I started in 78 and aside from trading for, or trying to trade for slightly older cards between friends, I just had packs.
The guy who got me into cards would vacation periodically in Spokane and would visit a card shop out there that sounded magical to me and always brought back neat older cards (50s). He would never trade any to me though!
It would mostly be pack busting for me until I started buying all the full sets (Topps/Fleer/Donruss) via mail order in 1982, and then I continued to buy packs too.
Eventually I discovered a couple places that sold older cards and even though I also discovered a few mail order opportunities before 82, I can only ever recall buying collector sets, like RGI or TCMA.
I slowed to a near stop around 88-89 when I was in the Navy. I would still get the 3 sets thru 1989 (plus Score in 88) I think, then would later have to back fill the ones i missed, as I started back up full steam around 1993.
After getting sucked into ALL wax in the mid 90s, I finally decided it just was not worth the money around 1998-2000 range, slowly weening myself off the habit. Packs were getting more expensive and I realized that it was just better to buy what you wanted. I felt ripped off when I would spend $80 on a box and get pretty much nothing but base cards and a few inserts that might be "worth" 50 cents the next year.
I have not bought any quantity of newer packs in the last 20 years aside from a rare "older" bargain box here and there for a fun nostalgic rip party. Last one was 2 boxes of 2004 Donruss Team Heroes sometime last year that I got for under $50 for the pair. Even single random packs, which I used to pick up from time to time or get for Xmas from my wife, don't really appeal to me anymore. Have not ripped anything new (current year of issue) in at least 7-10 years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike D.
I started collecting in 1987 at age 11. I feel like it was at least a couple years before I ever bought an individual card that was published before 1987. It was all about buying packs (and eventually boxes). I can remember buying probably 6 wax boxes of 1990 Donruss that year. Blah.
Now, it's probably been 10 years since I bought a current-year pack.
|