How long you collected as a kid ?...

[Robextend]

Originally Posted by vintagetoppsguy

I, too, started in '86 (age of 15 - late bloomer) and got very passionate about it in 1987. I sitll love opening '87 junk wax!!! I never quit the hobby and have been collecting for 25 years straight now. I will be 40 next month and I don't plan to ever stop.

I have the same love for 1987 Topps, I was 6 years old and that was the first set I started collecting. I must have bought (well, begged my mom anyway) 3 wax boxes worth of packs, and the rest is history. I did take a long layoff from the mid-90's up until I discovered my love for vintage around 2006. I was so disenchanted with the insert craze of the 90's that I just gave up for quite a while.

[bbcard1]

Started in 70, stopped in 1978, restarted in the early 80s. Haven't stopped yet.

[novakjr]

Originally Posted by Robextend

I have the same love for 1987 Topps, I was 6 years old and that was the first set I started collecting. I must have bought (well, begged my mom anyway) 3 wax boxes worth of packs, and the rest is history. I did take a long layoff from the mid-90's up until I discovered my love for vintage around 2006. I was so disenchanted with the insert craze of the 90's that I just gave up for quite a while.

That '87 Topps set sure did suck a lot of us in....All things aside, it's probably still my favorite Topps set for sentimental reasons...

[Bob Lemke]

My second childhood memory is of stepping out of my grandfather's maroon 1949 DeSoto in front on our house with a red-amd-green pack of 1954 Topps. The only card I remember (maybe it was a penny pack) was Ray Blades, who, amazingly, bore a strong resemblance to my grandfather at that time.

I had three older brothers and we all collected to a greater-or-lesser degree. I still have a few of those choldhood cards that I inherited from them and from older kids in the neighborhood who outgrew them.

I remember in 1955, when the local groceries ran out of Johnston Cookie packages with the Braves folders before we could get a full set, that my mother wrote the company and they sent both me an my brother full sets of 1953s.

[GasHouseGang]

It's odd how your memory works sometimes. I don't actually remember buying the 1968 Topps cards, but I remember getting the 1968 Topps Game Cards that were included in the packs and had all the top stars in a game deck. I must have bought several packs in 1968 because I had a pretty good stack of those, but the actual cards got lost somewhere. I was 8 when those came out, and I remember going on treasure hunts looking for empty pop bottles which were worth 2 cents each. I'd save those pennies until I could afford a pack. Like lots of others I remember the thrill of opening the packs and hoping to get my favorite team, the St. Louis Cardinals. My buddies and I all wanted Lou Brock or Bob Gibson. I must not have bought very many other packs of cards until 1971, but I remember opening many of those packs with that distinct black border. Then those crazy 1972's came along. What a strange design! But I bought quite a lot of the 72's. I lost interest in the 1973's except for the card number 1, I remember that card and thinking it was special. And then when Aaron broke the HR record I got lots of the 74's because I really liked those Aaron tribute cards. I was done after that until I picked it up again years later.

[HTBB]

I remember collecting from 1952 (9 years old) until I graduated from high school in 1960 (17 years old). Still have many of the cards which are truly in " a kid's collector grade" (whatever that means). Mike

[bigtrain]

Remember a few cards in 1962. Then a collecting frenzy '63 to '68 and a few in '69. Pretty much cooled off after Mantle retired. Cards were all in well-handled kid's grade as we flipped them against the wall of the school.

[abothebear]

During ages 5-7, 1984 - 1985 I loved the baseball and football cards my dad brought home for me. But it wasn't until the fall of '86 that I started "collecting" (before that I played with the cards, wrote on the backs, and stored them in a 1972 Olympics bag that my aunt gave me. I was just thinking the other day how the 1987 Topps set was the first set I remember waiting for the release and being excited about the new design. The wood panelling often gets panned, but I will always love it.

I stopped collecting baseball cards when MLB went on strike. I collected basketball and mostly hockey cards for a couple more years, but I moved into comic books almost exclusively and was pretty much done with both by the time I graduated from high school. It was a good long run, ages 5-17 broadly speaking, or ages 7-15 as prime collecting years.

[Jantz]

Ral

Your story is almost identical to mine, except the years would be 1976-1979. I collected all three sports then. Still have all my cards, except one.

I decided two years ago to finish one of my sets that I started back then. Found the last few cards for my 1979 Topps set at the Strongsville show last month. 31 years later and its finally finished!

Like your comment about "other things". So true

Jantz

[glchen]

I started in 1982 at age 9 and basically continued until 1990 before starting up again last year.

[Exhibitman]

Now, boxing cards, slightly different story. I was at a show in the 1990s after I'd come back to L.A. after graduation and I saw 1948 Leaf cards for the first time. I was thumbing through them and I picked up a Barney Ross and Benny Leonard. I knew Ross's name and I saw that the back of the Leonard card made reference to his being Jewish, which I thought was interesting. I picked up the cards and took them over to my parents' house to show to my father as curiosities--Jewish boxers after all. He took a look at the Ross card and said "I think my cousin Ray fought him." First time he'd ever mentioned it and it totally blew my mind that we had an actual athlete in the family tree as I can barely walk and chew gum together. I pressed him for details but he didn't have much, so I started researching. I first used my trusty old Beckett multisport book, which had about a dozen sets in it, to target Ray Miller cards, and Ross and Leonard cards and anyone else who sounded Jewish (of course, I had no idea who was what--I looked for Sammy Mandell cards--he was Italian--and passed up Joe Choynski cards--his dad was the publisher of one of the more influential Jewish newspapers, from S.F.). Shortly after that I found my first boxing Exhibit cards at another show. Bought a group of 1920s-1950s from an obnoxious loudmouth dealer who I'd normally have walked away from but I had to have those cards. Got a Marciano, a Louis and a Jack Johnson, among others.