How long have you been a collector?

It just occurred to me this afternoon that I'm closing in on my 26th year of collecting cards. In early 1987 I moved to the Boston area and my first real friend in the new town was an avid collector. He got me into Topps baseball that year and I've been hooked ever since. What's your story?

[Bocabirdman]

I collected from 1965 to 1978. I fiddled around as a vendor for two or three years after that. I sold out, walked away and bought my first cards (a few 1960/1961 Orioles) in July 2010. It has mushroomed ever so slightly since then.

[ullmandds]

I started collecting baseball cards in 1975 or so...at the age of 6...I collected mainly 50's-current at the time with a few handfuls of vintage thrown in. I began collecting solely vintage...in the late 80's. So I suppose about 38 yrs for me.

[g_vezina_c55]

Start collecting hockey cards in 1990. I collect sport cards since this time

[Greenmonster]

1972, working in my father's bait & tackle shop, Salisbury Massachusetts, paid in 1972 Topps cello boxes ( one every couple of weeks)...finding an ad in the back of TSN offering a Sandy Koufax signed 3X5 (may be from Jack Smalling)...finding a small stack of T206s at a flea market in Ipswich, 50 cents per card, except Red Sox players they were $1. I was off and running in this great hobby.

[atx840]

Coming up to two years.

[rainier2004]

Started in the summer of 1984...when my Det Tigers beat SD 5-1 in the WS...those were the days!

[wolf441]

Started collecting in 1981. Spent waaaay too much money as a young teenager on 1980's Topps that I wish I had spent on vintage cards! My 1st T206 was bought in 1984, Ed Abbaticchio - Brown Sleeves for $4.00 at a card shop in Hyde Park, MA.

[chris]

I am 32 and have been collecting as long as I can remember. My first memory of cards is from 1985, opening a 1984 Topps pack after a tee-ball game.

[EGreenwood]

I started in 1978. The 78 set is still one of my favorites. Stopped in 87 when I went into the Navy. I was on and off until around 2000 when I started back up.

[vintagerookies51]

Started in December 09, so a little over 3 years.

[familytoad]

Beginning in 1970 at age 8. Had thousands of each sport, up to high school age. still have most of them.
Seems I paused for a few years in the early 80's but by the late 80's I got even crazier about cards.
Bought my first vintage HOFers in 1990.
What a ride since then...

[kmac32]

1969 started with Topps....then quit and started again in 1988 collecting all the Topps cubs. Started with vintage pre war in the early 90's collecting cards of my great great uncle.

[queencitysportscards]

Since the mid 80's...off and on the last few years, but building a T206 Cincy set now...really appreciate the vintage material now.

I will never forget going to my local hobby shop in Fairfield, OH and finding creative ways to pay for cards such as cutting lawns, washing cars, and doing chores to pay for my next pack of cards, not to mention all the card shows I went too (those were the good old days).

I will never forget riding my bike to the store and buying a 1989 Upper Deck pack and pulling a Griffey Jr. Rookie...too bad most of the cards I collected growing up aren't worth much today! That's why I am collecting vintage now...plus I am older and wiser and appreciate the history of the game and the story the vintage cards tell through cardboard.

Happy Collecting!

[Bosox Blair]

Since 1976. Hockey first - then baseball. Still collect both but almost all pre-war now.

Cheers,
Blair

[larrie804]

I started in 1950. The amount of time spent "collecting" has varied greatly over the 62 years. The primary interest has, for most the years, been the cards of my teens (1950-62). There were various distractions over time( . The pre-war cards unfortunately didn't become an interest until the 1990s.

[EvilKing00]

I guess sinceI was about 8 years old so, almost 31 years.

[Writehooks]

Coming up on 45 years. Concentrated solely on hockey cards in the late '60s while in elementary school, then switched to baseball after finding a stash of 150 '54 Topps inside a cookie tin in an old barn. In 1973 I read 'The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book
by Brendan C. Boyd & Fred C. Harris' and was hooked. By the mid-'80s I decided to focus on my favorite sport — boxing — and sold off most of my hockey and baseball collection to purchase vintage cards from the sweet science. The baseball stuff is long gone, and the only hockey I kept was the OPC WHA sets from the mid-'70s. Still buying, selling and trading boxing.

[Joem36]

I have been collecting since 1980-1981. I was ten years old and my mom bought me Rickey Henderson's Topps Rookie card for a few dollars. I was hook. I still own the card. Smile.

I don't know if I should thank her or blame her for all the money I have spent on cards over the years. My passion now is to complete the Monster, which I started about 4 years ago.

[Brian Van Horn]

September 1972. I found a torn in half 1972 Jimmy Rosario card. I took it home. My mom stapled it together (I was six at the time). I still have the card, staples and all.

[EvilKing00]

Originally Posted by Brian Van Horn

September 1972. I found a torn in half 1972 Jimmy Rosario card. I took it home. My mom stapled it together (I was six at the time). I still have the card, staples and all.

Cool story and awesome that u still have it, very cool

[quinnsryche]

About 1974 when I was 8 yrs. old. My dad and 3 partners opened a card store in Chicago in 1976 and it was open there and 2 other locations until the late '90's-early 00's. I worked there every Sat. and summers until right before I got married in '92. Have collected cards and memorabilia ever since (on and off at times). I have also collected comics, military uniforms, paper money, Japanese art, signed astronaut books, signed WW2 pilot books and other stuff but I always come back to baseball cards!

[wolfdogg]

early 1982

[HRBAKER]

First packs I bought were in 1966. First real serious accumulation was 1967-1980. Stopped buying packs in college and really never returned to that game. Will buy a few packs of Topps Heritage each year but that's about it.

I bought my first pre-war card in 1989 ('39 Playball Charlie Gehringer) from a Kevin Savage ad in SCD. I have been hooked on pre-war basically ever since.