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

[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