Posted By:
Al C.risafulliI bought new packs of cards at a Citgo gas station/convenience store in Mahwah, NJ from 1977 until about 1983, when I stopped collecting for the first time. I also used to bring my cards there and trade with one of the gas station attendants, who was also a collector.
I bought vintage cards from a card shop in Ridgewood, NJ called Dollars and Sense; the owner used to put T206s and 51 Bowmans in a shoe box for me and I could buy them for (if I remember) a quarter a Bowman, and .50 or a dollar per T206. Most of the cards were pretty beat up, but I'd go with my allowance once a week or so and come home with a fistful of cards.
My grandfather was a huge baseball fan, and he would sit and tell me stories about players from the early part of the century. I'd then go through the shoebox in Dollars and Sense and pick out players whose names I remembered from my grandfather's stories. Then I'd save the cards up in a big pile, and when he came over, I'd show them to him and he'd look at each guy wistfully and tell more stories.
Baseball cards have always been about stories for me. I still have most of the cards.
-Al