FREE OLD BASEBALL CARDS FOR KIDS OFFER

If you’re a kid, or an adult who knows a kid who you’d like to give some old baseball cards, send me an address (email below) and I’ll send an envelope with a group of old cards. I don’t have an unlimited supply but I’ve got a bunch and I’d much rather plant seeds of future hobby interest and make some youngsters happy than sell them (or have these cards sit in a closet forever). 

When I was a kid, all of about eight or nine years old, one of my fondest memories was the excitement of getting a really old baseball card - much older than any I had - from a set I had never seen. A local doctor had a collection of tobacco cards passed down in his family and he heard from a mutual family friend of my great interest in cards. Which was pretty unusual for someone so young (at that early date circa 1969 anyway). So on a Sunday he put a card in an envelope in his mailbox and told my parents we could pick it up anytime (he lived very local). 

I’ll never forget the excitement of my Dad driving me and pulling up to the mailbox, and the thrill of opening the envelope to see a T205 Gold Border tobacco card for the very first time. The player, by the way, was Deacon Philippe of the Pittsburg Nationals. (Which is probably related to why, to this day, I have always thought Philippe was very underrated and in my mind a Hall of Famer!) This card was worth no more than a quarter back then. Maybe just a dime. The condition was poor by today’s standards but I never gave the condition a second thought. The creases and wear are part of its history. To me it was perfect! I thought it was incredible! I still do. 

I saved that card as a prized possession for over 50 years and would still have it today had it not been in a box that unfortunately was destroyed by Hurricane Ida in 2021. But I can still picture the card, creases and bent corners, among other imperfections, in my mind’s eye, and I am forever grateful to Dr. Glazer (I think that was his name) for his kindness and generosity which unbeknownst to him was such an exciting moment in encouraging my lifelong interest in baseball cards and history. 

As the years went by my interest grew. I owe a great debt of thanks to all the adults who were encouraging in some way, some large, some small, some just by being willing to devote a little time talking to a youngster whose limitless enthusiasm for learning about cards was so much greater than my knowledge about anything else in the world (like that going to work or eating dinner with family should take priority over talking to a kid about old cards!) 

Sometimes I was a pain in the butt to adult collectors. I was a kid! I didn’t know any better. Calling all the time, bothering older collectors about cards, spending ten times more time on collecting endeavors than anyone else…I am grateful for the kindred spirits, collecting legends such as Woody Gelman, Charles Bray, Lawrence Kurzrok and many others who not only put up with me, but appreciated my enthusiasm and even treated me like an adult! 

That’s part of why I have always gone out of my way to give extra consideration and respect to young collectors, to treat them like the most important people in the collecting world.

The purpose of this post is to add to many other efforts over the years to pass this kindness forward, to help plant the seeds of the joy of collecting and learning about cards and history to youngsters today. In the spirit of Dr. Glazer’s kind gesture to me over 50 years ago, I am sending a selection of original old cards (1950s, 1960s, 1970s) and also reprints which are educational and fun (what kid can’t use a reprint T206 Wagner?!) while my supplies last. 

Anyone who would like a group, just send me an address to send to. The email to claim free cards below. You will receive an envelope of cards. If you want to send the address of a relative or friend, or parent to give to their kids, that’s fine. You send the address, I’ll send the cards! (We’re on the honor system)! 

I have no idea if this will generate tens or hundreds (or, gulp…thousands) of requests. I have enough to send a fun group to hundreds. I will keep sending out cards until the supply I have “in stock” is exhausted. 

I hope some kids out there, upon receipt, will feel the same joy and awe I did when I received my first tobacco card  of Deacon Phillipe as a gift as a youngster. Maybe some recipients will be encouraged to be lifelong collectors! Or be involved with the hobby in some other way. And when some of them are older, and maybe even leaders in the field, I hope they will in turn help the youngsters of the next generation!

Sincerely,

Robert Lifson
[email protected]