How long you collected as a kid ?...

[CowboysGuide]

Great thread!

I can recall buying gas at our local Sunoco station and reminding my dad not to forget the football stamps! That was 1972, I was only 6, but I remember the Sunoco Stamps and the saver album vividly. I also remember the NFL Pro Draft game by Parker Brothers that contained cards from the 1974 Topps set. (Topps provided the cards for the game, but each card has a double asterick on the copyright line).
Actual card collecting came to me a few years later, probably 1976-78 is all that I collected. I had a storage box with dividers, and I sorted by teams. My return to the hobby was 1995 or so. I went back to my parents basement to fetch my childhood cards, and the only thing left was a single card in the bottom of the Pro Draft game box! I still have that card, and as beat-up as it is, I will never get rid of it.

[Kawika]

Nice to see how many of us old timers that collected in the fifties that there are here, and even two or three that were bustin' packs in the forties. Let us give a kind thought to our departed friend Joe Palaez who would have collected Play Balls.

In my mind's eye I can still see myself playing with a handful of cards someone had given me in 1956, amongst them a '54 Topps Ernie Banks and a '56 Topps Del Ennis. Loved that little bear cub in the corner and the way Ennis was jumping. By 1957 I was collecting with a vengeance. Didn't have easy access to any stores but my Uncle Harry owned a cigar shop in Brooklyn and every so often he'd hand me a few packs. I must have been pretty good in the schoolyard flipping games because I had a yard-high stack of '57s. Also had a number of football, basketball and hockey cards but those sports were just diversions until baseball season started again. Collected cards until 1959 when we moved from the suburbs to New York City and then my nickels and dimes went to comics. Each month I'd patronize the green newspaper shack at West 86th and Broadway, Superman, Superboy, Action, Adventure, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, ten cents apiece, hanging by clothes pins in a neat and colorful array. Great memories.

[peterb69]

I'm still a kid at heart, so does that mean I never stopped?

Actually I started in 1969, and collected just Topps Baseball thru 1979. I remember an older lady from our church at this time (she was probably in her 80's) asked if I wanted her deceased husband's cards he collected when he was a kid. I was to polite and said no, I prefer the modern players. I always wonder what she would have given me....T-cards? Goudeys?

I then got back into collection in 1986 collecting Red Sox players from Topps, Fleer, & Donruss as they headed to the world series. It was also then I collected my first T-card, T206 McGraw glove at hip. I then collected various T & N cards since.

[tonyo]

Originally Posted by CowboysGuide

I also remember the NFL Pro Draft game by Parker Brothers that contained cards from the 1974 Topps set.

Ditto. Spent many an hour on my front porch playing pro draft with my neighbor. Seems like there was a game card that assigned a value of 10 (out of 100) because the player "refuses to play on sundays"


Started collecting as a second grader in 1972. Baseball, Football, Basketball. This continued with a vengeance thru high school and college. took about 15 years off starting in early to mid 90's when the family started to grow, back in it and discovered pre-war in 2009.


Similar memories to others: riding my bike to "The country store" and buying pack after pack of 76 topps baseball.

Easter basket was always filled with packs of cards instead of candy.

Mom always came home from grogery shopping with a few packs for me.

I hated having to go clothes shopping with her, but there was always the draw of getting to go to woolworth and rummage thru their bins full of rack packs looking for the best players............

[ksfarmboy]

I got started in 1977 at the age of 8. A friend on my dad's bowling team opened a card store in the bowling alley. It was in the fall so football and Star Wars cards were my first buys. Usually I would work all day Saturday and get paid in cards. Even if he paid me in cash I would still spend it on cards. I got to open the new cases of cards and would spend countless hours sorting out the stars and local favorites. I always got cards for my birthday and Christmas. I Continued buying cards up until the early 90's when I switched to memorabilia. I still have all of my cards and still frequent my friends card shop.

[Rickyy]

My earliest recollection was around 1967 or 68...my dad bought me some Topps baseball wax packs at a US NAVY Commissary when I lived in Japan...then when I came stateside I dabbled in the Topps 1971 BB...I got serious with the 1972-74 BB sets...I remember I thought I had the complete set in 1972 and imagine my suprise when I visited cross town to see my best friend who had moved away that summer..and he had the high numbers.. I eventually got the complete set years later.. 73 set was acquire piece by piece through wax packs, rack packs, trading with friends and finally bought one series from Larry Fristch when I couldn't find them at the nearby stores... 1974 was completely acquired card by card...upgrading at shows into the 80's..and still have them.

Stopped during high school years but got back into it again in college when I saw newspaper ad about a guy opening a card shop...and I've been collecting ever since...seriously with vintage stuff since the mid 80's...

[Mark]

My earliest memories are from the Post cereal/ Jello cards from 1963, when I was 5. I remember cutting them out, and I still have a whole bunch of them. I also recall my dad buying me a cello pack of 63 Topps---I remember looking at the cards through the plastic and picking out the pack with a Pirate player in it. Still have them, too. I became an avid collector near the end of the 67 season, when I bought up lots of packs from the 7th series. From then on, I bought lots of Topps through 1974. In 1971, I became an eager collector of older cards, and picked up a lot of t-206's, Goudeys, and older Toppps cards through flea markets, the mail, and my first card convention (at the second annual midwest card collectors convention in Dearborn Mich). Then I dropped out until about 1991. It all came rushing back to me then.

[Rob D.]

Originally Posted by ksfarmboy

I got started in 1977 at the age of 8. A friend on my dad's bowling team opened a card store in the bowling alley. It was in the fall so football and Star Wars cards were my first buys. Usually I would work all day Saturday and get paid in cards. Even if he paid me in cash I would still spend it on cards. I got to open the new cases of cards and would spend countless hours sorting out the stars and local favorites. I always got cards for my birthday and Christmas. I Continued buying cards up until the early 90's when I switched to memorabilia. I still have all of my cards and still frequent my friends card shop.

Clint,

That shop is still one of my favorite places ever.

Rob

[jp1216]

My collection began with 1980 Topps baseball. About the age of 6. I would search grocery rack packs while my mom was shopping. I think my first pack/purchase had a Steve Garvey A.S on top. Another rack I remember having Reggie Jackson on it. 1980 FB (ugly cards) was the first set I put together. Had some friends that would trade cards after school. For some reason, no one had a Mike Haynes All-Pro! It took me months to find one. Took a year off and restarted collecting with 1982 & 83 Topps. Took a few more years off, then stumbled upon a price guide in 1988 (my downfall moment). I dug out my Topps cards to find all my Rickey Hendersons, Cal Ripkens etc... They were valuable now... LOL
The '89 Fleer Billy Ripken card got me hooked for life. I later got a job at a card shop in high school - I too spent all my money there. Ready to quit in college, my uncle sent me his entire collection (from the 50s). 1959 was the focus going forward. I had about 70% of the set - all EXMT or better. Many 8s and 9s!!
Discovered eBay in 1998 and finished off that set rather quickly. My best (early eBay) pickup was the '59 Mantle SGC 84 for under $100. The auction title labeled it as a 1995 - it was a steal.
Now I blame Net54..... You bastards inspire me to no end.....

[ValKehl]

As a kid, from 1955 (age 11) to 1960 (age 16). I had 3 buddies who also collected bb cards. We were very competitive, and we played games to win one another's cards - some flipping, but our favorite games were called "sail touch" and "knock down" - we usually just "risked" our duplicates, but one day we got bold and risked our "singles"; I got lucky and won all of my buddy's Dodgers (incl. Koufax, Snider, Reese, etc.) without losing any of my cherished Senators! As we got older, we learned to play blackjack and poker and gambled using our bb cards! Those were fun days!!

Fortunately, Mom didn't toss my bb cards after I left home. Circa 1970, Mom called to say she found my boxes of cards when she and dad were cleaning out their storage area, and she asked me if I wanted them. I asked her to hold them for me until the next time I visited, thinking that my toddlers might take interest in them when they grew up (they didn't).

When the first Beckett & Eckes price guide came out (1979, if I remember correctly), I learned of it from a story in the Wall Street Journal, of all places, which stated that adult sports card collectors were "coming out of the closet" so to speak about their collecting fetish. I drove over to Eckes' small retail shop in Laurel, MD, and purchased a copy, which I used to checklist my childhood collection that I had stored for several years in my damp basement. This served as the catalyst to get me back into card collecting during the 1980s.
Val

[E93]

I bought my first packs in 1975 and continued through 1981. I began going to card shops and shows in 1979 in L.A. That is when I began collecting old stuff including mostly '50's and '60's cards, but notably a T206 Cobb/red portrait and Lajoie w/bat that I still have. By the Fall of 1981 girls, music, and other stuff diverted my interest for a few years.
JimB