[ksfarmboy]

My first cards were 1977 football. I tacked the first pack up to the wall. A buddy of my dads soon opened a card store and I learned the value of cards were based on condition. Broke my heart I ruined my cards by pinning them up. I ended up getting many more and completed the set. I still have the original cards with the tack holes. I worked at the card shop and was his first customer. We were too late for the 77 baseball packs but I opened a ton of Star Wars, basketball and football. 1978 was my first year collecting baseball and I had the set. Yaz was extremely tough and I did get one but unfortunately left it at a friends house. I never got another one out of a pack but bought one later. Opened lots of 79s but 1980 was my heyday. I have about 8-9 sets from packs. I even knew the collation from opening so many. Working at the shop one of my jobs was opening a case of cards and sorting them by numbers and pulling the big stars. I chewed so much gum and it was a great job. I still remember the owner reaching into a filing cabinet of 55 Bowman baseball commons, grabbing a huge stack and giving them to me for working a full day. Man I miss those days.