Coin-Op Card Machines

[Troy Kirk]

A friend of mine sent me some pictures of a German card album that contained a picture of a coin-op card machine from probably about 1960. That brought back some fond memories of buying cards out of similar machines.

When I first started collecting cards in 1967, I saw a machine with baseball cards in it for a nickel a pull. They showed sample cards of some Detroit Tigers players, since I lived in Michigan back then. I asked my dad for a nickel because I wanted a baseball card of Denny McLain which was showing on top of one of the slots. My dad told me he would give me a nickel, but that I wouldn’t get McLain, that card was just for show and I would get other players. So I put in a nickel and pulled out some cards including McLain.

I bought a card machine with quarter slots probably 10 years ago just for the fun of it. I have never done anything with it, it’s sitting on the floor and needs a little work to get it looking good, which I will do sometime. It works fine.

I'd be interested in hearing any stories other have about baseball cards, non-sport cards, or any other types of cards pulled out of these machines in your youth. Also, feel free to post pictures of other coin-op card machines in this thread.