It Ain't Worth A Thing, If It Don't Got That Sig

I just picked up this:
Steve Barber 1965 Topps #113

The scan doesn't do this card justice. It has been beat to hell over the last 46 years abd I love it. It has so much character. As a collector, pristine or Gem Mint 10, are the pinnacle for cards. But I like cards with a story. And man, if this cardboard could talk?

This two time All-Star has been neglected in his life. I knew the card was rough when I got it, but the large vertical creases are actually folds. The cardboard on the back has separated from being folded for so long. Many of Barber's minor league statistics have been dessimated by the same folds.

I can just imagine my dad flipping with this card when he was a kid. Trying to get his card to lean against a stair and beat his friends. Never once wondering if this card or any other would hold value once he was a grandfather. Kids bought, traded, flipped, chucked and even spoked the cards they spent their hard earned newspaper route money on. And it wasn't because they didn't care, it just never occured to them that cardboard could be profitable. For those kids that did have the forethought, they probably bought a house or two with their Gem Mint 10 collections.

My extremely rough Steve Barber will be treated like all my others, like a gem. He will take his spot in my binder alongside George Bamberger and Bret Barberie for all the world to see. Or just my brother when he looks through my collection. Steve passed away in 2007 of pneumonia, but his career and his card will live on in my collection and many others.