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

[gman]

I started buying with the 1971 cards. I had a paper route which insured that I had money for the cards. I would frequent the local 7-11 here in southeast Houston. I always looked forward to football season, because there was less competition for the baseball cards, others had started buying the football cards. So never any challenge for the last series. In fact, I didn't know that they were more challenging and thus would be worth more $$ until years later.

I enjoyed the challenge of completing the 7-11 Slurpee (sp?) cups that also had baseball player faces on them.

A few years later, when collecting baseball cards was no longer "cool" and you didn't want the girls to think you were "uncool", I would just purchase the complete sets throught the mail, but I would still got my fix eating a lot of twinkies and Kellogg's Raison Bran, and drinking RC cola. Not for the baseball players, of course, but because I liked the taste.