How hard was it to find new Topps series in 1950s, '60s and early '70s?

[stlcardsfan]

Great story! What a good call ordering that 7th series. What condition were / are those cards in?

[Hot Springs Bathers]

Growing up in Arkansas the stores carrying cards were few and far between although I must also say that in the late 50's and early 60's I didn't venture too far from my neighborhood.

About three blocks away I had the perfect store for a young boy, Mohr's Variety store. When you entered there were two isles, to the right was tropical fish and hamsters, to the left was candy and model airplanes and cars.

I never bought enough packs from 1959-61 to think about a set but in 1962 I was all in on baseball because of Mantle and Maris. I looked at my hoard when I got back into collecting in 1975 and found that I had not only no last series but no series two from 1962.

I continued to buy through 1965 on baseball but by 1962 most of us had turned out interest to football. After all we were in the south and had no pro teams close to us so we were huge college football fans. Buying football cards at least was football and the first thing we did was check the backs to see where they played college football. My last football purchases were in 1967 and that was just a few packs.

Besides Mohr's I had to small stores a block away in different directions, at one I bought a lot of 1960 Nu-Card football and later some Topps football and the other I bought 1962 and 1963 baseball. I can still remember walking up the street opening packs when I pulled my first Mantle, it was a 1962 All-Star.

By the way I put together a 1963 Fleer baseball set by feeding nickels into a vending machine at a laundromat close to my grade school. I think I stopped in to see what candy they had in the machine and found the Fleer packs.

I was a very lucky boy whose Mom never threw away a card or a toy.

[JollyElm]

It's funny how you mention your mom didn't trash any of your cards. Man, were you lucky!! My house had a regular attic and then when an extension was eventually added (huge family), we had an additional, pretty large unfinished attic. A place so steeped in scratchy insulation (with a rickety, pull down access ladder), that our mom would never even think of venturing up there. When we knew the inevitable 'toss out' was on the horizon, my brothers and I found plywood boards that we laid across the bare rafters up there and created a remote island on which we stacked our boxes and boxes of cards, safely out of reach of the cardboard 'enemy.'

[Vintagevault13]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

It's funny how you mention your mom didn't trash any of your cards. Man, were you lucky!! My house had a regular attic and then when an extension was eventually added (huge family), we had an additional, pretty large unfinished attic. A place so steeped in scratchy insulation (with a rickety, pull down access ladder), that our mom would never even think of venturing up there. When we knew the inevitable 'toss out' was on the horizon, my brothers and I found plywood boards that we laid across the bare rafters up there and created a remote island on which we stacked our boxes and boxes of cards, safely out of reach of the cardboard 'enemy.'

Darren

Great story. I am curious about how well your cards survived their time in the attic.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[toppcat]

Three of my peak years collecting were 1970-72. Living on Long Island, I was always able to find high numbers. I got most early series exclusively in Raks (at Coronet in Westbury which always had them early), the mid series in Raks and vending and cello's as I recall (as stores filled in their stock), then as the year wore on mostly wax as I often got 'em from the Colonial Maid Ice Cream Truck. Can't say I remember high number Raks in those years.

We used to vacation in Otis, MA for a week or two every summer and they often had wax up there but sometimes it was a couple series behind where were were on Long Island. And after 1973, which was not as a big a year for me, no more highs although I can't remember if I found "All 660" or not that year.

[JollyElm]

We were never cognizant of 'value,' so most of them were already well-worn before they ever reached high altitude. Our innumerable piles of Topps cards were not affected a bit, but man, all of the Kellogg's cards we amassed and loved (a family of 5 boys meant a helluva lot of sugary cereal), became more curled up than the fries at Jack in the Box. To this day, I'm afraid of buying any Kellogg's 3-D cards, although the humidity is much more favorable out here in California than it ever was in New York.