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

[pawpawdiv9]

All we had was a SEARS, and our mom bought us a beginner set with binder and all of TCMA immmortals for Christmans one year.
It was one of the best-est day ever sharing with my brother. Still have it till this day. THANKS MOM!

[perezfan]

Rich's Five and Dime and Raoul's Pharmacy.... both on Ludlow Avenue in late '60s Cincinnati. Directly adjacent to Burnett Woods, and a few hundred feet down from Skyline Chili (corner of Ludlow and Clifton Ave.)

I know it's a needle in a haystack, but does anyone here from Cincy remember either of these stores? They had all the Topps issues of the day (Sports, non-Sports, and test issues). Simpler times and better days!

[Seven]

Some wonderful stories here, thanks so much for sharing, everyone. It brings a warm feeling to my heart that no matter the ages of everyone here on the forum, we can always fondly remember stories about cardboard, from our childhood. Can't wait to read some more.

[spec]

Like most of the oldtimers who have posted about collecting in the 50s and 60s, I was limited to convenience stores and mom & pop markets when I first discovered baseball cards back in Florida.
However, when I graduated to vintage cards in the 70s and 80s, I had the great good fortune to be in Boston where a variety of card shops sprang up.
My apartment was within walking distance of Walt Kelley's store in Kenmore Square. Since I worked nights and weekends, I was able to spend many weekday afternoons there. However, I also made regular visits to Hall's Nostalgia in Arlington. That required taking the T into Boston, then out to Cambridge, followed by a bus to Arlington, but it was worth the trip. In addition, I used Boston's unique public transportation system to visit Bill Carvalho's store in Melrose and Phil Castinetti's Sportsworld in Saugus whenever I got word that they had purchased some interesting material.
Though my collection still includes wonderful cards from each of these establishments, some of my fondest collecting memories are of afternoons spent discussing sports with Dave and Joel Hall at Hall's Nostalgia and with Walt, Dave and Joe at Kenmore Sportscards near Fenway Park. If any of them read this forum: Thanks for the memories!
B0b Rich@rds0n

[wolf441]

Originally Posted by spec

Like most of the oldtimers who have posted about collecting in the 50s and 60s, I was limited to convenience stores and mom & pop markets when I first discovered baseball cards back in Florida.
However, when I graduated to vintage cards in the 70s and 80s, I had the great good fortune to be in Boston where a variety of card shops sprang up.
My apartment was within walking distance of Walt Kelley's store in Kenmore Square. Since I worked nights and weekends, I was able to spend many weekday afternoons there. However, I also made regular visits to Hall's Nostalgia in Arlington. That required taking the T into Boston, then out to Cambridge, followed by a bus to Arlington, but it was worth the trip. In addition, I used Boston's unique public transportation system to visit Bill Carvalho's store in Melrose and Phil Castinetti's Sportsworld in Saugus whenever I got word that they had purchased some interesting material.
Though my collection still includes wonderful cards from each of these establishments, some of my fondest collecting memories are of afternoons spent discussing sports with Dave and Joel Hall at Hall's Nostalgia and with Walt, Dave and Joe at Kenmore Sportscards near Fenway Park. If any of them read this forum: Thanks for the memories!
B0b Rich@rds0n

Great memories, Bob!

Was Kenmore Sportscards in one of those brownstones right near Kenmore Square where you walked up a short brick stairway in front of the building? I couldn't remember the name of the shop, but my mom used to drive me in back in the early 1980's and we'd park on a street behind the building (I remember 10 year old me thinking it was kind of a sketchy looking area ). I was amazed that there was a whole store that had nothing but sports cards and collectibles!

[drmondobueno]

back in 1961-63 I bought rack packs of Topps. When the market closed, my parents were so upset and concerned about our young egos being deprived of the American Right to piss away...err, spend our hard earned nickels, dimes and quarters on baseball cards, so we packed up and moved to San Bernardino where I migrated down Del Rosa to R&S Liquor, Sage’s and White Front where baseball cards sucked every dime out of my young pockets. Little did I know the Baseball Gods would prevent me from EVER owning a Mantle portrait until I turned 30.
Life is unfair, so eat the desert first, as you sort through wax....

[JustinD]

I remember growing up in a small town called Coopersville Mi until age 8. We would ride our bikes to Main St. and buy packs at the Quik Stop with Slush Puppies and Fleer Quicksand gum on allowance day.

After moving to Lansing in 82’ my mom would sit outside of a tiny shop called The Sports Collector Dugout run by a shady guy named Elliott and his wife while my brother and I were in. The shop had a permanent haze of smoke from Elliott and smelled horrible. He didn’t care about the kids in the shop while telling his secrets and spent the day talking to friends about his many exploits of ripping off buyers and sellers for braggadocio. I still have all my wax wrappers as I saved everything and they are all scalded from resealing poorly with an iron. I never knew a thing.

Thank god for the 1983 Michigan Topps packs, those were the first ones I would ever find a good card in. Amazing the stuff you just completely overlook as a kid.

[spec]

Originally Posted by wolf441

Great memories, Bob!

Was Kenmore Sportscards in one of those brownstones right near Kenmore Square where you walked up a short brick stairway in front of the building? I couldn't remember the name of the shop, but my mom used to drive me in back in the early 1980's and we'd park on a street behind the building (I remember 10 year old me thinking it was kind of a sketchy looking area ). I was amazed that there was a whole store that had nothing but sports cards and collectibles!

Steve,
Your recollection is right on the money. I believe there's a restaurant there now, in the same building. I honestly can't recall if it was Fenway Sportscards or Kenmore Sportscards, but I believe it was the former.

[Bigdaddy]

Growing up in SE Virginia in the 1970's, my earliest remembrance of buying cards was at the local general store (BC Smiths if you sere my age or Rooster's if you were the previous generation), about a mile and a half from my house. We'd ride our bikes there, buy a few packs of 1977 baseball (spring/summer) or football (fall) cards and maybe a soda and Snickers bar. I can remember thumbing through those packs and looking for the All-Star or All-Pro border, knowing that something good was about to be uncovered.

Around that same time, a building in Newport News hosted the James River Antique Mall and there was a place in there that had old magazines and several boxes of cards. You could either by the cards outright (all the same price) or trade two-for-one. They were mostly newer cards from the '70's. I do remember one time the lady bought an older collection which had in it a 1966 Koufax, Mantle and Mays. No trading for those - she wanted something like $10-$15 each. I talked my parents into getting me the Mays, as he was most certainly the best of the bunch, for Easter.

We also discovered a pet store in Hampton that had some cards in the back of the store. Eventually the store closed, but one of the owners opened up a wonderful card store without the gerbils and fish. That was the beginning of The 10th Inning, owned by Don Harrison and Bob Neal, the latter the longtime GM of the Penninsula Pilots minor league team and a lifetime baseball man. The store still stands in Hampton, though its been in several locations. I just recently saw Don and he said new ownership would be taking it over this week.

[spec]

Duplicate post

[Tere1071]

I went to my first card show in 1973 when I was 12 years old in Garden Grove, CA. That afternoon I remember getting a 63 Fleer Orlando Cepeda, a 52 Topps Willard Marshall, and a 51 Bowman Ned Garver. There was no rhyme or reason for my purchases, I just liked the way the cards looked.

Two years later a collector by the name of Wes Schleiger took me under his wing and for the next seven or so years on the first Thursday of the month, we would go to a monthly card meeting located mostly in Fountain Valley, CA. I would help him out behind the table selling cards for $10 and dinner at the KFC. Soon after, I also would help him out at various shows for years afterward and it was through him I got my first job working at a baseball card store in 1979. I never really made enough money to purchase the cards that are sought after and worshiped today, but working in that atmosphere was magical and a blessing.

Phil aka Tere1071

Reliving my youth and then some:

1953 Bowman Color set
1970 Topps Baseball (need about 150 cards for completion)
1971 Topps Baseball complete set
1972 Topps Baseball complete set
1973 Topps Baseball (200+ different cards towards an eventual set)
1974 Topps Baseball complete set
1975 Topps Baseball complete set

[Andrew1975]

Hall’s Nostalgia, Arlington, MA, mid 80s. I vividly remember pulling a 1984 Topps Mattingly from a pack there… They had amazing vintage cards.

[Hirbonzig]

I started buying cards at an old fashioned candy store called the CandyMan in downtown West Bend Wisconsin around 1980. Never pulled a Henderson rookie, had to buy one later. My first real LCS was Mike’s Cards in Grafton Wisconsin, which was a 20 mile bike ride one way.