How long you collected as a kid ?...

[hangman62]

I was thinking about this recently...How long or how many years did you collected cards as a kid. Im talking about that those " true passionate years of collecting cards as a youth".. I think its a lot SHORTER then you would think.
I know thinking back,.. for myself...it was ONLY a little bit in 66..a lot in 67,68..and kind of " out of it" by 69. As with many..when I just about got to my early teens...i started getting interested in "other things".

Ral G

[CW]

I stuck with it for awhile, collecting from '77 (age 7) through '85 (age 15). While I kept one geeky vice (my love for Rush music), I did fall out of baseball card collecting for about 15 years, getting back into collecting in '99.

[Bob Lemke]

I was very much into baseball cards from age 3 (1954) through 9 (1960). Football card interest spanned the years 1954-62. I think the last serious non-sports set I pursued was Civil War News in 1961.

I generally bought one pavk of the new baseball cards each spring to see what they look like, through the 1960s.

[dherm360]

I have been truely passionate since 1977. When I was younger I couldnt wait for each weekend to go to the local bowling ally or VFW. Luckily my parents were very supportive. Up until a few months ago I had never sold or traded any of my cards(then I sold four 2009 autos and bought a T205).
In the last year I have even come to enjoy the hobby even more by pretty much going exclusively with prewar. It has become exciting learning every day something new, and this board had a great deal to do with that, so thank you very much!

[novakjr]

Started in '86(age 6) picking up a pack here and there from the concession stand at the t-ball fields. Was pretty serious in '87. I just loved the '87 topps set. Collected somewhat seriously until about '93. A combination of too many sets coming out, the downfall of Bo Jackson, and somehow lost interest between Topps series 1 and 2. Going through my old collection, I've got a crapload of series 1 singles, and nothing at all from series 2 that year.. After '93, I really only collected casually for a few more years. A random pack here and there. But I still went to shows and collected a few of my favorite players. Cal, Molitor, Brett, Murray and pretty much my favorite Indians.. I got back into it for a bit in '98 when I started putting together the '98 Bowman set, but that quickly fizzled and I found myself completely out of collecting by '99(other than the 1982 Topps Traded Ripken that I bought in '01)

I started back up late in '04, when a buddy was showing me a t206 of his, and I decided I wanted one too. So to ebay I went, and I ended up with a beat to shit Krause pitching for under $10. And the collecting has been back on since then. Almost everything I have from my childhood collection is worthless, aside from a handful of HOF rookies. My childhood football collection is even worse, aside from having almost every possible Drew Bledsoe rookie(I think the number of rookies he ultimately had was another reason I lost interest in collecting altogether). I've never really gotten back into football, aside from slowly putting together the '56 topps set and some HOF rookies. Never got much into basketball other than star/HOF rookies.

[vintagetoppsguy]

I, too, started in '86 (age of 15 - late bloomer) and got very passionate about it in 1987. I sitll love opening '87 junk wax!!! I never quit the hobby and have been collecting for 25 years straight now. I will be 40 next month and I don't plan to ever stop.

[steve B]

A bit different here.
1969 - 1 pack
1970 - none?
1971 -1 pack
1972 -none?
1973 - none till we moved late in the year then some
1974- 77 a fairly typical ammount for a kid
late 77 - moved again to a town with a card store! It's been downhill ever since - a few periods of relative inactivity, but still collected a bit.

Steve B

[Volod]

Thanks for bringing it up. Since I didn't start "re"collecting until some 30 years after initial childhood collecting, it has been a subject of some interest to me, since I wasn't sure of the exact points at which cards first grabbed my interest and then became passe. In the mid-1980's, I could still recall finding a few 1951 Bowman baseball cards in the schoolyard, and the 1952 and 1953 sets were powerful deja vu for me at card shows. But then, the 1954 sets were zippo, as far as my recall went, so I have to think the card fascination lasted just a scant two years. I have to think that my childish attention span shifted from gum cards to little league ball at that critical point.

[39special]

I started collecting in 1978 age 11.I would save my allowance, and went
to a local candy store and would buy a box of Topps,usually every couple
of months.Buy 1980 or 81 card stores started popping up in my area,
and my allowance went toward buying older cards.By 1983 girls and cars
became my priority,and I stopped collecting.In 2005 I got back in to
collecting.I'm still in to girls and cars but I collecting cards makes me feel
like I'm a kid again.

[ls7plus]

I began collecting starting with baseball in '58 at age five, and pretty much continued part way through 1969. I can still remember the excitement that echoed through the neighborhood when spring came along each year and some kid was the first to spread the news that the new Topps cards were out! Usually, we each got on our bikes and rode down to the corner market and/or the local drugstore and bought as many packs as we could afford. I always pretty much stuck to baseball, as if I wasn't playing it, I was reading about it, or watching it, or playing Stratomatic baseball with buddies for long hours at a stretch (which was very, very conducive to learning about pre-war stars, as we ordered not only the new game cards each year, but the all-time greatest team series and finally Stratomatic's hall-of-famer AL and NL series. We'd have a draft of all of the greatest players of all time that we had cards for, and play countless 50-game seasons before starting all over again--Ah, the delight of a youth filled to the brim with baseball!

Got back into the hobby in 1990 when a fellow lawyer at my office would bring his baseball cards in occasionally. Others made fun of him, but I thought they were pretty cool, so I began collecting again, mostly buying all the wrong stuff at first (read here new cards printed by the hundreds of thousands, at a minimum!), until I gravitated to vintage, about equally split between '50's to '60's and pre-war, in the early to mid-nineties (with something of a detour to McGwire and Sosa, plus Frank Thomas--how I loved to watch him hit) during that time. My focus has been primarily pre-war for the last half-dozen years or so.

Good thread!

Larry

[hangman62]

Bob,
Come on.. Very much into baseball cards at age 3 ?..AGE 3 ??

[almostdone]

I knew of baseball as a game, of course, but never knew anything of cards when I was very young untill the summer of 1978. I was 6 years old at the time and my older brother was injured badly in an accident that put him in the hospital for over a week. The associate pastor at our church bought him a full box of 1978 Topps cards that he opened and looked through while in recovery. Our family didn't have any money to buy other cards after that for a while so my brother and I knew everyone of those cards back and forth. That was the year Topps put a game on the back and we played it constantly. I learned to flip, sort and count with those cards but more important I learned to love these small cardboard treasures of my boyhood heroes.
After that I picked up a pack here and there until high school then got a complete set of Topps every year. In 1990 I stated to follow a young player in Seattle named Griffey and that's when I went nuts on cards until about 1995. Like most I realized there was not value to keep and couldn't keep up with it. So I abandoned it until about 2001 when a friend introduced me to Ebay and vintage cards. Form then on its been a passion and a hobby.
But every time I see any card from 1978 I can tell you wats on the back. Good thread!!
Drew

[John V]

I still have a number of my cards from "The Wonder Years". 1961, 1962, 1963 and a couple from 1964. I didn't save any of the gum.

[Exhibitman]

Age 6 (1971) started me out. I was passionately into it until 1980 (age 15). I purchased some packs in 1981, mostly as an afterthought, and more or less dropped out until about 1987 or 1988, when I was in law school. I started attending shows [remember those?] regularly at that point and have been full bore at it ever since.

[wolfdogg]

Started in 1982 at age 11 and have never looked back..........................but sometimes wish I had never seen or heard of a cards

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Age 6 (1971) started me out. I was passionately into it until 1980 (age 15). I purchased some packs in 1981, mostly as an afterthought, and more or less dropped out until about 1987 or 1988, when I was in law school. I started attending shows [remember those?] regularly at that point and have been full bore at it ever since.

You've come a heckuva long way since then, Adam, with the expertise you've acquired! Thanks for all the times you've shared it.

Sincerely,

Larry

[sox1903wschamp]

Wow, age 3 is young. Nice thread by the way.

1965 for me at age 5. I can remember them and I really liked the pennant design. I still have some in the collection but they are all collector grade as I used to keep them in a red suitcase and would sort them by team and then Mom would throw them into the suitcase and I would sort them again.

Probably peaked in 68 and 69 but collected up until 74 and then HS and girls became the priorities. And I still have that red suitcase. It has a bunch of 69 decals on it as well as 67 Red Sox stickers. Priceless to me

[David W]

I bought a few packs here and there 1972, 73 and then in 1974 a friend whose dad collected gave me all their 74 doubles after they put together a set. I got a shopping bag full of cards just dumped in there.

75, 76, 77 I spent every penny I could muster on cards (I was 12 years old in 75). We lived on a dead end road called a "Hollow" in Illinois, every time we'd go to the "big city" I'd comb alleys and lots for milk and soda bottles to return for the deposit, and then buy baseball or football cards.

Late 70's I got TSN subscription and just mail ordered my sets, went to college and quit collecting, then in 87-90 thought I would retire on unopened wax..... oopps.....

Started going to and setting up at card shows in late 80's, had a card shop part time in 90-91 and been collecting when funds allow ever since.

[mintacular]

I collected from around 10 thru 14 or so and then reconnected from the age of 28 thru Present

[BearBailey]

I started collecting in 1983 as a 7 year old. I would spend most if not all of my allowance on packs, mainly Topps from the local convenience store and at Little League, then we found a pharmacy that sold fleer and got into them as well. I have never looked back. My 4 years of college were lean years, but in the summer when I worked, I always bought plenty and the birthday and christmas gifts that I chose were mainly baseball cards. Once I graduated and got a "real job" the collection/addiction has continued to grow. All of my friends from my childhood who sold or stopped collecting, always comment how they wish they still collected or atleast still had their cards. I can't imagine ever not collecting, and I just kep working my way back set by set, and I still get at minimum a Topps factory set each year, but usually I get a few boxes to bust throughout the year.

Great Thread!!

[the Rock]

Ah,yes...the days of youth! My first packs were Topps baseball in 1968. Only bought two or three packs. Still have that Ryan rookie after all these years. My friends got into collecting in 1969 so that was the first year of real collecting. 1970 was the heaviest year of collecting among the group and the only year that I bought a whole box(with a friend) to open. I can still see us sitting on his bedroom floor taking turns picking and opening packs. We had more Yaz than we knew what to do with! 1971 and 1972 were also pretty enthusiastic collecting years. Collecting started to fade in 1973 losing out to HO slot cars and a beginning interest in rock music and stereo equipment. My best friend quit collecting in 1973. I still collected some into 1974. Maybe ten to twenty packs purchased that year and that was the end. No purchases in 1975.
Football cards were collected mostly in 1969, 1970(again peak year), 1971, and 1972 was about the end. Basketball in 1969 through 1972, and Hockey in
1969. I put the whole thing away in 1974 and never looked at it again until the mid-eighties. At least the cards were still there. Those early collecting years were a great time of my life.

[theseeker]

Collected some from the 1970 set but, really got drawn in by the playground discovery of the 1971 black borders-- still my favorate set. Got a paper route in '74 (delivering papers was once the work of grade school boys on bikes and not middle-aged men heaving papers from the open widows of beat up vans) which helped fund my first complete set. As my luck would have it, the first non-series issue.

A fond memory was playing baseball with freinds, during summer break, until the heat got to us. At which point we would all go to our respective bedrooms and meet under a shaded tree with card filled shoebox in hand. There, seated cross legged, we would look through each others collection and conduct card exchanges, with the familiar "got him, got him, don't got him" as background noise. You always knew the "spoiled" kids in the crowd by the size of their collection and you could tell the investors from the collectors by the trades being made.

As I entered middle school, I simply felt too old to continue. At this stage, irony, to say the least. Picked it up again during the frenzied late '80's/early
'90's-- although I can honestly say I never fell for the investment hype.

Now for the painful Mother story. I have three older cousins who had moved on to college and marriage by the time my parents would drag me along to visit my Aunt and Uncle's house in the mid '70's. Bored during a visit, I ventured from my siblings in the TV room to the garage were I found 2 brass ringed, cardboard industrial drums both filled knee high with cards from the 1950's through the early 1960's. Everytime I visited, I could be found sorting through these NrMt gems. And they were all there; Mantles, Mays', Sniders, Berras, Spahns.....

One day as my parents were preparing to leave, my mother along with my Aunt, went to get me. As they entered the garage and found me at my familiar spot, on my knees looking at the cards, my Aunt said "you seem so interest in those old cards, why don't you take them with you?" My mother jumped in" oh no, he's got too many of his own." My "oh please, Mom" went on deaf ears. If she'd only thrown my earl '70's collection away instead

[ALR-bishop]

1956 to 1969 and then 1982 to yesterday....and now today

[GoldenAge50s]

My collecting yrs started at age 8 in 1948 & in '49---just a few packs each yr but really began in earnest in 1950 & extended into 1955 (age 15). By then cards went on the back burner as other interests took over!

When I got out of HS in 1958 & was off to college the cards went into the closet & were reclaimed around 1980 when the card "boom" started.

Been into cards since then to now.

[Robextend]

Originally Posted by vintagetoppsguy

I, too, started in '86 (age of 15 - late bloomer) and got very passionate about it in 1987. I sitll love opening '87 junk wax!!! I never quit the hobby and have been collecting for 25 years straight now. I will be 40 next month and I don't plan to ever stop.

I have the same love for 1987 Topps, I was 6 years old and that was the first set I started collecting. I must have bought (well, begged my mom anyway) 3 wax boxes worth of packs, and the rest is history. I did take a long layoff from the mid-90's up until I discovered my love for vintage around 2006. I was so disenchanted with the insert craze of the 90's that I just gave up for quite a while.

[bbcard1]

Started in 70, stopped in 1978, restarted in the early 80s. Haven't stopped yet.

[novakjr]

Originally Posted by Robextend

I have the same love for 1987 Topps, I was 6 years old and that was the first set I started collecting. I must have bought (well, begged my mom anyway) 3 wax boxes worth of packs, and the rest is history. I did take a long layoff from the mid-90's up until I discovered my love for vintage around 2006. I was so disenchanted with the insert craze of the 90's that I just gave up for quite a while.

That '87 Topps set sure did suck a lot of us in....All things aside, it's probably still my favorite Topps set for sentimental reasons...

[mr vintage]

I started collecting baseball cards in 1954. i can still remember going to a small candy store about 1 block from my school, and laying down 5 cents for a pack of 54 topps baseball cards. i would hurry to open the pack just to get the gum, the gum would leave a coating of white sugar on the top card. i remember going thru each card, hoping for a yankee or dodger. living in NY. i always rooted for the yankees or dodgers, mostly the yankees. Funny, i don't remember being for the giants. i remember in 1956, opening 5 cent packs of 1956 topps, the one thing that sticks in my mind was when ever we got a checklist card, we would throw them away, who knew that they would some day be worth more than most of the cards in the set. oh well. About 1958, when i was 12, i discovered girls, and my card collecting days were over, until 1989, when i was looking for a hobby. yep. card collecting. i have bought and sold the 1956, 1960, 1962, topps and the 55 bowman baseball sets, which i put togeather, card by card. to me the enjoyment was putting these sets togeather. i currently have the 54 topps set, with a CSA 6.5 aaron rookie, the rest of the set is ex-mt, to nr mt. in football i had every set from the 55 topps AA to and including the 86 topps set, i also had the 55 bowman set, had about 3 of those. i have to admit i have put away enough money over the years from my card collecting, to put my son thru college. i didn't even mention all the autographs i accumulated. the hobby has been good to me, and i still search ebay for those good deals, to good to pass up. hope i didn't waste anyones time, thanks . dave

[Bob Lemke]

My second childhood memory is of stepping out of my grandfather's maroon 1949 DeSoto in front on our house with a red-amd-green pack of 1954 Topps. The only card I remember (maybe it was a penny pack) was Ray Blades, who, amazingly, bore a strong resemblance to my grandfather at that time.

I had three older brothers and we all collected to a greater-or-lesser degree. I still have a few of those choldhood cards that I inherited from them and from older kids in the neighborhood who outgrew them.

I remember in 1955, when the local groceries ran out of Johnston Cookie packages with the Braves folders before we could get a full set, that my mother wrote the company and they sent both me an my brother full sets of 1953s.

[GasHouseGang]

It's odd how your memory works sometimes. I don't actually remember buying the 1968 Topps cards, but I remember getting the 1968 Topps Game Cards that were included in the packs and had all the top stars in a game deck. I must have bought several packs in 1968 because I had a pretty good stack of those, but the actual cards got lost somewhere. I was 8 when those came out, and I remember going on treasure hunts looking for empty pop bottles which were worth 2 cents each. I'd save those pennies until I could afford a pack. Like lots of others I remember the thrill of opening the packs and hoping to get my favorite team, the St. Louis Cardinals. My buddies and I all wanted Lou Brock or Bob Gibson. I must not have bought very many other packs of cards until 1971, but I remember opening many of those packs with that distinct black border. Then those crazy 1972's came along. What a strange design! But I bought quite a lot of the 72's. I lost interest in the 1973's except for the card number 1, I remember that card and thinking it was special. And then when Aaron broke the HR record I got lots of the 74's because I really liked those Aaron tribute cards. I was done after that until I picked it up again years later.

[HTBB]

I remember collecting from 1952 (9 years old) until I graduated from high school in 1960 (17 years old). Still have many of the cards which are truly in " a kid's collector grade" (whatever that means). Mike

[bigtrain]

Remember a few cards in 1962. Then a collecting frenzy '63 to '68 and a few in '69. Pretty much cooled off after Mantle retired. Cards were all in well-handled kid's grade as we flipped them against the wall of the school.

[Volod]

Originally Posted by theseeker

....
Now for the painful Mother story. I have three older cousins who had moved on to college and marriage by the time my parents would drag me along to visit my Aunt and Uncle's house in the mid '70's. Bored during a visit, I ventured from my siblings in the TV room to the garage were I found 2 brass ringed, cardboard industrial drums both filled knee high with cards from the 1950's through the early 1960's. Everytime I visited, I could be found sorting through these NrMt gems. And they were all there; Mantles, Mays', Sniders, Berras, Spahns.....

One day as my parents were preparing to leave, my mother along with my Aunt, went to get me. As they entered the garage and found me at my familiar spot, on my knees looking at the cards, my Aunt said "you seem so interest in those old cards, why don't you take them with you?" My mother jumped in" oh no, he's got too many of his own." My "oh please, Mom" went on deaf ears. If she'd only thrown my earl '70's collection away instead

Ahh, brings back so many fond and anguished memories. I had long since stopped collecting at the time I enlisted in 1961, but I was still working on a large stamp collection, so before I took off for boot camp, I gathered up all of my nerd stuff, including several hundred early '50's cards, and secreted it all in a locker in a dank, musty part of the family garage, thinking it was unlikely to be found while I was gone. Wrong again, Watson - I still recall that day sitting on my footlocker in the barracks, reading a breezy note from my sainted mother that ended with, "by the way, your father was cleaning out the garage and found some of your old things that you had forgotten about, so we put them in the trash to make more room for the cars." To this day, I believe Ma knew I treasured that stuff, but she wanted to punish me for choosing the military over college. Judging from the other memoirs posted here, I guess we're all a bunch of obsessive-compulsive hoarders with childhood regression issues, huh?

[novakjr]

Originally Posted by Volod

Ahh, brings back so many fond and anguished memories. I had long since stopped collecting at the time I enlisted in 1961, but I was still working on a large stamp collection, so before I took off for boot camp, I gathered up all of my nerd stuff, including several hundred early '50's cards, and secreted it all in a locker in a dank, musty part of the family garage, thinking it was unlikely to be found while I was gone. Wrong again, Watson - I still recall that day sitting on my footlocker in the barracks, reading a breezy note from my sainted mother that ended with, "by the way, your father was cleaning out the garage and found some of your old things that you had forgotten about, so we put them in the trash to make more room for the cars." To this day, I believe Ma knew I treasured that stuff, but she wanted to punish me for choosing the military over college. Judging from the other memoirs posted here, I guess we're all a bunch of obsessive-compulsive hoarders with childhood regression issues, huh?

Not exactly a painful mother story. But I've been told numerous times that I was supposed to have been given my uncle's childhood collection. Supposedly complete Topps sets from the mid-late 60's- mid 70's. However, no one seems to know exactly where they are or who actually ended up with them..Although, I've heard some speculation. All that anyone could find was his late 70's football stuff though. Unfortunately, I was a kid, and they're now in "not so collectible" condition...Maybe it was for the best that I didn't end up with the baseball stuff...It would be great to have though..

[HRBAKER]

I bought a few packs in 1966 at age 7 but really started collecting heavily in 1967. I have fond memories of buying the 6 pack Wax Trays for 25 cents at the A&P. I probably bought the most cards from the era of appx. 1971 through 1976 and really stopped while in college in 1980. I bought no packs in 1981 but picked up a few in 1982 and then plunged back in in 1983. I bought my first prewar card in 1988 and really haven't dabbled much in newer card with the exception of the Topps Heritage issues since.

1967 Boxes



1967 Wrapper



My Favorite Card as a kid and still my favorite postwar card

[Leon]

I took moderator liberties and moved this thread to the front page so more folks can read, enjoy and join in it.

I started collecting in about 1968 at 7 yrs old. I kept collecting until about 12 yrs old and then some family stuff happened and I stopped collecting until my mid 30's after I was married....regards

[marcdelpercio]

I was hooked for sure at age 3. My earliest memory is swimming around on the living room floor in a pile of 1978 Topps cards. I would ask for baseball cards instead of toys for every birthday and Christmas (still at the top of my list every year) and would save up every penny of loose change I could find to be able to buy a couple of 20 cent packs at the grocery store each week. I finally completed my first set (1987 Topps), card by card. Putting that final Roy Smalley card in the box and feeling that I had truly accomplished something is my single greatest childhood memory. I still have that set and literally wouldn't sell it for a million dollars. I can honestly say that there has not been one single month I have been alive, from probably age 5 onward, that I have not bought or traded for some baseball cards. Great thread!

[alanu]

I don't remember exactly how long, but I think from about 1967 (6 years old) until 1972. This is based on the mostly football and baseball cards (and lots of non-sports too) that I found when I was out of college, including a complete 1972 Topps baseball set that was mailed to me by series.

I didn't really start back up gain until the late 80's, early 90's when I mostly started trading all of my stuff for Clemente cards.

-Alan

[Tim Fritz]

Started at age 5 in '76 with football, baseball and basketball. My mom got me hooked buying me packs. Started seriously buying packs in '83 and going to shows at the local VFW in '84. Bought 50s and 60s, never remember seeing any pre-war at those shows.

'85 to '89 was the heaviest, collecting every set from every sport. About the only set I didn't collect was '86-87 Fleer basketball. Go figure.

Got back in after college in '96.

[abothebear]

During ages 5-7, 1984 - 1985 I loved the baseball and football cards my dad brought home for me. But it wasn't until the fall of '86 that I started "collecting" (before that I played with the cards, wrote on the backs, and stored them in a 1972 Olympics bag that my aunt gave me. I was just thinking the other day how the 1987 Topps set was the first set I remember waiting for the release and being excited about the new design. The wood panelling often gets panned, but I will always love it.

I stopped collecting baseball cards when MLB went on strike. I collected basketball and mostly hockey cards for a couple more years, but I moved into comic books almost exclusively and was pretty much done with both by the time I graduated from high school. It was a good long run, ages 5-17 broadly speaking, or ages 7-15 as prime collecting years.

[Jantz]

Ral

Your story is almost identical to mine, except the years would be 1976-1979. I collected all three sports then. Still have all my cards, except one.

I decided two years ago to finish one of my sets that I started back then. Found the last few cards for my 1979 Topps set at the Strongsville show last month. 31 years later and its finally finished!

Like your comment about "other things". So true

Jantz

[glchen]

I started in 1982 at age 9 and basically continued until 1990 before starting up again last year.

[Peter W Thomas]

Started with 1949 Leaf after 1st grade ended and walked to Cashman's store on Rt 9 in Natick Mass with Bob Olskansky. Picked up pop bottles from construction site between school and Cashman's and turned them into Leaf's - still have the cards. My step-granddad saw them and gave me about 50 goudeys that were canceled as a promption that was being run at the drug store he worked in Worcester. They were punched through the trademark. Still have those also.

[tedzan]

My first BB cards were acquired in the Summer of 1947 when I was 8 years old. They were pulled from the BOND BREAD packages.



Like Peter Thomas, my first color BB cards were the 1949 LEAF's. But, only the 1st series of 49 cards. Peter was very fortunate, since the very tough
2nd series (49 cards) were available in his area.

Collected 1948 - 1952 BOWMAN's (BB and FB and WILD WEST cards).

In the Spring of 1952, I was very excited when the TOPPS cards were available. My very last pack of 1952 TOPPS cards was acquired in the Fall of 1952.
It included this Mickey Mantle. In 1977, I recovered my collection of sportscards from my youth. Fortunately, my folks stored the cards in our attic (when
I was away in the Air Force in the early 1960's).



TED Z

[bh3443]

I opened packs of EVERYTHING starting in 1967. I got more into it in 1968/69 when I completed my first sets which were 1968 Topps BB, FB, and the hockey and basketball from the fall and winter. I opened lots of non-sports, too.
By the time 1969 arrived I was buying a dozen or more boxes of every series of Baseball to make up multiple sets. I continued opening packs and I still do today. My passion has always been in "older cards."
I started scouring the neighborhood for older cards in the late 60's and did quite well.
My favorite childhood sets are: 69 Topps BB, 68 Topps FB and 68-69 Topps hockey.

[PolarBear]

I started with non sports in 1977 (Star Wars). I only collected sports for two years, 1980 and 81 football. I never did collect baseball and when I got back into cards a few years ago, I started a football set, then discovered the wide world of vintage baseball, and got interested in baseball history. I still don't care much about, or watch much, modern baseball.

If football had the same array of pre war cards that baseball does, I'd most likely collect those. As it is, there's only a couple of isolated issues. Football cards didn't really take off until Bowman started issuing them.

[ullmandds]

I began collecting cards in 1975-1976 at the age of 6-7...I first acquired a small stash of 1970 topps...which led to buying packs in late 1976 or so. I started compiling sets in 1977 and did this until 1982 when the market was becoming crowded with sets other than topps. My dad would ask his coworkers if their sons(who had gone off to college) had any bb cards they didn't want...and through this I was able to acquire most significant cards from 1957-present. I had a huge bider or two with hof'ers and stars of the day...all in sheets in chronological order.

I purchased my first t206 at a card show in 1980 or so...and had a handful or two of vintage(pre-wwII) cards when I sold my collection in high school to fund the purchase of a bitchin' camaro. I kept maybe 30 cards from my childhood collection.

In college my roommates and I started buying packs of upper deck cards which led me back to the hobby.

I vowed to never buy cards I once owned so I went in the direction of vintage...and haven't looked back.

[4815162342]

I collected Ryne Sandberg cards as a kid in the late 80s/early 90s. Like many others, I left the hobby during the strike.

[Bill Stone]

Nice thread. I started collecting baseball cards in 1954 at age 9. I played little league baseball in Burbank, California and I always looked forward to going to see the Hollywood Stars at Gilmore Field. I can remember like it was yesterday riding my bike down to the neighborhood corner grocery and buying a pack of cards ( I loved the hard gum ! ) and I also would buy a dill pickel out of a jar. My favorite player in 1955 was Dale Long and I would trade cards to get his. I can fondly remember getting my shoebox out and arranging the cards into teams. I never thought of it as completing a set only adding teammates. About 1956 I started collecting travel decals and to this day I think I have one of the finest collections of pinup travel decals from the 50's.
At age 12 a beautiful pinup was just more appealing than another Spook Jacobs card .

[bunst]

I started collecting at the age of 6 in 1968 and continued until a H.S. senior in 1980. I was quite passionate about it and ended up with quite a collection. There is a picture of me opening a pack of 1968 Topps and the floor around me is littered with cards (a Nolan Ryan is right next to my foot just waiting to be stepped on). Fun times indeed.