Hi James
There were no card/hobby stores in the Summer of 1947 in Hillside, NJ, where I grew up. My first BB cards were pulled out of BOND BREAD packages,
which my parents purchased at the nearby food store.
In the Fall of 1948, we were thrilled to get the LEAF Gum Boxing cards. These cards were very popular, that LEAF continued issuing them in 1949.
Which explains why they were printed with White and Gray cardboard.
Early Spring of 1949, the LEAF Gum Baseball cards were available in our neighborhood. We would get together and trade and flip these cards and,
compare notes trying to complete this set (since LEAF played a "nasty trick" on us kids by skip-numbering these cards).
When I started Junior H.S. in 1952, we had a 1-mile hike to school. On the way to school was a newly opened Hobby shop which mainly dealt with
Lionel Trains, games, etc. And, in early Spring they had 1952 BOWMAN Baseball card wax-packs. May 1952, the 1st series of TOPPS cards (#1-80,
Black-backs) were available in the Pharmacy / Ice Cream parlor in our neighborhood. My original 1952 BOWMAN collection stops at cards #1 - 72.
Which tells me that I really "loved" the new Topps cards so much, I stopped collecting the BOWMAN's (which I had collected since 1948).
By the end of the Summer of 1952, I had 270 cards (of the 310 issued then). I was not interested in completing the set. I just wanted to have all
the Yankees in it......especially Mickey Mantle.
A cool day in the Fall of 1952, a day I still remember quite well. My neighbor, Johnny, tells me that our neighborhood pharmacy has the TOPPS Hi#
cards available. I had a Quarter in my pocket, so we went to the pharmacy, and I buy 5 packs. The first 4 packs I opened had some Hi # stars and
mostly commons. I carefully opening the 5th pack, slowly shuffling thru the cards, and lo and behold, the card in the middle was Mickey.
All five of these cards are the original cards out of that 5th wax-pack.
. . . .
James......I hope to see you and your Dad at the Philly Show next weekend.
TED Z
T206 Reference
.