My first pack was in 1961. I was ten years old and I was immediately hooked. For the next few years I used all of my allowance and even searched the empty lots in the neighborhood for glass pop bottles to cash in to feed my baseball card addiction. I don't remember the players in the first pack, but I was a huge Mickey Mantle fan and I would trade ten cards to one to get a Mantle card. I had one box full of Yankee cards, most of them of Maris and Mantle.
Like most kids I didn't take good care of my cards. Scratched off team names and wrote the new team in pencil when a player was traded. Played games with them. Wrapped them with rubber bands. Stored them in a damp room in the basement. Eventually my Dad grew tired of the mess and threw them all away. He said he had to use a shovel to pitch them there were so many cards laying on the basement floor.
I didn't care back then because I discovered girls. What a mistake.
Oh well. If we would have kept and took care of our cards they wouldn't be so valuable today.
Best regards,
Joe
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