Collecting in the Early 1970s

[Troy Kirk]

In late 1972 when I was 13 I decided to become a baseball card collector. I had my worn and well-loved cards from the late 1960s as a starting point, but there were no baseball card price guides, no internet, no card stores, not much to let me know what to collect. I bought a Baseball Card Checklist book from the Card Collectors Company in 1973 and that served as the blueprint for my collecting activities back then.






I made up a wantlist and sent it out to other collectors for trading.



In September 1974, The Trader Speaks magazine published a checklist of T206, so I could start collecting those if I wanted. I picked up a few, but not many.




I also had little notebooks filled with handwritten oddball checklists like the Fleer World Series sets and other Fleer oddballs sets, Milk Duds, Hostess, Kelloggs, etc.

It was fun collecting back then, you kind of had to make it up as you went, not much information, and not many ways to add to your collection.

I'd be curious to see other tools collectors used when they were collecting in the dark ages of the early 1970s or earlier.

[Leon]

Very interesting Troy. I only collected as a kid in the late 60s and then fast forward to my early 30s in the 1990s....so can't really help on a personal basis but I bet I can dig up a few things to add to this thread later on...

[nolemmings]

You and I are the same age Troy, and I remember the 1966-1975 era very fondly (then came driver's licenses and girls). I did not collect anything pre-1961 then, although I was given 2-3 dozen cards of my uncle's, including a 55 and 56 Ted Williams. I really didn't use anything for check-listing other than what came with the cards, but I remember having one of these in 1969 (not mine, from ebay):


Mine came from some mail order catalog (Harriet Carter?), and you had to use the extra spaces on the bottom for the expansion teams. It didn't take long for me to remove the doors, since they seemed to pinch the cards, and the "shelves" sat on these notches that would dig into the cards when they got full. Still, it was handy for carrying your cards around the block for trading and dice games that we played, or just to show (Hotwheels and matchbox cars had similar carrying cases/lockers, as did GI Joe and Major Matt Mason--all staples where I lived). Out with the old set and in with the new in 1970, but the sets were getting too large and I stopped using it by 1972.

[ALR-bishop]

I bought cards in packs through 1962. Starting in 1963 I started ordering full series of cards from the Card Collectors Company. I loved packs but getting those thick packages full of cards throughout the summer was neat too

[ALR-bishop]

Great item Todd. Was it a send away for item

[Zach Wheat]

I used to love these comic booklets when the '70 Topps came out. I used to collect them all but somehow never managed to complete the set of 24....

[pokerplyr80]

I started collecting in 1989 at the age of 9 so these are a little before my time but they're great to look at. I wish I could send my dad or grandfather a message back through time and tell them to pick me up a couple of those $250 Honus Wagners.

[LeftHandedDane]

Troy, you brought a smile to my face with your post. I, too, had a checklist book from 1976 - this one from Larry Fritsch and Dan Dischley. It covered Bowman, Fleer, Leaf and Topps from 1948 to 1975. I always dreamed of getting every card listed in that book.

I still use the book today as the record of the cards that I own from those years. Getting close to filling it up, but not quite there yet. The 49 Bowman PCL and the 51 Topps Connie Mack/Major League Allstars and Teams are the two sets, along with 52 Topps, that will prevent me from ever getting there I am afraid.

[steve B]

And here I thought the plastic pages that came in a binder showing all the team logos in 74 were the first...........

I'd love to find a few of the loose leaf pages shown in that catalog.

Yes, I'm that one oddball that sort of collects the collecting accessories.

Steve B

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

I bought cards in packs through 1962. Starting in 1963 I started ordering full series of cards from the Card Collectors Company. I loved packs but getting those thick packages full of cards throughout the summer was neat too

[ls7plus]

Ah, the seventies! The only time period when I could have afforded a T206 Wagner, but alas, I ceased collecting as a kid in 1969, and didn't get back to it until about 1990. As John Greanleaf Whittier once said:

"Of all the sad words of tongue and of pen, the saddest are these--it might have been."

I guess my newly acquired 1909 Max Stein Wagner (try and find another one of these!) will just have to do!

Highest regards and best wishes in your collecting,

Larry