Post WW2 - Pre 1980 Cards Collecting - In General
 

I am new to these forums, but in looking over the posts here, seems like you folks are a lot like me. How many share a story like mine? I was hot and heavy into buying packs between the years 1967 to 1972. I had Topps complete sets, and then some, 1967-68-69 and 70. I had some 1971 and 72, but not full sets. Then I moved on to other interests. As time went by, I moved into my own apartment, and then went into the Navy. Mom asked me many times, what did I want to do with my baseball cards, comic books and Hardy Boys books. I told her do whatever. So she did. Gave it all to Goodwill. I came home on leave in the 1980s, and my best friend finds a box of his cards in the attic of the house he grew up in. All of his favorites from long ago, that he thought were long gone. With me, he takes them to a dealer of baseball cards (at that point, I had never heard of such a thing), and sells all of his Mantle, Mays and Koufax cards, plus a bunch of old Topps and Bowman cards from the 1950s picked up along the way, and sells them all for something like $300. I remember the dealer practically salivating over Louis's stash of cards. So for decades now, I have been attempting to recreate my collection. I have, but at ridiculous cost. These old cards don't sell for 5 cents a pack. And I don't have any full sets, just certain cards from sets I like or had as a kid. This has now expanded into the 1950s, and even a couple of Goudey, Play Ball, and even 2 old tobacco cards. Some were given to me by various nephews, and a brother-in-law who ran a card store that went out of business. Some were bought in the 1990s when you could get good cards relatively cheap. Finally, some have come via trade. I am retired from the Navy (2007), but still work. I can afford to acquire an occasional card now and then. So I have again what I once just walked away from.

Welcome to the board and back to the hobby. Glad my Mom never got rid of my cards but have heard many a collector experience the same thing.

Welcome aboard. Somewhat similar in that my mom threw out a lot/most of my hockey cards from back in the day but I am also very grateful that my father kept his 1952 Topps cards, including a Mantle, Mays and Robinson, that he gifted me over 30 years ago.

My Uncle, on the other hand, had many 52 Topps cards (30-40 maybe?) including an Eddie Mathews, and likely some other high numbered cards, that he sold, likely on the cheap, to a pawn shop after I had told him if he was ever thinking of selling/getting rid of them, to let me know. :mad:

It can be a fun, and frustrating, hobby at times but for the most part reliving our youth and collecting cards from that era is a great pastime.

Good luck on your quest. :)

Similar, but I came a bit later and never got rid of the cards I collected as a kid. Unfortunately that was during the height of the junk era; my prime collecting years growing up were from 1986 to about 1994. Not that the cards then were horrible, and I do have some fond memories of them even if most today are not particularly rare or expensive. In the late 80's and early 90's however, I really got into vintage (then just called "old") cards - mainly from the 50's and 60's before I was born. So to me, cards from that era have always been a more expensive proposition, because they were worth something when I found them. I never had the opportunity to collect "cheap" cards of HOF'ers. I was never much of a set collector of older cards mainly due to the expense and difficulty then of finding and acquiring them at all, and that has carried over into my adult collecting. I tend to go for singles of HOF'er and stars rather than complete sets - the idea being I think that if I can't have all the cards, I can at least focus on getting my favorite players that I have read and learned about. I used to think this was somehow sad and/or incomplete, but really upon more recent reflection - it's freeing. I buy only the cards I want - and don't find myself buying random commons I'm not really interested in just in the name of filling out a set.

That's what I do. My "portfolio" is a 3-ring binder of the cards I like from the sets I like. I have another binder of later era (1990s) cards. Nothing special in it, other than a desirable Derek Jeter Stadium Club. I just like them.

Alanon can't help...
 

Unfortunately, sounds like you're hopelessly addicted, like many here. When I went into the service as a seventeen-year-old, I thought I had devised a fool-proof scheme to protect and preserve my childhood card and comic collections from the early '50's. Turned out I was the fool. Well before I boarded the bus taking me to Basic, I went out to my father's garage that was packed to the rafters with ancient stuff from his childhood and found an old trunk that accommodated all of my precious ephemera, snapped a heavy-duty Yale lock on it and moved piles of heavy boxes to secrete it underneath. I know, the punchline is being telegraphed: about a month into basic training, I received a cheery letter from Ma, in which she casually informed me that she had finally got the old man to clean out his garage, and they had stuffed all of that useless junk into a truck headed for the local dump. I would have fallen to the barracks floor and cried, but I had to fall into a formation just then.:rolleyes:

Great thread. Collected in the late 1970’s into the early 1980’s. Mostly bought packs from the convenience store by my house. Still remembering buying ‘80-‘81 Basketball packs for $.10 a pack because the owner could not sell them. My older brother and his friends only bought baseball but I bought football and basketball. I still have an intact Bird/Magic rookie that came out of one of those packs. I slowly built a decent baseball card collection mostly just HOF’ers, acquired from a used book store where the owner just threw cards into a box by sport. Thankfully in the 1980’s I put them in pages in binders, and they stayed that way at my parents’ house until the late 1990’s. Work, marriage and three kids kept me busy and I only added an occasional card or two. However, I had dreams of completing the ‘56 Baseball set as I had a few good cards from that set. My three sons never got into collecting as young kids, now they are all older (17, 20 and 24) and are collecting. The pandemic got me back into it and I finished my first 4-5 sets including my ‘56. It’s a great hobby and I lucked out that my parents never ditched my collection. Also had a Lew Alcindor rookie and some other great basketball and football cards that allowed me to complete some sets without breaking the bank. I really enjoy trading and helping other collectors. Finishing all the Kellogg’s sets now, as I fondly remember my older brother always taking the card out of the cereal box back in the day and then fighting to get one or two. Good stuff

Ouch, I feel for you. Hopefully they were like my old cards and comics, dog-eared and well-creased. Still, what a shame!

Thanks, Al...
 

Unfortunately, I suffered from OCD even at a young age, so most of those early '50's cards and comics were in pristine condition, which is why I was worried about Ma getting her hooks into them while I was away. Hey, maybe if I had just pleaded with her on my hands and knees, she would have agreed not to touch them? Nah, would have been in my room with a front-loader the day after I left.:D

I collected football cards in the fall of 1971 as an 11 year old. By the time November rolled along everybody lost interest in football cards. My friends and I took our well worn cards to the playground and threw them up in the air and watched the little kids run after them.

Started collecting Baseball in the summer of 1978 and never stopped. It was a nice diversion from the everyday pressures of life.

Hey I just wanted to say, good for you!

I think I know how you feel, because I've gone through something similar. I had a large card collection which I gave away about 10 years ago. I was looking at things very differently at the time, and it wasn't until a few years ago that I really regretted my giving them away.

The way I first got back into collecting last year, was by saying to myself, "Well, I don't have to buy a card I used to have. But I can buy a card I NEVER had!" Lol Well, at any rate, I started getting back some of my old cards too. I probably won't be able to get back all of what I had, which was a lot of 50's - 70's cards, but I've made a dent in it - and have gotten a lot of cards I never had. Kind of a bittersweet feeling all in all. But, it's been great to collect again.