Length of original card collecting run

[familytoad]

Interesting topic!

I know when I started. 1971 Football cards. I would have just turned 9 years old.
Then I hit it as hard as my meager allowance would go!
That run lasted (by the volume of cards from my original collection) until 1978.

I had virtually no 1978 Football but a lot of 1978 baseball so I think I determined that cutoff pretty well.

In 1988 I started again, along with the rest of the planet.
I stopped buying packs in 1992 or so.

I got into prewar in 1991 which is still my main gig even though I have almost every Topps set complete too. It was great going backwards to fill those sets (I have baseball and football, Bowman and Topps , mostly finished but some I don’t collect at all… you know, the ugly ones:-))

I have chewed a lot of bad gum, people!

[hoot-owl]

An eleven year span--my $.10 allowance bought at least a couple of packs in 1965. Ended with a complete 1975 set purchase from Renata Galasso.

[MikeGarcia]

... Guys ...read the rules : fifty posts without a scan of a prewar ??? Barbaric!

..

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I did not get this in 1934 ; an elderly neighbor's father did , though. Sadly they're all gone now but , left an estate of depression era items for people like us. People did throw much away during the Great Depression.

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[ejharrington]

My run was from 1978-1987. I still say 1983 Topps is the nicest set ever made.

[IndyDave]

My childhood collection started in 1966. Topps baseball and Philly Gum football. My grandfather got my brother and I started.

I probably stopped buying packs somewhere in the early 1990's and bought the complete sets for awhile.

[Harliduck]

I'm jealous of those that mention buying packs in the 50s, 60s, and early 70s...can't even imagine...

For me it was 1978 to 1985...then in 1986 I only bought the complete sets (turned 16...as mentioned earlier...cars, girls, cars, girls...lol) then started right back up in 1987 and by the end of 1990 I was burned out and living on my own...like most here, got back into it 15 years later... Haven't looked back, although only the last couple years have I bought new packs to hand collate sets...not as fun as when I was a kid, but fun none the less...

[steve B]

Trying to remember...

1969
1971
1973- 97? 99?
I don't really know after that, I probably skipped a few years until 2009 but I think I've bought at least a pack or two of something each year since then.

[ValKehl]

1955 - 1960.

[cannonballsun]

I started in 1960 (5 years old) and stopped in 1970 (15 years old). I had a hard time convincing myself to stop at 15. I really didn't want to, but I finally convinced myself to do it. I was too grown up for such things, I thought.
That was a big mistake.

[Tere1071]

I purchased baseball card packs from 1969-1975 and football/basketball packs from 1970-1974. Some interesting occurrences during that span: my corner liquor store sold the 1970 and 1971 Baseball Super packs a year later than their distribution. In 1974 or so for a period of time, we were able to purchase packs of 1970 Topps Baseball 7th series cards from that same liquor store, Paul's Liquor in South Gate, CA. Except for a 1970 Super of Clemente, the others are long gone.

Phil aka Tere1071

Complete sets of 1953 Bowman Color, 1971, 1972, 1974, and 1975 Topps Baseball that are endlessly being upgraded.

1970 and 1973 Topps Baseball sets that are incomplete and on hiatus.