When I was a kid, it was the rage to collect baseball cards that came five to a pack along with what passed as bubblegum, and each approximately 2”x3” card had a player’s picture and all the player’s stats . Some, because they were limited edition or were of the more noted players, were worth more than the cards of some generic guys who were on the teams just to have all positions covered. The latter were the ones everyone had more than enough of.
To be honest, I did collect baseball cards and did appreciate their value, but not because of all the what I had assumed were important stats for some reason without knowing any. My appreciation was based more on the cartoon mascot, the known value of the player without having to know why, and cards gave me entre into the world of tossing baseball cards and, as to me cards being cards if lost could be easily replaced, win cards or lose cards, I played without stress.
There were three ways to obtain desired cards beyond the luck of picking the right package of cards and gum.
One could offer money in an amount that sounded good to a small kid, trade a certain number of second string cards for the one desired card, or tossing the owner for it, tossing being the name of the game involving the throwing of baseball cards and not a verb with the owner as its object.
Unless it is a one-on-one attempt to obtain or retain a card, more than two combatants will choose a wall, mark a line a certain distance from the wall, and one at a time flip a card like a small frisbee toward the wall hoping that card lands the closest to the wall winning all the other cards. A leaner is a good result as nothing is closer to the wall than a card leaning on it. If, however, there are any competitors left who have yet to toss their cards, they can dethrone the leaner by deftly knocking it from its position, and if luck will have it, end up a leaner itself.
Care was taken of all cards, even the less important ones because bends and creases could negatively affect the trajectory of the card and could cost in the long run. Even the minor cards are good if they knock over a leaner or cover another card. Bent or torn cards were relegated to be attached by clothespins to the rear frame of your bike so the card made an engine sound of sorts as it was brushed by the spokes.
By the end of the game some kids had more cards, some less than the number they started with and each card, having some measure of importance was picked up so that when the game was over and the players had left, all that remained behind was the wall that had been there before the game.
Things have changed and baseball cards do not seem to be as popular as they once were, becoming more of collectors’ items than things you casually throw against the wall.
They have been replaced by other trading cards perhaps traded in different ways.
Recently a newsworthy event, although not necessarily for the reason intended, brought NFTs to people’s attention again after most thought that was a waning thing, when a series of digital cards were released as collectables, tradables, and re-sellables.
No bulky decks of cards to carry in a wallet or pocket, just all those same cards viewable on your phone, laptop, or desk top computer.
Although you may receive a digital copy of the card, you do not receive a tangible card like a baseball card that you can place into the deck you have been assembling, or the album where you keep such items against the day they will be worth enough to buy that car you have had your eye on.
In order to toss your NFT collectable cards, instead of excited conversation broken first by silence during the toss and then vocal reaction upon the card’s landing with very little noise and very little cleanup, tossing NFT trading cards is accompanied by grunts of the competitors tossing the laptops, smart phones, android tablets, and the occasional desktop computer with monitor, the smashing of these objects as they reach the wall, leaving a large pile of plastic, glass, and whatever is inside a computer.
We used to collect soda bottles to get the 2 cents refund for a small bottle or 5 cents for the quart sized ones, something that is not so widely done these days, and, as trash was money, there was less lying around.
We used paper shopping bags to cover school books so they would last longer and as kitchen trash bags as they were biodegradable as opposed the plastic ones introduced later, and when we tossed our collectable cards, we would pick them all up and not leave a mess as would be happening now if tossing collectable NFT cards takes over the space of baseball cards.
You can blame Boomers all you want for whatever, even those national and international things we apparently were able to influence from the womb, but you do have to credit us for the more practical form of our trading cards.
Less heavy, much easier to carry and toss, and leaves no electronic parts behind piled up against a wall for someone else to clean up.
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