Oldtimers on this board?

[Balticfox]

I bought my first packs of bubble gum cards midway through 1959. How many of you other fellows here on this board have a card buying history that pre-dates my own?

My introduction to cards actually occurred in 1957 or early 1958 before I started first grade when my older sister bought a pack of Hit Stars and brought the cards home:



She was looking for Yul Brynner, a search doomed to frustration since there was no Yul Brynner card in the set.

I started first grade in September 1958 and remember admiring Topps Flags of the World, TV Westerns, Zorro and Funny Valentines cards in the schoolyard before I had deep enough pockets to actually buy any cards:





The first cards I ever owned though were four Topps 1958-59 Hockey cards which I gathered off the street one late February or early March day in 1959. The first three were Detroit Red Wings, but the last was a Chicago Blackhawk. When I saw that big Indian head on the red uniform, I knew that was my favourite team - even though I might have had trouble reading the team name at the time!



I then admired the 1959 Baseball cards in the schoolyard:



But the first cards I ever bought and collected were the Topps 1959 CFL cards:





And that was it for me, game, set and match! I've been addicted to card collecting ever since (though I was able for the most part to put aside my addiction for a few years between 1965 and 1979).

How about you other fellows? What were the first cards you ever bought or collected?

[ALR-bishop]

The first packs I bought myself were 1959 Topps Baseball. My folks had bought some packs for me in 1957 and 1958.

Never ventured much beyond sports cards. Even in collecting the Topps 48 Magic Photos and 55 and 56 Hocus Focus cards I stuck to the baseball subsets, except I did do the William Bendix as Babe Ruth card.

I have been sent unsolicited sets of Scream Queen and Dinosaur Attack cards as a "bonus" to other purchases

[raulus]

Used to ride my bike down to Safeway after school. Rip some wax and watch the kids with serious cash play pac man. 1987 Topps was pretty fly!

[ValKehl]

I began buying Topps baseball cards in 1955.

[62corvette]

1954 for me. Green background Berra in my first pack.

[Peter_Spaeth]

You fellas are ancient. 1965 Topps for me, as a youngster. Rode my bike down a path through the woods to the 7-11. Which, I see from a map, is still there.

[Volod]

Walking down a hallway in my elementary school age seven, saw a pasteboard lying on the shiny waxed floor, picked up this guy, whom I had never heard of - imagine that - and wondered why some kid had so little regard for what seemed like a treasure of some sort. I was hooked immediately. That fall, my brother and I hung out on Friday nights in a corner store next to my old man's bowling alley and spent a couple of his quarters each on stale waxpacks in a big box near the front door - 1951 Topps Redbacks and CM All-Stars at two packs for a nickel. The following spring began buying 1952 Bowman waxpacks every lunch break at a Mom&Pop store a block from school.

[ALR-bishop]

Those 51 packs could have red or blue back panels and a mix of Team and All Star Cards....and candy versus gum I think. Both Topps and Bowman tried for contracts exclusive to packaging with gum or confections

[ALR-bishop]

I can see All Star cards in this pack between the panels

[Volod]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

I can see All Star cards in this pack between the panels

Al - I think Dave Hornish did some impressive research a few years ago to pretty well establish that the Red Backs and CM All-Stars were packed together in the caramel candy packs, as well with the Team cards (probably the undated), while the Blue Backs and ML All-Stars were likely together in packs with the dated Team cards later on the 1951 season. But, those cello packs of yours - who knows? Can you see the All-Star cards well enough to tell if they are CM or ML?

[bmattioli]

1971 Topps Baseball. The kid across the street I used to hang with received a full box as a gift one time and I swore someday I would buy one myself when I grew up..

[GeoPoto]

As soon as I was 16 in 1969, I started working as a Jerk on the Fountain at the People's in Montgomery Mall Bethesda, MD. Minimum wage was $1.60, but working the Fountain got you in a tips pool that added 10 or 20 cents. I eventually moved to working more generally throughout the store. I was reminded of those days on Thursday as John Madden received special recognition/tribute. Behind the drug counter at that People's was where I watched the Immaculate Reception, along with the store's assistant manager, a huge Pittsburgh fan. "If it wasn't a catch before the huddle, how did it become a catch during the huddle?"

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[Mike Eisenbath]

In St Charles, Mo., you got your nickel packs from Standard Drug in 1969 (my first year, I was 8). Next to that was Hawthorne Hardware. The Mattingly's dime store was next to that, and they had cello packs. A&P was the last store in that strip. It was four blocks from our house. Mom would grocery shop and I'd buy cards at Standard, then wait on the curb opening my packs (with allowance, birthday and soda bottle return money) while shoving all the gum in my mouth at once.

Starting the next year, when I began mowing lawns, she let me ride my bike up there way buddy, Wayne. We'd buy some cards, meet the guys at Jaycee Park for a pickup game for a few hours, trade cards, then go home and sort them into our shoebox. A set builder from the get-go.

This has been an awesome thread.


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[gairwin]

I bought my first cards from Johnny's grocery store around the corner in 1952. My sister and I played games with the cards and at the time I could name the player when only about a quarter inch on top was showing. Unfortunately, the high numbers never came to our town. The candy distributor who distributed the cards lived next door to us and when I was 11 I began working in his warehouse (garage) stacking boxes. When I was 12 my parents allowed me to buy two store boxes of 1954 cards. I collected some in 1955 and 1956, but stopped until I started collecting again in 1980. I finally completed my 1952 (ex Mantle), 1953, 1954, 1955, and 1956 sets.

[darwinbulldog]

This is one of the few remaining online sites where I don't feel like an oldtimer. My first pack was 1986 Donruss at a Holiday Inn card show around opening day of the '86 season.

[Balticfox]

Did you then just happen to be at the Holiday Inn? Because it would be strange to attend a card show if you'd not already been buying cards.

[darwinbulldog]

Originally Posted by Balticfox

Did you then just happen to be at the Holiday Inn? Because it would be strange to attend a card show if you'd not already been buying cards.

No

[Yoda]

Earliest memory is ripping packs of '51 Bowmans along side my like pals, all of us with with greasy dirty hands. No Mickey's but one kid got a Mays and we were all over him to see it. All of this took place under a Sycamore tree by the drug store where we had invested our hard earned allowances (child exploitation), which probably varied from .50 to 1$. Trading was the only way to go: There were no shows, breakers, magazines, e-commerce, dealers and, most of all, no grading companies.
Little did we know the next year the neighborhood would be rocked by those beautiful '52 Topps cards. Interest in the '52 Bowmans wained, and I remember the druggist offered his surplus at the end of the season for .01 a pack.
The next year came those beautiful '53 Bowman photographs to challenge Topps but they cost so much to produce it put Bowman into a declining spiral.











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[Leon]

Originally Posted by darwinbulldog

This is one of the few remaining online sites where I don't feel like an oldtimer. My first pack was 1986 Donruss at a Holiday Inn card show around opening day of the '86 season.

You are definitely not an old timer on this site. I think Keith T (hey Keith) is leading the pack right now, as he started collecting in 1938!
That was the same year this movie came out!


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