Mint Condition

When award-winning journalist Dave Jamieson's parents sold his childhood home a few years ago, he was forced to clear out his old room. There among the dusty debris of his boyhood - Star wars toys, a Don Mattingly poster - he uncovered the motherlode, something he'd nearly forgotten: his baseball cards. Staring out from 1980s cardboard were the fresh faces of his boyhood heroes, among them Kirby Puckett, Ryne Sandberg, and a skinny Barry Bonds. Now was the time to cash in on his "investments." But when he tried the card shops, Jamieson discovered they were nearly all gone, closed forever.…