How did you get started in the hobby

[Vintageismygame]

Dad bought me 2 boxes each of 1987, 1988, 1989 and 1990 Topps football for Christmas 1990. I was 6 years old that year and that was all that it took to get me hooked! I remember taking my time opening up each box and separating them out by teams.

I collected until I got into High School and then picked it back up my Junior year in College. I have been going strong since. My dad has a safe deposit box at the local bank that contains my great-grand fathers, grandfathers, and dads childhood collections. It is in the will that I am not to open the box until dads passing, so I am in no rush what so ever to see whats in there.

In the past couple of months I have put "The Monster" on the back burner and moved back into vintage football (1950s) and love it. I am working on the 1951 Bowman football set and let my 5 year old daughter "help" me. She loves looking at the art work and asking questions about the players. If I get duplicates I put them in a separate box for her to thumb through when she wants.

I love this hobby!

[irv]

I don't really remember how I got started but it was likely my Father, who loved Hockey and loved watching it, that likely purchased some of these Esso Gas Station stickers for me and I was hooked!

I remember constantly asking my Dad if he needed gas so I could purchase more of these stickers for my book.
http://puckjunk.com/2008/04/11/got-em-got-em-stick-em/

I still have the book from when I was 6-7, and I know, to this day, I am missing one sticker/player to complete the book.

I continued collecting hockey cards through public school but don't remember when I stopped?

About 25-30 years ago, (during the junk card era) my Father gave me his 52 Topps cards and I was re-hooked again!
Like a lot peeps from back then, I purchased loads of Upper Deck, Fleer, Score, you name it, but then the market collapsed, stores closed and like the hobby, I also waned from it.

Just this year, back in January, I was looking through my 52 Topps cards again when I read an article, I believe, about the latest Cobb card find, or the Lucky 7.

This rekindled my love again, and I happened upon these forums, which I didn't know existed.

Not sure how many cards I have purchased nor the money I have spent since joining, but finding this site wasn't necessarily a good thing! (joking, of course )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ybh9KTEB_I

[bn2cardz]

I just remember always being saturated in cards. From what I understand from the stories my dad bought me a collecting "starter kit" from my older sister's book fair at school when I was about 4 years old (around '86). I remember using the price guide that came with it for several years (originally I am sure I just looked at the pictures), before my dad bought me my first Beckett around 92. I still have it, this isn't my copy but this is the one:


A few years later my parents got me a subscription and after that people would literally come to me at card shows asking me the values of the cards because I had memorized the magazine. Every month I would just look at the ups and downs for each set, and it would stick with me. All the while I was just buying what I could.

One of my favorite sets from my childhood was the 1989 Donruss set. I just really liked that design. I bought more Donruss than any other set from then on. Until UD Collector's Choice came out and that was such a cheap option that I found myself buying those up all the time. Then I entered an antique store and found a t206 Doyle batting. It was being sold for $90, way more than I could ever spend, but it was so neat to see such an old card that was nearing 90 years old. At Christmas it was my only gift from my parents. I now know they overpaid (if they paid the full amount), but it was the best card ever to me. Soon after I bought my own Goudey online and got a Beckett almanac that way I could learn more about the older sets. Since then I have gone back and forth between vintage and modern.