Collection Reflection

[Cmvorce]

At the end of the year, I always get reflective - on life and cards. I thought this might be fun. Hope you’ll play along. Leon, apologies in advance if this doesn’t belong on the front page.

First Pack of Cards: 1987 Topps
First Set Completed by Hand: 1956 Topps
First T206: Christy Mathewson dark cap
First Card To Pay >$100 For: 1968 Nolan Ryan
First Card To Pay >$1000 For: T206 Walter Johnson portrait
Most Memorable Trade: received: 1962 Topps Mickey Mantle; Sent: Six Nintendo games, including Tecmo Bowl, Bases Loaded, and Double Dribble.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

[realbigfatdog]

I'll play along

First Pack of Cards: 1985 Topps

First Set Completed by Hand: 1956 Topps

First T206: Elmer Flick ($3 in 1989)

First Card To Pay >$100 For: 1956 Topps Mickey Mantle ($100 in 1992)

First Card To Pay >$1000 For: W600 Hal Chase ($1100 in 2019)

I can't remember my last trade, unfortunately.

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[commishbob]

First Pack of Cards: 1959 Topps
First set completed by hand: 1961 Topps. When I returned to chasing vintage about 10 years ago it was the '59T set
First T206: Same as the OP, a Matty dark cap bought blind from an old The Trader Speaks ad.
First Card To Pay >$100 For: I think it was a Mantle for that '59 set.
First Card To Pay >$1000 For: Haven't, likely never will. Most expensive card was a '67 Seaver rookie for about $550
Most Memorable Trade: Haven't done many since my North Jersey schoolyard dealings in 1965 but I'd say getting a nice '62T starter lot for a stack of 50s and 60s star dupes I'd upgraded.

[LEHR]

Here’s mine…

First Pack of Cards: 1979 Topps football wax packs from Rimsteads Hardware store.

First Set Completed by Hand: 1958 Topps football set. I built this complete PSA set card by card with a final GPA of 7.03.

First T206: Mickey Doolan batting pose. I bought this from Sportscards Plus around 1996’ish I believe. It later graded an SGC 40.

First Card To Pay >$100 For: The first I remember was a T206 Charles Seitz PSA 7. I paid $150 around 1997’ish.

First Card To Pay >$1000 For: 1961 Topps Mickey Mantle PSA 8.

**(edited to add)** Most memorable trade: Around age 11 I traded a EX 1958 Topps Ted Williams for an EX-MT 1976 Topps Hank Aaron. To the kids in my town Aaron was a much bigger legend than Ted Williams and the guy I traded with was the first kid in town to come up with a Hank Aaron card.

[obcbobd]

First Pack of Cards: 1967 Topps Red Sox Stickers
First Set Completed by Hand: 1973 Topps, last card Jim Kaat
First T206: Ed Abbaticchio - Pittsburgh Pirates
First Card To Pay >$100 For: 33 Goudey Ruth
First Card To Pay >$1000 For: not yet
Most Memorable Trade: Traded a boxfull of 73/74 dups for a 52 Topps Mays

[cjedmonton]

First Pack of Cards: 1978 Topps
First Set Completed by Hand: 1983 Topps
First T206: Rube Marquard - Sweet Caporal
First Card To Pay >$100 For: 2001 Donruss Elite Albert Pujols
First Card To Pay >$1000 For: 2008 Topps Chrome Clayton Kershaw PSA 10
Most Memorable Trade: 1975 Topps Pete Rose/Steve Garvey/Johnny Bench for 1970 Nolan Ryan (circa 1980)

[ullmandds]

First Pack of Cards: 1977 Topps
First Set Completed by Hand: 1977 Topps
First T206: white cap matty
First Card To Pay >$100 For: red hindu crandall
First Card To Pay >$1000 For: not sure...some rareish type card of a common player likely???
Most Memorable Trade: 67 brooks robinson, 68 tom seaver for a 77 pinella burger king

[jingram058]

First pack of cards: 1967 Topps (6 packs, 5 cents each, Safeway supermarket, Dallas, TX)

First set completed by hand: 1967 Topps, plus many duplicates, but my mom gave my cards away when I moved out of the house and (stupidly) didn't care about things like baseball cards anymore

First t206: Addie Joss, Ed Walsh and Nap Lajoie, Coral Square Mall card show, Coral Springs, FL (1993?)

First card to pay $100 for: 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth #144, Chanute AFB, IL, 1988 (bought a Ruth signed ball for $500, and Ruth card and Gehrig card for another $300 (?), all authenticated by Harvey Brandwein), used re-enlistment bonus money, also bought new 1988 Ford Mustang with cash at Rantoul Ford)

First card to pay $1000 for: Have not done that, and likely won't

Most memorable trade: Jay Weaver, September 2020 at the height of Covid, I traded duplicate 1959, 1960 and 1961 Topps cards (including Mantle, Maris, Mays, etc.) for 1953 Bowman color (21, including Mantle, Reese, etc.) and 1952 Topps (9, including Mays, Dickey, etc.), which started my 1953 Bowman color complete set. My real most memorable trade wasn't a trade, it was a gift. An older neighborhood pal (imagine a guy 5 or 6 years older, who was a role model for us younger fellows, who pitch for both sides in our games, and also QB) was going away to prep school and showed up at our house one Saturday morning with a box of mainly 1962 Topps and many older, Hardy Boys tan covered books, comic books and Boy Scout stuff. Dolph Belton is a college professor today.

[Golfcollector]

First Pack of Cards: 1977 Topps
I think 1982 topps
First T206: bought a large collection that had a bunch, so take your pick of about any cub player, or non-cobb HOF'er
First Card To Pay >$100 For: 1963 Fleer Checklist
First Card To Pay >$1000 For: 1926 Spalding Champions Walter Hagen PSA 9
Most Memorable Trade: received: Traded 2 Michael Jordan 86-87 fleer RC's for cash at a tri star show in KC about 25 years ago or so and then drove back to Lincoln, went straight to the jewelers and paid off remaining balance on my wife's engagement ring

[Exhibitman]

First Pack of Cards: 1970 Topps baseball
First Set Completed by Hand: 1954 Topps baseball, 1969 Topps basketball
First T206: Walter Johnson pitching (45 years ago and I still have it; the holder came 20 years later)



First Card To Pay >$100 For: I do not recall.
First Card To Pay >$1000 For: 1954 Topps Aaron
Most Memorable Trade: when I was a tween I was really into cards and studied everything I could find on rare cards. One day in the neighborhood a kid got a box of vintage cards and we sat down to trade. I ended up trading a badly creased 1968 Topps Clemente for a 1958 Bell Brand Gino Cimoli. Cimoli is a SP due to an early season trade and is the hardest card of the set. I flipped it for $20 at a local show, which was big bucks in an era when low grade Mantle cards were in the dollar box.

[egri]

First Pack of Cards: 2005 Topps
First Set Completed by Hand: Hopefully, my signed 1953 Topps set (currently at 261)
First T206: Don't own any; first prewar card was likely a 1933 Goudey
First Card To Pay >$100 For: 1933 Goudey Jimmie Foxx
First Card To Pay >$1000 For: Signed 1953 Topps Willie Mays
Most Memorable Trade: Not a very big trader

[todeen]

I like this thread, very different.

First pack of cards = 1991 Topps at Buttrey's Grocery Store in Billings, MT

First Set Completed by Hand = 2001 Bowman Heritage

First T206 = Karger, Cincinnati, in 2019

First card more than $100 = I think it was a Wheaties Joe Dimaggio in 2012, or also in 2012 a card size photo auto'd by Heinie Groh.... if I spent more than $100 it was usually for a box. I don't buy boxes anymore.

First card more than $1000 = I bought a 1921 Exhibit Ty Cobb SGC 4 that was about $900.... that's close enough to round up. If we are being technical, I bought a portrait red Cobb that was over.

Best trade = in 2001 when I was putting the Bowman Heritage set together, and in the early days of ebay, I would contact winners who bought group lots of the set and ask if they had High #s to trade. Someone from San Diego sent me a bunch of cards plus Cincinnati Reds cards for various Gwynn and relic cards I had.

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[pingman59]

First Pack of Cards: 1968 Topps BB
First set completed by hand: 1974 Topps BB. Thanks to the Card Collector's Company for the last 25 +/- cards I needed that year. I remember being amazed at how ultra-sharp those singles were!
First T206: A widow answered my newspaper "Wanted To Buy" ad back in 1978.
I Bought a lot of 20 +/- from her, all with Tolstoi backs, except for one Uzit back. I remember a Cobb Bat off shoulder in the lot (it had a Tolstoi back).
First Card To Pay >$100 For: 1950 Bowman Jackie Robinson, to finish my set. $250 back in the early 1990's.
First Card To Pay >$1000 For: 1966 Topps Mantle
Most Memorable Trade: In the early 1990's, I traded my beat-up 1954 Aaron rookie, ten 1986 Donruss BB wax boxes (when the Canseco rookie was a big deal) and a few other star cards for a NM 1954 Aaron rookie. At the time, it was a win-win deal for the card shop and myself. I still have the card and cherish it.

[G1911]

First Pack of Cards: 1994(?) Skybox(?) Batman Animated series, I was 3. First sports was 1997 Topps Football (Marino in the first pack, I recall). First baseball I forget, but was 1999-2000 based on my junk boxes.

First Set Completed by Hand: 1971 Topps Football

First T206: Jack Knight Portrait, P350

First Card To Pay >$100 For: Honestly don't remember, probably a boxing T card.

First Card To Pay >$1000 For: T220 Donovan.

Most Memorable Trade: Trading some Bonds rookies (at their peak) for a T205 Mathewson, and then trading the T205 Mathewson for a big stack of T218's.

[fkm_bky]

First Pack of Cards: 1981 Topps
First Set Completed by Hand: 1982 Topps
First T206: Chance Red Portrait ($28) in about 2002
First card to Pay >$100: E95 Cobb SGC30 - $125 in early 2000’s
First Card to Pay >$1000: T206 Red Cobb (this year)

Bill

[ClementeFanOh]

Hi all- Happy Thanksgiving! Here's the best I can do...

1) First pack- 1976 Topps baseball
2) First set- same
3) First T206- can't remember
4) First card at $100- 1954 Topps Hank Aaron, back in 1981
5) First card at $1000- I should be able to remember. Maybe an E90-1 Cobb?

Trent King

[jefferyepayne]

Baseball focused for this thread. I'm a football guy but collected a lot of baseball as a kid and some a decade ago. Also all pro football players with baseball cards.

First Pack of Cards: 1977 Topps
First Set Completed by Hand: 1978 Topps
First T206: Lefty Leifield Batting (bought in 1979)
First Card To Pay >$100 For: T206 Ty Cobb (bought in 2012)
First Card To Pay >$1000 For: M101 Jim Thorpe (bought in 2013)
Most Memorable Trade: received: 1962 Topps Mickey Mantle; Sent: Twelve doubles I had (trade in 1980)

jeff

[kailes2872]

First Pack of Cards: 1978 Topps (I got Reggie in my first pack)
First Set Completed by Hand: 1982 Topps (1967 when I got back into the hobby)
First T206: 10-12 Commons in a 2014 deal
First Card To Pay >$100 For: Nolan Ryan Rookie - Bought Raw, eventually became a PSA 4. 2012, $246.50
First Card To Pay >$1000 For: 1954 Hank Aaron PSA 6. $1600 March 5, 2015.
Most Memorable Trade: In 2nd grade, I traded a trash bag full of 1971-1974 basketball in trash bag condition for an old catcher's mitt. I got the worst of that one, even though the cards were in lower condition.

[Lobo Aullando]

First Pack of Cards: '88 Topps
First Set Completed by Hand: '92 Upper Deck McDonalds basketball
First T206: Christy Mathewson dark cap
First Card To Pay >$100 For: '55 Topps Jackie Robinson (although if you factor in three decades of inflation, it would be a '60 Topps Clemente)
First Card To Pay >$1000 For: W517 Babe Ruth
Most Memorable Trade: a couple of the then stars for an '89 Donruss Griffey, because no Mariner would ever be any good (Thanks, Kevin.)

[Cmvorce]

Great stories, guys. Thanks for sharing.