What was your first set?

[skelly423]

I've picked up the odd complete set here and there, but I don't count those as I didn't build them from scratch. The first set I built myself was the 1950 Bowman.

[profholt82]

1987 Topps. My dad bought me my first pack, and I was enthralled. Those wood grain borders, the brittle gum, the anecdotes and statistics on the back. That summer would mark my first year of little league, and I had baseball fever. From that point on, I would ride my bike down to the corner gas station, we called it Petrol Point, and buy a new pack whenever I scraped a few quarters together. It's still one of my all time favorite sets.

[riggs336]

My first set was 1955 Topps. There were no checklists to let me know about the four missing numbers so I kept buying and buying, searching for those missing cards.

It wasn't until sometime in the early 70s that I realized I had two complete sets and a good start on two others.

[king11]

The first packs of cards I ever received were 1977 Topps - my mother bought them for me. I was overjoyed to eventually get a Rod Carew card - he was my favorite player, and this was the year he hit .388.

The first set I completed was the 1980 Topps set. I traded cards with friends all summer long, and I kept getting closer and closer to completing the set. Right after school started up in late August, I have a memory of opening a wax pack in the back seat of my parents’ rust-brown Toyota station wagon and there it was, the final card I needed: the elusive Ken Oberkfell. I couldn’t believe the card was actually in my hands. A happy memory.

[dealme]

Originally Posted by profholt82

1987 Topps. My dad bought me my first pack, and I was enthralled. Those wood grain borders, the brittle gum, the anecdotes and statistics on the back. That summer would mark my first year of little league, and I had baseball fever. From that point on, I would ride my bike down to the corner gas station, we called it Petrol Point, and buy a new pack whenever I scraped a few quarters together. It's still one of my all time favorite sets.

1987 Topps was where I started as well. I had some Garbage Pail Kids from the year before, but my mom felt that they were inappropriate for a seven-year-old. So to make up for it she bought me some baseball cards. At the time, I was confused because some of the older kids on my street had some 1986 Topps cards, and I liked the design better. So I kept looking for what I thought would be 1986 cards, but kept turning up the wood-bordered 1987 cards. I eventually figured it out. My dad took me to a card show in late 1987 and bought me both the 1986 and 1987 Topps sets. Once I got hooked, he unveiled to me a stack of 1963 Topps cards that he had picked up at a garage sale the year I was born. When I got back into collecting 12 or so years ago, I started with that stack of 1963 Topps and completed the set. I love hearing these stories.

[SAllen2556]

1972. My dad bought me a couple of 1st series packs. It only took me 40 years to finish the set.

Renato Galasso was my source for complete sets when I was old enough to mail a letter. I remember ordering the '79 set with the Bump Wills error card. I also got, I think for a buck, the 1973 all-time leaders cards including card #1. Those are my best chances for PSA 10's. They're absolutely perfect cards.

There was a candy, gum distributor place in our town that would sell to the public. From about 1976 to 1979 my buddy and I used to split a wax box or two every year because, per pack, it was way cheaper, but I got turned off to building sets because I'd buy a whole wax box, or even two, and get tons of doubles and never get a complete set.

I never finished a set by buying boxes or packs in the 70's and early 80's. I had to go to a card show to finish every Topps set I ever started, and I'm still missing about 40 cards from 1981 and 80 or so from 1982.

[nolemmings]

The first set I completed was 1968--sort of. My neighbor and I (with his big brother) completed and shared it. I got the AL cards and he got the NL cards-- I don't recall who got the World Series or multi-player cards and we didn't care about "owning" the checklists. And there were more than enough game cards for us each.

We tried again in 1969-- I remember how hard it was to find a Del Unser card--but had some sort of argument and decided to give up the whole sharing thing. I gave him my '68s and he gave me his '69s.

[mikemb]

My first complete set was 1969.

As a kid, I collected cards from 1965 to 1971 (age 8 to 14). Never got a complete set. Was always missing a few cards or even more.

In 1976 started getting the missing cards. 1969 was first to get completed and the others followed.

What is great is, except for 1965 and 1966, I have all the checklists from those years I carefully marked. So I can tell which cards I was missing.

Mike