Do you recall your first card you got in a pack?

[Northviewcats]

My first pack was in 1961. I was ten years old and I was immediately hooked. For the next few years I used all of my allowance and even searched the empty lots in the neighborhood for glass pop bottles to cash in to feed my baseball card addiction. I don't remember the players in the first pack, but I was a huge Mickey Mantle fan and I would trade ten cards to one to get a Mantle card. I had one box full of Yankee cards, most of them of Maris and Mantle.

Like most kids I didn't take good care of my cards. Scratched off team names and wrote the new team in pencil when a player was traded. Played games with them. Wrapped them with rubber bands. Stored them in a damp room in the basement. Eventually my Dad grew tired of the mess and threw them all away. He said he had to use a shovel to pitch them there were so many cards laying on the basement floor.

I didn't care back then because I discovered girls. What a mistake.

Oh well. If we would have kept and took care of our cards they wouldn't be so valuable today.

Best regards,

Joe

[smellthegum]

Originally Posted by Northviewcats

... and even searched the empty lots in the neighborhood for glass pop bottles to cash in to feed my baseball card addiction.

I remember doing this too. As I mentioned in a previous post my first card/pack was '71 1st series wax, but I didn't get fully into baseball until 1974. Before that I remember all the neighborhood kids -- there were 9 or 10 of us -- scrounging discarded Coke bottles and selling lemonade on the corner to fund bulk purchases of Wacky Packages during the summers of 1973 and 1974. The corner store couldn't restock them fast enough before we'd buy them out. That's what really got us all going and a few kids continued to collect cards for several years after that. I don't collect non-sports but couldn't resist buying a few early series unopened Wacky Packages just recently for the pure nostalgia.

[cardswin53]

The first card I remember getting out of a pack was Stan Musial in the 1961 Topps as a 8 year old living in St. Louis. Still one of my favorite cards. May not have been the very first but it is the one I remember, although I admit it may be a false memory.

[clydepepper]

I believe I have responded to a similar question before and I do not recall exactly what I said then...so I hope I don't contradict myself now:

Mom bought me a few packs of cards at the A&P in 1964.

I seem to recall or believe I remember Gary Kolb, Ron Santo, Bobby Richardson and Orlando Cepeda - but I'm not sure they all came in the first pack.

[JollyElm]

In the spring of 1972 my brothers towed me along with them on the long hike to the local stationery store. I was rewarded with my first pack of baseball cards and quickly learned how to dig through them to find any cards with red borders…because that meant they could be Mets!!!!!!!!!

[pingman59]

I was 9 years old. I remember my first pack was a 1968 Topps Rak Pack purchased at the Woolworth's. (Oh, the smell of grilled cheese sandwiches when you walked into the Woolworth's!) I don't remember the players, but did pick through the Packs on the hanger for the best pack. I went back several times to buy more and did. I thought that's how you bought baseball cards, in Rak Packs. It wasn't until I was at a different department store weeks later when I bought a 3rd Series wax pack with the game card insert. I thought that was so cool, AND you got a stick of gum!



20 years later, I visited the Baseball Hall-of-Fame and was somewhat disappointed to see a Woolworth's stuck right next to the sacred HOF building. I went inside to see if I could buy some baseball cards like the old days and wouldn't you know it, the smell of grilled cheese sandwiches greeted my nose at the door! I didn't find any new packs to buy, but someone had a display case of vintage cards in the back and I bought a nice 1952 Topps Minnie Minoso rookie instead.

[Buythatcard]

I don't remember my first card but my first pack was a 61 Topps. Back in the day when a pack cost 5 cents. I remember it would take me forever to save up for a full box of packs that cost me a whopping $1.25.