Do you recall your first card you got in a pack?

[cool-vintage]

I don't recall what my first card was, but I do recall some other details from my start in card collecting like my first memorabilia card, a Mike Piazza game-used bat. ( I still have the card somewhere in my collection) This lead to Piazza being one of my favorite players as a kid.

[hangman62]

a 66T wax pack. Although a cousin gave me some 65T cards earlier then that. Recall hating the look of the pennant flag on every card

[nsaddict]

I still remember it well. 1972 Topps Gil Hodges manager card. I was too young to recall his playing days but the card gave me the creeps. As my dad told me he had just died.

[Vintagecatcher]

I'm not sure what year my twin brother and I started collecting cards, but I remember having a bunch of Batman cards. He also had some Green Hornet cards, and I had some Tarzan as well.

If I had to guess, I remember we had some 1967 and 1968 baseball as well. I do know that all the cards originated from a small corner store that was run by a wonderful Portuguese family, who were close friends of my grandparents.

Patrick

[vintagesportscollector]

1974 Palmer. I had just started to get into cards and my dad was a huge Jim Palmer fan. He said, "son, go find me a Palmer!". I wanted to make him so proud - I pulled like a dozen Palmers out of packs. This was one of them...

IMG_3176 (1).jpg

[orly57]

Definitely a pack of 1986 Topps football. I remember a George Rogers 1,000 Yard Club card and a Bobby Herbert.

[MattyC]

[Big Six]

Opened a cello pack on the way to church on a Sunday morning in 1978...got a Thurman Munson...wish I still had that card.


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[wolterse]

My first pack of cards was garbage pail kids, probably around 1987. I still have every single one to this day (in the hundreds at this point). My first pack of baseball cards was 1991 topps. I vividly remember coming home and seeing the packs of cards on the kitchen table for both my brother and me. We wanted a Rickey Henderson so bad, but never got one. We got Alvaro Espinoza instead

[Tripredacus]

Originally Posted by darwinbulldog

The pack was 1986 Donruss. I have no idea which card was on top, but I could probably name most of the cards that were in there. My favorite was Johnny Ray because he had the highest batting average.

Thanks you reminded me! My first pack of baseball was not 1987 Topps it was 1987 Donruss. I remember cards from that pack being Johnny Ray, Andy Van Slyke and Jack Clark.

[sac_bunt]

In 1978 I was 4 when I got my first OPC pack.
However it was a couple years later when I acquired more cards. I figured the reason why I was fixated on this Pete Rose card was because with his haircut he kinda looked like my Dad - minus the frown.

[brian1961]

During the spring of 1961, after a hearty meal at Mary's Cupboard, a favorite restaurant of my family, located in Winnetka, Illinois, I got restless at the table and walked to the checkout counter to look at their candy. What a beautiful bleacher of taste bud delight. I noticed some wax packs of Topps baseball cards, too. The kids had been talking about them in school. At this time I was 6 1/2 years old.

I walked back to the table, and asked my Mom if I could have some of these baseball cards. She bought me three nickel packs.

The cards were all from the first series. I remember Jim Kaat, Lee Walls, the Tigers team card, the AL ERA leaders card, and this guy who played for the Cubs. He looked so young, not much older than my brother. There was this beautiful drawing of a trophy on the card. I especially liked this card---of Ron Santo!

Hence, the name of my Net54 moniker, "brian1961".

Great topic. ---Brian Powell

[7nohitter]

I remember taking up smoking at a young age, my father didn't know it but I would sneak some of his Polar Bear tobacco.

Well, I suppose he knew but he didn't care. One time I went to grab some tobacco and there was a little piece of cardboard with Walter Johnson's picture on it. Still have it, over 100 years later.

[GrayGhost]

Originally Posted by brian1961

During the spring of 1961, after a hearty meal at Mary's Cupboard, a favorite restaurant of my family, located in Winnetka, Illinois, I got restless at the table and walked to the checkout counter to look at their candy. What a beautiful bleacher of taste bud delight. I noticed some wax packs of Topps baseball cards, too. The kids had been talking about them in school. At this time I was 6 1/2 years old.

I walked back to the table, and asked my Mom if I could have some of these baseball cards. She bought me three nickel packs.

The cards were all from the first series. I remember Jim Kaat, Lee Walls, the Tigers team card, the AL ERA leaders card, and this guy who played for the Cubs. He looked so young, not much older than my brother. There was this beautiful drawing of a trophy on the card. I especially liked this card---of Ron Santo!

Hence, the name of my Net54 moniker, "brian1961".

Great topic. ---Brian Powell

great replies so far. I especially love these kind.
wish we could all be kids again and relive the fun times and be able to change our mistakes

[Northviewcats]

My first pack was in 1961. I was ten years old and I was immediately hooked. For the next few years I used all of my allowance and even searched the empty lots in the neighborhood for glass pop bottles to cash in to feed my baseball card addiction. I don't remember the players in the first pack, but I was a huge Mickey Mantle fan and I would trade ten cards to one to get a Mantle card. I had one box full of Yankee cards, most of them of Maris and Mantle.

Like most kids I didn't take good care of my cards. Scratched off team names and wrote the new team in pencil when a player was traded. Played games with them. Wrapped them with rubber bands. Stored them in a damp room in the basement. Eventually my Dad grew tired of the mess and threw them all away. He said he had to use a shovel to pitch them there were so many cards laying on the basement floor.

I didn't care back then because I discovered girls. What a mistake.

Oh well. If we would have kept and took care of our cards they wouldn't be so valuable today.

Best regards,

Joe

[smellthegum]

Originally Posted by Northviewcats

... and even searched the empty lots in the neighborhood for glass pop bottles to cash in to feed my baseball card addiction.

I remember doing this too. As I mentioned in a previous post my first card/pack was '71 1st series wax, but I didn't get fully into baseball until 1974. Before that I remember all the neighborhood kids -- there were 9 or 10 of us -- scrounging discarded Coke bottles and selling lemonade on the corner to fund bulk purchases of Wacky Packages during the summers of 1973 and 1974. The corner store couldn't restock them fast enough before we'd buy them out. That's what really got us all going and a few kids continued to collect cards for several years after that. I don't collect non-sports but couldn't resist buying a few early series unopened Wacky Packages just recently for the pure nostalgia.

[cardswin53]

The first card I remember getting out of a pack was Stan Musial in the 1961 Topps as a 8 year old living in St. Louis. Still one of my favorite cards. May not have been the very first but it is the one I remember, although I admit it may be a false memory.

[clydepepper]

I believe I have responded to a similar question before and I do not recall exactly what I said then...so I hope I don't contradict myself now:

Mom bought me a few packs of cards at the A&P in 1964.

I seem to recall or believe I remember Gary Kolb, Ron Santo, Bobby Richardson and Orlando Cepeda - but I'm not sure they all came in the first pack.

[JollyElm]

In the spring of 1972 my brothers towed me along with them on the long hike to the local stationery store. I was rewarded with my first pack of baseball cards and quickly learned how to dig through them to find any cards with red borders…because that meant they could be Mets!!!!!!!!!

[pingman59]

I was 9 years old. I remember my first pack was a 1968 Topps Rak Pack purchased at the Woolworth's. (Oh, the smell of grilled cheese sandwiches when you walked into the Woolworth's!) I don't remember the players, but did pick through the Packs on the hanger for the best pack. I went back several times to buy more and did. I thought that's how you bought baseball cards, in Rak Packs. It wasn't until I was at a different department store weeks later when I bought a 3rd Series wax pack with the game card insert. I thought that was so cool, AND you got a stick of gum!



20 years later, I visited the Baseball Hall-of-Fame and was somewhat disappointed to see a Woolworth's stuck right next to the sacred HOF building. I went inside to see if I could buy some baseball cards like the old days and wouldn't you know it, the smell of grilled cheese sandwiches greeted my nose at the door! I didn't find any new packs to buy, but someone had a display case of vintage cards in the back and I bought a nice 1952 Topps Minnie Minoso rookie instead.

[Buythatcard]

I don't remember my first card but my first pack was a 61 Topps. Back in the day when a pack cost 5 cents. I remember it would take me forever to save up for a full box of packs that cost me a whopping $1.25.

[alanu]

I started opening packs in 1969 and I don't remember the specific players, but I remember that I was always frustrated I kept getting doubles and it wasn't until a lot later that I figured out the cards were issued in series.

[Jobu]

I don't recall the player, but it was a rack pack of 1986 Topps (I still have the cards). My younger brother and I were at are our local variety store with my mom, and in the basement with the toys they had the packs for sale. I remember not knowing what they were but had no doubt that I really wanted them. My mom was happy to oblige, though had she known that she was starting a snowball rolling down the side of a mountain I wonder if she would have reconsidered.

[jp1216]

1980 Topps Baseball. Northern Virginia. I searched through rack packs at the local Giant grocery store. Picked one with Garvey and Reggie on top. Still have both.

[tedzan]

April 1949, LEAF Gum BB cards were first available in our neighborhood stores. I think this Ted Williams card was in the first pack I opened.
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..................... 1949 BOWMAN ............................................... 1949 LEAF .........................

[RTK]

It was a long time ago so I don't recall the actual pack or any specific card but I do remember looking for my home team players from Chicago. They were far more valuable to me than getting Mays, Mantle, Gibson or Koufax. Team cards were considered pretty cool and checklists were a waste of paper.

[25801wv]

My first pack was 1987 Topps Football. I don't remember the exact cards but I ended up with a shoebox full of them. I sold the shoebox at my first baseball card show in 1988 for $20 and used that money to buy my first single card, a 1985 Topps Mark McGwire. For baseball packs, I started with 1988 Topps & Donruss. While it wasn't my first, late summer in 1988 I bought a pack of 1986 Donruss for $5 and pulled a Canseco rookie. I turned down a $100 offer from the dealer.