What’s the cut-off year for your collection

[Exhibitman]

I've gradually narrowed my focus to about where it was as a kid when I stopped with each sport:

Baseball: 1981

Basketball: 1976

Football: 1975

Hockey: 1976

I have later cards in all four sports but I don't care about them: no childhood memories.

[MarcosCards]

For the longest time it was 1964 — because the early 1960s was my childhood collecting wheelhouse. Then, relatively recently, I stumbled onto and purchased an unorganized horde of about 15,000 baseball, basketball, football and hockey cards spanning from 1974 to 1981. It’s been a lot of fun organizing and collating them all — and sleeving the star cards. In general, Topps offered some interesting, colorful sets during those years.

[Ten Million]

I draw the line at 1989. I grew up in the 80s and so I get a lot of joy from those cards, nostalgia, etc. I collect much earlier stuff as well, back to 19th century (as I did even back in the 1980s), but the emotional force isn't the same as the stuff from the 80s. That's the one I lived through.

[campyfan39]

51-87

[Frankish]

US baseball. Totally due to my childhood collecting, 1979 is the last real year of interest. Only have a few cards after that (save a huge Ohtani collection because my 6 yo son loves him and we can see Angels stadium in the distance from our house).

To be honest, it's probably the same for football and basketball.

These days, 90% of my new purchases are Japanese cards. For the most part, I'm only picking up cards from 1959 and earlier.

[jgannon]

I stopped collecting really, in 1973. I bought some packs that year to see what they were all about. And I did that a little bit to a lesser degree the next year. I recently started looking at the '73's again though, and I was really stunned by some of the cards, like Bill Freehan's and Frank Robinson's for instance. Some really amazing action photos in that set. And it's a good solid set overall. So, I would say that 1973 is really my endpoint.

But the '73 set also ushered in this generic white background thing that extended all the way until 1987. Of course, 1975 was different. I have really no interest in getting anything from after '73, with the exception of maybe a few from '75.

Topps' last classic old school set in my opinion, was the 1970 set. 1971 was a turning point for them.