[Howe’s Hunter]

I started collecting in '72, and had complete sets built the old way (ten cards and a stick of gum) from '72-'74 (wish I had never thrown away all the dupes, but hey, who needed them when you were trying to build a set?)

Flash forward ten years and when I came home for Christmas that year (first year out of college), there were four like packages under the tree for me. My mom had bought the complete set of '84 Topps, and taken my three year collection to a teacher where she was the secretary who was a collector, who boxed them up properly, without all the rubber bands, etc. Told me she always enjoyed watching me collect when I was younger, but it was time to get those things out of her house. They were mine, take them and do what I wanted to with them, but if was time for her to have the closet space back.

I took them, saved them (for almost another 27 years), filled in the years I missed and finally parted with the collection in 2011. 39 year run of complete Topps sets that were sold to fund my Howe-stamped addiction.

Thanks, Mom.