I don't remember or have my very first card. I know the first time I was exposed to cards was in 1978. My brother had a horrible accident and while hospitalizd someone brought him a box of cards to open. We read and studied those cards for years. I learned my love of the game and statistics from those cards.
I do know the first vintage card I ever owned and still do own it. In 1993 I was just out of college and in a new but temporary job (21 years later and I'm still there
). A coworker who was about 15 years older than me, Joe, was a collector. At the time I was into all the new stuff and bought it up at a fantastic rate. I was showing my newest pulls to him and explaining how awesome it all was. He was polite but didn't seem to get was I was so excited about.
The next day Joe told me that if I ever wanted to be considered a true card collector than I have to have a "real Mickey Mantle". He pulled from his pocket a 1968 Topps Mantle in horrible to crappy condition. I was blown away. I didn't know what it would sell for, probably around $20, but I knew I owned a Mantle.
I found out about ten years ago that Joe went onto become a pastor in Florida and then suddenly and tragically died leaving a wife and two children. I think of him and his generosity to a young, arrogant card collector every time I see that beat up Mantle in my display case. At that point I started looking at vintage and eventually never bought a new pack again.
Drew
PS At some other point in some other thread I'll share two unbelievable stories that Joe shared with me about two different run ins he had with two different legends of the game.