Do you remember the first card you ever bought....

Downtown1974

Just wondering if you guys remember what particular card or player that got you into this great hobby? Could have been the first card you bought or a favorite player. For me it was the 1985 Topps Mattingly. That was the first card I ever traded for. I still have it too.(and like 10 others) That card hooked me into collecting baseball cards. Its amazing how fun it was collecting cards back then. Even though they werent bank breaking cards I still enjoyed those days.

RedHeart54

Imagine my glee when I found a 1978 Pete Rose for only $3.50! I mean DANG! Only $3.50 for an OLD Pete Rose card?? Wow! (Old, of course, meant 9 years at that time.)

EdwardTeach

Argh, 'twas a chest full of 1985 Fleer singles (of which I favored me Eric Davis rookie above all others).
They were strewn about in a shoebox I obtained at a rummage sale.

MorrellMan

I always like these threads. I bought my first pack of cards in 1958 and my last one in 1963. The first baseball set I chased in earnest was the 1960 Topps set. I got most of the set, but I couldn't find a McCovey rookie. Nobody else on my block could either.

20 years later I'm strolling my first card show. The first card I bought was the McCovey rookie.

2dueces

I believe the first pack I bought was a 1966 Topps football. Dont remember all the cards in the pack, but I do remember a Tom Sestak because he was a Buffalo Bill. Im from Buffalo. The first set I put together was a 1966 Monster Laffs. All the kids in the neighborhood were putting it together and I vividly remember sitting on the curb outside Lucky Harry's neighborhood grocery store, busting packs and trading to put the set together. I wound up putting together 2 complete sets.

Cubfan

A 1966 Topps baseball pack was my first. I remember John Buzhardt and Billy ODell. If I remember correctly, my first purchases at a show (must have been around 1974 or so) were a Nr Mt set of 1964 Beatles color for $7.50 and some phantom White Sox World Series tickets. I had purchased a lot of cards by mail to that point, but that was my first show.

TimeMachine

I bot two shoeboxes full of 1980's baseball (1000+ cards) back in '82 from a buddy of mine for $10, they contained 3 Henderson RCs, and dozens and dozens of stars... I'd say I bot the most packs back in '83-'84, chasing Boggs, Sandberg, Mattingly and Strawberry RC's... I've been hooked ever since with a brief pause where I went away to college at ASU... been back since the mid 90's and still collecting rarer, high grade vintage rookie HOF's and stars...

great thread btw...

bowdowntome

I had been collecting by packs, and trading with friends, for 5 years before I actually bought my first individual cards. At the first show I went to in 1974 (I was 11) I remember buying a 1952 Bowman Del Rice autographed card ($1), a 1960 Fleer Babe Ruth (.50), and a T206 of some guy named "Becker" (I think) (.65). Other than those I think I was more concerned with filling holes in a 1959 BB set I was working on. If I remember right, they were costing me the princely sum of .12 each.

There were no binders or top loaders then. Most sellers cards were "organized" in cardboard soda pop trays, and the "expensive" ones stacked neatly, with no protection (and sometimes with rubber bands around them) in glass topped cases.

If only I had been born 5 years earlier, I probably would have had a summer job and lot's more money.

Knuckles

Couple packs of '87 OPC Hockey from Red Rooster. Can't think of my first single card by itself that I purchased.. probably just commons to complete a set of 1990 ProSet or something.

Seraph

First pack I bought was 1977 Topps baseball back in 1977
First single card I bought was in February of 1992 - it was a 1991 Stadium Club Randall Cunningham

jrinck

The first "vintage" card I bought was a 72 Aaron IA at an outdoor flea market in late '83.

I paid $2.00 for it, rip and all, and overpaid by at least 200X. But, I was 11, and thought it would be cool to have an old card.

I doubt even today the card is anywhere near $2.00. Probably still a penny--if that.

rlankhaar

My first packs were 1987 Topps baseball. The first set I really worked on hard to complete was 1989 ProSet football.

The first single I can remember getting was a 1986 Donruss Canseco I got for my birthday, which is about worthless now but I still have it.

NickM

As of 1981, I had been given a few 1976 through 1980 Topps, along with a smattering of Star Wars cards and stickers, that my grandfather had picked up from a garage sale. I had looked through the cards a lot (less so on the Star Wars, because that didn't interest me at all) and most had become rather heavily worn. I had not become a fan of baseball yet.

In early 1982, I decided to start paying attention to baseball about a week into the season (not a radical idea, considering that the Dodgers were World Champions and I was 9), and my parents were persuaded to get me some packs of baseball cards at the grocery store. I think they got me 2 packs to start (1982 Topps wax), and I got hooked. I don't remember the first cards, although it took me until I opened the packs I got for my birthday (end of summer) before I completed the set - Jim Palmer In Action was the last one I needed.

When I got into baseball, I went full bore - I started reading everything I could on baseball. The first vintage cards I bought were a 1973 Topps Jim Nettles, a 1957 Topps Ray Crone, a 1959 Fleer (I'd have to look at the card to remember its title, but Ted was sliding), and 1959 Topps Hitters Foes (Podres/Labine/Drysdale) - I picked these out at an antique store in Sacramento on a family trip in June 1982.

Nick

Boopotts

This first singles I bought were a lot of '86 Chris Brown RC's at a show in 1986. I think I paid around 30 cents each for them, and probably bought around 20.

DirtyHarry

Nice topic.....I am rattling through my Jim Beam damaged brain cells and cannot recall the first "card" I ever bought. I first started buying packs at age 7 in 1962. My buds and I would ride our bikes to Kogan's corner store, buy a few packs each, sit on the curb in front of the store, bust 'em, trade 'em and flip 'em. We would spend an entire Saturday doing that. This was after an inspiring morning of playing "bottlecap baseball" after watching the show at 9 AM.

I do recall my first "card" transaction. It was in 1994 at a card show at the Meadowlands NJ Hilton - 25th anniversary of the 1969 Mets Championship. I traded a mint 1967 Topps Carew Rookie to a dealer for an 1985 Donruss set, a 52 Topps archives set and a rookie Bird/Magic and DrJ card. Over the years, I think I am happy with the deal. Regards.

MorrellMan

<< <i>If I remember correctly, my first purchase...[was] a Nr Mt set of 1964 Beatles color for $7.50.... >>



That's a trip Keith - when I was going to card shows in the 80's, I always made sure I bought one card from the Beatles color set for my girlfriend.

NewJerseyMeatHook

Two 1974 Topps baseball wax boxes for my sixth birthday, October 14, 1974. Drugstore was practically giving them away because it was football season.

Boy, did me and my dad tear into those boxes! Still have the set in plastic pages. Pretty nostalgic.

Gave away all my duplicates to a kid for putting them in numerical order. Ugh.

Downtown1974

These are some great stories! Its amazing how much the hobby has changed isnt it?
Sometimes we need to forget about the frustrations of a submission that didnt grade how we had hoped, or an ebay transaction that went sour. Once in a while, its fun to pull out the old common boxes that we all have and remember how it all started!
Keep the stories comin'.

Bob

tkd7

First pack - 1972 Topps baseball rack pack
First raw set - 1976 Topps

Besides baseball, I bought lots of non sport stuff also like Famous Monsters, Welcome Back Kotter, Wacky Packs.................

baseballfanatic

First card(s) I ever bought were a 2 65's and 2 66 Mickey Mantle's for a "Hollywood" candy bar. Actually, the kid wanted a dime for the four cards, but I was in the store buying candy at the time. When I came out and saw my friends hanging around the kid and hearing what was going on, offered my recently purchased candy bar and the deal was done. When I was a kid, the older kids would always bring out thier older cards for candy and dimes and nickels........

digicat

1989. The first individual card I ever bought was a 1989 Donruss Mark McGwire card. My childhood buddy was a big Canseco fan, so just to be different, I decided to be a McGwire fan. Then I decided that it'd be more fun to root for Will Clark and the Giants. Love them Giants!

I remember what I got in my first two packs of 1989 Topps, which were the first packs I ever opened. One pack yielded a Sandy Alomar Jr, and the other pack yielded a Gregg Jefferies. Pretty good pulls back then.

EagleEyeKid

First individual card I purchased was a 1964 Willie Stargell. Card was a blazer and probably a 10.
I think I traded it for a 85 Donruss Clemens about 14 years ago. The Clemens ended up being traded
for some other junk, while my once gorgeous Stargell is probably in a PSA 10 holder somewhere. This was all before
grading started.

TheCARDKid

One of the first cards that I ever owned was an '85 Topps Bobby Brown. I got it from a friend at school.

The first packs that I bought were '85 Topps. Luckily I still have them, rounded corners and creases included. They take me right back to elementary school.

Stingray

Can not say for sure a specific card, but I do remember going to buy 1974 baseball packs for 10 for a $1.00 and opening them up. Always looked for the Tiger players first.



Stingray

estang

1977 Topps Baseball, but didn't buy a lot of packs but got Rod Carew & Mark FIdrych -- two cards I remember most....

CopperJJ

First packs I bought were 1979 Topps Baseball. The first actual single I ever bought was in about 1984 or 1985 at a card store on Bardstown Rd. in Louisville, KY (about a 1/2 mile from my grandpa's house) It was a Reggie Jackson rookie card...paid $25 for it. I was with my cousin at the time. He had collected mostly from 1966 to 1973, and I got him started back collecting in 1983. I wish I had his collecting habits. He still has unopened wax, cello, and vending from 83 -87, including 86 Fleer Basketball.

orutulsa

The first pack I bought was in 1970. I remember that two of the cards in it were A's pitcher Chuck Dobson and Braves pitcher Cecil Upshaw. I still have them - never replaced them with upgraded cards - purely for sentimental reasons.

RonBurgundy

My gosh, yes. I remember the first PACK I ever bought. A 1978 Topps rack pack, with Rick Reuschel on top. So vivid in my mind all these years later.

Last year, after several months of searching, I found a 1978 rack with Reuschel on the top of it and made a cobra strike. I would have bid $1000 for it.

kimo75

My first packs I remember: I bought 30 1976 Topps Baseball packs for $3. Individually my first single was a 1972 Clemente In Action for $1.75. At the time, both purchases really upset my mom...."can't beleive you spent THAT MUCH on cards".....if she only knew!!!!!!!!!!

sayheykid54

Back in 1981 when all the rage were the new Donruss and Fleer sets, I was purchasing vintage star cards. My first purchase at age 12-- A 1955 Topps Ted Williams for $35.00.

I had it graded 2 years ago as a Psa 6.