Collector Q&A: 3D 80s Kid

John from 3D 80s Kid was another of the collectors I got a chance to speak with at last year’s National, at the card collectors get-together, and was an early subscriber. He’s uploaded card videos since 2022 with more than 180 videos on his channel, and he’s also part of the 4 Collectors channel, so let’s get to know him a little better with the Drawn to Cards Q&A.

What’s your card collecting story (when and why did you start, which sport(s)/card era(s), and do you consider yourself a collecting generalist or specialist)?

I collected as a kid from 1983 to 1991 as I was a 1992 high school graduate. I had cards from the three major sports:  baseball, football, and basketball. I had a player collection of my favorite baseball player, Dale Murphy. I had almost 100 unique Murphy cards, including every standard release card of his in a Braves uniform. The most I ever spent on any one card was my better condition copy of the Dale Murphy rookie card for $40.

After I quit, I kept all of my childhood cards in boxes. After college, the parents passed them to me and they traveled unopened from apartment to apartment, house to house, through almost 10 moves. After my mom passed away in 2020, I was a bit depressed. By early 2021, I was ready for something to bring me some joy. The thought of reverting back to the passion of my youth made me finally bust open those boxes again. It was around that same time that I also discovered sports card YouTube videos.

After “The Last Dance,” basketball cards were the hottest thing going and so that was what I first started watching on YouTube. The discovery of sports cards on eBay opened up a whole new world to collecting. My first purchase was the huge card out of reach when I left collecting:  the rookie card of my favorite player of the ‘90s, David Robinson, and his 1989 Hoops draft pick rookie card. From there, I spent most of 2021 collecting rookie cards of basketball Hall of Famers. Until at some point, I stopped enjoying it and felt more like I was just compelled to check items off the list rather than really loving those cards.

For a bit of time near the end of 2021, I bought some fun pop culture cards from my youth as I found it spectacular that I could buy those for about $1 each. But eventually, I navigated my way through the muck of influencer YouTube until I eventually found the vintage baseball card community. At that point, I started falling in love with the idea of collecting the cards I was seeing as well as being a part of what seemed like a very welcoming and friendly community. As a kid, I had not even pondered being able to collect playing days cards of the all-time great players as those all felt completely out of reach. So I was very excited about the fact that I could not have a chance to own any of them. Having been a mass watcher of sports documentaries back when ESPN used to play them regularly, it was of great interest.

After trying to find my way in vintage for a bit, I would now consider myself a Hall of Fame type collector. My focus is on choosing cards that I find visually appealing and creating a wall display that essentially shows all of the greats of the game as well as the history of baseball cards.

Who/what do you personally collect?

My primary project is to collect one playing days card of every player Hall of Famer, of which right now there are 278. In addition, I am getting all of them graded in newer SGC slabs and storing them in wall display cases so that I can view and enjoy them every day. I currently own 32 in 20th century pre-war, 81 in post-war vintage (1947-80), and 38 in "modern" cards (1981-99) for a total of 151. I have intentionally avoided collecting any rookie cards due to the financial premium being an obstacle to completing the project in my lifetime. That choice has allowed me to be almost complete with my post-war vintage and to have a great head start to the older cards. 

Outside of my primary goal, I have had a few minor side items. I have the first 49er card of 6 of my favorites, a few cards of some basketball legends, and the earliest card I could find of each MLB player with my last name (Coffman). My most interesting side project was finding the first trading card appearance for the six major leaders of World War 2. Since there is no fully populated database available of what worldwide non-sport cards exist, it was a far more challenging research effort to try to determine which cards were actually the first card. I went through a few iterations of some of the folks before feeling like I actually had completed my task. I now have what is possibly a unique collection in the world as a few of the cards are very low as far as known copies. My only active side project right now would be expanding my childhood player collection of my hero, Dale Murphy. As a kid I collected every major release base card of him in a Braves uniform and a total of over 90 unique cards, which in the era of only having one small LCS and no eBay is impressive to adult me.

What’s your favorite card you own and/or what’s your grail card? Tell us why.

The biggest grail of my collection and currently planned largest purchase I ever expect to make is my 1920 W519 Unnumbered Babe Ruth. Photo is attached. It was the cheapest option for a playing days card that wasn’t oversized and also met my eye appeal needs. I fell in love with this copy for the clarity and color as it is one of the nicest eye appeal copies of the card in the VCP sales history. I won it in an REA auction that closed the same night as the end of Hobby Palooza last year when 4 Collectors hosted the event for the first time. I got to share the moment with many folks live on a livestream on Sammy Thunder’s channel.

Who/what motivated you to start a YouTube channel?

The primary motivation for me to start my own YouTube channel was to be a part of the friendships I was seeing on my screen that seemed to exist within the community. It is one thing to take part in the space as a commenter on videos but it really is a one-sided arrangement. Especially for the channels that show themselves on screen, you can really start to feel like you get to know the person who is on the other side of the camera. By adding comments, the channel owner only gets the tiniest of slice into who you are making those comments so if you really want to be part of that world, it is necessary to be a full-fledged member and let others see who you are as well.

I think I had wanted to be a part of it for awhile but was not bold enough to step out of my comfort zone to get started until I interacted in comments and then met in person Adam of Vintage Sanctuary. Thanks to seeing his appearance on Golden Age of Cardboard on the Bench Clear Media channel, I finally had a vintage collector who lived nearby and I started commenting on his videos. This led to us meeting at the small local card show in which I said to him that I was going to start my own channel. Saying the words aloud to someone else gave me that last shove to actually do it as I don't want to be a liar. 

What’s been the best part of your YouTube experience so far?

The YouTube experience is all about the people. Whether it be interacting with people in the comments or doing collaborations on screen, I have enjoyed every bit of it. With this community full of experienced, mature adults, it feels like a place with massive amounts of support. We can all celebrate each other's collecting wins no matter what price point people are at. Most of us have reached the age in life where we are comfortable enough in our own skin to not feel the need to put others down to lift ourselves up and we can be genuinely supportive. The percentage of negative comments you see on vintage card collecting videos is miniscule. You go to an event like the 4 Collectors vintage trade night at Strongsville and you are just uplifted by the spirit of community and camaraderie that existed in that room. After going to the National last year for the first time and Strongsville this year, I can honestly say that I will happily sacrifice some of my card budget every year to get to have those in person experiences.

For anyone that thinks it is different for me than it would be for you because I am in 4 Collectors and that makes me some kind of "insider" now, Theo and I talked about the fact that it would be cool to be invited to things. As soon as we saw Hobby Palooza for the first time, we wanted a chance to be a part of it. But we didn't wait for the invites to come to us as we knew those would be rare, so instead we made the decision to try to create our own space that people would be seeking invitations to us. We also did not want that space to be a closed off clique and for it to be open to all. If people are not aware, we are always open to anyone who has a show or livestream idea they would like to do with us. Both Sammy and Dan got started with us that way as their involvement became repeated it made sense for them to fully join up. We have had some other one-off show and livestreams we have done with others as well. That spirit led me to create the "5 Cards Every Collector Should Own" series that has an open invite to anyone at all who wants to take part. Feel free to email us at [email protected] with any ideas or if you want to be on an episode of 5 Cards.

If you could talk to/interview any person on your channel (creator, person in sports, person in the hobby, etc.), who would it be and why?

Right now I would personally love to be able to have a frank conversation with Peter Steinberg about the future of SGC, since I have a personal vested interest in completing my primary project. In his absence, I would settle for Nat Turner. I'd only want to do it if no questions were off the table. I would pass on having a softball interview appearance just for views. I want some truth.

Outside of that, I would love to speak with childhood heroes like Dale Murphy or Joe Montana. Although my fear would be that I would be too awestruck to fully function. I'm envisioning something comparable to the Chris Farley interview of Paul McCartney on “Saturday Night Live.”

Which three YouTube sports card channels do you think more people should watch?

I have way too many YouTube channels to recommend I would prefer not to leave anyone out. What I will say is that we should be promoting the collecting channels as much as we can. Anytime you watch their video, click that like button, add comments as much as you can, and certainly subscribe. It is only with that kind of support can we promote those folks into getting into more people's feeds and hopefully save people from the sea of money-focused hobby content.

What do you think the future holds for your channel and for the hobby in general?

I hope the future holds lots more fun meeting more people and interacting with the great folks in the hobby. There will be plenty of trade nights in our future as 4 Collectors is trying to be an organizing hub for people to get together and have a good time. The 4 Collectors presence is already yielding benefits for us of access and opportunities and I view that as a serious obligation to utilize those things to the benefit of the community as a whole. 

As far as the hobby goes, I think it will be just fine as there appears to be no shortage of awesome people interested in old pieces of cardboard artwork.

1980 Topps Football Player Profile: Isaac Curtis

Let’s find out about a former football player who actually inspired a rule to be named after him. It’s former wide receiver Isaac Curtis:

Curtis was born in 1950 in Santa Ana, California, and was a star running back at Santa Ana High School, along with being a record-setting hurdler. According to his Wikipedia profile, his former football coach called him “the best running back to ever play in Orange County.” He received a football scholarship to play at the University of California, Berkeley, where he played for three seasons as a running back and kick returner. Meanwhile, he paired with track and field teammate Eddie Hart in the 1970 NCAA Track and Field Championships to finish 1-2 in the 100-yard dash (Hart barely edged Curtis out, both finishing in a cool 9.4 seconds), while Curtis finished fourth in the 220-yard dash.

(Hart would later become famous for the wrong reason - he made the 1972 Olympics in Munich, but missed his preliminary heat for the 100-meter run because his coach mistakenly gave him the wrong time schedule. That said, he did end up anchoring the U.S. 4×100 relay team that took home gold.) 

Speaking of oversights, UC-Berkeley was put on probation in 1971 because of an oversight involving Curtis. He was supposed to take a GPA test required by the NCAA at a certain time, but didn’t, because he wasn’t aware of the requirement, something school officials admitted was an oversight on their part. This would eventually lead to Curtis deciding to leave Berkeley and transfer to San Diego State for his senior season. His coach for that team was Don Coryell, who would later become famous for his “Air Coryell” San Diego Chargers teams that lead the league in passing seven out of eight years from 1978 to 1985. Under Coryell, Curtis switched to wide receiver, catching 44 passes for 832 yards.

Curtis’ speed caught the attention of teams in the NFL, and he thought he would be drafted by the Cleveland Browns, but it was the Cincinnati Bengals who picked him 15th in the first round of the 1973 NFL Draft, right before the Browns, set to pick 16th. Curtis’ rookie season with the Bengals mirrored his senior season at San Diego State, as he became a starter and tallied 45 receptions for 843 yards, along with nine touchdowns (compared to seven with SDSU). He would also help the team, as they jumped from third place the previous season to first, facing the dominant Miami Dolphins in the AFC Divisional game.

As Curtis’ Wikipedia profile alluded to in that game, Dolphins coach Don Shula didn’t have defensive backs who could keep up with Curtis (admittedly, few DBs could with his speed), so Shula instead had the DBs be as physical with Curtis as they could to prevent him from getting by them. This caused other teams to employ the same tactics, and Bengals coach Paul Brown wasn’t having it, so he went to the NFL Competition Committee to complain, feeling like he was being punished for having a receiver with that sort of speed. And that led to the “Isaac Curtis Rule,” allowing defenders to block a receiver within the first five yards of the line of scrimmage, but after that, similar contact would mean a holding penalty and an automatic first down. As his longtime quarterback Ken Anderson said about Curtis:

Curtis would go on to spend all 12 of his seasons with the Bengals, including four consecutive Pro Bowl appearances from 1973-76, along with three second-team All-Pro selections, from 1974 to 1976. While he didn’t put up the kind of catch or yardage numbers receivers do today, likely because the game and its rules now favor passing much more than it did then, his yards per catch averages were impressive, as he averaged more than 20 yards per reception twice, and his career 17.1 ypc average places him in the top 55 in NFL history. And his career totals of 416 receptions, 7,101 yards and 53 touchdowns places him seventh, third, and fourth respectively in Bengals team history. In 2022, Curtis was inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor.

In the later years of his football career, Curtis spent a few offseasons working with Winegardner and Hammons, a Cincinnati-based hotel management and development company, experience he would parlay into a long career with the company as their director of sports marketing. The company was acquired by Pyramid Hotel Group in 2016 and Curtis, now retired, lives back in his native California, and is also on the roster of Athlete Speakers.