In the late 80’s there were 2 things that I absolutely needed in my life. One came out in 1988 and the other dropped in 1989 but if my memory serves me correct I was after them both hard around the same time. Growing up, Christmas and birthdays meant that if my brother and I were good kids, we would receive one big present along with some other little gifts. Santa usually hooked me up with some sporting goods like a fresh new baseball bat or a glove for Little League but if I got really lucky, I might have received a new BMX bike which I could quickly try to pop some wheelies, hop a curb or maybe hit a 180 skid right in front of you just to flex. For birthdays as a kid, I could always count on a box of 36 packs of Topps baseball cards from Price Club and then a bunch of small toys like some Micro Machines, G.I. Joes, WWF action figures or some of those awesome little Musclemen toys. It didn’t take much to put a smile on my face.

In the late 80’s, while I was already a huge fan of baseball, I was starting to get way more into football and basketball. TBS was a channel out of Atlanta that every cable box had which meant that you got to see the Atlanta Hawks play at least a couple of times per week. Not only did the Hawks have some fresh jerseys but they also had a roster that included Human Highlight Reel Dominique Wilkins, an aging Moses Malone with the sick goggles, tiny 5’7” Spud Webb defying gravity, Kenny “The Jet” Smith and the man who is currently a coach with the best voice in the NBA, Mr. Doc Rivers. San Diego didn’t have a hometown NBA team back then (the Rockets and Clippers left way before this) and this was of course way before you could watch NBA games every night of the week like you can now. By watching Atlanta Hawks games on TBS, I got to see a lot of the other teams in the NBA and there was no way I was going to miss a sick dunk or a 4th quarter buzzer beater. At school, my buddies and I always talked about all of the best plays in sports from the night before so I had to be in the know while we chatted sippin’ on our Squeezits during recess.

Outside of sports, rap music videos showed me all of the gear that was hot at the time. In elementary school I always had my suede Vans that I always had to spray to keep fresh but when my next birthday was coming around I knew it was time to step my kicks game up. In 1988, there were a pair of shoes that dropped that I couldn’t get my mind off of. I saw the commercials, I saw rappers wearing them and I even saw them worn on a legendary dunk from the free throw line during the unbelievable 1988 NBA Dunk Contest. I probably asked my mom for these shoes about 6 times per week but they were expensive and there was no way that my dad was going to just let my mom get these pricey kicks for me. These sneakers were different than my everyday Vans. They were white leather with an unique elephant print design and they even had a cool little air bubble in the sole which I was for sure would make me jump higher during my rec league hoops games. They were the signature shoe of one of my favorite players in the NBA and the Nike marketing campaign with Mars Blackmon made me want them even more. In 1989 I got my first pair of Jordans for my 9th birthday….

Those Jordans were one of the 2 things back then I just had to have in my life. I was so lucky to have a pair and I cherished those kicks. But those Nikes on my feet weren’t the only thing I had on my mind in 1989. There was one other piece I needed in my collection but it’s value kept going up and I just didn’t have disposable income back then. Remember, I wasn’t even 10 yet. With the Nike Air Jordan shoes now on my feet, I set my target on another potential prized possession for my collection.

My brother and I were always huge baseball card collectors and 1989 marked the first year for a new premium brand of baseball cards called The Upper Deck. Upper Deck Baseball Cards brought new flair to the sports card world which needed a change from crusty sticks of bubble gum in each pack. While sealed packs of Topps, Donruss and Fleer cards were around $0.45, packs of Upper Deck Cards could be purchased at the premium price of $1. Upper Deck was worth the extra coin in comparison to the other stale baseball card brands. The graphic design and photography was innovative and they also had a little diamond shaped hologram on the back of each card which was fresh. I think I was able to buy a handful of packs from Upper Deck that year from the monthly Friday night baseball card shows (nerd alert!) and I basically had to put on white gloves to open them. They were that special to a young collector like myself. The packaging on the wrappers was made of foil and that initial tear of those crisp packs was an amazing feeling. Even the smell of those cards was different.

With sports trading cards, getting a player’s rookie card was always what you were after. With these packs of Upper Deck, there were 700 total cards (expanded to 800 at the end of the year) in a full set and 15 cards per pack. So while I did get a few packs of Upper Deck Cards that year, I didn’t pull any of the big rookie cards (Randy Johnson aka The Big Unit, Gary Sheffield, John Smoltz…) I was looking for. “Pulling” a card meant physically opening a pack of cards and slowly going through each card to see who you got. If you came across a good card in your pack, you just “pulled” it. Now if you didn’t pull the card in your packs but you still had your eyes on a particular card, you could buy just that card at a baseball card shop or a baseball card convention. Back in those days, baseball card shops were everywhere and baseball card shows (aka total dork fests) weren’t hard to find either. The value of these baseball cards was set by a singular publication called Beckett Baseball Card Monthly. Beckett issued a monthly baseball card price guide where you could research how much your cards were worth which would then help facilitate the trading of baseball cards between friends. Prices were set based on scarcity and the recent performance of a player so if you knew your stuff you probably had a decent card collection. If you didn’t want to trade with friends you could also try to sell them at card shops or shows which was a decent way to make money as a youngster.

Based on the value of one of the rookie cards I was looking for, I was going to need to stack some ends. My pops usually gave me $0.25 for picking weeds for him for a few hours and I just wasn’t quite old enough to start umping Little League games like my brother so I had to really put some thought into how I could get this money. With cash needed to get this special baseball card I had to do make something happen. In 1989, I had to hustle to get the money I needed.

In my neighborhood, we had 2 grocery stores at the time. There a was a Safeway on the east side of town and then there was Big Bear over on the west side where I lived. My buddy Ryan and I rode our bikes to school everyday and Big Bear was on the way to school for us. We were also able to meet up with our homie Devin at Big Bear as he lived right down the hill from there. Arco gas station was easier for Ryan and I to go to but Big Bear was a grocery store and therefore had the wider selection. Elementary school started around 8am so we would drop our BMX bikes off outside of the grocery store around 7:30. Big Bear was always understaffed at the registers during the early hours so we could run around that store and just be idiots. If we had some ends we might pick up some candy like some Bonkers, Pop Rocks or Fun Dip so we could get our sugar rush before school. Over by the candy they also had some packs of baseball stickers called Panini. There was a book you could also buy where you could put all of your Panini stickers in by all of the teams in the MLB. Packs were cheap and they were popular with my classmates…

That day at Big Bear I stared long and hard at that box of Panini stickers with bad thoughts on my mind. All I had in my pockets were some lint and some loose Nerds so I didn’t have the money to physically buy some packs. Plus, I was supposed to be saving up for that special card but saving money was never my forte. At the age of 9 I was one of the smallest kids in my class and that big smile always on my face made me look like the most innocent little kid around. And while I was never a bad kid that doesn’t mean I wasn’t sneaky at times. So with money on my mind, I stole some packs from the grocery store and quickly slid them in my shorts and left the store. Once we regrouped on our bicycles behind Big Bear, I threw the little packs in the small zippered pocket of my Jansport Backpack and hit some quick bunny hops en route to the bike racks outside of our school. My friends weren’t in on my first time stealing. This was 100% my doing and I’m not proud of it looking back but I was 9 and at that age you do dumb things and hopefully get caught and learn lifelong lessons.

With these packs burning a hole in my backpack I came up with my first business idea. Instead of quickly opening these packs, what if I were to sell them to interested classmates at a cheaper price than the store? Would I have a market? Could the money made go to that valuable baseball card that I absolutely needed? The answers were all yes so as a 3rd grader I opened up shop on a wholesale business right out of my backpack. But how would I price my packs? What was my sales pitch to my fellow classmates to get them to buy from me? Packs sold at Big Bear for $0.30 so I dropped a nickel off to undercut their price and asked for a quarter per pack from my schoolmates. This presented a good value to the kids in my class and I sold out at recess by the handball courts and word spread around the playground that I was the new plug for Panini stickers.

With inventory depleted, I had to re-up with more stock but I knew I had to be strategic in my swoops. I couldn’t be at that same store every day. I devised a plan and each week I increased the amount of packs I stole so I could meet my demand. I was flipping packs quickly and I often ran around with a pocket full of change while playing basketball, handball and kickball during recess. But after a few short weeks hustling, my time at the top came to a quick crash. One of my fellow classmates snitched on me so as a 9 year old I began my first stint of in-school suspension. While suspended, I looked around at all of the older bullies I was in there with and felt like I had some clout being way younger than all of them. But I was trembling inside…. Not at the predicament I was in but because the Principal might actually call my dad to tell him the bad things I had done. That was one thing I NEVER wanted to happen! I never wanted my dad to be mad and me and sure didn’t wanted him to be disappointed in my actions. So when I talked to the principal and counselors I gave them my best sales pitch yet and they decided not to call my parents. So on that day my Panini sticker hustle stopped but that loose change stayed in my little piggybank in my room. The money I had still not enough for what I needed but I was making progress.

I never did save up enough money for that card but I did end up getting it in the Spring of 1990. I was in the 4th grade and it was on a Wednesday when school let us out early for our weekly half days. After we crushed some pepperoni pizza and video games at Round Table Pizza we hit Marcy Park for our weekly game of tackle football. My buddy Mickey showed up that afternoon a little bit late on Wednesday, February 28th, 1990 with an early birthday gift for me. It didn’t have any gift wrapping and that almost made it better. Mickey got me what I had been fiending for. In 1990 I finally got to add that 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card to my baseball card collection. Mickey told me that it cost him $30 which was a lot of money for a gift and it will always go down as one of the best presents I’ve ever received from a friend. I still own that treasured card and I believe it still might be in the same case it was in that day I received it in 1990. A lot of baseball cards are memorable but there is nothing that claims that #1 spot like this iconic card below.