It's late 1953, you're 8 years old and have a nickel

[rats60]

I would be buying both Bowman and Topps. They are both baseball cards aren't they?

[NiceDocter]

Buy 5 one cent packs of either Topps or Bowman and DONT OPEN THEM! 70 years later on NET54 you can tell a great story and then probably get a ton for them at auction! If you are really lucky you might find some store still selling 1952 Topps high numbers from last year! But don't open them! Then do whatever you must to GET ANOTHER NICKEL!!!!

[Volod]

I actually was eight years old in the summer of 1953, but I never saw or heard of the black and white series - until nearly thirty years later - but that was because, like most kids at that time, I kind of lost interest in nerdy pursuits like cards once school was out and I could pedal my bike to a nearby lake, or play baseball or just about any activity that took me outside and away from inside. Maybe kids are different today. Addressing your question in the usual way-back machine, time-travel mode, however, I would spend the entire summer doing odd jobs and collecting deposit bottles and using the proceeds to buy up as many waxpacks as I could before NiceDoctor beat me to them.