What are your favorite card/hobby stores from your youth?

[Seven]

We all started collecting when we were young, I feel that's more or less a given when it comes to our hobby. I think all of us also had a place where we bought our packs of cards, no matter where we grew up.

Whether it be a pharmacy, a hobby store, a grocery we all had certain spots to go to. I grew up when Hobby stores, or card stores were a little more prominent. There used to be many in my area of New York, there still are to a certain extent, but not like it used to be. My personal favorite was one about two miles from where I lived, called Alex's. It was close to my Aunt's and Uncles house as well, so I was always able to stop by and buy a couple of packs or purchase a vintage card after a bit of saving. If I had to pick a store that started me on the collecting journey, it was probably that one.

As a side note, another favorite of mine, but also one I wasn't able to frequent nearly as much, was Baseball Nostalgia, up in Cooperstown. I really felt that every time you walked into the store, you were transported back in time. The handful of times I have been to Cooperstown, I would always make stopping there, one of my priorities both as a child and as an adult. I purchased one of my favorite, non Mantle, cards, in my collection there, which is a 1953 Topps Willie Mays that I still own to this very day, along with numerous other things, throughout the years. I was saddened to hear the physical store was closing at the end of 2021, but will definitely cherish the memories of going into the store and talking about the hobby.

What was your spot growing up? What is your spot now, if you have one? I'd love to hear about it. The more stories, the better.

[Exhibitman]

I didn't bother with card stores much. In the late 1970s, the real action was beating the bushes at antique stores, secondhand stores, garage sales, etc., for cards. Stores were at best a place to get some current cards and learn about where the shows were (before SCD and Beckett had them listed). I got most of my new cards at local convenience stores and gas stations. In NYC, I used to go to a mom-and-pop corner store at 84th and Lexington, and there was also a drug store on 2nd avenue in between 74th and 75th that had current cards and a barrel of older packs that was fun to dig in. During the summer, I was in Mahopac, a town about an hour outside NYC and I used to get cards at the ice cream store in the Baldwin Place Mall and also at a market near our house. There was also an antique store that had a giant box of older cards that the owner would let me buy at 12 for a buck. I spent hours there digging through that box. The one I recall the most in LA was West Coast Cards. Nice owners who also ran the West Coast Card Club; I used to set up at their monthly meetings. Might make as much as $75, which was righteous bucks to a 13-year-old in 1978: I bought a 1952 Bowman Mantle at one of those shows for $3.25 and bought my first Aaron RC for $20, which puts it into perspective.

[Louisville_Hugger]

I grew up in Milwaukee and I remember my mom and dad would always take me to a little card shop called Ball Four Cards over in West Allis. I would religiously spend my 5-10 bucks a week there every week. I have some really great memories of that place. When I got older we moved to Hartland and I found a little LCS in Oconomowoc called Brothers Archery. They had archery supplies/bows and whatnot but 90% of the store (which was actually their house) was sports cards. I wasted all my weekly earnings there, and I do mean wasted as this was early 90s junk wax.

[jingram058]

Vendor's Mall in Chareston, SC became my most memorable go-to. This was a former grocery store, I believe, that turned into an antique mall where sellers rented or leased space. Some were quite elaborate, like separate stores unto themselves. There was one fellow, a retired Navy Chief, who sold baseball cards and memorabilia. His cards were very inexpensive, and I bought quite a few. But more memorable to me was that this fellow was very knowledgeable about baseball as well as cards. Well, as time went by, he decided to retire for good. He was going to sell his entire inventory to Rammouillat Auctions, a thriving Charleston based auction in those days just prior to the internet. I left on a mobile training team cruise on board one of the Charleston ships, doing workups in the VACAPES Oparea. When we got back into port, his space in the mall was empty. The fellow in the soace directly across recognized me from my numerous prior visits, and asked me if I was James, and I said I was. He said hold on, I've got something here for you. He came back with a paper grocery sack full of cards for me! All old cards, many of which I have posted images of on this forum. How can you ever even attempt to repay an act of kindness like that?

[ALBB]

Used to go to one outside of Philly ( NJ side) one of those totally unorganized / boxes everywhere places, back room always smelled like weed, front of store smelled liked cigarettes and cologne !!
He wasnt fooling anybody ! LOL

[andyr31]

I make it to Cooperstown a handful times a year being that it makes for a nice day trip. I was really disappointed when I went last weekend and baseball nostalgia was closed. I really enjoy Yaz’s in Cooperstown as well.

[GrewUpWithJunkWax]

Our town of 10,000 had 3 card "stores" all on the square. One was an antiques store that was located in a basement shop. There was a furniture store where the owner's son set up display cases at the back of the store. The other was a trophy shop that converted a room to display cases.

Good summer memories when us kids could ride our bikes around town and go buy packs and maybe an individual card with what little money we had saved.

[toppcat]

Bob Sevchuk's Baseball Card & Collectors Exchange in my hometown of Hicksville, Long Island. A great store and where the infamous PSA 8 Wagner was dealt a long time ago. I started going there in January 1981 and only stopped when he sold all his inventory and moved to Arizona, probably 11-12 years later. Bought my 53 uncut strip there from the infamous garbage hauler's find.

[gabrinus]

Lucky enough to grow up in Fort Smith, AR area with two great card shops run by John England and Dick Delong...bought a T213-2 Tinker right out from under Tbob back in the early 80s from Mr. England when I was a second grader...Jerry

[rugbymarine]

All Star Cards on Harford Rd in Northeast Baltimore.
Baseball Card Outlet on Eastern Ave in Dundalk (still there I believe).

Most of my packs were bought at 7-11, probably 5 packs a week on the way home from school with pops.

[Rhotchkiss]

Collector’s World in Gaithersburg, Maryland and House of Cards in Wheaton, MD. House of Cards still exists, but has moved, and is also ground zero for Huggins and Scott Auctions.

[butchie_t]

7-11 and Drug Fair, and G C Murphy’s, Highs and Peoples Drug Store in Rockville, Md. Twinbrook area near Veirs Mill Road.

I vaguely remember a place in Wheaton but no longer remember the name. I remember going into that store and there were old cards everywhere. This would have been in the early 70’s.

Everything else was through the mail.

B. T.

[judsonhamlin]

The old Route 1 Flea Market in New Brunswick had a bunch of small dealers with older cards. Then John Broggi opened JKJ in Highland Park. ah, the good old days.

[bnorth]

Lived in a small town with only one card shop. He had it in his basement for years and then moved to our mall till he closed. Owner was a great older guy who also traveled all over the US to shows in the late 80s-early 90s. He picked me up a ton of oddball Wade Boggs cards back in the day.

Growing up in a rural area hunting and fishing was also a big thing. There was a dealer who lived in a really small town about 60 miles away. He sold guns, fishing equipment, and baseball cards. Hard to get better than that.

[CobbSpikedMe]

Originally Posted by judsonhamlin

The old Route 1 Flea Market in New Brunswick had a bunch of small dealers with older cards. Then John Broggi opened JKJ in Highland Park. ah, the good old days.

I used to love Rt 1 flea market! It was huge and had everything. It's the flea market they go to in the movie Mall Rats so you can see how large it was from the outside.

My local card shop when I was in high school was run by a total loser. My friend worked at the Dollar Video near his shop and he would come in all the time and rent porn then go back to his store. I stopped going there after we witnessed that. I used to get cards from a dealer in the Packard's Flea Market in Hillsborough, NJ when I was younger. Picked up my 1960 Topps Koufax there and would stare at his Pete Rose RC in the case. It was one of those cool glass cases where you pushed the button and the rows of cards would go around and around.

Great memories from back in the day.

[jiw98]

I did the 6 mile walk into a small village of around 250 people to buy cards from Oslund's market. Great times, rip open the packs, stuff all the gum in my mouth and head home.

[nat]

Originally Posted by rugbymarine

Baseball Card Outlet on Eastern Ave in Dundalk (still there I believe).

It is indeed. I bought a 51B Kell and 73T Clemente from them a few weeks ago.

There wasn't a card store near me until the 90s, but before that I'd buy packs of Topps from a Chinese grocery store that was a few blocks from my house. My parents used to give me 50 cents and I'd walk up there alone and buy cards at ages that would probably get child protective services called on you these days.

[Harliduck]

Here in Western Washington when I was a kid in the early 80's there was only 1 card shop near Edmonds in Perenville (SP?). It's a half hour drive south, but back then it may as well been a state away for my parents so we went like twice a year and my brother and I would save up every cent we could. Even met Bob Feller there. The owner went on to create Pacific Cards and even printed his own.

By 1990 every little suburb had a shop...up they went, then they left...

As for packs we had a small mom and pop my mom would raid in Smokey Point...

[molenick]

I remember ordering stuff from Manny's Baseball Land (probably from ads in the Sporting News). It seemed like a dream store and one off-season weekend I convinced my dad to drive me there. It turned out to be a hole-in-the-wall right across from Yankee Stadium. I'm not even sure I was allowed inside, I think I asked for things and someone went in to get them. Based on the size of the ads, I had imagined something bigger. I know it expanded into Stan's Baseball Land, but in the early 1970s it was pretty much a mail order operation.

[Jerry G]

Al's Confectionary on Hodiamont near Plymouth in St. Louis. Bought my first cards there including a Stan Musial 1958 Topps All Star straight out of the pack. That was a great day! Damn, I'm old.

I guess I should explain. A confectionary was a convenience store, usually a little hole in the wall.

[Shemp]

Lally's Drug Store on the corner of Higgins and Neva on the far northwest side of Chicago in the late 1960's. I lived on Neva 6 houses away from the corner where the drugstore was. Would buy as many packs as I could - unfortunately that usually meant 2 packs cause I typically only had a dime - stand outside the store next to a garbage can, open the packs, chomp the gum, put the cards in my shirt pocket, walk back home, and sit on my back porch reading each card. A miscut card would never make it home and would end up in the garbage can. I still have all the ones I bought back then.

[NiceDocter]

Im another guy who visited House of Cards in Wheaton, MD at their original store.... initially owned and run by John Scott (still a principal owner) and Nick Schoff ( had been running shows in Northern VA not sure if he still is) . Bill Huggins ( I believe actually a relative of Miller Huggins) took over for a while and now Huggins and Scott have a storefront and auction house in Silver Spring MD. I bought a lot of stuff on and off from them in the early 1980s.... and did a private deal with Nick for an uncut sheet of 1952 Bowman high numbers framed ( which I still own) for $800 which was big bucks back in those days. When I picked the sheet up at his apartment he showed me an uncut sheet of 1933 George Miller cards with the rare Ivey Andrews (sp?) ... I think he was asking $10,000 at the time which was way out of my league. Wonder what ever happened to that sheet???? By the way John was very kind to me back in those early days and I still remember and appreciate it! Hope to pass some of that on to others as I go along.

[VoodooChild]

I started collecting around 1983 or so. Growing up outside of Pittsburgh in the eastern suburbs, we had two shops in Monroeville where I pretty much bought all of my cards. One was TNT Collectibles and the other was American Coin that was actually in the Monroeville Mall. TNT had a big sign with a '55 Clemente on it that you could see from the highway. My dad bought me one there around 1986. The best card I remember buying from American Coin was a Yount RC that was in the front display case.

Here's the Clemente RC from TNT. I still have the Yount too but I'd have to find it:

[rugbymarine]

Originally Posted by nat

It is indeed. I bought a 51B Kell and 73T Clemente from them a few weeks ago.

There wasn't a card store near me until the 90s, but before that I'd buy packs of Topps from a Chinese grocery store that was a few blocks from my house. My parents used to give me 50 cents and I'd walk up there alone and buy cards at ages that would probably get child protective services called on you these days.

Nice!
We moved from the area about 10 years ago. Glad to hear they're still open.

[Natedog]

I remember a little place called Bases Loaded in Lake Worth, FL back in the late 80's early 90's. It started in a strip mall at the back of a video store, then moved into a free standing shop a couple of blocks away. I remember Don, the owner, a super nice guy that was always very welcoming and even hired me to work there on Saturdays when I was in high school. I wasn't into vintage back then, but I wasted a lot of money on junk wax over those few years. Most of the cards I bought from there are now worthless, but the memories are priceless.

[Orioles1954]

Dixie Sport Cards (Williamsport, PA.) - first shop and have no idea if it's still open

Den's Collector's Den (Laurel, MD.) - I would give my left arm just for 10 minutes in there as a kid

Burton's Baseball Cards & Coins (Frederick, MD) - R.I.P. - felt like a family there

House of Cards (Silver Spring, MD) - the home base for H&S and business has been booming

[ValKehl]

Originally Posted by NiceDocter

Im another guy who visited House of Cards in Wheaton, MD at their original store.... initially owned and run by John Scott (still a principal owner) and Nick Schoff ( had been running shows in Northern VA not sure if he still is) . Bill Huggins ( I believe actually a relative of Miller Huggins) took over for a while and now Huggins and Scott have a storefront and auction house in Silver Spring MD. I bought a lot of stuff on and off from them in the early 1980s.... and did a private deal with Nick for an uncut sheet of 1952 Bowman high numbers framed ( which I still own) for $800 which was big bucks back in those days. When I picked the sheet up at his apartment he showed me an uncut sheet of 1933 George Miller cards with the rare Ivey Andrews (sp?) ... I think he was asking $10,000 at the time which was way out of my league. Wonder what ever happened to that sheet???? By the way John was very kind to me back in those early days and I still remember and appreciate it! Hope to pass some of that on to others as I go along.

Rocky, Nick Schoff is still running shows in Northern VA. And, Bill Huggins told me many years ago that his is a distant relative of Miller Huggins.

As as kid growing up in the west end of Alexandria, VA, my 3 collecting buddies and I bought our Topps cards (1955-1960) at a 7-11 and a drug store we could walk and/or ride our bikes to. There wasn't a LCS in our area that we knew of. We traded cards, and we played games with our cards (flipping, "sail touch," and "knock down") and card games (blackjack & poker) to win each other's cards.

In the mid-to-late 1980's when I resurrected my childhood collection that, fortunately, Mom didn't toss out many years earlier after I left home, I went to my first card show and discovered the existence of pre-War baseball cards. Soon thereafter, I obtained my first pre-War card, a T207 Recruit of WaJo, in a trade for some 1960 Topps with Bill Huggins at his card shop in Wheaton, MD. Not too long thereafter, my collecting focus became almost entirely pre-War cards.

[icollectDCsports]

Gerhardt's World. Originally located in the Crystal City Underground Mall in Arlington, VA, just across the river from DC, they relocated for a brief period to the Clarendon section of Arlington in the mid-'80s. Absolutely loved that place. Really stoked the flames of my passion for cards and also non-card memorabilia.

[HexsHeroes]

Old Cardboard member Tim Zwick had a wee shop in Lansing (Capital City Cards) before expanding to much larger/nicer premises in Haslett Michigan. He had the best range of collectible cards IMHO. I sold him the majority of my vintage HOF candy/gum/tobacco cards and about 30 each of vending box fresh Brett and Yount rookie cards in the 1990s. Most of the hand collated modern sets I acquired came from a tiny card shop called The Sportstop. A friend started (still owns) a shop in Mason MI named Extra Innings. Lots of fond memories from those days decades ago.

[pawpawdiv9]

All we had was a SEARS, and our mom bought us a beginner set with binder and all of TCMA immmortals for Christmans one year.
It was one of the best-est day ever sharing with my brother. Still have it till this day. THANKS MOM!

[JimC]

Growing up in Richmond I spent many hours looking through cards at Ernie White's shop, called Collector's Corner. In the early 80s I witnessed a lot of amazing collections walk into his place. I used to get dropped off there before I was old enough to drive. There was also a general antiques guy named Jess Holder in Richmond. Just a great guy. Jess had a booth at an old antique mall where he sold everything imaginable, but he always had good cards from the 50s through 70s. I still have a ton of cards we got from both places.

My Dad and I also visited House of Cards and other spots on our regular visits to DC and Maryland.

Val, I too used to get cards at the 7-11s in Richmond and NOVA but as a younger kid in Florida it was the local Li'l Champ convenience store that always had em.

[pete zouras]

Bob Menefee and Ron Barrett seen entering AJ's reliving their youths along with several others of us oldtimers. It's no longer but during the demolition I was able to pull from a dumpster a sign that hung in the window for ages (the reverse says we buy cards). They had a bid board, a carryover from Gerhardts card shop in Arlington mentioned earlier. AJ's was owned by Jim Beck and Nick Shoff before him and I purchased many vintage cards from him, some good and some not so good deals. A great place to jaw a short bike ride from my house.

[mordecaibrown1]

Back in the late 1980’s my wife and I responded to a ad in a newspaper that someone had 5000 cards from the 1950’s. So we were the first to get there and the guy said we can pick out any cards we want for $1 a piece. So I went through
2500 cards and my wife went through 2500 cards. We picked out about 150 cards, paid the $150 and went to eat breakfast going through what we picked out.

[Yoda]

Dawson's Pharmacy in Schenectady, NY. Just outside was a magnificent old Sycamore tree. The year I started my collecting Mr. Dawson had festooned his front window with the new '51 Bowmans and various advertising pieces. I immediately spent my whole .25c allowance on five packs, and with the gang retired to the Sycamore to open our packs and reveal their treasures with dirty, greasy fingers. Frantic trading started immediately.
You can imagine the excitement the next year when the brand new '52 Topps hit like a bombshell. Yikes. I think Mr. Dawson was far more busy selling baseball cards than filling prescriptions.
Dawson's is long gone, as is the Sycamore, replaced by a deteriorating mini mall. Progress, I suppose.
Ah, nostalgia.

[ocjack]

I spent the first half of my childhood in Englewood, New Jersey. A small, everyone-knows-everyone kind of town across the bridge from New York. My earliest memories of buying cards (way before the advent of card shops) was going to Jake's - a combination soda fountain (where I aspired to be a soda jerk when I got older), liquor store, tobacconist, toy store and comic book heaven. Jake would put out the newest box of cards and my friends and I would devour them 4-5 packs at a time. Jake's carried them all; baseball, football, zorro, a new baseball entry that contained a marble, tv westerns, etc.

Then in 1960 we moved to Los Angeles. Still buying cards at local drug stores, liquor stores, wherever I could find them. Still no card shops, but many visits to Goodwin Goldfaden's Adco Sports Book Exchange. The store literally burst at the seams with books, magazines, cards and anything a young boy could want. Goodie once offered me a large box that he said contained 1957 Topps and would probably make 4 or 5 complete sets. I forget the price, but it was a bit too much for a 16-year-old so I passed. (Damnnnn!)

Then came the card shops. An era had passed.

[wolf441]

Growing up outside of Boston in the early 1980's, I remember my mom taking me to a card shop in Kenmore Square. There was also a shop in Buzzard's Bay, MA called Park Nostalgia that we used to frequent during summer vacations. I also remember tagging along on grocery shopping trips to the A&P in hopes of snagging Topps Baseball rack packs.

[jingram058]

I've told this story over and over on this forum. My first experience with baseball cards started with 5 cents a pack Topps while visiting my Delta Air Lines stewardess sister in Dallas, Texas in 1967. I collected the entire set, according to the checklists, ultimately. Same for 1968, 1969, 1970. Almost every day my mom would send me to a little store next to The Castaways Bar 2 blocks down Barron Road from our house in Memphis to buy her a pack cigarettes (the cigarettes didn't kill her, diabetes did, decades later, and they thought nothing of selling a kid cigarettes as they knew they were for mom), and I could keep the change to buy packs of cards. Thousands of baseball cards, full sets. I even had one of those plastic green lockers organized by team and by league for one of those years. The others were in shoe boxes, but also organized. Many, many duplicates. Also, I acquired almost but not all of the 1962 Topps set, given to me by an older friend going off to college prep school. Then, I graduated to other interests, and the cards went under my bed. Finally, I moved out to my own apartment, and then into the Navy. Years, decades go by. Cards become valuable. My buddy Louis finds a stash of his old cards while helping his parents clean out the attic of the house he grew up in. Sells them for hundreds of dollars. I rush home and ask my mom if my cards are still under the bed of my old room. "Oh, I gave those away years ago. You said you didn't want them and do whatever when I asked you over and over!"

[tedzan]

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
.

[ejharrington]

Card Collector’s Closet in Springfield, MA. A few friends and I would pay 55 cents each way for a bus ride to/from Enfield, CT. Some great times. Paid $3.25 for a Dave Kingman rookie on my first trip there which was a huge sine of money for me at the time. We all pooled our funds and bought the 1981 Permographs Credit Card set and split it up with each of us getting our favorite players. We also split the Traded sets from 1983 and 1984. We would spend time there, go to the Newsstand store and buy the new wrestling magazines, and then finish up with Burger King. The store owners names were Bob and Charlie. They were very good to us little dirtbags.

[perezfan]

Rich's Five and Dime and Raoul's Pharmacy.... both on Ludlow Avenue in late '60s Cincinnati. Directly adjacent to Burnett Woods, and a few hundred feet down from Skyline Chili (corner of Ludlow and Clifton Ave.)

I know it's a needle in a haystack, but does anyone here from Cincy remember either of these stores? They had all the Topps issues of the day (Sports, non-Sports, and test issues). Simpler times and better days!

[benge610]

Originally Posted by Shemp

Lally's Drug Store on the corner of Higgins and Neva on the far northwest side of Chicago in the late 1960's. I lived on Neva 6 houses away from the corner where the drugstore was. Would buy as many packs as I could - unfortunately that usually meant 2 packs cause I typically only had a dime - stand outside the store next to a garbage can, open the packs, chomp the gum, put the cards in my shirt pocket, walk back home, and sit on my back porch reading each card. A miscut card would never make it home and would end up in the garbage can. I still have all the ones I bought back then.

So cool Joe,
I was feeling it when reading your post.
My dad used to pick me up (from "baby sitter") on his way home from work each day. He had to have the late edition newspaper; stopped at a convenience store; attached to the gas station near our house; a new subdivision off IL Rt. 31; Oswego, IL; south of the Caterpillar plant.. He would buy me a pack of cards; '69T to '72T era. Dupes and trips automatically went to the bicycle spokes with clothes pin, if they were just a "guy". Dupes of "somebody" went to the trade stack. Mom kept all my cards; hardly seen the light of day. Ex-Mt to Nr-Mt. And people wonder how we have the passion for collecting we do.

Ben

"I love baseball history backstory; especially when it involves cards."

[Seven]

Some wonderful stories here, thanks so much for sharing, everyone. It brings a warm feeling to my heart that no matter the ages of everyone here on the forum, we can always fondly remember stories about cardboard, from our childhood. Can't wait to read some more.

[spec]

Like most of the oldtimers who have posted about collecting in the 50s and 60s, I was limited to convenience stores and mom & pop markets when I first discovered baseball cards back in Florida.
However, when I graduated to vintage cards in the 70s and 80s, I had the great good fortune to be in Boston where a variety of card shops sprang up.
My apartment was within walking distance of Walt Kelley's store in Kenmore Square. Since I worked nights and weekends, I was able to spend many weekday afternoons there. However, I also made regular visits to Hall's Nostalgia in Arlington. That required taking the T into Boston, then out to Cambridge, followed by a bus to Arlington, but it was worth the trip. In addition, I used Boston's unique public transportation system to visit Bill Carvalho's store in Melrose and Phil Castinetti's Sportsworld in Saugus whenever I got word that they had purchased some interesting material.
Though my collection still includes wonderful cards from each of these establishments, some of my fondest collecting memories are of afternoons spent discussing sports with Dave and Joel Hall at Hall's Nostalgia and with Walt, Dave and Joe at Kenmore Sportscards near Fenway Park. If any of them read this forum: Thanks for the memories!
B0b Rich@rds0n

[spec]

Duplicate post

[Tere1071]

I went to my first card show in 1973 when I was 12 years old in Garden Grove, CA. That afternoon I remember getting a 63 Fleer Orlando Cepeda, a 52 Topps Willard Marshall, and a 51 Bowman Ned Garver. There was no rhyme or reason for my purchases, I just liked the way the cards looked.

Two years later a collector by the name of Wes Schleiger took me under his wing and for the next seven or so years on the first Thursday of the month, we would go to a monthly card meeting located mostly in Fountain Valley, CA. I would help him out behind the table selling cards for $10 and dinner at the KFC. Soon after, I also would help him out at various shows for years afterward and it was through him I got my first job working at a baseball card store in 1979. I never really made enough money to purchase the cards that are sought after and worshiped today, but working in that atmosphere was magical and a blessing.

Phil aka Tere1071

Reliving my youth and then some:

1953 Bowman Color set
1970 Topps Baseball (need about 150 cards for completion)
1971 Topps Baseball complete set
1972 Topps Baseball complete set
1973 Topps Baseball (200+ different cards towards an eventual set)
1974 Topps Baseball complete set
1975 Topps Baseball complete set

[Andrew1975]

Hall’s Nostalgia, Arlington, MA, mid 80s. I vividly remember pulling a 1984 Topps Mattingly from a pack there… They had amazing vintage cards.

[Hirbonzig]

I started buying cards at an old fashioned candy store called the CandyMan in downtown West Bend Wisconsin around 1980. Never pulled a Henderson rookie, had to buy one later. My first real LCS was Mike’s Cards in Grafton Wisconsin, which was a 20 mile bike ride one way.

[obcbobd]

Hall's Nostalgia in Arlington MA my hometown. They opened in 1976 when I was 14. I was one of their first customers. I remember buying a 1954 Topps Ted Williams for $5 and showing it to my mother. "$5 for a baseball card!!!!". But she did think the card was rather cool.

[darkhorse9]

My first introduction to vintage cards came from the catalogs from Jim Elder out of Odessa, Fl.

We moved around a lot (I had seven addresses by the time I was 15), so I never had a chance to find card shops. Having the chance to get my hands on a real Bowman card was a huge deal to a preteen in 1976.

I wish I had kept some of those old catalogs.

[runbrett]

The Sports Collectors Store in Chicago was amazing. I went there lots of times in the mid-1970s after some friends found out about it. I spent most of my money in the $0.25 box of damaged cards. This box contained Mantles in poor condition.

Behind the counter, the east and west walls of the store were stacked floor to ceiling with boxes of cards that were perfectly organized. I have a vivid memory of asking for a 1963 Fleer Clemente. The guy pulled out a box that had at least 100 of them to choose from. I still have that card.

Many times I spent my bus money and then just walked/ran the seven miles home.
I don't remember my last visit there, but it was probably in 1981 or 1982. A great shop, run by many of the big names in the hobby.