My collection began with 1980 Topps baseball. About the age of 6. I would search grocery rack packs while my mom was shopping. I think my first pack/purchase had a Steve Garvey A.S on top. Another rack I remember having Reggie Jackson on it. 1980 FB (ugly cards) was the first set I put together. Had some friends that would trade cards after school. For some reason, no one had a Mike Haynes All-Pro! It took me months to find one. Took a year off and restarted collecting with 1982 & 83 Topps. Took a few more years off, then stumbled upon a price guide in 1988 (my downfall moment). I dug out my Topps cards to find all my Rickey Hendersons, Cal Ripkens etc... They were valuable now... LOL
The '89 Fleer Billy Ripken card got me hooked for life. I later got a job at a card shop in high school - I too spent all my money there. Ready to quit in college, my uncle sent me his entire collection (from the 50s). 1959 was the focus going forward. I had about 70% of the set - all EXMT or better. Many 8s and 9s!!
Discovered eBay in 1998 and finished off that set rather quickly. My best (early eBay) pickup was the '59 Mantle SGC 84 for under $100. The auction title labeled it as a 1995 - it was a steal.
Now I blame Net54..... You bastards inspire me to no end.....:D

As a kid, from 1955 (age 11) to 1960 (age 16). I had 3 buddies who also collected bb cards. We were very competitive, and we played games to win one another's cards - some flipping, but our favorite games were called "sail touch" and "knock down" - we usually just "risked" our duplicates, but one day we got bold and risked our "singles"; I got lucky and won all of my buddy's Dodgers (incl. Koufax, Snider, Reese, etc.) without losing any of my cherished Senators! As we got older, we learned to play blackjack and poker and gambled using our bb cards! Those were fun days!!

Fortunately, Mom didn't toss my bb cards after I left home. Circa 1970, Mom called to say she found my boxes of cards when she and dad were cleaning out their storage area, and she asked me if I wanted them. I asked her to hold them for me until the next time I visited, thinking that my toddlers might take interest in them when they grew up (they didn't).

When the first Beckett & Eckes price guide came out (1979, if I remember correctly), I learned of it from a story in the Wall Street Journal, of all places, which stated that adult sports card collectors were "coming out of the closet" so to speak about their collecting fetish. I drove over to Eckes' small retail shop in Laurel, MD, and purchased a copy, which I used to checklist my childhood collection that I had stored for several years in my damp basement. This served as the catalyst to get me back into card collecting during the 1980s.
Val

I bought my first packs in 1975 and continued through 1981. I began going to card shops and shows in 1979 in L.A. That is when I began collecting old stuff including mostly '50's and '60's cards, but notably a T206 Cobb/red portrait and Lajoie w/bat that I still have. By the Fall of 1981 girls, music, and other stuff diverted my interest for a few years.
JimB

My timeline goes as following- 83-92 baseball cards,92-95 comic books,95-2004 football cards,2004-2006 mcfarlane figures,2009-today prewar cards and still lovin it:)