Teammates Once Again

 

It's rare to have two of the all-time greats - and I mean, Mount Rushmore greatness - on one team. And watching them leave the team is difficult, especially knowing that they may never again be teammates. 

Fourteen months ago I decided to sell off a small part of the collection on eBay. Most of the cards were stuff I had accumulated along the way; others no longer fit into what I'm collecting. And then there were a small number of cards that were needing upgrades. I figured I would sell them and then find better copies down the road. 

The risk in selling off copies before upgrading is that the hobby can undergo a bull market, just as stocks do. Prices for specific (older) cards may not return to where they had been, and then the collector is left having to pay an inflated price. 

Two of the cards I had sold off in hopes of one day reuniting were the 1981 Topps Joe Montana and the 1986 Topps Jerry Rice. I am not a 49ers fan (although I do like their GM, former Buccaneers great John Lynch), but I can only imagine how fans must have felt watching the pair leave the team during their storied careers. Heck, as a Buccaneers fan, I have the same feelings after seeing the greatest offensive player in team history (Mike Evans) depart a few weeks ago for that same Niners team. Anyway, selling off the two cards left me feeling a bit empty as well. 

As you can guess by the title of this post, I have recently purchased the two cards many consider to be the greatest rookie cards from the 1980s, making them teammates once again. 

The Montana replaces a raw card I had picked up at a card show a number of years ago. The original was definitely a "filler" card until I could get a better copy. I did overpay for it, and upon selling it took a bit of a hit. But I am very happy with "replacement Joe." Some might feel the need to have a mint copy; I do not. (BTW- the photo makes it look like the card is badly creased; that's just the plastic 'sleeve' that the slab is in)

My original copy of the Rice rookie had been purchased on eBay and was a "6" with a soft corner. Replacement Rice is also a 6 but has sharper corners and is centered better. I paid less than the cost of the original cost, which I had recouped when I sold it off last year.