How the times have changed
 

Was looking back at baseball card litigation and found this line from the 1980 decision in Topps v Fleer.

Boys, age seven through twelve, are the primary consumers of baseball cards in the United States.

Actually it is true except those kids from 7 to 12 are now 47 to 52 now

Topps's baseball cards are sold primarily in convenience stores, discount stores, and small local grocery stores. Most baseball card purchasers buy their cards from convenience stores, such as "7-11" stores.

Trading, collecting and learning about players are the most common reasons for children to purchase baseball cards.

lmfao

It took me 8 months to find an unopened pack of cards at an outlet I could have easily purchased cards in the past. The young collectors are doomed..

LOL, I am 52 so I am still good for this year.:D

I still feel and often act in that 7-12 age zone. If booze is involved, I can go up the ladder as high as 16-17.

My first pack was 1982 topps, but when I was about 11 (1985), I started collecting big time. My brother and I would ride our bikes to the Kwik Stop (on Rockville Pike, in Maryland) and buy boxes of 1985 topps cards. What a set - Clemens, Gooden, Puckett, McGwire (USA), Conseco (USA)…. We would would bring those plastic cases that held like 20 cards and we would open the box in the parking lot, put the good cards in the plastic boxes, the others in the cardboard box, and bike back with a plastic bag holding a box full of cards and a few plastic cases. They knew us at that store. We must have bought 200 boxes from
1985-1989. They used to only carry topos but we convinced them to carry Donruss and Fleer (because some years Donrus was better, the next year Topps, so on). I have such fond memories of that.

Sorry, just feeling nostalgic

This is remarkably similar to my memories in the mid-late 80s too and is what baseball card collecting is supposed to be like. Having said that I bought 5 blasters of 2021 Topps chrome yesterday on the way to work because I didn't know if I'd get another chance to buy. I still wish it was like our childhood days and didn't have to deal with the breakers and flippers and investors just to enjoy opening some packs.

7-12 year old kids today are screwed anyway with $5 packs. How many young kids can afford to collect today?

My first pack was 1982 topps, but when I was about 11 (1985), I started collecting big time. My brother and I would ride our bikes to the Kwik Stop (on Rockville Pike, in Maryland) and buy boxes of 1985 topps cards. What a set - Clemens, Gooden, Puckett, McGwire (USA), Conseco (USA)….

i guess your memory is not that good if you recall Conseco on the 1985 Topps USA card. :)

7-12 year old kids today are screwed anyway with $5 packs. How many young kids can afford to collect today?

I was just talking to my brother and he says tat the companies should produce a set with $1.00 packs and 10 to 12 cards per pack. That should help generate interest with the younger kids. No rare inserts / autographs / refracting whatever's. just a basic set with maybe easy to get inserts.

Bob