How long you collected as a kid ?...

[CW]

Originally Posted by BradH

CW-
You and I must have been separated at birth. The ‘77s were my first true love and I too took a “Rush break” in the 1980s. I came back to the hobby and turned to tobacco cards when I landed my first “real” job in the mid 1990s, although I now collect as much 1950s football as I do old baseball.

I bought a few packs in 1976, but really dove in as a seven-year-old in 1977. I still have 500 or so of my original ’77 Topps cards in the same wooden box I housed them in (decorated with my little drawings of the team logos). I have since gone on to complete two very high-grade ’77 sets, and I’m working on a third, but I will always keep those originals because of the fond memories.

"Brother from another Mother," as they say. 50's football?
I also appreciate those cards -- I had a blast while building a
NM+ '55 All-American set a few years ago.

I've always thought about putting together a high grade subset of
'77 Topps, collecting all the "All-Stars" from that set. The photography
and card layouts in the '77 set are some of the best from that era,
no doubt!

[Davids]

This is my first response as a relatively new member. I swore that I would just be a spectator but can't sit this one out! My first cards purchased were 62 Topps baseball in the spring of 1962 (end of grade 1) bought at Edwards' corner grocery store. I played "dropsies" only once and lost all my cards so never played again. I also placed high value on condition and my sets never came to school (only doubles for trading). I continued to buy baseball (and hockey and football, some non sport like pirates and civil war) every year until and including the summer of 1968 (between grade 7 and grade 8). It then became uncool and, after 3 aborted attempts, vividly remember throwing virtually everything else out (I still believe there is a box in the ceiling joists of our former family home which I would love to figure out how to gain access to). Included in the disposition were many cards that I had acquired from older kids going all the way back to 1953 (had the Mays but no Mantle) but, for some reason, no 1952s.
Every subsequent year I would buy a couple of baseball packs just to see what they looked like up to 1990. That year we were still playing in a seven a side touch football league but decided that we (all around 35yrs old) needed some youth if we wanted to continue to compete so we recruited some junior players. One of these kids didn't drive and lived near me so I became the driver and got to know him well. Guess what, he collected baseball cards so I decided to put together a 1990 Topps set card by card. I was again hooked and have collected ever since, I currently concentrate on 1952-1967 Topps along with all Bowman Baseball 1955 and prior.
As a postscript to this rant, I suffered my 56th birthday this year and got an amazing gift from my younger brother. Ready for this, he had found a calendar from non other than Edwards' grocery store which had been demolished probably 30 years previously!!

[CW]

Originally Posted by Davids

As a postscript to this rant, I suffered my 56th birthday this year and got an amazing gift from my younger brother. Ready for this, he had found a calendar from non other than Edwards' grocery store which had been demolished probably 30 years previously!!

Good stuff!

What a great thread this has turned out to be! I've enjoyed reading
every entry.

[Kalineman]

Bought my first pack in 1959 at age 6. While opening it in the kitchen, I pulled a Detroit Tigers card of catcher Red Wilson. My folks - both school teachers - made a big fuss about pulling a Tiger player in my first pack. My dad was a coach and I was always a manager on his baseball, basketball and football teams in elementary school. He let me show my Red Wilson card to the varsity team. I never stopped collecting after that and my folks saved all my cards when I went away to college.

[brickyardkennedy]

Bought packs of sports cards from 1957, through 1965, when, at the age of sixteen, I became a serious adult. : D Since '57 Topps Baseball was my "first", plus the fact that I find the pics so attractive, I've always had an attachment to them - to the point where I put together the set, not my usual collecting style (team collector).

[sb1]

I bought Football in 68 and then Baseball in 69, packs were still a nickel in 69 and my grandmother would give me a dollar so you can imagine how many I had, I can remember getting so many 1st series Al McBean's I thought he was in every pack. That same year in little league baseball we bought packs at the concession stand that had the rub offs. We were really inrigued by prior years issues that we were not familiar with, a 1968 BB card was like ancient to us!

Oddly one of the small grocery stores in town was selling black and white cards with cat eye marbles?? they had left over 1960 Leaf cards and I bought a ton of them.

I quit in 1975 and sadly sold it all in 1981.

I have put together sets of most of these years 1969-1973and they bring back more memories and mean much more to me than all of rare turn of the century stuff. I sold all of my 1952-1967 sets that I put together after the fact, years ago. I still enjoy putting together the insert material and the Kelloggs 3-D cards.

Scott