Cumulative collecting experience....

[barrysloate]

Jim- around here you can do anything you want. There are no rules!

[CobbvLajoie1910]

1985. 7-years old. Recieved a box of rack-packs for Xmas.

All downhill from there.

25-years & counting.

[nebboy]

First started in 73 but with break it comes to 24 yrs

[cardinalcollector]

I bought my first pack of Topps in 1968 at the age of 7 and have collected non-stop.

My first card show attended was in St. Louis in 1976.

My first National was #3 also in St. Louis.

I also got to hang around Buck Barker when I was a youngster and had a column in "Sports Collectors News" in 1975-76 called Randys Ramblings.

[drdduet]

"bought my first old stuff in 1987 with grass money"

Hey O'brien, we'll keep that on the DL...

[drdduet]

We're up to 371 years and counting....

[Leon]

Originally Posted by cardinalcollector

I bought my first pack of Topps in 1968 at the age of 7 and have collected non-stop.

My first card show attended was in St. Louis in 1976.

My first National was #3 also in St. Louis.

I also got to hang around Buck Barker when I was a youngster and had a column in "Sports Collectors News" in 1975-76 called Randys Ramblings.

Hey Randy,
I think you are close to my age but you didn't put in your # of years?

I am only going to count my current collecting as I collected when I was a little kid but not too long after that. So, I am only at about 14 yrs.....(but very addicted years!!)

[Anthony S.]

First started buying Topps packs at age 7 in 1975. That was the year they test marketed the Topps Minis in select areas. Could never figure out why the cards I bought in San Francisco were a different size than the cards I bought in Santa Barbara when we visited my grandparents. But it did make me very suspicious of my grandparents.

Stopped collecting in 1981 when I started high school. Started collecting again in 1998, but stopped in 2000. Decided to sell my collection in 2007. But the second I pulled my vintage cards out of storage and found this website I was sucked right back into collecting. I think this time for good.

So about 12 years of hardcore collecting as compared to 30 years of relative sanity.

[Chris-Counts]

I bought my first pack in 1970, and by 1973 (when I was 12) I was pretty much only interested in vintage, which to me meant Topps cards from 1952 to 1969. The following year I went to my first card show (Anaheim '74), where I discovered you could buy something called a T206 for a dollar. I skipped most of the 80s and 90s, and I got back into collecting about 10 years ago ...

[cincyredlegs]

Got hooked in 1976 (was 5 years old) when my dad brought back a large box of 1973-1975 baseball cards back from the flea market. Sorted those cards 10 ways to Sunday and kept extra tight rubber bands on them so they wouldn't move around and get damaged....hmmm. Still have those cards but don't think I will be getting any PSA 10's from that lot.

Anyways, been collecting ever since - 34 years. Mainly vintage but still have a slew of junk from the 80's and 90's.

Mark

[brianp-beme]

I collected a few packs here and there as a little bobble head from 1972-74, was gifted half of my older brother's collection around this time, and started collecting full bore in 1975. Started collecting vintage in 1981, the new stuff gradually dwindled to nothing, and have collected vintage for the past 29 years. So I consider it 35 years of constant collecting, although there were some lean years during college and shortly afterward.

Brian

[drdduet]

646....

[Peter_Spaeth]

1965-73 and 1992-now.

[Section103]

I bought my first "pack" (to this day I swear I got a batch of cards out of something close to a gumball-type machine and the card on top was a Pirate) in '74 and collected for about 10+ years. Missed the late 80s and all of the 90s (lucky!), and started again in 2000, right before my first-born. 20 years total.