How did you get started in the hobby

[Jayworld]

I bought my first baseball cards from the neighborhood 7-11 in 1975 when I was eight years old and have been hooked ever since. The fall of 1975 saw us trading 1975 Topps football cards in school. I collected cards solely from packs from 1975-78 and enjoyed building (or trying to build) sets that way, and yes, I filled in the checklist cards to help keep track of which cards I was lacking. 1979 was the first year that I ordered the complete Topps baseball set from a dealer rather than try to build from packs. I remember that set cost $9.99 postpaid. I relied on the Card Collector's Company to buy singles and fill-in the holes to complete my 1977 and 1978 baseball sets....

I finally completed the 1975 Topps set last year, and I am currently working on completing the 1975 Topps football set.

[Rickyy]

I grew up in Japan, my dad was in the US Navy, so my first exposure to bb cards came in the form of late 60's Topps cards that he bought me at the base commissary. I was into Japanese baseball then, but didn't collect or know about Japanese BB cards until I came state side. Then once I came to the US (N. Calif) in the early 70's.... I got hooked on bb cards as my school mates also had them. First collected some in 1971 just for fun ( I remember buying packs, cello pack in those blue boxes and also remember buying BB and FB rack packs that year). Seriously got hooked in 1973 as I was following the Swinging A's in the SF bay area and completed my first set.

Ricky Y

[bmattioli]

I have been collecting for years but the earliest thoughts i must say are buying Hostess cakes for day camp with the free card.. I had a paper route and any left over money was either saved, I was thrifty even back then or used to purchase 15 cents packs or comics at an old bookstore on my route. Those were the days.

[DHogan]

I needed a hobby. I started out buying all crap from the early 90's. I started building sets in the mid 90's. And started collecting vintage soon after. Vintage cards are way more fun. I wish I had started sooner.

[BearBailey]

In 1983 my dad bought a box from a pharmacy he went too,each week he asked if me and my brother were good and if so he gave us a pack. By end of 1983 went to a baseball card show, Brooks Robinson was the autograph guest and couldn't have been better to me. That's how I got hooked, by 1987 I was mowing neighbors lawns and spending all of money on cards.

[tab]

I remember driving up to a gas station drive thru as a kid with my mother. She got her cigarettes and me a pack of cards. I would chew the gum and check out my cards. I then tossed them in the floor of her station wagon before getting dropped off at school(kindergarten). I had tons of 87 topps 88 donruss etc and on into the early 90's. i purchased a couple of wax boxes of 1987 topps baseball for me and my son to open together when he gets a little older. Just to kind of relive my childhood.

[horzverti]

Originally Posted by BearBailey

1987 I was mowing neighbors lawns and spending all of money on cards.

Me too. I mowed lawns from about 1983 to 1988. Three of every four dollars earned went toward my wax pack addiction, but I turned out ok.

[ullmandds]

I first starting buying packs in 1976...began buying complete sets in 1977. My dad knew a guy(mel solomon) in the hobby at our temple and I used to sequester his help to obtain cards I wanted. I once sorted 30 sets for mel in exchange for 1 free one to keep.

My dad would ask his coworkers if they had any bb cards at home from kids who had long left. In this manner I was able to acquire most significant cards from the late 50's-present.

I started attending shows in 80-81 or so...bought my first t205/t206 in 81...a matty white cap.

I sold my childhood collection minus a few cards in 86' to buy a beat up 76 chevy camaro.

Got back into it while in college buying 90-91 UD packs...then got into solely vintage.

[TobaccoKing4]

My dad got me into collecting as a kid but I got into prewar as a kid by playing a baseball simulation game on a website called whatifsports. You'd be able to make a team from players from all different years from 1885-current year. After playing it for a year or so I wanted to get a card of one of the old time players that I was using and ended up getting a T206 Delehanty of ebay. That started the madness.

[nickedson]

I bought my first pack of cards in 1959 and was lucky that my best friend's dad owned a "dime store" that sold cards. At the end of the 1960 and 1961 seasons, my friend's dad simply gave me the leftover Topps boxes he had. So that triggered my collecting interest. I set up at my first card show in Troy, MI in 1972 after my senior year in high school. If there was one "aha" moment in my collecting career, it's when I opened a pack of 1959 Topps and got a Detroit Tigers Red Wilson card. My mom and dad, who were teachers, made such a big deal out of me getting a Tiger that I was hooked immediately.

[Rich Klein]

Originally Posted by ullmandds

I first starting buying packs in 1976...began buying complete sets in 1977. My dad knew a guy(mel solomon) in the hobby at our temple and I used to sequester his help to obtain cards I wanted. I once sorted 30 sets for mel in exchange for 1 free one to keep.

My dad would ask his coworkers if they had any bb cards at home from kids who had long left. In this manner I was able to acquire most significant cards from the late 50's-present.

I started attending shows in 80-81 or so...bought my first t205/t206 in 81...a matty white cap.

I sold my childhood collection minus a few cards in 86' to buy a beat up 76 chevy camaro.

Got back into it while in college buying 90-91 UD packs...then got into solely vintage.

Pete:

I stay in touch with Mel and he was walking around the National on Sunday -- do you want me to send you his email address

Rich

[ullmandds]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

Pete:

I stay in touch with Mel and he was walking around the National on Sunday -- do you want me to send you his email address

Rich

thats funny! i last saw mel at a national maybe in 95. He sold my childhood collection for me!!

[jmb]

Originally Posted by ullmandds

I sold my childhood collection minus a few cards in 86' to buy a beat up 76 chevy camaro.

Crazy ! I also got a 76 Camaro in 86 when I graduated HS.

I started buying packs in 75, but the 76 set is my favorite one from childhood.

[billyb]

As a kid in Detroit in the mid. 50s, we lived, breathed and dreamed baseball. I guess I wasn't a collector as a kid, just a saver. But the old story happened, went into military in the mid 60s, and parents threw my cards out.
I did not start collecting until 1984. I was working in law enforcement with Detroit, and was working a specialized unit that worked strictly on home and business break-ins. We got a call from a baseball card shop owner, and he stated his had some baseball card sets stolen and that he believed it was an inside job by a young employee. He asked us to help him find out from this employee, where the cards went.

Sure enough, the next day, when the employee came to work, there we were and got this young guy to confess his wrong doings and where he had sold the 1969 mint factory set. We went to the shop where the kid sold the cards, and the owner of the shop admitted buying from the kid. With a little convincing, the owner turned over the cards, and we returned them to the rightful owner.

In appreciation, the owner gave us each a new set of 1984 Topps and Fleer cards. I got to talking to him about cards my mother had bought several years prior, from a neighbor who came knocking on her door to sell cards, because he needed the money. I told him some of the cards were smaller then the others, and he stated they were probably 75 minis and to look for the Yount and Brett in the set. A couple days later, I looked at the box of loose cards my mother had, and there were cards from 1970 to 80 in the box. And more then a few. Sure enough, there was the Yount and Brett in this 75 minis which was about 75 % complete, as well as a Topps 1774 set also about 75 % complete. I had a ball going through this box of about 4 to 5000 cards with plenty of stars.

I met with the baseball card shop owner and told him what I had, and he invited me to an upcoming baseball card show. I went and I was hooked.
I got to see all the cards I had as a kid and their value, OMG.

It is a great hobby, and when I give kids some free samples, I tell them to put one in their spokes and to have fun with the rest.

[cubman1941]

I don't know really how I got started, maybe because I liked baseball. I started with 1952 Topps, then some 1953. I put them in a box in my closet. I quit for some reason, probably because I started high school. The box sat in my closet. I went into the U.S. Army in 1962 and came home in 1964. The box sat in my closet. I got a job and left home. Came back in around 1969 only to find my mother had cleaned out my closet because my brother wanted it. She throw my box of cards out but kept my brothers books from his only semester of college. When asked about it she said the cards were taking up space and my brother might go back to school. In 1976 I was living in Maryland and my daughter got me a box of Twinkies because of the baseball cards on the back and this started me again and continue to this day.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

bought my brother a pack of 1981 Topps as a present for getting his tonsils out. Through all the years, between the two of us, we had managed to keep one or two cards from that first pack. Alas in the last couple moves neither of us can seem to find them. If you ever get a 1981 Topps George Brett with seriously rounded corners and AP written on the back in black crayon you'll know you have one of ours!