I was actively buying packs from 1967 through 1973 when the cards were issued in series. I never knew high number cards were tougher until 1972 when I started getting card collector magazines. In 1972 I knew high number cards were tougher and actively sought out the high numbers but never found any at my local stores for either of the last 2 series. None of my friends had any either, so they were not easily found where I lived.
In 1973 I didn't find any high number cards until late in the year when I was in a neighborhood not near where I lived and I went into a store and there was a huge display of 1973 high number boxes at the front of the store at half off, 5 cents for a pack of 10 cards, as many as you wanted. They also had some wacky packs for sale that I hadn't seen. I only had a few bucks with me but spent all my money on those high number 1973s and some wackys and convinced a non-collecting friend that was with me that he should spend all his money on those 1973 high numbers because they were sure to go up in value. I remember wishing at the time that I had more money with me so I could buy more of those cards, but I never went back, though I did buy enough to get the complete series with plenty of doubles. I asked my friend many years later if he still had those 1973 high numbers and he was sure he did have them somewhere but had no idea where they were.
From the time I bought packs from 1967 to 1973, I did get high numbers in packs for all years except 1970 and 1972. When I started trying to complete those sets later, I had to buy those in the mail in complete series from an early card seller, I think it was Merv Williams.
I was kind of bummed in 1974 when Topps started issuing cards all at once since I was a bit older then and felt I could have found the high numbers that year and stored a bunch away for later.
Looking back at it, I think if I was older during the years when cards were issued in packs, I could have probably found the high numbers. The problem was that I was too young to drive, so was limited to biking around to a few local stores to search for them. If they didn't have them, I was out of luck.
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