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"I was a card collector, when card collecting wasn't cool"--How many here were ADULT sport

Now, I myself was born in 1980 and first stared collecting when I was nine in 1989, so obviously I wouldn't qualify for this discussion. image That being said, I know that it wasn't until the early 80s (or perhaps late 70s) that sports card collecting really started to take off as a respectable hobby (like stamps and coins). What I mean by that is before then, it was mostly kids who bought cards and as many of you are aware, were thrown out (or if you were lucky, forgotten about in an attic and discovered later when they were valuable). There simply were very, very few adult sports card collectors during the 1970s and I was wondering if anyone here was one and if so, what was it like? Did you get ridicule from your adult peers for being in a "kiddie hobby"? I remember reading in my middle school library a book published in 1976 that among other things, interviewed adult baseball card collectors (surely the late Larry Fitsch was included); I forget the name of the book and yes, I also would like a copy of it as well if I can secure one.

Also, how exactly could you be a serious collector in the 1970s? Were there such a thing as binders/pages and screw down holders and such back then? As for obtaining cards, did card mail-order catelogs and hobby shops exist back then? And lastly, was there anyone who cared at all about condition of the cards?
WISHLIST
Dimes: 54S, 53P, 50P+S, 49S, 45D+S, 44S, 43D, 41S, 40D+S, 39D+S, 38D+S, 37D+S, 36S, 35D+S, all 16-34's
Quarters: 61D, 52S, 47S, 46S, 40S, 39S, 38S, 37D+S, 36D+S, 35D, 34D, 32D+S
74 Topps: 37,38,46,47,48,138,151,193,210,214,223,241,256,264,268,277,289,316,435,552,570,577,592,602,610,654,655
1997 Finest silver: 115, 135, 139, 145, 310
1995 Ultra Gold Medallion Sets: Golden Prospects, HR Kings, On-Base Leaders, Power Plus, RBI Kings, Rising Stars

Comments

  • I guess I would be one.
    But to me, card collecting was more fun when you would walk away with a couple bricks of mid 50's Topps and people would laugh at you like they had just ripped YOU off....
  • I was born in 1969 and started collecting in 1977. Wasn't until the early eighties that I started buying older single cards...before that it was just wax packs at the corner store....
  • gregmo32gregmo32 Posts: 2,648 ✭✭✭
    I was collecting in the 1970's, but as a kid.

    I am buying and trading for RC's of Wilt Chamberlain, George Mikan, Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, and Bob Cousy!
    Don't waste your time and fees listing on ebay before getting in touch me by PM or at gregmo32@aol.com !
  • DarinDarin Posts: 6,247 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Me too, first packs I opened were 1970, remember being disappointed getting Hank Aaron's brothers card, but no Hammer. image
    DISCLAIMER FOR BASEBAL21
    In the course of every human endeavor since the dawn of time the risk of human error has always been a factor. Including but not limited to field goals, 4th down attempts, or multiple paragraph ramblings on a sports forum authored by someone who shall remain anonymous.
  • In 1971 I was seven years old. It was just pure fun with cards then. There were no Card holder, no price guides, etc.. who ever hear such a thing as that. My cousin and I would go to the corner store and get packs of cards just for the GUM! While we had tons of 70's baseball cards and Basketball cards, we were more into Football Cards. Them 71's and 72's were the Greatest thing since sliced bread to us. We sorted and stacked those suckers until they fell apart it seemed. I remember we would each get a team set of cards and line them up on the floor in formations. Offensive guy would then roll ONE dice. You got to move any of your cards the amount of your roll. A move consisted of one length of the card. If you wanted to make a block or tackle, you had to be within one "Length" from the opponent. You would simply flip your card onto the opponet and they were out of action. OHH.. Yeah.. we had a small rubber band that was the football. In order to throw a pass you to "Flip" the rubber band with your Quarterback Card and get it to land on your reciever card. It was a GREAT game and we played it for hours on end it seemed. We always argued over who got to be Roger Staubach and I know that 72 Roookie as well as the 73 Topps card took some good lickings. Oh those were the days.

  • metalmikemetalmike Posts: 2,152 ✭✭
    I was born in 1960 and bought my first pack of cards in 1969. When I was a wee young metalhead in 1971 my dad made me go to the local dump with him. Being a crazy kid I went looking for TV's and stuff, back then you could replace a tube or 2 and double ya $$$ for a working TV. I found a box of cards from 1959-1968. I sold my card collection in 1976 for 50 bucks. I took the money and partied before I went to bootcamp in 1977. In 1981 I went to a comic book/card store in L.A. and that freaked me out! A mantle for a grand! WTF! A Pete Rose Rookie for 200??? whoa donruss? fleer? sportflics? Sportflics was 3 cards for 89 cents in 1985. At a Dodgers vs. Reds game in 1985 I bought a Reds team set for 3 bucks. Card collecting is relative, keep your T206's, keep ya new shiny junk, To me a Kal Daniels or a Tracy Jones card means more to me than a superduperpsa100refractor1/1 anything.
    USN 1977-1987 * ALL cards are commons unless auto'd. Buying Britneycards. NWO for life.

  • My mom and dad didn't even meet until 1981 so I guess I'm out. image
    image
  • AllenAllen Posts: 7,165 ✭✭✭
    I am interested in hearing about this from some of these guys too.
  • When exactly did card collecting become cool?
  • rube26105rube26105 Posts: 10,225 ✭✭
    i thought it was cool when my buddies grandparent had a mom and pop grocery story back in 50's,wed go in and rip off all the baseball cards, wish i had em now, prob mid 50's,i ws only 7 or 8 maybe, i was a terror then i suppose image
  • Bottom9thBottom9th Posts: 2,695 ✭✭
    I started in 1971 also, but I was 7 then. For some reason I remember getting a Steve Mingori card.
    Anyway, my collecting survived through the years even though it slowed down in the 80's when I didn't have much money to buy stuff!!!
  • StingrayStingray Posts: 8,843 ✭✭✭
    I started buying packs of baseball in 74. I was 8 at the time collected basebal through the rest of the 70s. But also had a nice collection of 54s, though their condition was probably EX at best. My mother use to collect glassware items so we would go to this flea market once month and there was a guy selling these 54s for $0.25 a piece. We just thougt it was cool to have a card from then was not worried about the condition, just love reading all the info on the back of the cards.
  • I'm only 32 but I'm telling my friggin' story anyway. Was around '81 and I found a Lite-Brite box back in a closet filled with '78 Topps football. This was my first experience with cards. It faded. Then around '87 I read my first Beckett and realized cards were worth money. Mind you at the time I was like 12. So I started trading for cards, Kosar, Dickerson, Taylor. Remember at the time they were superstars.
    Barry Sanders and '89 Score was just the greatest thing ever. It faded. Then in '94-95 buying Fleer trying to get a Ki-Jana Carter rookie or the Aerial Attack Dan Marino worth FIFTY BUCKS. Nailed them both in one box. It faded.....again. Then early last year got back into it mainly because being older I finally have some money to buy nice cards. And I just enjoy it. Now I buy/flip/resell. Can't seem to keep anything. I'd really like to collect, by now I'd have a pretty nice HOF RC set. More youngsters need to tell their stories.
  • Brian48Brian48 Posts: 2,624 ✭✭✭
    Started collecting in 1978.
  • 1987 was the first year I remember it being cool, oh year my first packs were 1986 topps, and I remember topps packs going up a nickel a year. and thought that was expensive. I still remember pulling my first 87 topps mcgwire at the flea market.
  • I was born in 51. I would not actually call it collecting in the late 50's or early 60's but after I bought a pack of cards (Baseball was King) and removed my Yankee's I would seek out other kids to flip with. I think back to that time and that was with out a doubt the reason most of us had our parents buy us packs. In 1961 I bought my first packs of Basketball cards as I truly was getting into the game playing with the Church team in the neigborhood. They more so than any cards I owned to that time were I guess what you could say were the first cards I "Collected along with cards like Mars Attacks andThe Topps Civil War cards and the only reason for that was no one would "Flip" those cards in the street. So they were put in numerical order with a rubber band around them and put in a draw with my comics "MY Collection"
  • Alfonz24Alfonz24 Posts: 3,021 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Started collecting in 1971. First card was a 1971 Jim Colborn. Another kid in second grade gave me some cards. One was a wierd looking sideways card of a Yankee catcher.

    Our school had a 5th and 6th grade teacher who traded cards, so a lot of the guys those 2 years were collecting.

    I grew up on a farm and all the money I got from working on my Dad's farm and for the neighbors was pouring into buying cards from the mid 70s to early 80s. Slowed down in the mid eighties when I graduated college and had to get a real job and pay my own bills.
    #LetsGoSwitzerlandThe Man Who Does Not Read Has No Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read. The biggest obstacle to progress is a habit of “buying what we want and begging for what we need.”You get the Freedom you fight for and get the Oppression you deserve.
  • Starting collecting in 1970 at 5 years old, just before starting kindergarten. I would walk up to Ryan gas station in Alsip, Illinois with some older (7 & 8 yr olds) friends. We would buy 5 packs for exactly 50 cents and walk out and open them and then walk back in and buy 5 more packs. At 50 cents per purchase, there was no sales tax, but if we bought all 10 packs at once, the tax would be a penny - we had 1 dollar even. I realized years later it must have been later in the season as I remember getting plenty of the Bench, Mays and Banks cards. However, my favorite card thanks to Donnie Grotts (my hero at the time) was Don Kessinger. Even growing up on Chicago's southside, I became a die hard Cubs fan. I use to store all my cards in the old cardboard gallon of milk containers. Wasn't too concerned about razor sharp corners back then. Finally got serious about cards when the 1st Beckett price guide came out ('78 or '79). Couldn't believe that cards only 4 years old (Brett, Rice rookies) could already be worth a whole dollar. I stayed serious for about the next 10 years and then lost interest with the late 80's - 90's card sets, manufacturer's, explosion. Became interested again in about 1998 while reading an ad in SCD offering to pay $300 and $500 respectively for Gwynn and McGwire rookies. I had to find out what "PSA 10" meant!!

    I know I wasn't an adult prior to 1980, but I thought I'd share anyway.
  • EstilEstil Posts: 6,866 ✭✭✭✭
    Another question I have is when did the first sports card stores begin? I know there was the late Larry Fitsch in 1970 (but that could've been a mail-order only store), and I know there had to be some in 1981 (as that was the only way you could buy Topps Traded sets), but what about during the 1970s? Did sports card stores (the real ones, not the mail-order only ones) exist back then?

    And I think some of you may be missing the point of this topic; I'm asking if any of you were ADULT collectors in the 1970s, and if so, what it was like to be a serious card collector back then.
    WISHLIST
    Dimes: 54S, 53P, 50P+S, 49S, 45D+S, 44S, 43D, 41S, 40D+S, 39D+S, 38D+S, 37D+S, 36S, 35D+S, all 16-34's
    Quarters: 61D, 52S, 47S, 46S, 40S, 39S, 38S, 37D+S, 36D+S, 35D, 34D, 32D+S
    74 Topps: 37,38,46,47,48,138,151,193,210,214,223,241,256,264,268,277,289,316,435,552,570,577,592,602,610,654,655
    1997 Finest silver: 115, 135, 139, 145, 310
    1995 Ultra Gold Medallion Sets: Golden Prospects, HR Kings, On-Base Leaders, Power Plus, RBI Kings, Rising Stars
  • WinPitcherWinPitcher Posts: 27,726 ✭✭✭
    I started collecting in 1962 at the age of 7, mostly non sports. In 1965 I began to collect BB cards. I stopped around 1970 for about 5 yrs, when i went to a show and bought 2 vending boxes of 1975 topps. I then just bought packs every yr until 1982-3 when I opened a hobby store.

    Around 1992 I left the hobby and returned again around 2002.

    Steve
    Good for you.
  • WinPitcherWinPitcher Posts: 27,726 ✭✭✭
    Estil to answer some of your questions, I remember seeing card stores in the mid 70's. B and E of Thornwood NY may have been around since 1969 if my memory serves me, also we had a woman by the name of Renata Gallasso who sold vending boxes of topps from at least 1973.



    I do not remember pages until the early 80's, but then again i never looked for them. All the plastics we see today is from the 80's boom.


    We mostly put our cards in boxes stacked.

    Condition was important to some, my partner back in the 80's (he was older then me) had sets going back to the 30's and his cards were mint.

    Centering while not that big an issue, was, to many hard core collectors who collected comic books and other things as well as cards.

    Good for you.
  • I started in 1973 collecting Topps Baseball. I was only 8, but I would ride my bike to the local ice cream store to buy packs with the money I had. I found a few cards the year before that the kids and used in the there bike spokes. One of them was a 1972 Killebrew. Of course they were all beat up from the bikes, but they got me hooked. I collected through the 80's. By the early 90's I quit collecting and just started up again a couple of years ago. I still have my copy of the first Beckett price guide from 1979. I wish I had bought a lot more back then, looking at how low those prices were. (1952 Mantle, price guide listed it at $500 for mint)
    I mostly bought from Larry Fritsch, Donn Jennings and Kit Young back then. Once I ordered from them, they would send catalogs monthly.

    image
  • I started collecting cards when I was 10 (1965) I always loved those '65 Topps, and I will complete that set! I was overwhelmed by Koufax and Drysdale, and have been a Dodger fan ever since. I remember collecting soda bottles to exchange for money to buy cards. I remember buying a wax box of 1966 Topps, and the woman behind the counter couldn't believe someone wanted "all of those cards" I flipped cards with my best friend and others by the hour, and when one of us would run out of cards, we would leave the"pile"with hundreds of cards, until we both had managed to buy more cards and pick up where we left off. In the early seventies, I drifted away from cards , but I never left Baseball. At one time, I tossed approximately 1000 ' 67,'68, and '69 cards into a burning trash barrel one by one as I needed the space in my bedroom. ( I have no idea how much that stupid manuever may have cost me) I put many cards in the old vinyl pages, and some didn't make it out alive. I also remember answering an ad in a periodical called The Trader Speaks, and bought 2000 Topps cards from 1958 through 1964, stars included for $20.. There were Mantles, Clementes, and a Musial. I remember trading the Musial with some others to someone for some cards I wanted, with no regard to the fact Musial was a star. I just traded 1 for 1 for cards I wanted. I received a Thank You letter from a very happy collector. There are more stories, but I have gone on too long already. Thanks for provoking some good memories.
    55in88


  • << <i> I remember collecting soda bottles to exchange for money to buy cards. >>



    I used to live behind a grocery store growing up.
    I'd tramp around in the ditches looking for those bottles to take back and get the deposit.



    image
  • I was born in 1971 and i would say , somewhere around 78' i started going to the corner store and ripping packs of football cards. My
    joy of collecting faded for a while . Then those sticker books came out , dont remember exactly when . Things faded again . It was around 89' that a buddy of mine needed some cash and i bought a big 5000 count box of cards . I was hooked again.Things faded again . Then aroung the mid 90's I got ahold of a sports collectors digest . Thats all i needed to get hooked again . Been hooked ever since . I mainly collect baseball and football but do own some basketball and hockey . I do collect both modern and vintage . I prefer vintage but my woman does enjoy tearing into boxes of modern with me so i do collect both . She loves the jersey and autograph pulls .
    A collector of all things Braves
    Always looking for Chipper Jones cards.
    Im a very focused collector of cards from 1909 - 2012...LOL
  • Purchased my 1st packs in 1957, but remember, I wanted the GUM, the cards were a premium, never cared about the cards till I watched the 59 World Series on B&W tv,
    recall Wally Moon at the LA Colisuem, that got me "collecting" cards, in 60 started buying packs like crazy until I kept getting tons of dupes, not realizing cards were issued in series back then,
    I had multiple runs of the 60 Topps 1st series, when the 2nd series came out I went wild, spending my nickels as fast as i could get them. I never recall even seeing Bowman cards, very few kids collected cards & card flipping was a big deal,
    plus I traded my dupes for my beloved D.C. Comics, had every Superman & Batman from that era,
    but card collecting was not huge in my small town, but it was a enjoyable hobby
  • Got my 1st cards in 56...got interested more with 57. In 58 collected baseball and football. Still have most of those cards as I am a pack rat...dont get rid of anything, cards are poor but they are my originals for me. Also collect autographs from late 50s and am still doing so. Got to meet and get Jim Kelly autograph here in Phoenix during Super Bowl week. Being born and raised in Buffalo I am a bills fan and was delighted to get his autograph for free. he was signing at Bank of America...onyl about a half mile from my house
    image
  • Born in '78, started collecting in 86, the Topps baseball. I think maybe a pack of 1985 or some weird mixed package my mom got me. One of those with multi year commons, a price guide, and some boxes and/or albums.

    Umm collecting cards is far from cool. My boss, buddies, family and wife all think it's rather lame. We are at the Alamo of card collecting right now. The future ain't in cardboard.
    Running an Ebay store sure takes a lot more time than a person would think!
  • In the early sixties there were companies selling cards that put out small catalogs. Baseball yearbooks would have advertisements for card sellers. Only bought cards through the mail two times back then. Scan shows five of the first six cards bought through the mail, other one was '56 Jim Pearce, probably paid a dollar or less. Amazing I got them since I probably sent change and used a pencil to write out my order. They were the most beautiful things in the world to me when I got them, still have good gloss but the years have taken a toll on the corners, and I got lucky in getting Ford as I just gave them random numbers. Yep, all the cards in a set cost the same. Next mail order purchase was the seventh series of the 1964 set for around $6.00. Funny thing about this purchase was I put change in the envelope and mailed the order off. Of course the PO wouldn't deliver an envelope with $6.00 in change jangling around in it, so it came back to me and I had to convert to greenbacks. Finally got my set though.

    On another day, maybe I'll tell about the beginnings of Tuff Stuff.

    Didn't know it was "cool to collect cards".


    image
  • RipublicaninMassRipublicaninMass Posts: 10,051 ✭✭✭
    not my fault I wasnt old enougb
  • BuccaneerBuccaneer Posts: 1,794 ✭✭
    I was born in 1960 and bought my first pack in 1970. I also had a stack of 1969 cards that a kid at school gave me. I collected and traded alot until I went to college in 1978. After I got done in 1983, I worked in my spare time at the first card shop in San Diego County, as well as attended/worked many of the SoCal shows in 1983/1984. But I guess by this time, the business/hobby had already started happening (I blame it on the early Price Guides, which I still have). I have lots of stories about those years but I wish I born 5-8 earlier and collected in the 1970s as an adult.
  • My Mom and Dad got married 1 year prior to 1980.....image
  • rube26105rube26105 Posts: 10,225 ✭✭
    lol-im sdo old,im 62- i used to go to my buddys mom and pop store with him and we would steal all the cards from his parents to get the gum hhaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
    ts hard to tell how many mickeys 52's i ruined, we ued to throw knives at em and nail em to teees and shoot em

    that the way we roll in wvimage
    sure wish i had allthosecars now, living with 13 aunts,2 uncles,and a grandma and grandpa growing up in a house like the onet he beverly hillbillies came from, it was fun,i got pics of it if u dont believe me, its almost exact,its mine now too,everybody else is dead exceptfor 3 auntsimage
  • Stone193Stone193 Posts: 24,351 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I remember when collecting cards wasn't a major thing so I went to some shows in the 70s where they sold cards, memorabilia, old army uniforms, guns, old fishing gear and just about anything else one could think of that was a hobby of sorts.

    I didnt' have the time then to seriously collect since I was in school for most of the 70s - but I still bought packs of Topps and stuff.

    The year I gradulated from Columbia U. - I reentered the Army and was stationed in El Paso - I went to a Circle K - 7/11 type store and bought some packs of Topps - wasn't very impressed with the design so I didnt' buy alot - don't remember if I pulled an Oz but if I did, it was probably OC.

    My friends did think collecting was kind of odd - but that didn't bother me much.

    I gave a boatload of stuff to my younger brother back then - since it was hard to travel with all that stuff - big problem? A lot of the stuff I bought that guys called Mint? When I look at the card today - especially with a 10X - PSA 5 - Chaz.

    Merry Christmas!
    mike
    Mike
  • yankeeno7yankeeno7 Posts: 9,243 ✭✭✭
    Good to see you pop in Mike! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
    Barry
  • RedHeart54RedHeart54 Posts: 2,267 ✭✭✭
    Here is an article written in 1984 about our local card dealer who is still selling. Actually he opened in 1977; not '79 as the article says.
    image
  • GriffinsGriffins Posts: 6,076 ✭✭✭
    The first card store was Goody Goldfadden's Adco in Los Angeles- I think he started after he moved out from Cleveland in the early '60's. I started collecting as a 9 year old in '70, but by '73 had gotten serious. Most acquisitions were thru ads in The Trader Speaks, Sports Collectors News, or the new magazine, Sports Collectors Digest.
    There was a monthly show at a grade school in Garden Grove (near Disneyland), or you could be verbally abused and often ripped off my making an appointment at Adco.
    The first convention was started by Jim Nowell in Anaheim in '69, but the time I went to my first it was relatively huge and held in a large hotel (the Hyatt) in Anaheim in the summer of '74. Besides all the tables (it was about a third the size of the National this year, perhaps a bit less) there was also a live auction. No bald guys at the door ripping off widows for .20 on the dollar, the front table was there to make sure if you didn't know what you had it ended up in the auction.
    Condition didn't mean nearly as much and centering had to do more with your mental state and Karma (it was California in the '70's, after all). Cards were either nice or beaten, for the most part. And if you found the last card you needed for a set it was pretty rare to get charged for it.
    On the other hand word didn't get out nearly as fast about the bad guys, and it was much tougher finding cards. There were no price guides and even checklists and information could be very tough.
    T206's and T205's were pretty easy, the former going for about .50 each, so I was at the halfway mark (250 or so) when I bailed out on cards and sold everything to pay for college. When I got back in 20+ years later it was an entirely different game.

    Always looking for Topps Salesman Samples, pre '51 unopened packs, E90-2, E91a, N690 Kalamazoo Bats, and T204 Square Frame Ramly's

  • IronmanfanIronmanfan Posts: 5,424 ✭✭✭✭
    When I was in High School and college in the late 1970's/early 1980's I knew no one else who really collected cards other than myself. Now it's funny because the majority of my current friends are ones that I've met since who do collect.
    Successful dealings with Wcsportscards94558, EagleEyeKid, SamsGirl214, Volver, DwayneDrain, Oaksey25, Griffins, Cardfan07, Etc.
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