First card in a set - any childhood stories?

[aelefson]

I am not sure how many kids did it, but it was a very common practice among dealers. Even into the early 2000s, there were at least two dealers at the Wilmington MA show that had most of their wares (all pre 1970 including prewar) in piles with elastics around them (usually sorted numerically for Topps). These piles included cards worth hundreds of dollars. It was much more common in the 70s and 80s. I would guess most dealer stopped the practice in the late 80s/early 90s as Copeland and other buyers were focusing on condition to a greater extent.

Alan