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

[mr2686]

The late 60's and through the 70's I bought a lot of packs from a corner grocery/liquor store called Sam and Sally's in Alhambra Calif. To the best of my recollection, neither my friends nor I realized that the cards were released by series...we should have known, but the lightbulb just never went on. It's funny remembering back to 74 when my friend Jeff and I were trying to get the whole set, and both needed Stargell. We bought a heck of a lot of packs, but never found him. I guess knowing he was in the first series would have helped us quite a bit. LOL
One other favorite moment was in the mid 70's, when our local "major" grocery store started carrying baseball wax. For some reason they would sell them for 5 cents instead of 10. Nothing better for a kid than to be able to buy twice as much!!

[rats60]

At the main intersection right out of our subdivision, there was a 7-11 on one corner and a Stop n Go on the other. Across the street there was a strip mall with a grocery store and drug store. So, we had lots of options. We would go in every so often and buy a pack and if it was a new series, a whole box and then trade to finish out the series. 1967 7th series was the only one that we never got. 1969 6th series and 1970 & 1971 7th series were in shorter supply. Everything else was pretty plentiful.

[insidethewrapper]

Ordered from I believe an ad in The Sporting News ( probably Card Collectors Company in NY ). Got Series by Series all summer from 1958-1962. Also bought packs and had a lot of duplicates. Bought a few packs in 1963 and then The Beatles came in 1964 and I collected all their cards and no more baseball cards after that. If you lived in 1964 you understand how baseball could be replaced by The Beatles if you were a teenager.