What was your first set?

[Volod]

Thanks for the thread. Strange, isn't it that most of us seem to recall that first set from an emotional attachment that still anchors us to the hobby. I am still working on the first set that I tried to complete. In the fall of 1951, my father was in a weekend bowling league and grudgingly took my brother and me along with him to an ancient, dilapidated alley on the other side of town. He would hand each of us a crumpled bill and tell us to get lost and stay out of trouble for the next three hours or so. Luckily for us tykes, there happened to be a small mom & pop store next to the bowling emporium, so we did not have to spend the night sitting in a smoke-filled barroom with numerous adult imbibers. Instead, we usually spent the time sitting on the floor of the store reading comic books. The proprietor of the store had two large tables near the front window that he filled with items he was trying to unload. On one of the tables, my brother discovered hundreds of packs of 1951 Topps cards that were going for about a penny each. At the age of seven, the only thing I knew about baseball was that my old man had played the game semi-professionally in his youth. That was enough to motivate me to use most of my remaining dollar bill on as many waxpacks as I could stuff into my pockets that night. Opening the packs, I was intrigued by the disembodied head shots of the players and the odd extra functionality of the cards in a simple ballgame. Most of the players seemed pretty obscure, then and now, and, of course, the Redbacks and Bluebacks have long been viewed by collectors as the least attractive and most feckless product Topps ever issued. But, the sets really hit my infantile amygdala hard, as well the brittle, evil tasting caramel candy that came with them. The packs also contained a bonus card - an elongated team card, or a full-size image of a Hall of Famer, or a more well-known current player - which was protected from the dangerous candy by the two-card panel of Red or Bluebacks. Naturally, no matter how many waxpacks I glommed off the table, there was no chance of completing a full set at that time, but I never lost the desire to do so. In the 1980's, my second childhood, I suppose, I managed to complete four of the five 1951 Topps sets, but for some reason, could only acquire eight of the eleven subjects in the fifth set. Still working on that.

[BillP]

When I got back into the hobby in 82, it was 67 topps BB all the way. Never had the high numbers as a kid but the other series were around. A great colorful set and I don't think there are any airbrush shots. Only regrets on the set are headshots of Mantle and Mays and Ryan could have been in this set as well.

[bmattioli]

Collected alot in the 70's but purchased my first complete set the 1975 Baseball Topps set while at a show in Texas when I was at Tech school stationed at Sheppard AFB in 1984.. Still owned..

[egri]

For me, it was 2005 Topps. My mom was involved with a charity that held a dinner every year, and part of the dinner was a silent auction. The first time I went, one of the items was a framed display of the Red Sox cards from that year's set commemorating their world series win the year before. On a ten year old's budget it was hopelessly out of reach, but my interest was piqued all the same.

That prompted my first trip to the LCS, where I was introduced to vintage, and bought my first 1933 Goudeys and 1949 Bowmans. One of the other collectors took notice of my interest in vintage Red Sox and gave me Bobby Doerr's address, which got me into autograph collecting. I took a break when I got to high school (wasn't sure what the girls would think) but picked it up again in college and have been back since.

[dealme]

Originally Posted by Volod

...as well the brittle, evil tasting caramel candy that came with them.

Some of the “edible” inserts were beyond bad. I don’t know if the gum in the 1950s was any better, but the gum that I remember from the mid to late 80s usually just crumbled and disintegrated in your mouth. Those of you that didn’t start opening packs until after Topps quit inserting gum into them don’t know what you were missing.


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[jayshum]

Originally Posted by dealme

Some of the “edible” inserts were beyond bad. I don’t know if the gum in the 1950s was any better, but the gum that I remember from the mid to late 80s usually just crumbled and disintegrated in your mouth. Those of you that didn’t start opening packs until after Topps quit inserting gum into them don’t know what you were missing.


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My theory on the gum is that Topps made one giant batch of it in the 50s and just kept using it until they finally ran out so by the 80s, it wasn't that fresh anymore.

[Volod]

Originally Posted by jayshum

My theory on the gum is that Topps made one giant batch of it in the 50s and just kept using it until they finally ran out so by the 80s, it wasn't that fresh anymore.

Hey, we were kids. Nothing could hurt us because we were invulnerable.

[wdwfan]

Great stories everyone. I don't know why, but I love stories about how people started collecting (probably because they usually start with some type of family, and I'm a big family person). I also love to see storage pictures and stories about how people store their collections.

Here's my first set.

It was Christmas Eve 1987, and we were opening presents after dinner at my grandparents house. I got a green 1987 Topps set. My grandmother and I sat at the bar and went through tons of the cards. We'd look at the pictures, talk about the players, read the backs, etc. Just lamenting about the set. She could tell I loved the set. She had NO interest in sports whatsoever, but sat there because I was so interested in it.

I later put that set in order and into a notebook like every kid did. She passed away in 2010, but I still have that set and that green box, albeit empty now. The set and box sit next to her picture on a cabinet in my office at home. So that was my first set and is what hooked me on sports cards.

The first set(s) I completed by hand were 1988 Topps, Fleer and Score, but I don't remember which I finished first. Then I hand built sets in 1989-92. In 1990, my mom would take us to get ice cream every Friday after school. The ice cream place was next door to Piggly Wiggly, and they had the rack packs of Donruss, Fleer and Topps. Every Friday I'd buy a handful of packs and I'd go through putting the sets together. Whenever I'd get close to finishing, I'd put them into a notebook. Then I'd fill in the gaps everytime I opened packs and came across cards I needed.

That's probably why I enjoy building sets so much. I know sets nowadays are worthless pretty much, and everyone only buys the key RCs. But I still love building sets. I typically build a base Topps Flagship set (Series 1, Series 2 and Update) and maybe 1-2 others. Can't afford to do Heritage, and not a fan of Donruss and non-licensed stuff anymore. So for now it's mainly Topps flagship and vintage sets.

[steve B]

I guess I sort of eased into the hobby...

1969 - 1 pack But I got Reggie! Still have it.
1971 - 1 pack still have the coin, probably a couple commons, but they spent the next couple years i the toybox with the 69s.
1973 - Moved to a new town, and most kids were into cards. Picked up a few after September.
1974 - Not counting the FB and other sports from winter 73-4, the first set I really collected. Finally bought the Mike Schmidt sometime in the mid 90s to finish it.

Bought all three sets in 82 and the update in 81, so the first complete sets I had.
The first set I completed from individual cards was 48 bowman. Even the ones from 77 -80 when I hung out at a card shop and occasionally collated sets for them went unfinished until the 90's. I still need something like 11 commons for 76.

[jingram058]

My first set that I completed in it's entirety was 1967 Topps. I was nine years old in 1967, just beginning to realize what was going on. My neighbors and pals Mark Terry, Chuck White, Edwin Jaffe and Louis Kimery had been buying packs of cards for some time, and I remember the 1966 baseball and football cards well.

My oldest sister graduated from Memphis State University in 1965 and within days, she and some other girls, Linda Barker, Gail Bishop and others, signed up with Delta Air Lines and went off to stewardess school (that's what they called it back then) in Atlanta, and after graduation, they all were assigned to Dallas, Texas as their base. My sister Linda, Linda Barker and Lucy Anderson moved into an apartment that was somewhere near Love Field. They were called the Four Seasons Apartments, and they were upper-crust in 1965.

I made my first trip with my dad to Dallas in 1967. I remember the pool at the apartments was lit up with tiki torches at night, first time I ever saw anything like that. Everyone was sitting around the pool one evening, and this guy in tiger skin trunks came over to talk for a while. He was Lance Rentzel. Yes, that Lance Rentzel, and he seemed perfectly normal. There were other Dallas Cowboys players who were living in the Four Seasons.

During that trip, my sister and I went to a Safeway grocery store somewhere near the apartments. I noticed they had Topps cards at the checkouts. They were 5 cents a pack, and I was allowed to get 6 packs. These were the first packs of cards I ever bought. One card I distinctly remember out of those first 6 packs was Mike Shannon. It remained one of my favorite cards.

Well, as time went by, I bothered my parents and sisters to no end for change to buy baseball cards, pack after pack after pack. I got all the checklists, and finally all the cards. And then some. Duplicates of every card. This opened the door to trades, and even more cards. I sent away for a green plastic locker, and organized each team. I organized shoe boxes. This went on into 1968, 1969, 1970. During 1969, when I was eleven and old enough to move up from Cub Scouts and Webelos to the Boy Scouts (Troop 2, St. Luke's Methodist Church), Dolph Belton, an older kid in the neighborhood, going away to prep school, came over one Saturday morning and bequeathed me a box of Boy Scout stuff, Hardy Boys books, comic books, and...stacks of wood-paneled 1962 Topps baseball cards!

Finally, I moved on from the baseball cards. They were relegated to under the bed. Time went by... I got a job at JC Penney and then K-Mart. I got a car (a 1956 Chevrolet). I graduated high school, started at Memphis State and realized that college wasn't for me, and worked full-time for the City of Memphis Division of Public Works at the North Wastewater Treatment Plant. I got my own apartment, and traded the 56 Chevy for a 1977 Camaro. Totaled out the Camaro, and got a 1977 El Camino.

Then I went into the Navy at age 23. My dad died of cancer 3 years after I went in. I got married and we just celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary on July 30th. My daughter is now 37!

Somewhere around 1986 or 1987 I came home on leave. Louis was over at his folks house, where he grew up, and they were going through the attic. Sure enough, he finds a shoe box of his old cards that he thought was long since gone. But not just cards...his best cards. Mantle, Mays, Koufax, Robinson, etc. We looked at them, and he says, you know, let's take these over to that guy at the flea market. That guy's eyes nearly popped out! Then he says, I can't give you book value for these. $300, that's it, take it or leave it. Louis took it, because he needed the dough.

When we got back, I ran over to our house. Mom, where's all my old stuff? You told me to get rid of it, so I did, years ago. So that's what happened to my first-generation card collection. I have been re-collecting it ever since.

But that is not the rest of the story. Somewhere in the late 1990s, when I was a Chief Petty Officer stationed at Charleston and then Key West and driving home to Fort Lauderdale every weekend, money got tight. I sold a 1934 Goudey Gehrig, 1941 Play Ball DiMaggio, 1958 Topps Mantle and other cards for something like $200, just because I needed cash and couldn't float a loan because I had a top-secret security clearance up for periodic review, and you have to be squeaky clean. It made me physically ill after I did it, and I swore I would never do that again, and I haven't. I only just recently put together a 1953 Bowman set, with help from folks right here at net54. I have all the cards from my youth I have ever wanted, even 1800s cards, t-cards and pre-war cards I never even dreamed of having.