The 1st sport card, you remember seeing?
 

Was in 1974, on a hot summer day.I was walking home on B & Northern railroad tracks.On some of the railroad ties{OILED},was what looked like maybe 5 to 8 packs of baseball cards laying there!I guess some one just wanted the rock hard gum that used to come with the cards?Was maybe 70 to 100 cards laying around, but the 1st card i saw was #393. Olando Pena {p} for the Cardinals.Not the best player or card in the set, but was my 1st!I was hooked ever sense,football, hockey.Next year i added Basketball & none-sports.Was easy collecting in those days for .10 cents a pack! Boy, how things have change.Thanks for your time,Rob.

I remember bits and pieces of my first birthday, but can't remember the first time I saw a sports card. The earliest I remember seeing them was in the late 80s when my dad was selling them in his shops. My dad remembers selling baseball cards as a kid in his father's gas station back in the 50s/60s. He also remembers his dad occasionally opening s jar of mayonnaise, skimming the surface with a knife, spreading it on a sandwich, and then putting the jar back on the shelf for sale.

On the bottoms of Hostess Twinkies boxes at the grocery. Alas, we were a Little Debbie family.

Easy for me - a John McNamara 1986 Topps card. That was the year I started collecting after my grandmother bought me a rack pack of cards.

I made my first trip to the local card shop that year and they had a penny box. The owner, who I would get to know over the years, pretty much knew I had no idea what I was doing when I stepped into the shop and introduced me to the box. You could trade any two of your cards for any one in the box. It was his way of keeping young kids entertained and out of their hair.

For some unknown reason, finding a well-used 1986 Topps John McNamara card sitting on the top is the very first memory I have when it comes to collecting. By 1987 I became a little more seasoned and made my first 'real' purchase when I bought a Dwight Gooden 1987 Topps card for $2.25.

In hindsight, that was a bad deal. But as a Mets fan growing up, you couldn't pry that thing out of my hands.

Definitely O-Pee-Chee Hockey, either 83' or 84'. No exact card.

George Zuverink
 

I started from the bottom of the deck.:D

I remember being at a cousin's birthday party in the winter of 1979, and finding a 1970 Topps Harmon Killebrew card with a torn corner in the basement where we played ping-pong. I had never seen a baseball card before, and since I had just started little league that year, I was intrigued. I asked my cousins about them and they told me about gum packs. The next spring, I was hooked on looking for packs at the drug stores and grocery markets my mom dragged me to.

I remember seeing the 89 upper deck Griffey the first time I went to a local card shop. It's still one of my favorite cards to this day.

My First Day at kindergarten - someone bummed me a 1968 Indians Rookies card with Lou Piniella on it so that I could "flip" cards with the other kiddies.

I quickly won a 1969 Dave Adlesh and have never looked back...

1969 Topps football. A kid had some in my second grade class. The bright colors in the background were amazing. I've been a collector ever since.

I remember getting a Gene Mauch card in my first pack I opened in 1971 and being disappointed. Then a few cards later Tommie Agee was there and I was in heaven!

I don't remember the player -- only the year. 1974 wax packs. I was 8.

1986 Topps rack packs at the local variety store. I was 8 years old and had no idea what a baseball card was but I knew I wanted them. My mom bought my brother and me a few packs and lit a fire that still hasn't been extinguished.

This is not the pack ... I have pretty good restraint but there was no way in hell I wasn't ripping that thing open!

1975 Don Gullet

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1979 Topps Reggie Jackson

Vic Power
 

My first card was a 1958 Vic Power, an older kid gave it to me. Vic was one of my favorites, he was magical around first base.

1973 Topps Carl Yastrzemski. I was 2 years old.

Tom C

1980 Geoff Zahn. My mom bought me a pack of cards when I was 5 and I was fascinated. I also got Dan Petry in that pack. And a Darrel Porter, who had a cool All Star distinction.

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I don't remember a "first" card but the first cards I ever owned were a bunch of 1970 topps that I had organized by team in rubber banded stacks.

I remember the first card trading event I went to as a kid...at the library...and some girl had a babe ruth card. I wanted it so badly I offered to trade her all 50-60 or so 1970 topps cards I had for it...but she wouldnt bite.

It was a 1976 topps babe ruth!

I was 10 and our small south Texas town had just opened its first hobby shop. I remember walking in with my younger brother and seeing all the Mid 80's Topps and Donruss cards. My eyes were drawn to the 68 Ryan Rookie for $50.00 bucks!!

a pair of scissors
 

And the back of a 1962 Post Alpha-bets box. Still some of my favorite sets. 1st year I bought packs at the Main Street NewsRoom--1965. Couldn't believe the "pink" borders on the Yankees and Pirates.

1974 Topps wax pack..........

Also remember the Hostess cards fondly. Lots of hoho's and king don's rolling back in those days.............

Some of these guys have great memories!!:cool:

I am going to say likely the same, Marty, but in all honesty, it could have been the Esso Gas station cards/stickers/book as that is the clearest in my memory.

Must have been '58 Topps. The Mantle card sticks in my mind, as well as the All-Star cards. At some point back in those days, I also encountered a '57 Mantle which is my favorite card and one of the first I collected when I got back into the hobby as an adult.

Those Hostess cards were big with me. That and the Drake's and Kellogg's. Good eatin and a card. Heaven.

Tom C

First cards
 

1980 Topps Football Ray Guy is the first I recall.

First "older" cards were a 56 Whitey Ford, 52 (?) Sid Gordon & Wes Westrum Red Man Tobacco, and a 67 Bill White, all found at my grandparents house in 1983.

first cards
 

The "older" kids at the bus stop had 1972 Topps (probably September '72), I just turned 7 yrs. old, looked very interesting. Next year, 1973, was first year I actually got some packs.

I remember the Toy City down the street had the 3-part cellos. Would go down on the weekend with my bike and spend time going thru the whole box on the counter looking for major stars to be showing front or back.

Also the Hostess - going to the store with my folks, would always go look at the Twinkles/HoHo's/Cupcakes and try and find a Nolan Ryan - then try and talk my mom into buying it, or if I had allowance money.

As an adult, my first big time purchase was a T206 Cobb bat on CSA 5 - way back many years ago. Eventually I sent it in to PSA for crossover, min. grade PSA 5 - and it made it! Still have that card today. However, beware, crossovers last 5-10 years have not been good.

The first two I vividly remember: 1984 Donruss Don Mattingly rookie and the 1986 Donruss Jose Canseco rookie (can't exactly remember which I saw first?).

You guys have been talking about the Hostess cards. I remember those, and I also remember the Kellogg's cards on the side panels of the cereal boxes.

1985 topps Woolworth Nolan Ryan.

First two cards in my very first pack are the first I remember seeing:

Attachment 248264

Attachment 248265

1953 Bowman color Musial. I was 6, and remember exactly where I was in 1953 when I saw it.

Summer of 1947, I opened up a Bond Bread package and I remember that I was thrilled to find a Yankees BB card......

http://photos.imageevent.com/tedzan7...BreadBerra.jpg


I think my 1st card was Yogi, or it may have been Johnny Lindell.


TED Z
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The 1960 Topps Don Demeter that I pulled from a pack as a kid.

Great looking first card seen!!!

1971 topps at the local grocery store ,,,remember flipping tham at the schoolyard.who knew ,,

Wow, you guys have great memories. The best I can do is say that it would have been 1973 Topps Hockey cards, but which card I have no clue. I do remember that I used to love the stickers that came in the packs and my favorite is pictured below.

Donato
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/...pstmouocpy.jpg

August of 1967
 

I remember being down at the beach and buying 1967 Topps Wax Packs. I've been collecting off and on ever since.

John

1962 Topps Yogi Berra #360 out of a wax pack purchased from a Catskills Bungalow Colony concession.

1967 tito fuentes

On a camping trip when I was really young, we stopped at a gas station and my dad bought me a pack of cards. I remember this card was in the pack, I don't remember any of the others.

Man, I loved those cards as a kid. Whenever I stayed overnight at my grandfather's, we made the same usual three stops:

1. Fish market to buy fresh fish (and see the live lobster in the tank)
2. Grocery store to buy Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, which we would then freeze/eat
3. Convenience store for an after-dinner snack like cookies or something.

At the convenience store, he would always buy me a pack of cards. Topps Big were the only ones they carried for some odd reason, so it was always those I wound up with. Great memories.

My dad and I busted a box of '79 OPC hockey when I was 5. He was very excited to pull this guy (unfortunately, the original card we pulled is long gone; I saved up all summer after dad died and replaced it with this one).

1971 Willie Mays. A new kid moved in next door and we found a stack of 1971 baseball cards that the previous owners had left in his barn. He divided them up between a couple of us and I ended up with the well-loved Mays.

Still have it. That must have been around 1975 or '76