First Pack of Cards

[Yoda]

Time to publicly out ourselves age-wise. What was the first pack of cards you opened and do you remember any cards contained therein? I will start with the 1951 Bowmans when I discovered a Nellie Fox rookie (long gone). Trading, after shuffling the cards with greasy kid fingers was the only way to get favorite players. There were no TPGers, no auctions and we only had our meagre allowances to pursue our passion. Different era.

[yanks87]

1987 Topps, my mom grabbed a pack for me when we were picking up subs from the Shortstop Sub shop in Ithaca, NY. Got a Dave Righetti, still have it around somewhere, along with 17,897 other 1987 cards.

[vthobby]

Originally Posted by yanks87

1987 Topps, my mom grabbed a pack for me when we were picking up subs from the Shortstop Sub shop in Ithaca, NY. Got a Dave Righetti, still have it around somewhere, along with 17,897 other 1987 cards.

Such an exact number! Sounds about right, I have 5000 ct boxes full in my basement of 1987 Topps Baseball also! ugh

Mike

[vthobby]

1976 Topps Baseball @ .15 per pack. Told my mom I needed $1.05 for school lunch or milk.....went hungry for a week! lol

7 packs = $1.05

Got a Rick Rooster Burleson as 1st card and became a Red Sox fan!

Peace, Mike

s-l300.jpg

[obcbobd]

1967, age 5. I walked to the corner store with my dad and sister. I bought a pack of Red Sox Stickers. I think my sister bought The Monkeys cards. My sister dropped her gum and my dad picked it up, took it home, ran it under water and gave it back to her.

One of the three stickers has survived childhood; it spent many years on my Mickey Mouse Club toy-box.

[mrreality68]

1976 Topps and with friends and each got our first packs.
Opened and I had Bobby bonds and Dusty Baker and a few others.
My friends had gotten like Seaver, George Brett and Dave Kingman.

I wanted me some King Kong Kingman. But we never traded.

We always flipped cards for them.

All day long we flipped and I lost most cards only going home with 3 or 4

I do not remember which cards I brought home but they all ended up in the spokes of my bike.

[Leon]

It would have been 1966 or 1967 Topps. That was a while ago. I still can't believe I turned 60.....
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[Jason]

1990 Score by the boxfull lol.

[butchie_t]

It would have to be 67 or 68, and no memory whatsoever of who. As for the store, 7-11 was right down the end of our street in Maryland.

Dangerously close actually. Loose change never made it far from the 7-11 and if it did, it was across that street to the Peoples Drug Store.

[frohme]

Originally Posted by Leon

It would have been 1966 or 1967 Topps. That was a while ago. I still can't believe I turned 60.....
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Right behind ya Leon - 60 is staring me in the face.

My first packs were 69 Topps - no clue what cards were there, but I remember a Félix Millán - one of my favorites. Before I became a Pirates fan, it was Atlanta - the nearest team to Orlando back then. Don't have any of them anymore, but I do have the 7-11 Slurpee cups from '71 and '72, + the HOF set (73?). They take up way more space than cards, and rarely see the light of day anymore.

--
Mike

[rhettyeakley]

I found a 1977 Don Kirkwood in the basement storage area of my house (it had belonged to my older brother) and that was the 1st baseball card I had ever seen, thus making it my first card (I still have it).

A few days later my brother and I each got a pack of 1986 Topps at the store. I remember getting a Willie McGee card and thinking that that had to be the worst picture ever put on a card, which is probably the only reason I remember any cards from the pack.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by frohme

Right behind ya Leon - 60 is staring me in the face.

My first packs were 69 Topps - no clue what cards were there, but I remember a Félix Millán - one of my favorites. Before I became a Pirates fan, it was Atlanta - the nearest team to Orlando back then. Don't have any of them anymore, but I do have the 7-11 Slurpee cups from '71 and '72, + the HOF set (73?). They take up way more space than cards, and rarely see the light of day anymore.

--
Mike

Well, we did play against each other in Little League.

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[Hxcmilkshake]

1979 baseball rack packs from Brownstone Drug, Portland CT

they also sold leftover 1978 rack packs at the same time! *mindblown*

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[egri]

Not counting older packs that I bought years after they were issued, 2005 Topps. They came in 35-card packs for $7, which I thought was a great deal at the time. In retrospect I wish I had put that money into vintage instead. I remember pulling Johnny Damon, still in a Red Sox uniform, a couple days after he signed with the Yankees.

[Jim65]

1975 Topps

[bobbyw8469]

I remember opening a pack of 1981 Topps and being excited because it had a Fernando Valenzuela rookie card!!! I also remember opening a ton of Wacky Packages cards. And Planet of the Apes.

[sb1]

1968 Topps Football....Bill Glass seems to stick out.

Next year 1969 Topps Baseball 1st Series can vividly remember that every other pack seemed to have an Al McBean card. As a 10 year old, had no idea who this guy with no cap on was....but I had a lot of his cards, as the packs were still a nickel and a dollar every saturday bought a lot of cards.

[Harliduck]

1979 Topps...my mom brought home a pack for my brother and I. My first card was Reggie Jackson...who promptly became my favorite player at the time. I was disappointed to not get any Mariners cards...and jealous my brother got a Rick Honeycutt! Still have my childhood 79 set.

Much like Hxcmilkshake...a while later my mom came home with some 78 packs she found at a slower little store...MIND BLOWN as well!

[ChiefBeef]

1964 Topps. Seems I remember a Kaline early on. Didn't get too many. Store sold out and allowance was slim. But, '65 was a different story and is still the childhood set to remember. Pinned or taped at least 6 Mantles on the walls and back of the door. Ugh!

[realbigfatdog]

Although I had a stack of 1985 Topps baseball, I don't remember buying or opening any packs of them. My dad had an old Phillies cigar tin box, and inside he had stacks of 1985 topps and fleer, so he probably bought them (feeling nostalgic at the time himself, no doubt) and gave them to me. However, I vividly remember buying 1986 Topps baseball packs, and even more, 1986 Topps football packs. Cello packs, to be specific. The local Quick Check or Krausers stores in Hopatcong, NJ were my go to spots. I also remember buying the Topps sticker albums for both baseball and football and lots and lots of those packs as well, though I never completed either one. Lol.

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[drcy]

From the cards I had as a kid, my first pack would have been 1977 football. First baseball pack would have been 1978. Would buy them from a local family grocery store.

[MK]

My first pack was in 1959 which my Mom bought for me at a pharmacy. I don’t remember any specific cards from that pack but it did start my journey (addiction). Several years later my Mom made an amazing find at a garage sale and purchased me thousands of cards from 1951 through 1958. I was on the receiving end of the “mother got rid of my baseball cards story”.

[bobcatfunds]

This is one of the clearest memories I have as a child. The year was 1970 and I was eight. My Dad brought home a pack of cards and I remember pulling this card.



Knowing me, I probably traded it for a Nate Colbert card. :-)

[Harford20]

1975 Topps, and the pack had a Joe Morgan with that beautiful NL All-Star star in the corner. Traded it later that day for the 1975 Topps Johnny Bench that my best friend had pulled.
Dave

[Rocky]

Back in 1967 or 1968, when I was 10 I bought my first packs of Topps cards at Hartman's Corner Store is Southmont (Johnstown, PA). Got a Bill Mazeroski in my first pack and became a life-long Pirates fan. Bought a whole box of cards after that for $2.40.

[ushojh1]

1967 Topps Baseball bought at Menard & Dempster Drug Store Morton Grove, Il. Tony Perez was one of the cards. also !967 Philidelphia Football cards.

[dfletch00]

76 baseball and basketball tall boys...

[cardinalcollector]

First pack was 1968 Topps from a GEM department store in St. Louis. I was immediately hooked. I couldn't wait for them to arrive each year. I remember reading the classified ads in the back of The Sporting News for the 2 or 3 baseball card dealers that were active back then. Boys Life also had baseball card ads. I was calling the local 7-11 in late March in the early 1970s asking if the new cards had arrived yet, I know I drove them crazy. I think it was 1973 when I actually called Topps to see when they would show up in Wichita, KS, where I was then living. I remember my Dad yelling "who made a long distance call to Brooklyn?" I have collected every year since 1968 without any gaps. Baseball cards have always been part of my life.

[Chuck9788]

The first packs that I consistently purchased were 1985 Topps (age 11). I remember getting out of school and racing on my bike to the local convenience store hoping ... praying, that they still had packs left. When I was a big spender, I'd splurge on the 59 cents Cello pack. At the time we didn't want the Mark McGwire Olympic rookie, we hoped and dreamed for a Dwight Gooden card.

[Mitochondria]

In 1975, bought and traded thousands of 1975 Topps minis growing up in Warren, Michigan. I was 11 years old and I had no idea that they were small for 1975. My friend’s older brother had 1968 and 1969s in a box. He would yell at us if we got near them. I had something like 10-12 “doubles” of each player except I only had one Lerrin Lagrow. It took me all summer to finally finish the set. I needed Jim Dwyer (Cardinals) and I never found it in a pack. I had to trade for it. I do remember 1974 Topps cards in wax packs (grouped in 3 packs) to a rack pack-like sack being sold at Kmart in the summer of 1975. I bought one pack and was disappointed that they weren’t like the 1975 minis I was collecting so I stopped buying them! LOL

[Smarti5051]

My first pack of cards was 1981 Fleer. I was at a friend's birthday party and he had a pinata. As it busted open, out fell a bunch of candy and 36 packs of Fleer baseball packs. I can't say for sure, but I am pretty sure there was a Fernando Valenzuela rookie in the pack, as the picture of that card is burned into my memory (he was the hottest thing in Southern California at the time). From that point on, I was hooked. Before that, my earliest memory of cards was on the bottom of Hostess boxes in the late 70s, but I never thought to cut them out and save them.

[BuzzD]

My father had a pharmacy in upstate NY. I would take an entire box to the basement and open packs. 1955 Bowman was first year. I distinctly remember Mantle. Of course they were all lost at some point

[MuncieNolePAZ]

1987 Topps. No idea what cards I got.

Chad

[scottglevy]

1977. dad bought them for me when I was 3. I don’t remember any tbh hi g about it. But found a small stack of them complete with 3-year old scribbles on the front and back of nearly every card.

[JackR]

I opened a ton of them in 1960 at the Sun Drugs in Sharon, PA, but don’t remember any specific cards. I do specifically remember not getting any Roberto Clementes or Mickey Mantles.

[riggs336]

1953 Topps. Can't remember the player. I do remember, when my parents took me to Woolworths to get some more cards, seeing 1951 Berk Ross cards still for sale.
Of course I didn't know they were Berk Ross or 1951, but I clearly remember the little windows on the packaging.

[darwinbulldog]

1986 Donruss. No stars, but I remember Johnny Ray had the highest batting average in the pack.

[SyrNy1960]

Not a first pack of cards, but this what got me started into collecting cards. 1970's Nabisco Sugar Daddy

[tobychin]

1957 I was eleven years old. My Mom and my pal Marty’s Mom had taken us to the city to visit our orthodontist. While they shopped we were given a couple of dollars and went to the Morgan and Lindsey store. First time we had seen baseball cards. Love at first sight.

[Lorewalker]

1976 Topps from Toyorama, John Henry's and most super markets.

[Rad_Hazard]

1990 Topps was my first pack and still one of my favorite designs.

[gonefishin]

1963 Fleer - it was cheaper than Topps at Taylor's grocery store.

That was opening a pack, but I cut cards off the back of cereal boxes before that. The attached picture is one of them I've had all these years.

[JimC]

My Dad started bringing me packs of cards in 1973. We collected a couple hundred baseball cards. By football season I was hooked and we put together the entire set. Still have them all.

[CurtisFlood]

61 Topps, do not remember the initial pulls, but must have bought some high number packs because I had some of those slippery rascals. We picked up pop bottles for 1 cent each and the packs cost 5 cents. The next year 62's came out, I bought a couple packs and hated them and the fact they went up to 10 cents a pack. I think my best pull in 62 was Cuno Barragan. Very awful.

[iwantitiwinit]

1967 Topps bought at Sal's Stationary Store in Stamford, CT. My Dad would buy me one pack after church every Sunday. I loved those 67's and loved my Dad, unfortunately both are gone now.

[Jeffrompa]

From Hiram Schwartz’ corner store in Milmont Park Pa.

[Gorditadogg]

Deertick that is a bittersweet story.

I was 9 years old in 1966 and I liked Mickey Mantle. I used to ride my bike with my friends to the IGA in South Jacksonville IL and buy packs two at a time. I bet I bought a hundred packs before I gave up, never did pull a Mantle. Of course I didn't know how the series' worked back then, by the time I started buying packs they were already done with series 1 and were selling series 2 and 3.

I did visit my cousins later in the year and they had some Mantles which they traded me for Mays and Rose cards so I eventually got my Mantle. They also had some series 7 cards because I traded for Gaylord Perry.

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[drmondobueno]

I remember seeing a Dentist who was carving the remnant of a tooth to make way for the next generation. Usually at the end of a visit the dentist would offer a sucker but this trip he had a pack of baseball cards in his candy drawer and he said I could have them. I remember the pack was wrapped in clear cello and the top card was a Billy Williams Topps Rookie All Star card. I thought that was cool as hell and did not know who Billy was but he had to be good if Topps said so! Lol!

So it was on. The closest store was the once upon a time New Star market about a mile away up the highway. And I picked up a few ‘ 61 packs before the 1962 rack packs showed. They were a lot of money for a kid with no allowance and lawns to mow were few and far between- it was too hot and the soil was just terrible. So, whenever I got my hands on 29 cents it was a trip to the market in the morning- it would get around 117 in the afternoon, a death walk we would say- and scrounge through the packs to grab one with a Mantle The Switch Hitter Connects...to this day I love the In Action and Leader cards. I think I had 14 Mantle Connect cards at one time.

One of the first things I did when we moved to the garden city of San Bernardino (I prefer El Centro) in 1963 was scope out the local stores, the closest was R &S Liquor on Del Rosa Blvd. the Safeway down on the corner never carried cards that I could find. Seemed to remember the 1963 rack packs went up in price to 39 cents and I thought that was just too much! Did not like the looks of the ‘64 set but later bought as many 1965’s as I could get.

I was the kid who would not flip cards but would trade marbles for cards. Who needed marbles at eleven? A neighbor across the street would take an erasor to his duplicates and draw in phony eyes, noses with boogers and Frankenstein stitches onto faces. I still have one of his cards. Terry Bain was a 20th round pick , I think by Kansas City, in 1972 or 1973, and passed a few years back. I remember his giggle whenever he saw one of these cards.

The things you remember...

[campersmd]

First pack was from the complete 1969 Topps box that I purchased for $1.20 with gift money in 1969. I still have the marked checklists from that box.

[JustinD]

For the Gen-xer’s who remember those awesome rainbow colored Topps Fun Packs at Halloween, mine were 1978 Close Encounters of the Third Kind in my trick or treat bag.

Started a many, many years long hobby…good job Topps.

In that same vein, I found Pokémon Halloween fun packs this year. I handed them out with the candy and couldn’t believe the kids excitement. I hope it grows for a few of them like it did for me.