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John H.This really IS a great thread. I don't have any real childhood baseball card collecting memories as hockey cards are king here in the Great White North, but I sure have enjoyed reading all of your posts. I did have a 1964 Willie Kirkland Topps card for the longest time. That's the only baseball card that I specifically remember owning in my youth.
Even though I was a huge sports fan, the only card sets I collected as a kid were 1970 and 1971 O Pee Chee Canadian Football League sets and the 1971-72 O Pee Chee hockey set. I don't remember actually buying the football cards but I know I had them and the hockey set cost me about 50 cents to build as I was a pretty shrewd trader..."You want my extra Phil Goyette? Give me all your traders!" I bought those packs at Bigelow's Pharmacy in Winnipeg.
For some reason, I was more drawn to oddball stuff like 1970-71 Esso NHL Power Players stamps, which were similar to the 1972 Sunoco NFL stamps in the US. Buy a minimum of $3 worth of gas, get player stamp packets. Dad brought home my first three packs of Power Players one Saturday afternoon while I was watching Bugs Bunny. I remember that Gerry Cheevers was in one of them. Another time I was playing ball hockey on my driveway with some friends when dad drove up and handed me seven packs. Only one pack was a duplicate so I got six different packets and I vividly remember Dave Keon - a great profile shot of him sporting his new longer mod hair style - being in one of those packs. I mention that only one pack was a duplicate since similar packs seemed to often be grouped together and, unlike regular card packs, all six players in a perforated packet always came together. I remember the gas station giving me nine packs when my dad bought me the deluxe collector album and eight of them were the identical Jim Pappin pack. That was disappointing! I still have that completed album, with the dust jacket, in beautiful condition.
Wonderful memories!
John