I have a good example here that's on subject...I started collecting when I was 8...got my first "old card" when I was 11, a common 1969 Topps card. I was blown away to have a card a year older than me, and fell in love with the design...a work of art...
. Anyhow, when I was about 13 some small shows were starting to pop up and a shop less than an hour from me had some old cards. It became my mission to collect the entire 69 Topps set after getting a small chunk through trading with friends. Without the internet and being a kid with no money, I had to rely on every friend and friend of a friend I could...and I finally finished the set when I was 19. I had to mail order my final card, a Norm Cash from a shop in Boston, ordered out of the back of an old Beckett! Had to send a self address stamped envelope along with a check for 1.25$, I'll never forget it. I was stoked, and I held a set that was G - VG at best, but I didn't care. I still remember every important milestone...one of which was when I was able to trade some Star Wars action figures to an old baseball coach for the #100 Hank Aaron and #190 Willie Mays, two of my favorite players, when I was 14. Steal of a deal, I had long gave a crap about my original SW figures. ANYHOW...when I was 21 I was at a show and bought two new Hank and Willie cards, as now my job was to upgrade that 69 set. When I did this, I put my old two cards in my wallet, for good luck. I LOVED those wrinkled up cards and wanted them with me at all times...they didn't have a whole lot of value even back then in the condition they were in, but I still have never lost that feeling that I actually own these HOF cards...my 9 year old DREAMS.
I sold that set when I was 25 to a local shop...I got way more than I should for it, but in 1995 a vintage set like that was a rare thing, and that shop really wanted that set (and a 65 Topps Namath RC I had, another story). Shop went out of business like a month later, lol. The only cards I had left from that set was the two original cards I was now carrying in my wallet.
Fast Forward to 2005, now I'm 35...and I got a new wallet. I had totally forgot I had those two cards STILL roaming in there. I pulled out what was left of them and put them into protectors. 14 years they were with me every step of my life!! I hadn't collected cards in years...and these two got me scratching a new itch. I decided to collect cards again, and start by building the 1969 Topps set once again. A little easier this time as obviously my means were different, and cards were so accessible online. I finished that set quickly, moved to other sets, rest is history...I am a set builder. I did upgrade that 69 set and quickly found out I almost had another set...haha...a sickness...I am still now working on my 4th 69 set...why not. My best set is now NM, and my second is close. It all started with my two wallet cards.
I read this post, and had to go get them...the only two cards I have from my youth besides my hand put together 1979 set that I always kept from when I was 9. I'll have these two cards till they day I die, and passed on to my son...completely worthless...yet priceless. Had these two cards for 34 years!!
