How hard was it to find new Topps series in 1950s, '60s and early '70s?

[gman]

I started buying with the 1971 cards. I had a paper route which insured that I had money for the cards. I would frequent the local 7-11 here in southeast Houston. I always looked forward to football season, because there was less competition for the baseball cards, others had started buying the football cards. So never any challenge for the last series. In fact, I didn't know that they were more challenging and thus would be worth more $$ until years later.

I enjoyed the challenge of completing the 7-11 Slurpee (sp?) cups that also had baseball player faces on them.

A few years later, when collecting baseball cards was no longer "cool" and you didn't want the girls to think you were "uncool", I would just purchase the complete sets throught the mail, but I would still got my fix eating a lot of twinkies and Kellogg's Raison Bran, and drinking RC cola. Not for the baseball players, of course, but because I liked the taste.

[blackandgold]

Well, growing up in a very small town in central PA. we had one mom and pop store to buy from. They usually kept a good supply of wax through the spring and summer (it seemed every kid in town collected), but the last couple series' were very hit and miss. Once in a while we would get to Clearfield and look for cello packs at the G.C. Murphy's, and then the search was on for any Pirate on the top or the bottom.
Also, on Sundays my uncle would go to a little store called the Whispering Pines a couple miles away to buy a Pittsburgh newspaper. If I was allowed to go, I always walked out with some wax packs.
One thing that strikes me as funny, is that I have a bunch of the 1967 Topps Pirates stickers. It's hard to believe that our little town was part of the "Test Issue" release area.
Great memories !