How long have you been collecting?
Raptormaniacs
Posts: 79 ✭✭
I loved collecting cards as a kid. I had 10s (of thousands) of baseball and hockey cards that I collected…only to have hem thrown away in the trash (in my teens). I’m back and I’ve started accumulating the hockey cards. It’s much more expensive now…LOL. I’m approaching my 1 year anniversary. I’ve collected close to 400 PSA cards and close to 4500 raw cards. All hockey from 1979,80,81.
How long have you been collecting ? Let’s hear your story…
2
Answers
I started this disease & sickness in 1976, and right now it is a cry for help...the anxiety, the panic attacks, and night terrors are all in warp speed and it's too late to turn back...
Hi, my name is GroceryRackPack and I'm an addict...
The first packs I recall getting were for my 8th birthday in 1975. Two packs. I still remember getting Frank White in one of the packs but I don't remember what else I pulled. I started collecting in 1976 and have been collecting ever since with only a few brief periods of inactivity.
Back in 1990. But what I truly ended up collecting in the end I just started my 3rd year. Took me a long time to find what was really for me. Not that I did not enjoy the other 29 years I did but now I am happy and will stick with what I now collect till the end.
Sports cards (NFL, NHL, MLB & NBA but mostly NHL & MLB), comic books (Silver Age), stamps and coins (Canada, USA & what I collect now). Now I only collect coins and that will no longer change.
My first pack purchase was 1980 but I didn’t get into the hobby with gusto until spring 1986.
Kiss me twice.....let's party.
Since 1987.
Yaz Master Set
#1 Gino Cappelletti master set
#1 John Hannah master set
Also collecting Andre Tippett, Patriots Greats' RCs, Dwight Evans, 1964 Venezuelan Topps, 1974 Topps Red Sox
Spring of 1976, buying packs of Topps baseball and hoping to get Cubs...lol. Did that up to 1982 or so, then drifted back in 2019.
1987 topps. been at it ever since
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
I remember getting some hand me down 75's that winter and bought a few packs in the wild during 1976.
It wasn't until my Mom took me to the show in Cranston, RI on Oaklawn Ave. in 1977. Shortly after that, my Dad would buy vending boxes for me for $5 at Richmond News in Downtown Providence.
I was hooked by 1978.
Website
Ebay Store
Since the late 1950's. Remember buying tons of baseball and football cards in 1960-1962, Remember collecting 1961 Fleer basketball. Remember getting Hartland statutes around 1960.
Always looking for Mantle cards such as Stahl Meyer, 1954 Dan Dee, 1959 Bazooka, 1960 Post, 1952 Star Cal Decal, 1952 Tip Top Bread Labels, 1953-54 Briggs Meat, and other Topps, Bowman, and oddball Mantles.
The earliest memory I have is buying packs of 1989-90 OPC hockey at a local corner store then I knew I was (still am) a collector.
When I pulled Mario Lemieux & Wayne Gretzky I was super happy.
Not my box just random image:
1982
The first packs I bought were 1970. I can remember in the early to mid-70's going through the boxes of cello packs and the peg boards of rack packs in stores and buying the packs with stars showing (wish I didn't open them!). I bought cards from 1970 through 1978 before getting back into it later on.
I can remember attending some card shows in Brooklyn and Manhattan in the later 1970s and still have some cards from back then. These cards came from that time (condition wasn't a big thing to me back then - it didn't matter that Robin Roberts had a bite taken out, a staple hole, a scuff and a big crease!). These cards hold so much more value to me than on the open market:
First pack was a 1976 baseball rack pack when I was six years old and in the hospital getting my tonsils out. My dad took the time to sort out the packs in the store and find the pack with any Mets player showing because I was a Mets fan then.
1983 Topps is my earliest collecting memory. I distinctly remember the three cards below (originals) that were stuck between the frame and mirror of my dresser. I believe Schmidt was there, too, along with a couple other Phillies. But these three cards were my “collecting” beginning. Some call it a disease; I call it an ease.
Andy
Started in 1982 at 9 years old. My mom and I were at a yard sale and there was big box of cards for $5. My mom talked him down to $2 because she thought they would be all over the house. Some good cards in that box, I still have the actual box and the cards.
Later my mom and I got into card shows and more interested in autographs than cards.
Continuously since 1990.
Son got interested and we collected together.
He left. I stayed.
I've enjoyed it very much tho cards have never been my focus.
Baseball board games until I had so many? No where to store.
Now. Very small projects and overall more disinterested than excited. I'm sure many have had the same thing happen.
That's also reflected in my lack of posting on forums. Tho I do watch some of the youtube channels on the state of the hobby.
Sports card radio brothers are very entertaining - like watching a train wreck.
I've always enjoyed the people here on the forum. I started in 2003 and joined in 2004.
1973
Matt
1970-72, took a break and then started up again in the late 1980's, continuing to this day.
First cards were 75
Got really into hobby in 81-83
Left 1984-2004
Back since then!
That's pretty close to my timeline as well, but I was never "completely" gone (mostly gone for sure), and I came back hard around 2001. You must be about 55ish.
Almost my timeline too, except I started in '76, made it to '87 the first time and didn't get back in until about 2010.
Mines a similar story too
I started in 1978 when my dad bought my cousin and I each a box of 1978 Topps to keep us quiet on a motorhome trip from San Diego to Montana. I somehow recall Ed Ott being the first card I saw in my first pack. I was five years old than and have never stopped collecting, though my focus has changed a few times over the years.
I've collected stuff for most of my life. My problem is that for the most part I don't remember much of anything under the age of 10. After 10, memories are of very bad times and are still a part of my everyday existence. After the passing of both parental units almost 8 years ago, suspicions we're verified by relatives which explained a lot but doesn't excuse things.
So, with that said, I'm always trying to kickstart my brain on finding good things in my past so just thought of something I had lying around here which could be the start of my card collecting of sorts.
Feast you eyes upon this blast from the 70's past. While other kids were getting the coolest lunch boxes to take their lunches to school in, I got this.
Yup, thanks a LOT there folks.
So what's a kid to do?
Funny in I actually do remember opening packs of King Kong cards. Not sure whatever happened to the cards. I think the flag stickers came from bread and no idea where the Conan sticker came from.
Flash forward and next time I had anything to do with cards would have been early 80's buying various Fun Packs bags filled with non-sports cards and a LOT of Empire Strikes Back rack packs.
First baseball card I can remember owning would be a beat to heck 1986 Topps Rusty Staub found while picking the local dump in probably 1987 (don't judge me, lots of great finds when you could actually pick the dump
) and first purchase of baseball cards would be 1988 Donruss cello packs. Think the first one had Gregg Jefferies on top which is why anytime I found his cards I always put them aside.
I'll add this as well. First record I distinctly remember buying with my own money would be this.
This isn't the exact one as the original has long sense disappeared but this copy I picked up this year is really close condition wise to how I remember it. That one album started me on the journey of what has now amounted to over 3,500 pieces in my physical music collection (lp's,45's,78's,8-tracks,cassettes,compact discs). And yes, I know I have a problem, but much worse things to be addicted to.
Jeff
Miscut Museum
My Mess
1977 1st edition Star Wars packs - right out of the box on the counter at a Cumberland Farms.
Live long, and prosper.
1978 was my first year, so it's been 44 years. Retired from the hobby this past summer.
I started with 1983 Star Wars Return of the Jedi cards…the greatest movie franchise of all time. Two years later I began a love affair with Garbage Pail Kids in 1985. I remember trading them with classmates in elementary school. A year later a neighborhood friend showed me his 1986 Topps baseball cards and the obsession began. 1987 Topps was the first year I went all in and I have never stopped. My favorite players were Strawberry, Mattingly and Gooden as a kid. As a young collector in the hobby, I quickly realized that a player’s rookie was THE card to own, so I desperately saved my allowance to go back and buy their 1984 Topps cards. This hangs in my office to this day as a reminder of where it all began for me….
Summer of 1973 series 5 Topps baseball. Pulled the Schmidt - upgraded much later. Jimmy Yee, classmate at Fairview elementary got me going. Saturday mornings at Lake City 7/11 - Zots, cards, and Slurpees.
1977-age 7 Twinkie boxes. I recall rifling through the boxes looking for favorites (Rose,Seaver,Ryan) At age 12 had paper route money and started buying all types. Baseball, football, Star Wars,…..it’s never gotten old for me.
hey Ironwill,
paper route money was the way to go back then... I did the same thing...
Never again will a kid know what it feels like to have a basket attached to his bicycle that's full of newspapers at 5AM.
1978 - had one pack from 1977 and put the cards in a wallet and carried them around everywhere. They were bent to crap. Remember one of them being Dave Parker.
Just wanted Dave Kingman and Bruce Sutter - for some reason I had 3 Sutters before I finally pulled a Kingman. Once I pulled Kingman I moved to Star Wars cards. They had the yellow series at the drug store on the corner.
Nothing beat getting a quarter from my parents. A pack of cards and a few jolly ranchers.
some of my first 76's...
Born in 57, started getting few packs in 1967 at Jack's market in NJ.
But 1968 is when I became a truly addicted.. Lol
I started collecting hockey cards in 1973 and by the time I stopped in 1979 I had cards from all 4 sports. I took a break from collecting for about 8 years while I was working, finishing high school and then getting married. Once I was married and settled, I started collecting coins in 1987. I got started in coins by accident when my wife (who was a bank teller) brought home a couple of rolls of silver quarters. In trying to decide what to collect, I quickly gravitated to gold. I put together a 13 piece U. S. Gold type set. I did this from 1987 through 1993. I sold all of it off (except for the 1907 $20 Gold High Relief) in order to fund my Nolan Ryan collection that I started in September of 1993. I collected Nolan Ryan for 27 years (up until 2020). That is the same number of years that he pitched in the major leagues. I sold my Ryan collection off to help fund my coin collection that I started back up with my brother in law in 2017. Now I collect PCGS graded coins only. I'm trying to put together a couple of different U. S. Type sets. My goal is to finish the Basic U. S. Type set in the next couple of years and the Dansco 7070 Type set in the next 5-7 years. The complete U.S. Type set is just a dream. My hope is to get up around 90% complete before I lose interest from old age, run out of money or die. Whichever comes first. Anyhow, it's been a GREAT ride!!!
Enjoy your hobby no matter what you collect.
Donato
Donato's Complete US Type Set ---- Donato's Dansco 7070 Modified Type Set ---- Donato's Basic U.S. Coin Design Set
Successful transactions: Shrub68 (Jim), MWallace (Mike)
Bought and collected heavily from 1974-1980. Got back into it around 2002.
Comics: 1975 - 1987; 2012 - present
Cards: 1983 - 2000; quick stint as flipper 2008 - 2009; 2012 - present.
Started collecting when I was around 9 (late 1980s), mostly my hometown teams of Cubs, Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks, and Notre Dame for college. Got tired of the loads of different brands/types of cards flooding the market in the 90s, and decided to switch to collecting vintage, especially Ernie Banks and Walter Payton.
Stopped collecting when I was around 17, and got back into the hobby around 8 years ago, mostly focusing on my favorite players and HOFers from my favorite teams. Loved meeting some of my favorite players from my childhood in person, like Jody Davis, Rick Reuschel, Dan Hampton, Mike Singletary, and Chris Zorich, among many others.
started collecting around 1988-89. had paper route so couldnt afford too much cept from the bargain bin at the local card store
hey slimies,
The paper route was the way to go back then...crazy we delivered paper to buy cardboard...
Any wacky packs? 🤔🙂
Started collecting when I was 4 in 2001 topps. Remembered my dad and I having such a hard time getting the cards undone. Collected till I was about 13 and then got back in to it around 2019 and have been heavily collecting vintage ever since!
the year i stopped (1994) delivering i made $120 in christmas tips from the customers. got myself a few cards that holiday.
To the best of my old memory, 1978 was the sets that I recall going to the local drug store and buying packs regularly. The Roger Staubach and other Cowboys greats were my grails. My love for the Bowmans and other vintage football exploded in 1995 when the NFL released "75 Seasons" and I fell in love with the history of the sport and the icons of the 30's through 5o's like Baugh, Graham, Luckman etc.
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