Jack of all Trades

The following presentation is rated 14A.

This presentation deals with mature subject matter

and contains scenes with coarse language.

Viewer discretion is advised.

Stu: My generation was the last to grow up

without the internet.

We didn't have smartphones, laptops,

or reality TV.

We had baseball cards.

Baseball cards were everything.

As a kid, there was nothing better.

Opening packs, never knowing what we would find.

Trading valuable rookie cards with our friends,

eating as much stale bubble gum as we could.

These cardboard collectibles were schoolyard currency,

and trying to keep them in mint condition consumed our world,

until one day we grew up.

Well, most of us did.

Looking back, I often wondered,

whatever happened to baseball cards?

Finding out the answer to that question

would change my life forever.

This is my story.

And in order to tell it right,

we have to go back...

all the way back, to my bar mitzvah.

My name is Stuart Eisenstein, and um,

since I was 2-years-old,

people have called me Stuart Stone,

because my parents put me into acting,

and I was a child actor and as a 2-year-old,

Eisenstein was a mouthful,

so they just changed it to Stuart Stone.

And um, as I got older,

I started calling myself Stu Stone because um...

well, 'cause it's shorter.

How are ya? - Good, how are you?

- Good to see ya, man. Is it cold?

- It's cold here, yeah. - It's cold? Damn it.

As a child actor, I played the role of the kid.

I was the kid in a lot of things.

My first movie was called "Heavenly Bodies",

which was like the Canadian version of "Flashdance",

and it had a little less dance and a little more flash.

I was in movies, and TV commercials,

and you know, "Donnie Darko",

and "Rapping with Jamie Kennedy",

but I was also the voice of a tonne of cartoon characters

back in the day.

I was Ralphie on "The Magic School Bus",

"Prostar", "Babar", "The Tick", "Beetlejuice",

"X-Men", "Care Bears",

"Wish Kid", the McCauley Culkin cartoon,

"Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure", "Swamp Thing",

Clifford the Big Red Dog,

"Tales from the Crypt", "The Raccoons",

"My Pet Monster", "ALF", "Rugrats" -

that was a big one.

No, I wasn't in "Adventures of Moby Dick". I was?

- Yeah. - I didn't even know that.

Trudy: Hello? - Hello?

- Hi! - Hey, I'm here.

- Oh, okay I'm at number 42, but I'll be at the front.

- That's gotta be her. How are ya?

- Welcome back. - Thank you.

Thanks for picking me up. - You're welcome. Let's go.

- I brought some uh, friends here.

- Like I don't... - You look fine.

- Thank you. Are you hungry? - I'm starving.

- Okay, I have brisket for you. -Oh, you do?

- Yeah, I made us supper. - Great!

- So how does this work? You just...talk?

- Yeah, don't worry about, don't worry about the camera,

just be... be you.

- You're actually really gonna get into your room

and get rid of the shit?

Now that you brought a film crew?

- It's perfect that you should say that,

because I've been in her car for not even a minute,

and the first thing she's bringing up is...

- What do I bring up every time you come in?

- These boxes. Can we, like, get out of the airport?

Yeah.

- And then you can bother me about that? - Okay.

- When my grandfather, Sam, passed away,

uh, in his basement, they found all these boxes

that had my name written on them

from like the 80's and 90's that I had put away as a kid,

and somehow they ended up in my mom's condominium,

and she's been bugging me for years, and years, and years,

to like, go through these boxes and get rid of them.

Trudy: You know what? - What?

Those boxes were never touched

when they were in Zayda's house.

- I know, so I'm just excited to crack 'em open

and see what's in there.

Trudy: You want cream in your coffee?

- Thank you. - You're welcome.

- We're gonna go through the boxes, okay, just be happy.

- I'm happy, 'cause I still can't believe

that you're actually gonna get rid of shit.

- Yup, well we'll see what happens.

You know, I remember stories of my dad

going through his stuff and finding like,

million dollar treasures.

Maybe that will happen to me.

Do you need garbage bags?

- I mean, are you planning on throwing things away?

- I've known Stu since he was probably 8-years-old.

Stu's family lived on the same street as mine.

We have been as thick as thieves

for as long as I can remember.

I didn't expect him to have the Ark of the Covenant

in that room, but I also know that Stu

had a lot of cool stuff growing up,

because Jack was always trading stuff for cards.

- How are you gonna put all of this into that?

- Well, if not, I'll buy a couple more bins.

- I would like to just keep this here.

- No. Okay, we've gotta do this in piles.

Trudy: You dressed up as your twin and you won first prize.

Cabbage Patch Kid, still in the box.

That is so awesome.

"Magic School Bus", Miss Frizzle autograph.

- Oh. - Signed by Lily Tomlin.

There's like, too much stuff!

So far we have a pile of keep, and nothing going out.

- Aw man, this is great! - What is it?

- Jose Canseco rookie card. - Yeah.

- Billy Ripkin card. - So whadda we do with them?

- You know this card? - I remember that one.

- What do you know about it? - It says fuck on it.

- It does. Save these. Jose Canseco.

- You liked him. - Save that.

Doesn't he have a twin?

Stuart's dad came home one day, and he said,

"we're going into the baseball card and comic business."

And I go, "pardon?"

And he was friends with this guy

who was strictly in the comic book business,

Jack said can I put some cards in here

and see what would happen?

And that's how it all started.

This has been a long time and look they're in mint condition!

- He was Jack the Pack Man and he would set up at trade shows,

which back then, probably were just like general hobby shows,

because I don't think there like,

there was real card shows back then,

but he was Jack the Pack Man, and he sold packs.

At that point, baseball cards were the biggest thing ever.

More Jose Canseco's.

- I guess he was your favorite. - One of them.

We've got more baseball cards!

1989 Bowman. Ken Griffey Jr. on the front of this Topps box.

I opened up these boxes and it's like,

boom all over again, it's like an explosion of felling.

just even touching and holding and looking at these cards

take me back to these times

that were the greatest times of my life, as a kid.

And my dad was like, my hero,

you know, life was just so good back then.

Oh my God.

This was so... I can't even believe this.

What is it?

A Ken Griffey Jr.? - Yeah.

Wow.

- More baseball cards, more baseball cards.

1987 Topps set. I loved this set.

This is like the classic Topps set of my generation,

right here.

Cards that like, it's like a baseball bat.

- Great. - Packs and packs,

and boxes and sets.

This is like, we're... I, I...should sell this stuff.

It's probably worth a fortune.

I will take a box of these cards,

- Yeah. - and I will go to like a card show,

and I'll sell them. I think Karie would go to a card show.

Karie: Hello? - Hello.

- Hey. - You should see what I found.

Your mother's literally sitting here cracking packs.

Stop opening them! I can sell it!

- And the Mattingly? - And the Mattingly is literally

I have both Mattingly's in my hand, right now.

- The Donruss one too? - Yes!

- Well, there you go, that will get rid of some of this.

- Some of it? How 'bout all of it?

Dave: The first kind of heyday of baseball cards

were during the 1880's,

and they originated as a tobacco marketing gimmick.

So, some tobacco honchos had the brilliant idea

to start inserting picture cards

into these boxes of baseball,

which was, at that point, already very popular,

a very popular pastime in the U.S.

Dave: The 50's is when...

when baseball cards really exploded.

- Hey, Johnnie, I have free baseball trading cards!

- Free baseball cards? - Yeah, front of the packaging.

Dave: It was a confluence of a few things.