When I was a kid, I bought the entire Topps 1981 and 1985 NFL sets at a boat show in the Dome of all places. One was $14 and one was $17. Of course the 1981 set has Joe Montana's "rookie" card in it, but I handled it a bunch as a kid so it's not mint. Kids are idiots.
Dang I know the feeling. I use to play with, throw, make paper planes out of base set and 1st edition base set Pokemon cards as a kid. Literally tossed around hundreds of thousands of dollars. Is this a bigger fail than 28-3?