What was the card that started it for you?

[MattyC]

I'm also 40. Loved the game and started buying packs hardcore in '86. Found a 56 Aparicio behind my Aunt's sink, and that got me looking into older cards in my CCP and Beckett Guides...and that's when I met the 1952 Topps Mantle.

[mrmopar]

Not too long after I was introduced to baseball cards and was discovering the crisp 1978 Topps set design for the first time, I took a great liking to a 1967 Topps Mickey Mantle that a collecting friend's older brother had. Something about that card appealed to me. Not sure now, because I see now that it was not a very flattering card for The Mick. I would also learn that the 67T Brooks Robinson was not an easy card to get, as all of the ads selling star cards always showed this one much more than most of it's counterparts.

I was able to get the Mantle eventually, although not from my friend's brother. It was probably after I was reintroduced to collecting as an adult after a short break and had some spare income to spend. Robinson took me considerably longer to obtain.

I still like the simple design of the 1967 Topps with the large colored block team names. Hard to believe those were only 11 years old at the time. That is like a 2006 card is to a new card today!

[Jim65]

My two favorite players when I was a kid were Tom Seaver and Johnny Briggs (Briggs was from my hometown of Paterson, NJ) The first year I bought packs of cards was 1975 and I still remember getting both cards, been collecting ever since.

[egri]

For me, it was the 1949 Bowman Bobby Doerr and Sam Mele. I bought them from my local card shop when I was in fifth grade? sixth grade? Anyways, I lost them both at some point; the Doerr was stolen and I sent the Mele out TTM and it never came back. But I replaced them both a couple of years ago, and got both of them signed TTM.

[DBesse27]

It was this one, although I didn't pick up a copy for myself until much later.

[JustinD]

This isn't mine (at work, had to pilfer a photo from ebay) but this is the card that took me out of the mainstream 80s collecting. I had been collecting topps, fleer and donruss through the 79 to 84 sets. In 84' a neighbor friend was given his uncle's collection and I worked out a likely massively lopsided (to my friends advantage) trade to score a VG copy of this card.

This started the card collecting down an even deeper cliff that I am still falling down ...

[Mark70Z]

While the '70 Topps set doesn't get much love, for some reason, the Brooksie card was the one that got me hooked. I'm still not really sure I'm a card collector since I really currently only collect Brooks cards, but back in the day I wanted all of the Orioles cards and some of the stars (still do, but can't afford it all).

Not my Brooks card pictured, but didn't want to dig mine out and it looks uncannily similar. Check out the white on the back of the card; just awesome.

[Puckettfan]

I started collecting in 1988 (around 9yrs old) and was obsessed with Kirby Puckett. I tried to collect all of his cards as well as other stars of the day. The 1989 Topps set was the first set I remember trying to put together. However, the 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth 144 was the card that got me into vintage. And vintage has been all I have collected ever since.

My dad was not a sports fan and he did not care for baseball, but he understood value. He was the first to teach me about scarcity and the art of negotiating price. He used to begrudgingly take me around to shows and to every coin shop in the area (buying packs and wax boxes with my saved money). One of these trips he asked if I had any interest in a Ruth card behind the counter sitting by itself. He asked if I would consider having that ONE old card as apposed to some packs of new cards. I deliberated this because to a 9 year old having more is always better. Once I actually held the Ruth I was hooked. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen. He and the dealer haggled over price for quite some time but they finally agreed and I left with a card that is still in my permanent collection.