Every Thursday night, my dad had choir practice at First United Methodist. That meant that he'd drop my buddy Damon and me off at the Westroads for about an hour, where we would hang out almost exclusively at the sports card store. We'd spend all our money in hopes of getting a rare rookie card, an even more rare error card, or whatever cards we needed to complete the highly extraordinary full set. My diet in these days consisted only of that gum that accompanied each pack of football, basketball, or baseball cards.
There was a sweet spot around 1992 where it seemed like each and every card you pulled out of a pack was worth something. If you were lucky enough to find a Michael Jordan, Walter Payton, or Jose Canseco rookie card, you had thoughts of it covering the cost of college tuition ... or at least enough to buy another pack of cards.
Nowadays, even the most sought-after cards of '92 (anyone still holding on to that Broderick Thomas rookie card?) are mostly worth less than the Beckett list price of a common card from the 1984 Topps football card set.
Why? THIS ARTICLE explains.