T206 Downey Cinncy Glove in air for .50 in 1970 just to have a tobacco card.

My card-collecting buddies and I were very competitive. We played the above described games to win each other's cards.

We called another game we played (my favorite) "sail touch." It was played on a large, open floor area. To start the game, the first player (there were 4 of us kids) would sail a card to the open floor area. Each player, in turn, would then sail a card, the object being to land your card such that any part of it covered any part of any other card that was already laying on the floor. Once someone accomplished this, then each remaining player, in turn, had one chance to sail a card to partially cover any card already on the floor. If these remaining players failed to do this, then the first player won all of the cards on the floor. If one or more of the remaining players also accomplished this, then only these accomplishers remained in the game, which continued on as though no one had yet partially covered another card with his card. I liked this game much better than "knock down" (leaning a card against a wall and sailing cards until someone knocked it down) because the cards didn't get dinged up so badly so quickly!

Our card sailing and flipping games ended when some adult taught us kids how to play poker and blackjack. We then gambled our cards, until we got old enough to get newspaper routes or after-school-jobs, which enabled us to gamble our hard-earned nickels, dimes, and quarters instead. Those were good times in the late 1950's!!
Val

From a dealer: 1979 Topps baseball complete set from Leon Rock in January of 1979; cost: $9.99 plus shipping. His price beat other dealers by at least $4, but I had to wait 2 months to get the cards. Also assorted cards from Richard Gelman's Card Collector's Company that year, such as different lots of 1960s-70s Topps, T206 cards (50 cents each)

From a show: 1933 Goudey Gus Mancuso, 1951 Bowman Bobby Thompson, 1951 Bowman Hank Arft, Dallas Baseball Card Show at the Twin 60s Hotel, 1979.

Sounds a lot like pogs (the game of my childhood).

Bought a lot of 20 1952 topps from Frank Nagy. He told me to send my want list and money. Did this several times, I was never smart enough to ask for high numbers. RIP Frank.

Pogs! That was a (short-lived) part of my childhood as well.

When I was a kid in El Centro
 

...no one I knew bought individual cards. We bought packs from the local New Star market and traded marbles, cards and Gila monsters. Of course these trades were subject to our Mom's approval (hah)...the cards were mostly 1961 through 1963 Topps. Must have had a dozen or more '62 Mantles. Loved the Maris card, 61 Home Runs!

The first individual card I remember buying, sometime around 1980, was a '63 Topps Juan Marichal. Cost me $3.25 in a live auction at a card show, the West Covina mall. My first tobacco card was a t206 Jack Bastian. Still have the Bastian.

Very first individual card was an E95 cobb at the New York antiques show in Madison Square Garden 1973 cost $4. First pack was 1968 Topps at the Rainbow Deli in my home town. In 1972 I had a paper route and would often walk to deli on collection day and buy a few packs one of the older kids in the neighborhood saw me and we started talking about cards and he gave me a Box of cards from 1964 thru 1966 and told three of his friends that I collected cards and they did the same. One even bought over his satchel 0f 64 coins. They just wanted someone to enjoy them instead of their Mom's throwing them out. It was nice when my neighborhood was filled with neighbors.
Jonathan

Topps/O.P.C.
 

Can't really remember the exact card. My first cards were actually non-sport - monster cards from around 1961-62, i.e. Horror Monsters. A few years later I got into baseball and hockey. They would have been Topps/O-Pee-Chee cards from around 1963-64.

1963 Topps SMOKEY BURGESS
 

first single card purchased from baseball card store 1985
1963 Topps burgess for 25 cents

my first purchase
 

In 1987 I bought a 1985 Topps McGwire for $20 and I also bought a M&M Panel with Canseco & Dale Murphy (I think) for about a couple of bucks around the same time.

The first second-hand cards I ever purchased were through the mail from Gar Miller, probably around 1977 or 1978. A late 60s Don Drysdale card and 2 Senators team cards from the 50s. Wish vintage cards could still be purchased at those prices.

1951 topps red back
 

Gil Hodges in 1979.

In 1987 I was 12. had never collected cards or bought packs but I walked into a shop that was almost all comics (Whick I never collected either) and saw a 1982 Donruss Ripken in the case for $8. Dont know why I bought it but I did. Ripken seems to be a main theme here in card collecting.

My first Card:
 

T206 Evers

My story is kind of funny. It was 1986 and I was 10 years old. My father and I had visited the shopping mall where my brother was working as a teenage clerk at a computer store. When we arrived at the store, we walked into a situation where the store manager was berating my brother for some reason. My dad was very upset and gave me $10....told me to go away for 10 minutes and buy something. (later I realized it was so he could give the store manager a piece of his mind). I left the store and wandered through an antique show going on in the mall at the same time. I came upon a fellow selling these pictures of old ball players. I gave him a $10 bill and asked him to pick one out for me. The nice old gentleman gave me a worn, but presentable 1909-11 T206 White Borders Red Ames (Portrait). I've been hooked ever since.

What was the first baseball card you ever purchased?
 

Connie Mack OJ


Jimmy

I don't consider myself a card collector in the way most folks here are. I buy few cards. My first significant card was a '57 Ted Williams. The first cards I bought that didn't come from a pack back when I was a kid were some common early 60's cards of Cubs players.

1948 Play Ball Pete Reiser that I purchased at a mall in 1985. Still one of my favorites.

I remember buying two T206s at the local card shop in 1987 for $4 each. I thought it was so amazing to have these relics that were so old, but my friends seems perplexed I would spend that money on old, creased cards instead of the latest Jose Canseco card. Even then vintage cards held a special mystique to me. I still have the Barbeau and Nichols.

I recall the Holy Grail card among my friends at the time (late 80s) was the 1977 Dale Murphy rookie card. It seemed unobtainable but I had a friend whose mother gave him $75 for one. I was shocked. 25 years later I finally bought one on eBay for about $2 or so. I had a tremendous feeling of satisfaction when it came in the mail. I finally got it!