How hard was it to find new Topps series in 1950s, '60s and early '70s?

[GasHouseGang]

I'm pretty much the same age as you Glenn, but I had no idea about series. I just bought whatever cards they had, with the little money I could get from turning in glass soda bottles (2 cents each!). It wasn't until much later that I learned about the high number series being tougher to get. I often wondered why my friends and I never saw certain players, but I just figured it was bad luck.

[saltire]

David, don't get me wrong. We had no clue about scarcity, or later series being tougher to get, although we kind of instinctively knew that late in the season there were more football/hockey/basketball for sale than baseball. I would guess that it might have been down to the individual retailers as to what they stocked come September. Maybe we were just lucky that our local store stuck with baseball all the way through the season.

Not that it did me any good in the end as most of my collection was left Stateside when I moved to Scotland in '73!!!

[Exhibitman]

I bought a lot of packs in 1971-72-73 and I had nothing from any of the high # series and virtually nothing from the semi-highs. I think that by the time they came out each year the kids in my social group had moved on to other sports. The NYC teams in other sports were all contenders at the time [but the Yankees sucked] and we tended to collect with the new sports seasons and abandoned baseball when it became apparent that our team had no chance of going to the playoffs. That same pattern holds true for the other sports; I had virtually nothing from the 1971 Topps FB or BK 2nd series, or the 1972 Topps FB high #s. The later series cards also hung around for a while. I remember a drug store near my home that had a big barrel full of old packs--this is around 1976--that you could fish around and pull whatever you liked. I also found and purchased about half a box of 1971 Topps high # FB cellos [in their original cardboard covering boxes] in early 1977. I wish I'd had the foresight to really make an effort to go through that barrel and to keep those cellos intact, but I was a kid and really wasn't thinking in those terms.

[GasHouseGang]

Wow Glenn, I hadn't even noticed you were in Scotland. If it wasn't for the internet it would be pretty tough to collect baseball cards there. When I was in England and Scotland for the first time (late 80's), I asked around for baseball cards but there were none to be found. Finally someone said to ask for cigarette cards and I was able to find some nonsport cards, but still no baseball. Too bad all your cards got left in the states when you moved. I looked at your wantlist, but don't have anything to help you.

[Tomman1961]

Al:
So how many '52 mantles did you pick up? Or mabye you spent your paper route money on the commons?