Who knows how many thousands/hundreds-of-thousands of dollars worth of now-rare baseball & football cards (w/ clothes pins to fasten them on to fender bars) we used in the spokes of our 24” Schwin “Huffy” bikes as kids, just to make them “sound like motorcycles”? Who knew?
Okay, we were kids and didn’t know any better. 20-20 hindsight...
(((sigh)))
Heh. I didn't collect baseball cards, so I used Mom's and Dad's pinochle cards. Which seemed to work just fine till their night to host pinochle club.
Bought a house a few years back and discovered a Buster Brown shoebox in the attic stuffed with mostly football and basketball cards from ‘71 thru ‘73. It contained 6 Roger Staubach rookies, all in great shape but only one with descent picture centering. A lot of good rookie cards from the ‘72 football set. Also scored an almost complete set of basketball cards, including the Dr. J rookie in beautiful shape.
And yes, I tore up a few cards in my Schwinn Stingray as well. But a quick little story along those lines... A buddy of mine has a son who, a few years back, was graduating high school and heading off to college. My buddy’s mother went out and bought a study desk set (desk mat, lamp and matching trashcan, etc...) for her grandson’s graduation. As a bonus, she dug out some of my friend’s old baseball cards she found in the attic and glued them to the lamp shade and trash can and added a nice clear coat finish, wrapped everything up and tied a nice bow.
When his son opened his present, my buddy’s jaw dropped. It was a mix of ‘67 thru ‘70 Topps cards. A few days later, he picked up a Beckett’s Guide and grabbed a calculator. LOL! His son was now the proud owner of a $3500 lamp shade and a $2800 waste basket complete with a couple of Tom Seaver rookies and a Nolan Ryan rookie. Other rookies were Johnny Bench and Reggie Jackson. Also making the waste basket memorial were veterens Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle and a virtual who’s who collection of Hall of Famers. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.... BUT, a couple of years ago, he took possession of the desk set and displays it in his home office. ;-)
...and comic books. In the little town I grew up in, I had an uncle who owned a small magazine and book store who sold comics too. Starting around 1956, I bought every 5 and 10 cent sci-fi comic book that came out. X-men, Iron Man,.....etc....I had them all. Of course when I outgrew them in my teens, I threw them away.