Pack question. What was the first...........

SUPERPUNK813

Question: What was the first year you remember buying/opening wax or cello packs?


My answer: The first year that i really got into buying packs and collecting cards was the fall of 1979, I was 5 years old and i bet if you added it all up i busted at least 5 total wax and cello boxes that year. The local stores around here always seemed to have more cello than wax.





Paul.

ctsoxfan

My first year buying was 1975, mostly wax packs at my local corner store. I would take a dollar or two there, and get several packs (how about that!). As the 70's went on, I started to try to put the baseball set together every year, and bought a few wax/cello packs almost every allowance day. If my parents went to the grocery store, they would often bring me back a rack pack or two, which they would pull out of the stuffed grocery bag filled with frozen foods and heavy canned items! Imagine today - "Mom! What are you doing? Don't you know that you are going to bend the corners on those cards? How am I going to grade them PSA 10's when I get older?

I never thought about buying a whole box of cards back then. Too expensive.

oaktown

I remember going to flea markets and getting 1983 Topps packs for a quarter a pack, sweet deal. My brother and I would buy a ton of packs, bring them home and organize them. I'd always claim that I was going to wait and open them slowly, like one a day. Two hours later, they were torn to shreds. Apparently things never change.

dbj77

I split my money up between Garbage Pail Kids and Topps and Donruss baseball................I think 1987 was the first year I really started getting into it and kept it up until about 1993.

theBobs

1981 Topps

Dhjacks

1972, and I went nuts. As a 10 year old, I spent every dime I had on packs. Then I ended up with everyone in the neighborhood's cards. I ended up with about a dozen of most cards in the first 4 series. I have over 18 Clementes and Clemente IA's. They grade about 5 to 6.

onegaucho

1980 Topps and 1981 Fleer
I remember opening them in 1981. Kept a bunch of those beauts in my back pocket on the way to Little League practice... wonder what those would grade...

Actually, my brother loved Joe Montana at the time and he still has Montana's 81T rookie card (in very, very poor shape). I'm considering getting it graded for him just for kicks!

Cubfan

1966 Topps Baseball.

I believe I still have at least two of the cards from the first pack (I never threw any baseball cards away even then).

aconte

1976 first (my dad bought them too!)

lots in 1978 and 79 too!

aconte

edited to add the my dad bought packs for me first in 1974 + 1975. I also had a friend in
grade school give me 1973 packs. And I traded for 72's often when I was a kid.

interchanges

1973 Wacky Packages!

Went straight home and plastered my dresser with them

Southsider

1984-86 Baseball, Topps of course. Then later when I became interested in the hobby again, 1990 Score and Proset Football. Lucky me.

Golfcollector

I remember going to the grocery store in 1984 and buying topps fleer and donruss cellos and looking for Gwynn ,Sandberg, and Boggs and RON KITTLE. Had a bunch of these with the guys on top or bottom. Also vividly remember buying 1984 donruss 36 count boxex for $9 + tax at my local c-store in my small hometown.

jimtb

My first pack opened was in 1974. I spent more money at Kmart at the baseball card vending machine. Five cards for a nickel. I would come out of the store with more cards than I could carry! My first year at that machine was for 71 Topps - I was six. My mom marked the Tigers cards with a "T" on the front of the card so I wouldn't trade them to the older kids in the neighborhood!

I've been looking off and for one of those vending machines for several years. Can't seem to find one.

Vargha

1971 Topps, but I too went nuts in 1972 when I got my paper route. I owned more than 30 Aarons at one time. I didn't realize that cards were rleased in series back then.

mrc32

1987 Topps Baseball. 40 cents at the corner drug store. I loved those wood borders and the thrill of trying to get a Cincinnati Reds player. My favorite card-- Eric Davis, where he is wearing the Solid Red Windbreaker pullover. He looked so cool.

I didn't get my first full box until 1988 Topps came out. My mom bought me one at the Tobacco shop in the mall after I made it through the confirmation process at our church. Soon boxes of cards became a huge incentive for me!

Although I did buy a lot of Garbage Pail Kids before that. To bad I traded them all some time later for something. I'd love to still have them.

Great thread!

TheCARDKid

Great Thread. 1985 Topps were the first cards for me. I still have most of the original cards. I use to crease some of them to make them look cool, lol.

1987 Topps were the first cards I really got into though. I must have had a 700 count box full of them. Likewise, I spent a small fortune on 88 and 89 Topps.

Garbage Pail Kids were great too. The packs were only 25 cents I believe. I was buying 3rd series packs like they were going out of style. I ended up trading my whole collection of Garbage Pail Kids in the 6th grade. Those were the days....

aro13

I first remember buying packs from 1972-73 OPC hockey. My Dad used to buy boxes and give me a couple of packs every week, kind of like an allowance. My first baseball packs were 1973 OPC and my dad used to do the same thing. I still have a lot of those cards now but the highest grades would probably be around EX.

Cubfan

Come on!!!!!! Somebody has to be older than me.

minibeers

1974 Topps Baseball. In 1977 I went nuts. Built 4 complete sets from wax boxes. I was king of the neighborhood...

Griffins

1970 Topps, 4th series. First pack had Felipe Alou, Boog Powell All Star, and Roy White.
By spring of '71 I had to get a paper route to support the habit. Last pack bought? '74, trying to corner the market on Washington Nat'l variations, 'cause they were going to be worth a lot.

gemint

I remember first getting baseball packs for my birthday in 1975. But I first started collecting and buying packs in 1976. I do have a vague recollection of buying packs of cards of race cars in the early 70s. I don't know what year it was or what ever happened to those cards.

Mykabota

1967 Topps. I had a paper route and with my tip money would buy the gum and save the cards. I still have all those 67,68 and 69 cards and boxes. If I only had some un-opened packs. Sorry Cubfan.
Thanks,
Michael

NickM

I was given a couple packs of '76 Topps during 1978. I opened them. Still have the cards, although most would be PSA 1 by now. The first time I bought cards was in the spring of 1982. I got into both baseball and cards that year. By the end of the year, I was loading up on Topps rack packs when KayBee toys discounted them and unopened boxes of Donruss when my local card store marked them down to $4.95. They didn't stay unopened for long.

Nick

robstar

1971 OPC Hockey. I was 6 yr's old at the time. Every saturday morning I'd spend my 50 cent allowance on 3 packs of cards and usually a candy bar and a pop would eat up the rest. I'd sit on the curb outside the store and open my cards. If anyone out there has a 71 OPC Dryden or Lafleur rookie with candy bar stains on it you can probably thank me.

Rob...

sellerman23

Great thread!
I started in 1987 and bought tons of those wood-bordered cards. I was always looking for Mike Greenwell rookies. When was the last time you all heard that name?
There also seemed to be an abundance of 1986 wax packs available at only 35 cents, so I bought those up, as well.
After that, it became a Christmas tradition for me to get a wax box of the new year's cards. That ended in 1990 (good!).
Now I crack nothing but older packs, cellos, racks, etc.

Dave
sellerman23

pc

1964
we used to order boxes at a time from the
grocery store and drug store.

goodriddance189

1987 Donruss. i treasured that Wally Joyner rookie like it was worth a million bucks

Tipem

I remember going straight from the ball park on Saturdays after my little league games and hitting the Jiffy store(we only had one in our town).I was buying 69's mixed in with leftover 68's(nobody bought them at that time).I inherited my uncles beat up 62's and that is what I played with the most.I wish I could be 9 again in that Jiffy store

Great thread!!!

Thinking about those days sure brings a


Thanks Paul,
Vic

Cubfan

Thanks pc .

Boy those were the days. We would buy at least 10 nickel packs at a time and open one per block on the walk home and keep piling the gum in our mouths. I think my neighborhood group of guys did that from about 1966 to 1971.

The two cards I remember from my first pack were Billy O'Dell and John Buzhardt.

curmudgeon

I'm sure this topic was posted before, because I repsonded then as I will now:

For me, it was 1966 at the nearby Ben Franklin, where one of the cards was Sandy Valdespino


Also 1966 for FB-both Topps and Philly (I was a doorknob, wondering why I could never get any Vikings in that wood-grained set)

Winter of 1969 for Basketball and Hockey-- I still have the Howe and Orr cards, but they're beat

unbelievably great memories

Todd

xbaggypants

My Grandmother use to buy me boxes of 1984-85 OPC hockey. I still have all the cards including about 10 Yzermans

curmudgeon

Actually, I also remember being depressed in 1970, when I took my quarter to the Ben Franklin and discovered, gasp, that packs had gone up to a dime, leaving me with, gasp again, a nickle that was of no use to me. Plus, I thought the 1970 cards were buttugly--I hated the drab gray, the script names, and the lack of imagination on the team designations. To top it off, in the very first pack I opened, I got 2 Charlie Metro cards. Yuck. Doubles in the first pack- I don't think that happened to me again for another 11 years (thanks Donruss). I felt my youth forever change when the dime packs arrived.

pebblyjack

I purchased my first pack of cards in 1973 at a Ben Franklin's while we were visiting my grandparents in Seneca, Kansas: Doug Griffin, Tom Hall, and a Pirates Team were among the cards I pulled. I still have them.

I started in for real in 1974, buying from a vending machine at the local K-Mart and begging my parents for packs from the grocery store when they were in stock. I collected heavily from 1974-77, with all my money going toward baseball cards.

I can remember during the summer of 1977 my kid sister and I doing yard work to each earn a $1.00 from mom. We would then walk to Skagg's Drugstore, which was quite the haul, because they sold Topps wax packs at 13 cents apiece, instead of 15 cents (7 packs for a dollar, instead of 6). My sister would get one candy bar and the price for letting her come with me was I got her change with which to buy more packs. Later, I asked her if she felt I had ripped her off. She said it was worth it to her and that those days were some of her favorite childhood memories. Mine too.

Thanks

Randy

CW

1977. I remember getting a Mark Fidrych, too. I was only 7 at the
time, so I didn't have the money to start buying packs regularly until
about 1980. Luckily, I still have all the cards from my childhood.

KING KELLOGG

(Here 'ya go Cubfan...)

Started bustin' a few packs in the mid 50's, maybe '54 or '55. Didn'y really "collect" them until 1959. Can clearly remember going to the Kienows Food Store and layin down my allowance for packs...Can remember getting rid of those pesky Mantle cards. I'd trade them for my favorite player...Yogi Berra !! I was a catcher in Little League and wore #8.

Do you know what Yogi's real name is..???

That's Right !!!


Larry

shouldabeena10

1911 or 1912 ? I can't remember exactly as my memory isn't as good as it used to be.

But I do remember when I was about 8 years old walking the many miles from our farm to the general store downtown. We'd sneak in when old Mr. Thompson was taking a nap and steal a couple of packs of smokes, rip open the packs, and pull out those sweet little cards.

Ahhh, the smell of the tabbacco burning used to cover the musty odor from the stables next door. My cousin and I would take turns fliping the cards into the dirt, and then see who could spit the closest to them with a wad of chaw. I remember once splattering a Cy Young card and a Ty Cobb card about 5 feet apart with the same shot. The juice covered the gold borders of the card and my cousin and I laughed for what seemed like hours.... I guess that's why I eventually married her, no one could make me laugh as much as her.

good times, good times

Buccaneer

1970 Topps wax pack from Marble Farms in Syracuse, NY. I still have the cards and I remember taking them to school in my back pocket, playing imaginary baseball games with them and memorizing everything about the cards (I was 10). I still have them and they include Vic Davalillo, Jim Hart, Chris Short, Diego Segui rookie, Walt somebody from the ChiSox and a few others I can't think off the top of my head. That was why the 1970 set was the first one I completed in 1984.

KalineFan

I *** AM *** the OLD FART!

Bought first packs in 1964, although I think I bought some in 1963 as well.
I remember how much I loved 1965 Topps when they came out, I thought
they were "REVOLUTIONARY"! How times have changed.

(I was born in December 1954)

Tony

34GoudeyCollector

First packs were 77 Topps baseball. Still remember the excitement of saving my nickles and going to the Dollar Store and buying as many as I could! A memory that won't go away...

Ken

estang

Great thread. 1977 Topps Baseball and very few football. Taped the Fidrych to my wall and remember getting the Carew on a visit to my grandmother's area, and then somehow losing that card. I think they were just 15 cents a pack. I went wild in 1978 in both football and baseball. 1981 was out of control as an 11 year-old and 3 different brands to collect. I remember picking them up at places like Snyder's Drug Store, Kins-Mor Drug Store, Superette and Ben Franklin 5 and dime. I even remember getting 77/78 basketball and getting into a phase of Wacky Package around 1978.

Has inflaction really taken a 15 cent pack of cards from 1977 to a $1.99 in 2003. I just can't imagine it has. Am I wrong?

gemint

It's amazing how many of us still remember the cards we got in our first packs (some when we were barely out of the 'toddler' phase of our lives). Goes to show what an impact this hobby has on us. It's also amazing how we still have all (or most) of our teeth after chewing all that sugary gum!

One other memory I have is the disappointment I had when I opened my first 1977 pack. For some reason, I didn't recall the 1975's had a different design (I only opened 2 packs and promptly buried them in a box) and I was expecting the 1976 design and cards to permeate forever. I didn't like the 1977 design at the time. Today I think it's ok. Not the best but not the worst.

KalineFan

I can tell you in 1964 ( I was living in Detroit 1954-67) I tried to get all the Tiger
cards.....the absolute toughest (I never got one!) was Bill Freehan! I can still
smell the gum from all the packs I opened looking for Bill. I had rubber bands
around all the individual teams like everyone else did with the team card on
top! GOOD MEMORIES FOR ME!

1420sports

1977 - I remember flushing Reggie Jackson down the toilet at a friends house - his dad hated the Yankees. 1979 was really the first year I started buying packs on a regular basis and 1980 was when I first discovered the local card shop. I remember buying a 75 Aaron.

Spahnfan

I bought my first packs in 1955. As best I remember, the grocery store only had Bowman cards. That is why I still like the 55 Bowman set. I traded for 1954 Topps, and that was my start on those. It is too bad some kid in town didn't have 52 and 53 Topps or I may have completed those sets also. Boy, if any of us had any idea when we first started where things would be today... One could only imagine.

marty

I had been buying pack for a year or so, when a friend and I pooled our money together, found some pop bottles in neighbors carports and went to the 5 and dime and bought a whole box. I remember that I was upset with myself because this was the first time that I bought enough to have to pay tax. We had to pay as much in tax as it would have cost for another pack, 5 cents. This was 1960, we threw most of the gum away.

AlanAllen

1980 Topps football. I bought about 5 packs, and didn't pay much mind until the next year when I went crazy . My brother and I bought several boxes of '81 Topps FB, and my dad bought us some more.

Joe

uniship

In 1976 when I was 6 my Dad took my brother and I to a RedSox game at Fenway - we lived in Fort Devins Mass. I remember opening a pack in the car that had Babe Ruth ATG - I said "dad - who is this? " - he replied - "why that's the greatest player who ever lived" - I was hooked ever since. I also remember getting a Kurt Bevacqua bubble gum blowing champion card which I thought was so cool because that bubble was so big! I still have both of those cards and they are beat to hell, but will never leave my possession.

Collected pretty heavily from then until 1988 when I went off to college.

Vargha

I remember that Bevacqua card. What a hoot.

Glynparson

I got my first pack at the tulpehocken dairy farms store. It was in 1979 the only card i remeber from the pack was a 1979 Johnny Bench record Breaker. i was 7 at the time. The first set i put together from packs was 1980 topps i still remeber needing the roy smalley card to complete my set.