What is the first Baseball Card or Set you Remember?

[HRBAKER]

1966

[Peter_Spaeth]

65T and in particular Mays

[angolajones]

1977

[riggs336]

1953 Topps and 1951 Berk Ross, boxes of which were still being sold at the Abilene, TX Woolworths in 1953. Wish I'd bought more but a five cent weekly allowance only stretched so far.

[EGreenwood]

1978 Topps. The Reggie (#200) is still one of my favorites.

Erik Greenwood

[George]

The first cards I collected were 1952 Bowmans, and my favorite player was PeeWee Reese. The following year, when I was 10, I switched from Bowman to Topps. I liked the pictures of the players very much, and I used a pair of scissors to cut out their silhouettes, whch I then taped to the wall. I still have them, although they are no longer on the wall.

[spec]

Nice job of cutting for a 10-year-old! Did you grow you grow up to be a tailor? And how did Rube Walker crack that lineup of superstars on your bedroom wall?

[George]

Rube Walker was a Dodger, and I thought that all Dodgers were great. I also liked Mantle, because he had put on a clinic, along with Hank Bauer and Billy Martin, for the players in my Little League during the previous year, which was 1952. They were absolutely great with us, and I always liked them, even though they beat the Dodgers in the World Series many times.

[Bigdaddy]

1971, though I don't remember them until the mid 70's when my next door neighbor found a stack of them in his barn and divided them up three ways between me, him and another buddy. I ended up with Mays, though all of them were already well worn.

The first cards I remember buying new were 1977 Topps baseball.

[CurtisFlood]

I'm pretty sure something from the 1960 Topps Set. First cards I really remember were a 1961 Musial, a 1952 Topps Willie Mays and 52 Monte Irvin given to me by a kid so racist he did not want any black players in his collection. Looking back he deserved the hit he took on his collection.


I vaguely remember having a few high number 1961 Topps, specifically Ken Boyer and Charlie James.

[Kawika]

George: Those cut-out cards are really cool. Glad you kept 'em. I'm tempted to take a scissors to my '53 Topps set now. I was kid in the 'fifties so saw some of those ballplayers at Yankee Stadium.

I have a clear memory of my first exposure to baseball cards. I was given a handful, maybe 5 or 6 cards, a mix of '54s and '55s. Distinctly remember a '54 Topps Ernie Banks - I was mesmerized on the spot. By 1957 I was hooked.

All the cards, the Superboy comics and my coonskin cap are presently residing in the Pleistocene layer. I bought this card as a tribute to a boyhood icon.

[George]

I also cut out one more card, which was Clem Labine, who was a relief pitcher for the Dodgers. I never quite understood the criteria that Topps used to select the players to be included in that set. They included a lot of very minor or marginal players from each team, such as George Shuba and Rube Walker from the Dodgers, but left out some big stars, including Gil Hodges, Duke Snider, Carl Furillo, Don Newcombe and Carl Erskine. They also had ten or so numbers that were never issued. It probably had something to do with the competition that was going on between Topps and Bowman at that time.

[commishbob]

1958 Topps cards, owned by a girl down the street in Jericho, Long Island. I was seven. I can't remember what she looked like but I darn sure remember what an impression those cards made on me. I started collecting my own in '59.

[Bigdaddy]

Originally Posted by commishbob

1958 Topps cards, owned by a girl down the street in Jericho, Long Island. I was seven. I can't remember what she looked like but I darn sure remember what an impression those cards made on me. I started collecting my own in '59.

Reminds me of a Lyle Lovett (Guy Clark) song, "Step Inside This House":

Here's a book of poems i got
From a girl i used to know
I guess i read it front to back
Fifty times or so
It's all about the good life
And stayin' at ease with the world
It's funny how i love that book
And i never loved that girl

You can never go wrong with a Lyle Lovett reference.

[hcv123]

Originally Posted by George

The first cards I collected were 1952 Bowmans, and my favorite player was PeeWee Reese. The following year, when I was 10, I switched from Bowman to Topps. I liked the pictures of the players very much, and I used a pair of scissors to cut out their silhouettes, whch I then taped to the wall. I still have them, although they are no longer on the wall.

- while I have to say contemplating the devaluation is painfull - they do look really cool that way!

For me it was 73 topps - I was 7 and would bring pockets full of them to school to flip. Somehow I got a whole bunch of 72's as well which while I have no recollection of buying, flipping, etc. , I do sadly remember trading a whole shoebox full for comic books (got a pittance for them) at a comic book show