Do you recall your first card you got in a pack?

[JustinD]

My first cards were Halloween funpaks in my trick or treat bag that had close encounters of the third kind cards. I was hooked on cards from that pack on.

Wish they would sell funpaks again so I could hand them out, a great way to bring kids in.

[Jay Wolt]

Originally Posted by JustinD

Wish they would sell funpaks again so I could hand them out, a great way to bring kids in.

Make your own. Fill up a team set bag w/ various cards that you might have laying around.
It may make a kids day & it helps to get rid of any excess cards that mean little to you.

[nolemmings]

1966 Mankato MN, Ben Franklin at the Tempo shopping center. Rode my bike the 2 1/2 blocks, pulled a Sandy Valdespino in the first pack, although it may not have been the first card.

[wondo]

1967 Topps Frank Howard, but I really wanted an Al Kaline. I didn't know about series then (just 6 years old). Opened a lot of packs, got a ton of Frank Howards, but no Kalines. The piles are still vivid.

[wondo]

1967 Topps Frank Howard, but I really wanted an Al Kaline. I didn't know about series then (just 6 years old). Opened a lot of packs, got a ton of Frank Howards, but no Kalines. The piles are still vivid.

[pawpawdiv9]

Not sure which came first:
Garbage Pail Kids or
the complete TCMA/Immortals Album set(w/ binder) ---STILL HAVE IT!!

[kmac32]

1970 Lou Brock and I wanted Ernie Banks

[Bill77]

My 1st pack of cards was probably Return of the Jedi. 1st Football was 1987 Topps and I'm sure there was one of the many Al Toon 1000 Yard Club cards that I still have in there. 1st Baseball was 1988 Topps, too many packs to count and found out last summer I still have most of them.

[Sean]

My dad bought me my first pack in 1965, when I was eight. I remember that I got a Gary Bell card among others. The reason that I remember Bell is that I started buying one pack a week, and every damn pack had another Gary Bell. I think I got five of them before I opened a pack without him.

[stlcardsfan]

My mom bought me my first pack in 1972, age 6. I think I remember a Chris Chambliss card in there. The all star rookie trophy must have got my attention. I have the '72 set with the Chambliss in it.

[trdcrdkid]

I first started collecting cards at the age of 9 in 1975, but I don't remember anything about my first pack because I got into it gradually. I collected the Topps MVP set that year because I liked the pictures of old Topps cards on the fronts, presaging my interest in vintage. One of the neighbor kids stole them from me ("hocked" them, as we said), and I don't think I had them all again until I bought the 1975 Topps set about 15 years ago. I do remember that year when my dad brought home some packs of cards for me and my brother, and one of us got Jackie Brown, who had a big chaw of tobacco in his mouth on that year's card.

I bought more cards in 1976 and made a good run at the set, but didn't come close to finishing it. I also bought one Topps card from each year, 1952 to 1975, starting my collection of non-current cards. To represent 1976, I picked a random card from that year out of my collection, which turned out to be Duffy Dyer. In 1977 I decided that I was going to collect the set, and I further decided that the first card I saw in my first pack of the year was going to go into my run of consecutive years of Topps cards. That first card from that first pack of the year, which I bought at the 7-11 at Butterfield Road and Park Boulevard, was John Montefusco, which I still have. In 1978 I did the same thing, and my first card that year was Pablo Torrealba. I'm blanking right now on who my first card of 1979 was, but in 1980 it was Don Money.

Edited to add:
Here are images of those first cards I got in 1977 and 1978 (not the actual cards from my collection):

[Mark]

It was the winter of 63-64. I saw some cello-packs in a convenience store and recognized a Pirate in one of them. Thanks to my dad for buying it -for me. The card was Johnny Logan, and that is how I remember my first pack. I suppose I was 5? Not my first cards, though. My mom had been cutting out Post cereal and Jello cards for me for a year or so before that. (I still have them, and it is not difficult to tell which ones I cut out for myself).

[CMIZ5290]

Still have it, 56 Topps Mantle in NM-MT condition.....

[sb1]

Not my first as I bought 68 Football, but for the 1969 Baseball, it seemed like Al McBean was in every other pack of the 1st series when it came out, must have had 20 of them! Of all the cards it sticks out the most from early memories.

[Sean]

Originally Posted by sb1

Not my first as I bought 68 Football, but for the 1969 Baseball, it seemed like Al McBean was in every other pack of the 1st series when it came out, must have had 20 of them! Of all the cards it sticks out the most from early memories.

I've heard this type of story a lot, with variations on the player. But I've never heard anyone say "I got a Mantle in every pack"... or Mays or Koufax. Somewhere some kid must have had this happen.

[Rickyy]

I think it was in 1969. When I was still living in Japan, and my dad who was in the Navy bought a pack for me at the PX. I don't remember all of the cards, but for some bizarre reason one of them was Max Alvis of the Indians.

Ricky Y

[bmattioli]

Nice to see you Scott.. I have no idea of my first but I distinctly remember the Hostess cards from my day camp days and the '72 set from the magazine inserts..

[pokerplyr80]

I don't remember the cards I got but I remember riding my bike to the local pharmacy and buying a pack of 89 Donruss hoping to find a Griffey RC. I didn't find one in that pack but did eventually.

[Shoebox]

First pack was 89 Donruss. My brothers and I each got a pack. My pack had a Ryne Sandberg. My brother had a Dwight Gooden in his.

[hangman62]

a 66T wax pack. Although a cousin gave me some 65T cards earlier then that. Recall hating the look of the pennant flag on every card

[nsaddict]

I still remember it well. 1972 Topps Gil Hodges manager card. I was too young to recall his playing days but the card gave me the creeps. As my dad told me he had just died.

[uyu906]

1976 Topps baseball wax pack - I was 8 years old. I bought a pack at the drug store my older sister worked at. Got a card of my favorite player, on my favorite team - Brooks Robinson, Baltimore Orioles. I took it home and showed my dad. He thought it was cool too. I was totally hooked. I was so excited by it, that I gathered up all the money/change I had around the house and got my sister to take me back to the store the next day and bought as many packs as I had money for - probably about 10-15 packs. If I remember correctly the packs cost 10-15 cents each that year. I still have that 1976 Brooks and after everything else is sold off years from now - I will still have that particular card.

[rats60]

1965 Topps Giants Rookies. I am not sure if it was the first card, but I know my brother needed it for his set. I remember having a t-shirt covered with the iron-ons that were inserts in those packs.

[PM770]

The cards I remember from my first pack in 1978: Don Aase, Pete Mackanin and the Stolen Base Leaders card. Don't know why I remember those three.

The first non-pack card I ever bought was in the summer of 1983, I discovered in "downtown" Barberton something new. A card shop. A store that only sold cards. My dad thought it was the most absurd thing he had ever seen. I begged my mom practically all summer to take me. Around my birthday she took me and I bought my first non-pack card - 1976 Gary Carter for $1. Still have it.