Your First Wax Pack?

Stingray

I was thinking about when I bought my first wax packs. I still have the memories of going down to the local Kresge (a smaller version of KMart) and buying 1974 wax packs at ten for a buck. Always looking for the Tigers back then. If I remeber correctly, I would always get 10 Ron Hunts for every 1 Kaline. What a bargain. Ended up giving my cards to a neighbor kid before going to college.

Knuckles

1987-88 OPC hockey from a red rooster convenience store. I also remember a few cards.. Adam Oats RC.. and Paul Coffey they were glued into my sticker book and later on in life a found that the Oats was a $40 card and went doh.

larryallen73

1974 Topps baseball at 7-11... along with a Slurpee of course!

charliehustle14

Wow, Stingray and Larry....It was 1974 Topps baseball for me too. I was six years old and the first card I remember getting was a Sparky Anderson. I've still got it along with most of my original '74's, though they are not pretty.

-Todd-

AndySomnifac

I have to go with '86 Topps as mine.

bobbybakeriv

1976 Topps Baseball. The first card I remember pulling was a Graig Nettles All-Star. That is still one of my favorite cards of all-time.

xbaggypants

1981-82 OPC from 7-11, I use to buy them to get all the goalies... I use to love Mike Palmateers mask on his RB card.

Ryan

shambo2000

1973 Topps Baseball from the local supermarket. I probably bought 1,000 or more packs between 1973 and 1983. I sold eveything in 1984 for $400 to buy a 1977 Chevy Vega to drive to college. I wish I had the cards back, the Vega blew up after about 3 months!

balco757

As a 6 year old, ripped a 75 Wax box on the train ride to Florida with the family. Mom bought one for my brother and me for $5 at the local drug store. Still have many of the cards - not in good shape though.

Brian48

The '78 Topps BB was the first real memory I had about buying wax packs. It was the first year I really got into sports as a kid. Prior to that, I had some '76 wax packs, but I really don't remember buying them or remember my parents buying them for me. I know I (or they) did because I had a stack of '76 BB and FB in my shoebox as a kid.

Cubfan

1966 Topps when I was about 6. And to show what kind of warped memory I have, I remember getting a Billy ODell, John Buzhardt and Denver Lemaster in the pack. I still have all three of those cards .

boggs301012

1983 Topps was the first wax I ever bought. That is why I collect Wade Boggs 22 years later. I had a box for a few years when I was a kid. All 36 packs sealed til my hamster got out and chewed most of them open.

fsjeter

1st Opened: 1973 Topps Baseball. Pulled a Carleton Fisk that I still own.
1st Purchased: 1976 Topps Baseball. Pulled a Jim Rice and Fred Lynn, both of which I still have.

Scott

MarkLee

I was 9 years old in the spring of 1978 and started buying Topps wax packs at the local Circle K. Would ride my skateboard down a big hill and carry it back home with my cards. One of the first cards I really remember was Ken Griffey. I remember watching him play on TV and my Dad telling me how Griffey got a lot of infield hits because he was so fleet of foot. Well, when I got the card, reading the back blew me away ...

"One of the fastest players in baseball, Ken was credited with legging out 37 Infield Hits in 1976. ..."

Man, I thought my Dad was just about the smartest guy in the world after reading that.

EagleEyeKid

1978 Topps Baseball at the Safeway supermarket.
They weren't even in their original boxes. They were all loose
packs (hundreds of them) in 3-4 metal wire type baskets in the
candy section.

CDsNuts

My grandfather took me and my brother to a candy wholesaler and bought us each a box of 1983 Topps baseball. We opened them up and forgot about them. In 1987, I brought the boxes to school to show my teacher who was also a card dealer, and he pulled the Boggs, Sandberg, and Gwynn cards and put them in top loaders for me, telling me they were in mint condition and worth a lot ($30 for Boggs, $15 for Sandberg, and $7 for Gwynn at the time). Then my friend stole them. Brian Miner, if you're out there, I WANT MY CARDS BACK YOU C**KSUCKER!!

Lee

Buccaneer

I bought my first pack as a 10-yr old in the Summer of 1970 at Marble Farms, an ice cream shop in Syracuse. I still have those cards (Vic Davilillo, Chris Short, Lefty Phillips, Walt Williams, and a few others I can't think of here at work) and remembered each of the few packs I bought that summer because I played with those cards and looked at every detail endlessly. The same was true that Fall and Winter with the 1970 Football packs. The next year, I ended up getting more 1971 packs than I did the 1970s and distinctly remember excitedly pulling a Vida Blue, which is still on my wall at home. By high school in 1974, I was buying many packs through 1977, culminating in buying a completed 1977 set from a dealer through an ad in TSN. I then I quit buying packs when I went to college in 1978. In 1983, after graduating, I got back into the hobby in a serious way, working at a card shop and working many shows - as well as completing the 1970s sets that I started when I bought all of those packs (and trading away hundreds and hundreds of dupes). At the time in 1983-84, I continued my childhood obsession in buying packs, only this time I was buying 1982-1984 wax and cello boxes right and left. Sorry for the long answer to a good and simple question.

Carew29

I was 9 years old and had just started doing a neighborhood paper route in 1970 in Covina,Calif. I couldn't cash my first check fast enough to run over to K-Mart ( all i had to do was hop my backyard wall). They still had some 69' packs and the 1970 packs had just come in a few weeks earlier, if memory serves me. My mom and dad had divorced two years earlier and i used to put A's teams sets together for my dad in Oakland as a Christmas gift.
Now fast forward to 1985. I was helping my dad move back down to southern california and came across a box with stuff i had given him over the years, and low and behold were all the teams set's of the A's from 69 thru 75!! Thanks dad for hanging on to those "cherry" cards. Call it my own "find".

Marc

ldferg

1977 topps football cello at 7-11 in gallatin, tn.

i still remember seahawks checklist on top and jim zorn.

Onlypsahockey

Thanks to Cubfan I'm not the old man of the thread.

My first wax as a 5 yr old were 1968 Topps hockey. Bought packs rabidly for 6 or 7 yrs. with my 2 older brothers.

Fast forward 20 years to 1988 and I found all of our cards in a footlocker in my dads basement. He's such a packrat. Thanks Dad.

Too bad we didn't take great care of them because there were about 5 or 6 sets of each year 68 thru 74., along with the misc. monkees, beatles, green hornet, batman etc.

I still take the cards out every now and then just to look through them and remember back to the good ole days...pitchin cards in the alley between 2 houses for hours on end all summer long.

EDIT: I forgot the Partridge family cards, Susan Day was a hottie

Bob

EagleEyeKid

Then my friend stole them. Brian Miner, if you're out there, I WANT MY CARDS BACK YOU C**KSUCKER!!

baseballfanatic

65 Topps. There were always a couple of older kids looking over my shoulder with drool from the slabs of pink gum who couldnt wait to snap up my Mantle and Koufax cards for a handful of Wes Covingtons or Bill McCools.

Tabe

<< <i>I was thinking about when I bought my first wax packs. I still have the memories of going down to the local Kresge (a smaller version of KMart) and buying 1974 wax packs at ten for a buck. Always looking for the Tigers back then. If I remeber correctly, I would always get 10 Ron Hunts for every 1 Kaline. What a bargain. Ended up giving my cards to a neighbor kid before going to college. >>


Soon as I saw the word "Kresge", I said "Ah, there's a Michigan guy!" to myself. We used to have a fairly large Kresge store in my local mall ("The Pontiac Mall" in Pontiac before it became "Summit Place"). SS Kresge, the man after whom the stores are named, actually used to shop in my parents' flower shop back in the day.

For me, the first packs would be 1979 Topps. My mom threw all the cards out though It was another 3 years before I got any more. I got a few rack packs of 1982 Topps baseball for my 10th birthday. I was hooked after that. Bought more wax packs in 1982, then started buying lots of packs in 1983 (Michigan test packs, but didn't know they were "special" back then). Must've bought at least 75 packs of 1983 Topps - never once got a Boggs rookie.

Great topic, I miss those days.

Tabe

RedHeart54

My first sports packs were 1986 Topps baseball. The packs were 35 cents each at Skaggs Alpha-Beta. My mother would buy me a few when we went grocery shopping (and of course I'd sneak a few MORE into the cart when she wasn't looking.)

Stingray

Stingray

Tabe,

I grew up only miles from the Pontiac Mall. Use to get 75 baseball minis from a vending machine in the Kresge at the Mall. Bought my 74s at the Kresge in Waterford were I grew up. How funny!

Stingray

Stone193

Good question
And it's great that a lot of people remember their first pack opening experience - I have to be honest - I don't remember?
I do remember flipping and trading though.

RAM deprieved
Stone

helionaut

I remember my grandfather buying me 75s, but I must've gotten some 74s, too. I remember with the 75s asking for the Mike Schmidt pack, like I thought there was a way to tell what cards were inside. As it happened, I got a Mike Schmidt. Ever since then, I've asked for the (fill in player here) pack. No one gets it.

And I definitely remember incredibly hot and humid Philadelphia August afternoons going to the corner store and buying a Sugar Daddy looking for the basketball card that came inside the wrapper. It was so hot, the caramel melted onto the card. I often ended up licking the carmel off the card or eating the cardboard that stuck to the candy. Man, I really want a set of those cards now. I guess they were 1975, too, but I thought they were later.

WinPitcher

1965 Topps

I remm getting a Willie Mays card too.

TheCARDKid

1985 Topps.

Luckily, I still have all of the original cards (albeit in G-VG condition).

roastedcat

My first wax pack/s was 2 unopened boxes of 1963 Topps baseball which my dad purchased for me at a yard sale for $1.00 way back in 1977 many of those cards are now long gone. When your a 7 year old kid, it was fun to open packs and use them as target practice especially when you had a bb gun. many of those cards are now lost forever. My dad saw me destroying some cool cards and got mad at me, he took the remaining unopened packs and opened them up and put them in a photo album, from time to time as I was growing up I did get to see that album. Baseball cards back then weren't of interest to me. Then 22 years later as we were moving, I found the album my dad hid and many of the cards were in pristine shape, PSA graded most of them as 8's and 9's I had several 10's. I sold most of them on ebay through the years.

I'm still kicking myself in the butt for being a stupid kid with a bb gun. My biggest regret! I had 5 awesome Mickey Mantle card with 4 of the nicest corners with bb holes in it. ugh!!!


Jery

robstar

My first packs were 1971-72 OPC Hockey, I was 6 years old at the time. Every saturday I would spend my 50 cent allowance on a couple of packs ( 10 cents each ) a chocolate bar and an orange crush pop. Amazing how far you could stretch money back then. I also remember foraging for empty bottles to return for the deposit money to buy more packs.

Ironically, last night one of these packs sold on Ebay in a GAI 7.5 holder for $455.00


Rob...

Buccaneer

That reminds me of a question. I recently read the Great American Card Flipping book (one of my most favorite books I had ever read) and it talked about "flipping" cards but it assumed you know how it was done. I don't remember this at all when I was a kid so can someone tell me what was the game you played when you flipped cards?

Stone193

<< <i>That reminds me of a question. I recently read the Great American Card Flipping book (one of my most favorite books I had ever read) and it talked about "flipping" cards but it assumed you know how it was done. I don't remember this at all when I was a kid so can someone tell me what was the game you played when you flipped cards? >>


Steve
There were many variations of the way the game could be played. One of the games is based on the coin flipping method - if the person "matches" the head or tail of the person who first flipped the card, they win the card.

e.g. I flip the card on the floor and the "face/head" is showing - then the other guys flips the card - if he matches my head/face card - he wins it.

Another flip/tossing game is to stand about 5 ft. from the wall and flip the card towards it - the person who's card is closest to the wall, wins all the other cards. If a person flips the card to the wall and it leans up against the wall, all the players have to pay the leaner double cards.

There are many variations on these games.

Stone

Cubfan

I was glad to finally see someone older than me post.

Baseball cards in the 60's, it just didnt get better than that.

Stone193

<< <i>I was glad to finally see someone older than me post.

Baseball cards in the 60's, it just didnt get better than that. >>

1967topps

nice thread.
A Woolworth's that was going out of business (somewhat prematurely relative to their longevity elsewhere).
Cello packs (about 30 cards per pack) of 1966 cards five for a buck. Oh wait that isn't wax.

OK first wax pack late March 1967. Once I even splurged and bought a whole box for a dollar twenty.
Imagine that! 120 pack fresh cards for $1.20

You try to tell kids today that cards used to cost five cents for a pack of five, they won't believe you.
(Then I had to lick the road clean with my tongue!)

softparade

guys for me the first packs I ever opened myself were 1975 Topps.I was six years old. I had some 72-74 also but I can't recall opening those. I am sure they were my brothers. 1978 Topps is when the obsession first hit me. I bought many 78's that year with my allowance every Sunday when my Dad took me to the store. I am sure that I pulled many Murray and Molitors at the time which have been ruined and turned to dirt.

goudeygold

1986 Topps, then went hog wild for 87 topps, then they all went worthless starting in 88. fortunately I quit in 1991 with the new stuff. Came back to the hobby a couple years ago and am focusing 95% on 1930s Goudeys.

GG

Brooksie05

<< <i>My grandfather took me and my brother to a candy wholesaler and bought us each a box of 1983 Topps baseball. We opened them up and forgot about them. In 1987, I brought the boxes to school to show my teacher who was also a card dealer, and he pulled the Boggs, Sandberg, and Gwynn cards and put them in top loaders for me, telling me they were in mint condition and worth a lot ($30 for Boggs, $15 for Sandberg, and $7 for Gwynn at the time). Then my friend stole them. Brian Miner, if you're out there, I WANT MY CARDS BACK YOU C**KSUCKER!!

Lee >>




WOW! Long time lurker, but had to respond to this one. This sounds like my exact experience, with the same cast of characters at Oakland Mills Middle School in Columbia, Maryland (1987-1990). Your Maryland logo in combination with the description put everything together. A shot in the dark? We had a teacher who sold cards to his students during school hours, not sure if that is encouraged or not?! Hope to contribute to these boards,

James

larryallen73

That's funny! A little small world connection on the boards!?

smallstocks

I remember being in a park with our whole family and there was a concession stand. It was there that at the age of 7, I bought my first pack of cards. 1970 Topps.

Mike

Tabe

<< <i>Tabe,

I grew up only miles from the Pontiac Mall. Use to get 75 baseball minis from a vending machine in the Kresge at the Mall. Bought my 74s at the Kresge in Waterford were I grew up. How funny!

Stingray >>


Cunningham's at the corner of Telegraph and Huron for me I (mis)spent a lot of my youth at the Pontiac Mall, but most of that time was in the Aladdin's Castle, not the Kresge, LOL.

Man those were good times.

Tabe

Stone193

<< <i>

<< <i>My grandfather took me and my brother to a candy wholesaler and bought us each a box of 1983 Topps baseball. We opened them up and forgot about them. In 1987, I brought the boxes to school to show my teacher who was also a card dealer, and he pulled the Boggs, Sandberg, and Gwynn cards and put them in top loaders for me, telling me they were in mint condition and worth a lot ($30 for Boggs, $15 for Sandberg, and $7 for Gwynn at the time). Then my friend stole them. Brian Miner, if you're out there, I WANT MY CARDS BACK YOU C**KSUCKER!!

Lee >>




WOW! Long time lurker, but had to respond to this one. This sounds like my exact experience, with the same cast of characters at Oakland Mills Middle School in Columbia, Maryland (1987-1990). Your Maryland logo in combination with the description put everything together. A shot in the dark? We had a teacher who sold cards to his students during school hours, not sure if that is encouraged or not?! Hope to contribute to these boards,

James >>


Welcome James!

Stone

ctsoxfan

I don't remember the exact year I bought my first pack, but 1978 and 1979 were the first years I went after complete sets (which means many packs were bought!). I remember getting a dollar or two, and walking to the corner store...coming back with 5 or 10 packs of cards, and opening them on the back porch at home. Funny how today, when I open 1978 or 1979 Topps, they barely come in contact with my hand before they get placed into plastic sleeves, card savers etc...back then, I would make piles of the cards by team, on the concrete porch floor. Outside. Never would have seen this grading thing coming...

bjork73

My brother started collecting in '91 (yep, in the glory days of overproduction ); eventually I decided to get a few packs of '92 Score from the local Common Cents (7-11 clone which was fairly prevalent in the Dakotas and Wyoming at the time) and immediately got addicted when I pulled one of the Joe DiMaggio inserts that booked for $40 at the time... yup, I know, I caught that nasty little insert bug, so all you vintage collectors can be quiet now

mudflap02

Reading that post and your signature is like riding an emotional rollercoaster.

larryallen73

Mudflap-
I was thinking that Mr. Bjork had a few too many smily faces but you summed up even better. That was quite funny. I just laughed out loud. Thanks.

CDsNuts

James,
Yeah it was Mr. Shea at Oakland Mills that I brought the 83 Topps to. I think we went there at the same time. Pretty freaky. My name is Lee Biars. I'm pretty sure Shea would've been fired if the school board knew what was going on. In fact, I was pissed one day because he caught me selling candy to other kids and confiscated my candy and money and called the principal. Talk about being a figgin hypocrite. What's your last name? Did you end up going to Oakland Mills High or Howard? I went to Howard.

Lee

CDsNuts

James, is your last name Faegen?

Lee

Brooksie05

Ha! What a small world! I remember you Lee from way back when (didn't know you collected). I ended up going to Oakland Mills then graduated from Towson with a degree in Mass Comm. Moved to Texas and Nevada, and recently back to Columbia where I bought my old home from the folks. I dropped out of collecting until 1997/1998 and now I collect vintage, Orioles, and other crazy stuff. Drop me a line! spookythecat01@netzero.net

James Feagin