How did you get started in the hobby
 

I'm going to steal this idea for a thread from my good friends at Beckett forums.

For me, 1st packs I remember were 1968 3rd series and yes I had tons of Mantles. What a way for a young person growing up in New Jersey to start.

I quite literally bought a wooden bushel basket of beat up cards at a garage sale in the late 70's for around 50 cents.

The only time I have even seen cards sold by the bushel and I was hooked since.

Hey Rich , I grew up in saddlebrook NJ . I had a lot of friends that collected cards
. While I liked to look at them and thought they were interesting. That did not drive me to collect instead around 1992 my uncle and his adult friends started collecting . They would trade stories of what they had and what they were after.
One day my uncle gave me a few of his duplicates. I liked them and decided I would buy a few packs of my own to show them what I got.

After about a year or so ( not sure how long exactly) I found a card show at the Garfield Boys and girls club on midland ave. I collect because of this show . I could go to the show buy, sell, trade, win cards ! I loved it . I still attend this show often but now with my 4 year old son .

In NJ my baseball cards never got thrown out from the 60's and 70's and my Dad worked for the town and a few times he would bring home boxes full of baseball cards that people got rid of back in the early 70's

Dad bought me 2 boxes each of 1987, 1988, 1989 and 1990 Topps football for Christmas 1990. I was 6 years old that year and that was all that it took to get me hooked! I remember taking my time opening up each box and separating them out by teams.

I collected until I got into High School and then picked it back up my Junior year in College. I have been going strong since. My dad has a safe deposit box at the local bank that contains my great-grand fathers, grandfathers, and dads childhood collections. It is in the will that I am not to open the box until dads passing, so I am in no rush what so ever to see whats in there.

In the past couple of months I have put "The Monster" on the back burner and moved back into vintage football (1950s) and love it. I am working on the 1951 Bowman football set and let my 5 year old daughter "help" me. She loves looking at the art work and asking questions about the players. If I get duplicates I put them in a separate box for her to thumb through when she wants.

I love this hobby!

I grew up in Little Falls, NJ, and my friends and I first started collecting the 1968 Topps Football set (12 yrs. old). We played all sports, and were really successful for kids. I am not sure why we chose football that late summer, probably because we were too busy playing baseball up until then, and football was right around the corner. Anyway, what I remember most was sitting around and trading. We all had our favorite players for different reasons, so trading was fast and furious. For me, Mom and Dad were from Northern Indiana, so it was the Bears with Butkus, Sayers and Ditka. Of course, everyone was either a Jets or Giants fan, so those cards were hot. But, my most coveted card was Bob Griese, since Purdue ran through our family veins (don't remind me that they totally suck in football now). I still have all the cards from that summer, sent many in for grading (waste of money). They're not in the greatest shape, but priceless in my eyes.

I don't really remember how I got started but it was likely my Father, who loved Hockey and loved watching it, that likely purchased some of these Esso Gas Station stickers for me and I was hooked!

I remember constantly asking my Dad if he needed gas so I could purchase more of these stickers for my book.
http://puckjunk.com/2008/04/11/got-em-got-em-stick-em/

I still have the book from when I was 6-7, and I know, to this day, I am missing one sticker/player to complete the book.

I continued collecting hockey cards through public school but don't remember when I stopped?

About 25-30 years ago, (during the junk card era) my Father gave me his 52 Topps cards and I was re-hooked again!
Like a lot peeps from back then, I purchased loads of Upper Deck, Fleer, Score, you name it, but then the market collapsed, stores closed and like the hobby, I also waned from it.

Just this year, back in January, I was looking through my 52 Topps cards again when I read an article, I believe, about the latest Cobb card find, or the Lucky 7.

This rekindled my love again, and I happened upon these forums, which I didn't know existed.

Not sure how many cards I have purchased nor the money I have spent since joining, but finding this site wasn't necessarily a good thing! :eek: (joking, of course :D)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ybh9KTEB_I

I just remember always being saturated in cards. From what I understand from the stories my dad bought me a collecting "starter kit" from my older sister's book fair at school when I was about 4 years old (around '86). I remember using the price guide that came with it for several years (originally I am sure I just looked at the pictures), before my dad bought me my first Beckett around 92. I still have it, this isn't my copy but this is the one:


A few years later my parents got me a subscription and after that people would literally come to me at card shows asking me the values of the cards because I had memorized the magazine. Every month I would just look at the ups and downs for each set, and it would stick with me. All the while I was just buying what I could.

One of my favorite sets from my childhood was the 1989 Donruss set. I just really liked that design. I bought more Donruss than any other set from then on. Until UD Collector's Choice came out and that was such a cheap option that I found myself buying those up all the time. Then I entered an antique store and found a t206 Doyle batting. It was being sold for $90, way more than I could ever spend, but it was so neat to see such an old card that was nearing 90 years old. At Christmas it was my only gift from my parents. I now know they overpaid (if they paid the full amount), but it was the best card ever to me. Soon after I bought my own Goudey online and got a Beckett almanac that way I could learn more about the older sets. Since then I have gone back and forth between vintage and modern.

1968 Topps BB were my first cards
 

I remember buying 1968 Topps BB 1st series Rak Packs at the nearby Woolworth's store when I was 9 years old. I probably passed on Willie Mays and Bob Gibson on the top because I looked for any Chicago Cubs on top. Fond memories flood over me whenever I look at a 1st series 68 Topps card!

I bought my first baseball cards from the neighborhood 7-11 in 1975 when I was eight years old and have been hooked ever since. The fall of 1975 saw us trading 1975 Topps football cards in school. I collected cards solely from packs from 1975-78 and enjoyed building (or trying to build) sets that way, and yes, I filled in the checklist cards to help keep track of which cards I was lacking. 1979 was the first year that I ordered the complete Topps baseball set from a dealer rather than try to build from packs. I remember that set cost $9.99 postpaid. I relied on the Card Collector's Company to buy singles and fill-in the holes to complete my 1977 and 1978 baseball sets....

I finally completed the 1975 Topps set last year, and I am currently working on completing the 1975 Topps football set.

For me, as a 7-year-old, it was 1969 Topps Baseball Fourth Series. I had the Don Drysdale checklist card and my goal was to get every card on that checklist. Any card not on that checklist was trade bait!

Looking back, I probably traded away PLENTY of stars as the 4th Series is mostly junk!

We traded before, after, and sometimes DURING school - always trying to avoid being caught by the eagle-eyed Nuns, who would confiscate your cards if you got caught with them!

The dear Sisters of St. Joseph's likely have some of the finest Baseball card collections in existence stashed away somewhere as we got caught MORE THAN once!

I'm 54 now and NEVER quit, but have not been as active in the hobby as I used to be...

Started in 1965
 

I grew up in Dunellen, New Jersey. As an 8 year old, Mom bought me my first pack at the local deli, 1965 first series. Continued buying cards there for another 6 years. Not sure how I got 1959 to 1964 cards in my original collection, probably Dad or my older brother got them. Sad that the deli closed last year. Always went in there once or twice a year to bring back great memories. Mike

My Mom worked at the mall when I was growing up and I would go to the mall during Summer break and Christmas break to hang out. Spent most of my money on arcade games. One day, I was rushing to the back of the G.C. Murphy store where there was an arcade and on my way to the back noticed packs of 1980 FB cards. Stopped and looked at them, bought a few packs and took them out to one of the benches in the mall and opened them.

I was instantly hooked. Spent all my video game money that day on packs of cards. For the next 4 or 5 years, Mom would bring home 2 packs of cards each day.

1957
 

5 cent pack at corner Drug/Grocery store at end of our block in St Louis

I am really dating myself, but what the hell. My passion for the hobby started in my hometown, Schenectady, NY where I and my pals, ages from about 8-11,all of us playing Little League ball, would pool our weekly, meager allowances and dash to the local drug store and feast upon packs of '51 Bowmans. Outside would be the ritual of opening packs, screams of joy or derision as the players were revealed and then the business of serious trading began. Most of us were Yankee fans and just loved everything about Mickey Mantle. So you can imagine the excitement when we learned that Schenectady was to be blessed with the final series of the '51 Bowmans. Every available penny was gathered and when the cards arrived our gang, armed and ready with our life savings, wiped out every pack in the store. When all the packs were open we had about 50 Johnny Sains but not one of the Mick. We were devastated. While college, the military, family and all that stuff curtailed any active involvement in the hobby for a long time, I am now retired and actively engaged in the prewar scene, but the '51 bowman set will always remain my favorite. John

7 years ago, my dad brought me to the annual Minnesota Twins fest. I wanted to go simply because of my favorite current Twins players that would be there signing autographs- Carlos Gomez, Joe Mauer, Justin morneau etc... Passing by various booths one caught my eye where this guy had cards of all the absolute legends I had read about- Mantle, Mays, Yogi, Aaron- these guys were like gods to me. I fell in love with these cards and ended up convincing my dad to split the cost on a 1965 Topps Hank Aaron. I mostly collected cheap 1950s and 1960s cards then, but slowly started dabbling in pre-war.

What are you doing here?;)
It feels like the scene in "Captain America: Civil War" where Peter Parker describes the "really old movie" and Stark and Rhodes have some dialogue where they effectively roll their eyes.
Sorry to give you a hard time, I just thought it was funny.

While my first pack was most likely a 71 BB pack purchased by my grandmother, I think I really started that fall with the 71 FB. I grew up in K of P (the mall), but my father was from Baltimore. I remember going to one of his co-worker's house to watch a Colts-Jets game as they must have lived in Bucks county and were able to get the NY stations. Someone from that family must have worked for Topps as there was an uncut sheet of 71 football on the wall. I also remember being in Baltimore for Thanksgiving that year and going to the 5 and 10 (McCrory's, I think) and getting a boxed cello pack that had Johnny U showing. However, BB and HK were my favorites and that is what I currently collect. Although, I do have the 71 Football and Johnny Unitas in my searches.

I bought football only from 1972 to 1975. Then started on baseball and football in 1976. Traded all my football including several Payton rookies for a 1955 topps set. Also in about 1975 I started cold calling for collections to be donated so I could set the Guinness world record for the most cards. When I would get a list of several, my parents drove me around to gather them up. About 1980/81 I lost interest in setting a record but had tons of cards. About late 1981 or early 1982 my parents told me I needed to get rid of all the cards. Fate intervened and I stumbled on the original sport Americana annual price guide in a used book store. Then shows, then shop, then liquidation. Then decades pass and rejuvenation a couple years ago. Had a short lived rejuvenation about 10 years ago, but that one didn't last long. This time around it seems to be back in the blood for sure.

Mark

I collected 1958 Topps football as an 8 year old, got all the cards, and promptly threw them out.

The only other set I've ever collected is 1961 Topps baseball. Got them all and this time had the good sense to put them away.

Never collected anything else until discovering eBay in 1998. Then got heavily into 50s and 60s baseball, football and basketball cards of my heroes (Mays, Unitas, Chamberlain, et al). Also got into vintage cards of Jewish sportsmen.

Generally started in 1971, but there were still plenty of 1970 packs to buy. First card I distinctly remember having was a 1967 Duke Simms I found in our attic. I cannot account for how it got there. I think we moved into the house before that and I am sure I never bough cards before 1971. Fate?

I was in Jr High and HS during the heart of the junk wax era. My avatar is one of the cards I remember fondly from my first summer collecting.

I was born into it. That's really the best explanation I can give. Some of my best memories are from being in the TCMA warehouse when I was very young, traveling to Cooperstown, learning about baseball history from my dad and being exposed to all the incredible photography TCMA used.

I know exactly which scene you're talking about :D

My start was opening 1982 wax packs with my cousin. I lived in WI and he lived in FL. The stores near me sold Topps only. The stores near his house in FL sold Fleer packs. When we would visit I would trade him my 1982 Topps Braves doubles for anything I needed for sets. At the time FL didn't have an MLB team, so he rooted for the closest team, the Braves. Good times.

Going
 

By going to shows and flea markets all over the area with my dad 37 years later we are still at it at even some of the same flea markets and shows.

I was 16, on craigslist grinding to make some money for the summer and traded two 10" subwoofers for a baseball card collection which I knew nothing about at the time.

I bought my first packs in the summer of '67 when i was 10 and never looked back.

Still collecting today at age 59.

john

Got my first packs (85 Topps) from a Chinese grocery store in the neighborhood. My mom probably bought them for me to keep me quiet while she shopped. Soon got older cards (like, early 80's and late 70's) trading cards with a friend down the street. I thought I was ripping him off on some of these trades. It wasn't until years later that I learned that he was trading me his brother's cards.

I grew up in Japan, my dad was in the US Navy, so my first exposure to bb cards came in the form of late 60's Topps cards that he bought me at the base commissary. I was into Japanese baseball then, but didn't collect or know about Japanese BB cards until I came state side. Then once I came to the US (N. Calif) in the early 70's.... I got hooked on bb cards as my school mates also had them. First collected some in 1971 just for fun ( I remember buying packs, cello pack in those blue boxes and also remember buying BB and FB rack packs that year). Seriously got hooked in 1973 as I was following the Swinging A's in the SF bay area and completed my first set.

Ricky Y

I have been collecting for years but the earliest thoughts i must say are buying Hostess cakes for day camp with the free card.. I had a paper route and any left over money was either saved, I was thrifty even back then or used to purchase 15 cents packs or comics at an old bookstore on my route. Those were the days.

I needed a hobby. I started out buying all crap from the early 90's. I started building sets in the mid 90's. And started collecting vintage soon after. Vintage cards are way more fun. I wish I had started sooner.

In 1983 my dad bought a box from a pharmacy he went too,each week he asked if me and my brother were good and if so he gave us a pack. By end of 1983 went to a baseball card show, Brooks Robinson was the autograph guest and couldn't have been better to me. That's how I got hooked, by 1987 I was mowing neighbors lawns and spending all of money on cards.

I remember driving up to a gas station drive thru as a kid with my mother. She got her cigarettes and me a pack of cards. I would chew the gum and check out my cards. I then tossed them in the floor of her station wagon before getting dropped off at school(kindergarten). I had tons of 87 topps 88 donruss etc and on into the early 90's. i purchased a couple of wax boxes of 1987 topps baseball for me and my son to open together when he gets a little older. Just to kind of relive my childhood.

I was eight in 1965. That's also the year that I started collecting. I stopped in 1969, and didn't get back into it until 2002.

That '65 Topps set was always my favorite post-war set.

I was 10, living in Hawaii, buying packs of '72 Topps. I never completed the set, due to finding out much later that (1) either my interest waned or (2) the later series never made it to the pacific. Fast forward, to the college years, meandering around in a convenience store after an evening of being over served at a local bar. As I waited for the cashier to ring me up, I noticed the packs of 1981 Topps on the counter. I said to myself "I never completed that 1972 set. I am going to complete the 1981 set." Many pack purchases later and after finding a tiny, dark and dank local card store (remember those??) in a strip mall and purchasing missing cards there, I finally completed the '81 set. I spent well over $100 putting that set together and have hundreds of doubles and triples. I was happy, content. Then I saw an ad in the local paper, about a card show at the local VFW. As I walked into the show one of the first things that I saw was a sign on a dealers table, which read - "1981 Topps complete set collated - $19.99", that soured me a bit on trying to complete a set via pack purchases. At that first show, I saw my first tobacco cards, which I thought were really cool looking and purchased one (Hanifan, NJ). That was the start of the insanity. In the early '90s I started collecting IP autographs of the HOF's who were guests at the show. I was spending far more money on cards than autographs but over the years, that reversed and more money was spent on autographs as opposed to cards. I still collect cards, but prefer vintage over the new stuff.

Starting in the hobby
 

It was 1986, I was 8 years old. I was a member of Coach Marsh's AAA Brewers club... My first game didn't go as planned (hitless at the plate), so to cheer me up my dad took me to Norumbega Stamp and Coin in Newton Mass to grab a few packs of cards... For some reason I found myself flipping through the pages of their display binders, and was taken aback by these trendy, colorful, disco-like cards (1972 topps). My dad picked out 3 cards, two of his favorites: Carl Yastrzemski, and John Kennedy (I think he liked the name), and a very cool mustached 1974 topps Luis tiant...

Took those cards with me everywhere that year, remember it like it was yesterday

Me too. I mowed lawns from about 1983 to 1988. Three of every four dollars earned went toward my wax pack addiction, but I turned out ok. :D

I first starting buying packs in 1976...began buying complete sets in 1977. My dad knew a guy(mel solomon) in the hobby at our temple and I used to sequester his help to obtain cards I wanted. I once sorted 30 sets for mel in exchange for 1 free one to keep.

My dad would ask his coworkers if they had any bb cards at home from kids who had long left. In this manner I was able to acquire most significant cards from the late 50's-present.

I started attending shows in 80-81 or so...bought my first t205/t206 in 81...a matty white cap.

I sold my childhood collection minus a few cards in 86' to buy a beat up 76 chevy camaro.

Got back into it while in college buying 90-91 UD packs...then got into solely vintage.

My dad got me into collecting as a kid but I got into prewar as a kid by playing a baseball simulation game on a website called whatifsports. You'd be able to make a team from players from all different years from 1885-current year. After playing it for a year or so I wanted to get a card of one of the old time players that I was using and ended up getting a T206 Delehanty of ebay. That started the madness.

I bought my first pack of cards in 1959 and was lucky that my best friend's dad owned a "dime store" that sold cards. At the end of the 1960 and 1961 seasons, my friend's dad simply gave me the leftover Topps boxes he had. So that triggered my collecting interest. I set up at my first card show in Troy, MI in 1972 after my senior year in high school. If there was one "aha" moment in my collecting career, it's when I opened a pack of 1959 Topps and got a Detroit Tigers Red Wilson card. My mom and dad, who were teachers, made such a big deal out of me getting a Tiger that I was hooked immediately.

I started in the early 80's. Dad would take my brother and I to shows and I was in heaven with all those cards. I'd read Beckett religiously and was amazed that the Mattingly rookies were so expensive! Seeing them in person at shows was awesome back then. I'd get packs at a local indoor flea market where one of the vendors was a baseball card dealer. I got my 1960 Topps Koufax from him for $8. Still have it in my set today. I'd buy boxes from him and just loved ripping them open. Of course, every year my parents would buy me the Topps factory set for Christmas. Got out in the early 90's when too many different sets were coming out and I didn't like the designs anymore. Then got back in during college when I got my first prewar cards and was hooked again. Twenty years later and I'm still just as hooked as ever.

AndyH

Pete:

I stay in touch with Mel and he was walking around the National on Sunday -- do you want me to send you his email address

Rich

thats funny! i last saw mel at a national maybe in 95. He sold my childhood collection for me!!

I don't know really how I got started, maybe because I liked baseball. I started with 1952 Topps, then some 1953. I put them in a box in my closet. I quit for some reason, probably because I started high school. The box sat in my closet. I went into the U.S. Army in 1962 and came home in 1964. The box sat in my closet. I got a job and left home. Came back in around 1969 only to find my mother had cleaned out my closet because my brother wanted it. She throw my box of cards out but kept my brothers books from his only semester of college. When asked about it she said the cards were taking up space and my brother might go back to school. In 1976 I was living in Maryland and my daughter got me a box of Twinkies because of the baseball cards on the back and this started me again and continue to this day.

Crazy ! I also got a 76 Camaro in 86 when I graduated HS.

I started buying packs in 75, but the 76 set is my favorite one from childhood.

As a kid in Detroit in the mid. 50s, we lived, breathed and dreamed baseball. I guess I wasn't a collector as a kid, just a saver. But the old story happened, went into military in the mid 60s, and parents threw my cards out.
I did not start collecting until 1984. I was working in law enforcement with Detroit, and was working a specialized unit that worked strictly on home and business break-ins. We got a call from a baseball card shop owner, and he stated his had some baseball card sets stolen and that he believed it was an inside job by a young employee. He asked us to help him find out from this employee, where the cards went.

Sure enough, the next day, when the employee came to work, there we were and got this young guy to confess his wrong doings and where he had sold the 1969 mint factory set. We went to the shop where the kid sold the cards, and the owner of the shop admitted buying from the kid. With a little convincing, the owner turned over the cards, and we returned them to the rightful owner.

In appreciation, the owner gave us each a new set of 1984 Topps and Fleer cards. I got to talking to him about cards my mother had bought several years prior, from a neighbor who came knocking on her door to sell cards, because he needed the money. I told him some of the cards were smaller then the others, and he stated they were probably 75 minis and to look for the Yount and Brett in the set. A couple days later, I looked at the box of loose cards my mother had, and there were cards from 1970 to 80 in the box. And more then a few. Sure enough, there was the Yount and Brett in this 75 minis which was about 75 % complete, as well as a Topps 1774 set also about 75 % complete. I had a ball going through this box of about 4 to 5000 cards with plenty of stars.

I met with the baseball card shop owner and told him what I had, and he invited me to an upcoming baseball card show. I went and I was hooked.
I got to see all the cards I had as a kid and their value, OMG.

It is a great hobby, and when I give kids some free samples, I tell them to put one in their spokes and to have fun with the rest.

I guess it depends on how much collecting counts as starting.

1969 - Bought one pack from the penny candy counter. Asked dad and he told me what they were and that they might be interesting. Got a Reggie Jackson, and dad said "hey this guy is pretty good".
1970 - No cards,
1971- one pack, whatever series had the coin. Danny Cater.
1972- no cards.
1973- Moved to a new town, and the kids I met collected cards, and did some flipping and trading. So I bought cards starting in maybe September.
1974- Got into it a lot more. And into sports in general. Aaron and the HR record, Mays retired the year before but was around for the WS. And the cards showing the older cards! And the Washington variations.

Got the same interest from the 75 MVP subset and started asking around. One kid got a 1968 Ed Matthews from his brother and traded it to me.


1977 Moved to a new town, and asked a kid on the cross country team with me if there was anybody with "old" cards. He said there was an entire store in the center of town. Stopped into Halls Nostalgia on the way home, and was amazed at the number of old cards. Stacks and stacks of them!
eventually that became one of my after school hangouts and they taught me a lot. As it turned out my first job was in the building next door and I got out about an hour before closing. Helped break vending cases into sets for store credit. Even though I moved away in 83 I came back to visit my friends in town and always left a bit of time to stop in.

I've had a few periods of relative inactivity, where I get into other hobbies, or go back to ones I was into before cards. (Stamps- started around 1967-68 same for coins. Was into cars for a bit in college, old racing bicycles starting about 1999-2000, and some dabbling in antique electronics and industrial stuff. Plus a load of stuff I just liked and bought)

Steve B

I was hooked from Day One. Some adult gave me a small pile of Topps cards in the summer of 1956 when I was six. The vision sixty years later is as clear in my memory today as if it were yesterday. Amongst the cards I distinctly remember a '54 Ernie Banks and a '56 Del Ennis (cards long gone). Used to love the flipping games. Won a lot of cards that way. My Uncle Harry had a smoke shop in Brooklyn. A couple of times he gave me a box of '57 Topps. Imagine busting those packs today. I collected feverishly until 1960 when I switched my interests to Action Comics. Didn't get back into the hobby for a long time. Dabbled a very little bit in the eighties and nineties. There was a card shop on El Camino Real in Menlo Park called Papa's - some of you may remember the store - that I occasionally patronized. Hit things with a vengeance with the onset of eBay in the late '90s. Subsequently discovered Net54 and the card collecting community at large and here I am.

I made this little gif from some home movie footage. It depicts my wiseacre brother Dan "posing" for his imaginary baseball card. My sister Kini, unclear on the concept, is indicating that the extra point is good.

Darling Avenue, New Rochelle, NY 1957
http://photos.imageevent.com/kawika_...20Baseball.gif

David, your gif is fantastic!

Thanks, Mark. When I saw this Olbermann-Costas piece about Matty's "Drop-and-Drive" delivery, Dan's antics were the first thing I thought of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yViyt-scehE