Cumulative collecting experience....

[drdduet]

Just to get a rough estimation....

Post the number of years you've been collecting baseball cards. I'm just curious as to what is total years of experience in the hobby shared by this board.

I've been hooked for 34 years and there is no cure for me.

[slidekellyslide]

Hmmm...I don't know exactly, but I took about an 8 year hiatus between college and when I started up again with the advent of ebay. My best guesstimate is 25 years.

[B O'Brien]

I got my first Topps set in 1985 at the ripe age of 9, and bought my first old stuff in 1987 with grass money and have steadily moved back through the years since then.

25 years total of buying, selling, and using them to bet on wiffle ball games in the front yard with the neighbors.

Hope all is well,
Bob

[jb217676]

drdduet, you've been collecting for more years than I've been alive! (just turned 33 in 2009) Started collecting vintage 2 years ago!

[tedzan]

We must of started in the same year, as this is my 34th year. I returned to collecting BB cards in 1977
after a 25 year break in this hobby.


TED Z

[Orioles1954]

I'm 34 years old and have been collecting 23 years. Started in 1984-1993 (three year break for girls and punk rock) back from 1996-present.

James

[drdduet]

We're already up to 143 years of cumulative experience!

[Rob D.]

2010 marks my 38th year of collecting cards and memorabilia.

[Jim VB]

First set I remember collecting as a kid was 1961, but I took an extended sabbatical (Barry, can I take a sabbatical if I don't have "tenure?") from 1969-1985. So, I'm around 33 years as an active collector.

[docpatlv]

Have been collecting for 34 of my 40 years.

[ErikV]

Been collecting for 32 years total. (Started collecting cards in 1978 at the age of 10.)

[barrysloate]

Jim- around here you can do anything you want. There are no rules!

[CobbvLajoie1910]

1985. 7-years old. Recieved a box of rack-packs for Xmas.

All downhill from there.

25-years & counting.

[nebboy]

First started in 73 but with break it comes to 24 yrs

[cardinalcollector]

I bought my first pack of Topps in 1968 at the age of 7 and have collected non-stop.

My first card show attended was in St. Louis in 1976.

My first National was #3 also in St. Louis.

I also got to hang around Buck Barker when I was a youngster and had a column in "Sports Collectors News" in 1975-76 called Randys Ramblings.

[drdduet]

"bought my first old stuff in 1987 with grass money"

Hey O'brien, we'll keep that on the DL...

[drdduet]

We're up to 371 years and counting....

[Leon]

Originally Posted by cardinalcollector

I bought my first pack of Topps in 1968 at the age of 7 and have collected non-stop.

My first card show attended was in St. Louis in 1976.

My first National was #3 also in St. Louis.

I also got to hang around Buck Barker when I was a youngster and had a column in "Sports Collectors News" in 1975-76 called Randys Ramblings.

Hey Randy,
I think you are close to my age but you didn't put in your # of years?

I am only going to count my current collecting as I collected when I was a little kid but not too long after that. So, I am only at about 14 yrs.....(but very addicted years!!)

[Anthony S.]

First started buying Topps packs at age 7 in 1975. That was the year they test marketed the Topps Minis in select areas. Could never figure out why the cards I bought in San Francisco were a different size than the cards I bought in Santa Barbara when we visited my grandparents. But it did make me very suspicious of my grandparents.

Stopped collecting in 1981 when I started high school. Started collecting again in 1998, but stopped in 2000. Decided to sell my collection in 2007. But the second I pulled my vintage cards out of storage and found this website I was sucked right back into collecting. I think this time for good.

So about 12 years of hardcore collecting as compared to 30 years of relative sanity.

[Chris Counts]

I bought my first pack in 1970, and by 1973 (when I was 12) I was pretty much only interested in vintage, which to me meant Topps cards from 1952 to 1969. The following year I went to my first card show (Anaheim '74), where I discovered you could buy something called a T206 for a dollar. I skipped most of the 80s and 90s, and I got back into collecting about 10 years ago ...

[cincyredlegs]

Got hooked in 1976 (was 5 years old) when my dad brought back a large box of 1973-1975 baseball cards back from the flea market. Sorted those cards 10 ways to Sunday and kept extra tight rubber bands on them so they wouldn't move around and get damaged....hmmm. Still have those cards but don't think I will be getting any PSA 10's from that lot.

Anyways, been collecting ever since - 34 years. Mainly vintage but still have a slew of junk from the 80's and 90's.

Mark

[Section103]

I bought my first "pack" (to this day I swear I got a batch of cards out of something close to a gumball-type machine and the card on top was a Pirate) in '74 and collected for about 10+ years. Missed the late 80s and all of the 90s (lucky!), and started again in 2000, right before my first-born. 20 years total.

[tonyk1975]

My first pack i bought was when I was 8 and it was 1983 Topps. Ive been collecting cards and memorbilia ever since. So thats 27yrs for me. Wow doesn't seem that long.

[steve B]

41 years since my first pack (Still have the Reggie Jackson rookie)
36 years since I started collecting more than about 1 pack a year.
33 years since I started collecting somewhat seriously
Moved to a town with a card shop in 1977. It was on the way home, and that got me into collecting older cards -I wish I'd bought more back then.

I've had a few stretches where I've been less active, but I got a few each year, so I count it as continuous.

Steve

[Rickyy]

I first started collecting seriously in 1973 to try to get a complete topps set of that year... and have been into it ever since...started the type collection soon after I discovered this forum....

[Steve D]

I bought my first packs of both baseball and football cards in 1970, when I was seven years old. Kept buying packs until 1975, except for 1971...still can't remember why I didn't collect in 1971 though.

In 1975, I bought my first cards through the mail: the 1975 Topps team sets of the Reds and Padres, through a Larry Fritsch ad in The Sporting News. Started buying baseball complete sets in 1976 from Fritsch.

Bought my first pre-WWII cards in 1979: T206s of M. Brown, Keeler and Bresnahan for $10 total.

I haven't stopped since


Steve

[mets41]

I collected cards as a kid from 1960-64 (ages 8-13). From 1965-73 I'd buy 1 pack of cards a year to see what that year's design looked like. When I bought my 1973 pack (already in my 20's and working), the pack included a Clemente card. That's what got me back into collecting (and later selling as well) as an adult. I thought it was odd at the time that Topps would make a card of a dead man.

[carrigansghost]

Started in 74 but took a few years off. I would guess at 25 years.

Rawn

[sox1903wschamp]

First pack purchased in 1966 at age 5. Collected everything in sight as a kid through 74, took teenage years off and have had the collecting bug since 78.
8 years as a kid, 32 as an adult.

Quick story: I will never forget the owner of Zack's variety store in Watertown, MA switching 1969 Topps series on me as an 8 year old. I had all of the cards from the prior series and was relentless in asking him when the new series would be in. Well they finally came in and I only had maybe a quarter to spend as my allowance day was the next day. I purchased 5 packs of the new series and came back the next day with a dollar (yes, I spent every cent I had even then on cards) for 20 more packs. Well he still had the old series to sell and he switched them on me. After opening a couple I realized it, went back to the store to trade out and he would not do it. I mean really, you just don't do that do an 8 year old

[familytoad]

Super thread idea and I'd like to add my 33 years to the total.
1971-1980=10
1988-2010=23

Vintage (Pre World War II)= 22 as my Diamond Star Frankie Frisch was captured in 1989.

How many of us played (or still do play) APBA Baseball?
I used to play one of their "All-time Greats" seasons and grew to love the old HOFers. Once I saw a "real" card of some of the HOFers I rolled the dice with, I was hooked, lined and sinkered. (insider info: Who recognizes 66=1 ?)

What's really dumb is that I was collecting a HOF card every few weeks and boxes or packs of wax from Score/Donruss/Fleer/Topps and Upper Deck nearly every day in the late 80's. If wishes were fishes... I'd like the $$$ spent on that junk back or wish the money had been re-directed into my HOF collection.

Who can make that happen?