How long you collected as a kid ?...

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Age 6 (1971) started me out. I was passionately into it until 1980 (age 15). I purchased some packs in 1981, mostly as an afterthought, and more or less dropped out until about 1987 or 1988, when I was in law school. I started attending shows [remember those?] regularly at that point and have been full bore at it ever since.

You've come a heckuva long way since then, Adam, with the expertise you've acquired! Thanks for all the times you've shared it.

Sincerely,

Larry

[sox1903wschamp]

Wow, age 3 is young. Nice thread by the way.

1965 for me at age 5. I can remember them and I really liked the pennant design. I still have some in the collection but they are all collector grade as I used to keep them in a red suitcase and would sort them by team and then Mom would throw them into the suitcase and I would sort them again.

Probably peaked in 68 and 69 but collected up until 74 and then HS and girls became the priorities. And I still have that red suitcase. It has a bunch of 69 decals on it as well as 67 Red Sox stickers. Priceless to me

[David W]

I bought a few packs here and there 1972, 73 and then in 1974 a friend whose dad collected gave me all their 74 doubles after they put together a set. I got a shopping bag full of cards just dumped in there.

75, 76, 77 I spent every penny I could muster on cards (I was 12 years old in 75). We lived on a dead end road called a "Hollow" in Illinois, every time we'd go to the "big city" I'd comb alleys and lots for milk and soda bottles to return for the deposit, and then buy baseball or football cards.

Late 70's I got TSN subscription and just mail ordered my sets, went to college and quit collecting, then in 87-90 thought I would retire on unopened wax..... oopps.....

Started going to and setting up at card shows in late 80's, had a card shop part time in 90-91 and been collecting when funds allow ever since.

[mintacular]

I collected from around 10 thru 14 or so and then reconnected from the age of 28 thru Present

[BearBailey]

I started collecting in 1983 as a 7 year old. I would spend most if not all of my allowance on packs, mainly Topps from the local convenience store and at Little League, then we found a pharmacy that sold fleer and got into them as well. I have never looked back. My 4 years of college were lean years, but in the summer when I worked, I always bought plenty and the birthday and christmas gifts that I chose were mainly baseball cards. Once I graduated and got a "real job" the collection/addiction has continued to grow. All of my friends from my childhood who sold or stopped collecting, always comment how they wish they still collected or atleast still had their cards. I can't imagine ever not collecting, and I just kep working my way back set by set, and I still get at minimum a Topps factory set each year, but usually I get a few boxes to bust throughout the year.

Great Thread!!

[the Rock]

Ah,yes...the days of youth! My first packs were Topps baseball in 1968. Only bought two or three packs. Still have that Ryan rookie after all these years. My friends got into collecting in 1969 so that was the first year of real collecting. 1970 was the heaviest year of collecting among the group and the only year that I bought a whole box(with a friend) to open. I can still see us sitting on his bedroom floor taking turns picking and opening packs. We had more Yaz than we knew what to do with! 1971 and 1972 were also pretty enthusiastic collecting years. Collecting started to fade in 1973 losing out to HO slot cars and a beginning interest in rock music and stereo equipment. My best friend quit collecting in 1973. I still collected some into 1974. Maybe ten to twenty packs purchased that year and that was the end. No purchases in 1975.
Football cards were collected mostly in 1969, 1970(again peak year), 1971, and 1972 was about the end. Basketball in 1969 through 1972, and Hockey in
1969. I put the whole thing away in 1974 and never looked at it again until the mid-eighties. At least the cards were still there. Those early collecting years were a great time of my life.

[theseeker]

Collected some from the 1970 set but, really got drawn in by the playground discovery of the 1971 black borders-- still my favorate set. Got a paper route in '74 (delivering papers was once the work of grade school boys on bikes and not middle-aged men heaving papers from the open widows of beat up vans) which helped fund my first complete set. As my luck would have it, the first non-series issue.

A fond memory was playing baseball with freinds, during summer break, until the heat got to us. At which point we would all go to our respective bedrooms and meet under a shaded tree with card filled shoebox in hand. There, seated cross legged, we would look through each others collection and conduct card exchanges, with the familiar "got him, got him, don't got him" as background noise. You always knew the "spoiled" kids in the crowd by the size of their collection and you could tell the investors from the collectors by the trades being made.

As I entered middle school, I simply felt too old to continue. At this stage, irony, to say the least. Picked it up again during the frenzied late '80's/early
'90's-- although I can honestly say I never fell for the investment hype.

Now for the painful Mother story. I have three older cousins who had moved on to college and marriage by the time my parents would drag me along to visit my Aunt and Uncle's house in the mid '70's. Bored during a visit, I ventured from my siblings in the TV room to the garage were I found 2 brass ringed, cardboard industrial drums both filled knee high with cards from the 1950's through the early 1960's. Everytime I visited, I could be found sorting through these NrMt gems. And they were all there; Mantles, Mays', Sniders, Berras, Spahns.....

One day as my parents were preparing to leave, my mother along with my Aunt, went to get me. As they entered the garage and found me at my familiar spot, on my knees looking at the cards, my Aunt said "you seem so interest in those old cards, why don't you take them with you?" My mother jumped in" oh no, he's got too many of his own." My "oh please, Mom" went on deaf ears. If she'd only thrown my earl '70's collection away instead

[mr vintage]

I started collecting baseball cards in 1954. i can still remember going to a small candy store about 1 block from my school, and laying down 5 cents for a pack of 54 topps baseball cards. i would hurry to open the pack just to get the gum, the gum would leave a coating of white sugar on the top card. i remember going thru each card, hoping for a yankee or dodger. living in NY. i always rooted for the yankees or dodgers, mostly the yankees. Funny, i don't remember being for the giants. i remember in 1956, opening 5 cent packs of 1956 topps, the one thing that sticks in my mind was when ever we got a checklist card, we would throw them away, who knew that they would some day be worth more than most of the cards in the set. oh well. About 1958, when i was 12, i discovered girls, and my card collecting days were over, until 1989, when i was looking for a hobby. yep. card collecting. i have bought and sold the 1956, 1960, 1962, topps and the 55 bowman baseball sets, which i put togeather, card by card. to me the enjoyment was putting these sets togeather. i currently have the 54 topps set, with a CSA 6.5 aaron rookie, the rest of the set is ex-mt, to nr mt. in football i had every set from the 55 topps AA to and including the 86 topps set, i also had the 55 bowman set, had about 3 of those. i have to admit i have put away enough money over the years from my card collecting, to put my son thru college. i didn't even mention all the autographs i accumulated. the hobby has been good to me, and i still search ebay for those good deals, to good to pass up. hope i didn't waste anyones time, thanks . dave