Our hobby in the 1970s

Goldenage

Please share more images if you can.
Would appreciate seeing them. Thanks

Goldenage

Goldenage

Goldenage

Goldenage

The 1970s saw a boom in card collecting and other sports related memorabilia.

It stayed steady until around 1985-1988 when a huge boom hit.

We’ve recently seen a non-sports card boom and the card market appears steady to very hot.

It seems like we keep having either steady years or booming years.

RedHeart54

This was taken in late 1983 or early ‘84. (In fact it’s the same dealer from the article I recently posted regarding the thief returning T206 cards after 25 years.)

I think that’s a stack of 1984 USFL sets to the left of the Gremlins box on the counter.

bobbybakeriv

My favorite place to buy cards as a kid...

Darin

Our hobby in the 70's in a nutshell.................

Way too many rubberbands and shoeboxes.

Bosox1976

bobbybakeriv

@Bosox1976 said:

Fantastic!

bobbybakeriv

The first card I ever pulled...

77 version saved for the heck of it. I got this one about 20 years ago when I was at the dawn of my 77 Topps obsession. I always wanted to cross it over. Still may try one day. My first Topps AS cards came in one purchase of packs from 7-11...76 Nettles and Carew. Terrific cards and memories!

mrmopar

I have a nice fat folder full of card related magazine clippings and newspaper articles. I hope to be able to take some time some day and scan all of that kind of stuff and share it. Those older images and the hobby periodicals are a great way to reminisce about a more innocent and perhaps better time in the hobby. I won't lie, I have a much better collection because of being an adult with disposable income and transportation to any shop or show I could want to visit, shows, hobby shops, ebay and other advances, but I still look back on my kid collecting times as some of the best ever.

I will pick up the old catalogs when I see them at a decent price. i prefer the years when I was actually looking at them (78-80s) from TCMA, Renata Galasso, Pacific Trading Cards, SCD, Hobby News and others.

mrmopar

Would have loved to been able to visit Renata Galasso in Brooklyn as a kid. I was fascinated by the Brooklyn Dodgers then too. Would have been amazing. Pulled these off the internet. I know there are some others I have seen too.

mrmopar

bobbybakeriv

Who recalls these beauties? I mowed grass like a madman to subscribe to all three major sports' versions back in the day.

RedHeart54

This is a great book (published in ‘93) if you’re interested in hobby history.

Don’t worry, your fingers won’t be covered in newsprint ink when you read through it. 😉

BLUEJAYWAY

Oh the horror of those rubber bands.

NJ80sBBC

@bobbybakeriv said:
My favorite place to buy cards as a kid...

Amazing

GroceryRackPack

Some of my 1st ones from 76…I carried those with me everywhere and anywhere…

lwehlers

@Goldenage said:
Please share more images if you can.
Would appreciate seeing them. Thanks

curse those the rubber bands.

MrTim

Oh the horror of those rubber bands.

curse those the rubber bands.

That was my first reaction too. Looking back on similar scenes from my youth, the main focus of the day would have been summed up as: "need 'em, got 'em, need 'em" (repeat). It sure was fun then, and still is now.

PastaBoy

@Bosox1976 said:

Dang! Still have 3 of 'em. Those things held my cards for 35+ years before I pulled them out again year and a half ago.

Mcvillagehtx

Mcvillagehtx

craig44

i really enjoy these old photos and write ups.

nostalgia is strong!

PaulMaul

@mrmopar

I grew up in Brooklyn and vividly remember visiting Renata G’s storefront in 1977 at the age of 10. I had been ordering the complete sets from her since 1975 and was getting kind of bored with it, so I bought two 1977 vending boxes instead. Big mistake, collation was terrible and I never completed the set that year.

smallstocks

I competed with her in 1979 & 1980 as a teenage Topps dealer. I used to list sets for sell in Baseball Digest.

PaulMaul

@smallstocks said:
I competed with her in 1979 & 1980 as a teenage Topps dealer. I used to list sets for sell in Baseball Digest.

Cool! Do you have a pic of one of your ads?

balco758

Baseball Digest.

I have find memories of flipping to the back of the magazine each month for the "So you think you know baseball?" rules question.

hyperchipper09

Bought a few packs 78-79, racks in '80 from K-Mart. A few pack buys 81-82. Didn't get into full blown collecting until '83. That one pic above, of the USFL sets reminds me of Swamp Fox Collectibles in North Charleston SC in the '85 time frame. Owner had stacks of them. Did I buy one or two? Don't be ridiculous. I was completing my Donruss Grand Champions set.

1948_Swell_Robinson

I was just looking at some of the publications last week. I took these pics before I put them back. This is a 1970 Who's Who of card collecting. It has biographies of nearly every mid to major collector in the country(of the ones who took the time to submit the info). I may pull out a few other publications this weekend.

Goldenage

Nagy, Fritsch, and Burdick..
Great contributors to our hobby.

smallstocks

@PaulMaul said:

@smallstocks said:
I competed with her in 1979 & 1980 as a teenage Topps dealer. I used to list sets for sell in Baseball Digest.

Cool! Do you have a pic of one of your ads?

Wish I did. For years I kept them but they are long gone now. I do still have an invoice I received from Topps for the purchase of the cases. And still have thousands of cards from both years in my basement!

georgebailey2

MrTim

I'm feeling quite nostalgic about those typewritten sheets in some of the posts in this thread. And those photocopied layouts - great stuff.

That Bobby Clarke All-Star '74 also triggers a lot of memories, one of my biggest collecting years as a kid. And yeah I watched The Partridge Family too although never got into collecting the cards. What might a Reuben Kincaid rookie be worth today?!

1948_Swell_Robinson

A little older: Top of the front page talks about T206 Honus Wagner being worth $250

1964

EXOJUNKIE

Fun thread! Appreciate all the posts! 👍🏻

mrmopar

Could you image a Who's Who now? Who would even qualify as a major collector? $$$ would rule that call probably. Great stuff!