What are your favorite card/hobby stores from your youth?

[GrewUpWithJunkWax]

Our town of 10,000 had 3 card "stores" all on the square. One was an antiques store that was located in a basement shop. There was a furniture store where the owner's son set up display cases at the back of the store. The other was a trophy shop that converted a room to display cases.

Good summer memories when us kids could ride our bikes around town and go buy packs and maybe an individual card with what little money we had saved.

[toppcat]

Bob Sevchuk's Baseball Card & Collectors Exchange in my hometown of Hicksville, Long Island. A great store and where the infamous PSA 8 Wagner was dealt a long time ago. I started going there in January 1981 and only stopped when he sold all his inventory and moved to Arizona, probably 11-12 years later. Bought my 53 uncut strip there from the infamous garbage hauler's find.

[gabrinus]

Lucky enough to grow up in Fort Smith, AR area with two great card shops run by John England and Dick Delong...bought a T213-2 Tinker right out from under Tbob back in the early 80s from Mr. England when I was a second grader...Jerry

[rugbymarine]

All Star Cards on Harford Rd in Northeast Baltimore.
Baseball Card Outlet on Eastern Ave in Dundalk (still there I believe).

Most of my packs were bought at 7-11, probably 5 packs a week on the way home from school with pops.

[Rhotchkiss]

Collector’s World in Gaithersburg, Maryland and House of Cards in Wheaton, MD. House of Cards still exists, but has moved, and is also ground zero for Huggins and Scott Auctions.

[butchie_t]

7-11 and Drug Fair, and G C Murphy’s, Highs and Peoples Drug Store in Rockville, Md. Twinbrook area near Veirs Mill Road.

I vaguely remember a place in Wheaton but no longer remember the name. I remember going into that store and there were old cards everywhere. This would have been in the early 70’s.

Everything else was through the mail.

B. T.

[judsonhamlin]

The old Route 1 Flea Market in New Brunswick had a bunch of small dealers with older cards. Then John Broggi opened JKJ in Highland Park. ah, the good old days.

[nat]

Originally Posted by rugbymarine

Baseball Card Outlet on Eastern Ave in Dundalk (still there I believe).

It is indeed. I bought a 51B Kell and 73T Clemente from them a few weeks ago.

There wasn't a card store near me until the 90s, but before that I'd buy packs of Topps from a Chinese grocery store that was a few blocks from my house. My parents used to give me 50 cents and I'd walk up there alone and buy cards at ages that would probably get child protective services called on you these days.

[Harliduck]

Here in Western Washington when I was a kid in the early 80's there was only 1 card shop near Edmonds in Perenville (SP?). It's a half hour drive south, but back then it may as well been a state away for my parents so we went like twice a year and my brother and I would save up every cent we could. Even met Bob Feller there. The owner went on to create Pacific Cards and even printed his own.

By 1990 every little suburb had a shop...up they went, then they left...

As for packs we had a small mom and pop my mom would raid in Smokey Point...

[molenick]

I remember ordering stuff from Manny's Baseball Land (probably from ads in the Sporting News). It seemed like a dream store and one off-season weekend I convinced my dad to drive me there. It turned out to be a hole-in-the-wall right across from Yankee Stadium. I'm not even sure I was allowed inside, I think I asked for things and someone went in to get them. Based on the size of the ads, I had imagined something bigger. I know it expanded into Stan's Baseball Land, but in the early 1970s it was pretty much a mail order operation.

[Jerry G]

Al's Confectionary on Hodiamont near Plymouth in St. Louis. Bought my first cards there including a Stan Musial 1958 Topps All Star straight out of the pack. That was a great day! Damn, I'm old.

I guess I should explain. A confectionary was a convenience store, usually a little hole in the wall.

[rugbymarine]

Originally Posted by nat

It is indeed. I bought a 51B Kell and 73T Clemente from them a few weeks ago.

There wasn't a card store near me until the 90s, but before that I'd buy packs of Topps from a Chinese grocery store that was a few blocks from my house. My parents used to give me 50 cents and I'd walk up there alone and buy cards at ages that would probably get child protective services called on you these days.

Nice!
We moved from the area about 10 years ago. Glad to hear they're still open.

[Natedog]

I remember a little place called Bases Loaded in Lake Worth, FL back in the late 80's early 90's. It started in a strip mall at the back of a video store, then moved into a free standing shop a couple of blocks away. I remember Don, the owner, a super nice guy that was always very welcoming and even hired me to work there on Saturdays when I was in high school. I wasn't into vintage back then, but I wasted a lot of money on junk wax over those few years. Most of the cards I bought from there are now worthless, but the memories are priceless.

[tedzan]

Hi James

There were no card/hobby stores in the Summer of 1947 in Hillside, NJ, where I grew up. My first BB cards were pulled out of BOND BREAD packages,
which my parents purchased at the nearby food store.



In the Fall of 1948, we were thrilled to get the LEAF Gum Boxing cards. These cards were very popular, that LEAF continued issuing them in 1949.
Which explains why they were printed with White and Gray cardboard.

Early Spring of 1949, the LEAF Gum Baseball cards were available in our neighborhood. We would get together and trade and flip these cards and,
compare notes trying to complete this set (since LEAF played a "nasty trick" on us kids by skip-numbering these cards).

When I started Junior H.S. in 1952, we had a 1-mile hike to school. On the way to school was a newly opened Hobby shop which mainly dealt with
Lionel Trains, games, etc. And, in early Spring they had 1952 BOWMAN Baseball card wax-packs. May 1952, the 1st series of TOPPS cards (#1-80,
Black-backs) were available in the Pharmacy / Ice Cream parlor in our neighborhood. My original 1952 BOWMAN collection stops at cards #1 - 72.
Which tells me that I really "loved" the new Topps cards so much, I stopped collecting the BOWMAN's (which I had collected since 1948).
By the end of the Summer of 1952, I had 270 cards (of the 310 issued then). I was not interested in completing the set. I just wanted to have all
the Yankees in it......especially Mickey Mantle.
A cool day in the Fall of 1952, a day I still remember quite well. My neighbor, Johnny, tells me that our neighborhood pharmacy has the TOPPS Hi#
cards available. I had a Quarter in my pocket, so we went to the pharmacy, and I buy 5 packs. The first 4 packs I opened had some Hi # stars and
mostly commons. I carefully opening the 5th pack, slowly shuffling thru the cards, and lo and behold, the card in the middle was Mickey.

All five of these cards are the original cards out of that 5th wax-pack.

. . . .

James......I hope to see you and your Dad at the Philly Show next weekend.


TED Z

T206 Reference
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