How long you collected as a kid ?...

[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