card Breakdown: Usually keeps a Tony Gwynn card nearby
- The Junior Junkie: A 1989 Upper Deck Griffey rookie travels the country
- Tim Wallach: An aspiring Wallach supercollector takes his 1982 Topps card everywhere (also has a pretty sweet 1952 Topps collection)
- Baseball Cards Come to Life: Don Mattingly junk wax tours New York
- Card Buzz: A 1993 Upper Deck Joe Boever goes places
Wallet cards even make a few appearances on Twitter. Even Canseco collector Tanner Jones gets into the act:
