Do you remember the first pack of cards you ever bought?

zendude

What year? What sport? Were you instantly hooked or did it take awhile for the collecting bug to bite you? For me it was 1976-77 Topps Basketball (the tall ones). I remember only buying a few packs and didn't really think too much about it. Then in '77 and '78 I played little league and fell in love with baseball and baseball cards. Now at 42 I'm in full mid-life nostalgic mode. Man, where did the last 35 years go???

mcolney1

1973 Topps Baseball - instantly hooked. Still have some very worn ones!

kwtoz

My first pack was the 1966 Batman black bat cards. The cards that I have are some of the most abused/loved cards you'll ever see.

My first sports cards were 1968 Topps Baseball. I did Topps baseball for many years after that. Of course, the $$ was limited, as I was just a kid at
the time.

HoofHearted

1962. Loved the woodies then and love them even more now...

TNP777

1976 football - I remember thinking they were pretty cool. I got hooked on 1978 baseball, though. It was all over for me then.

hammered

1976T rack pack with Greg Luzinski on front

thehallmark

1987 Topps baseball wax. I was OBSESSED with pulling a Mattingly for some reason. Maybe the 'stache? I hadn't even heard of a "rookie card".

greencrow

1982 Topps baseball.

gemint

First packs I ever opened were 1975T baseball (birthday present). The first card I remember seeing is the Frank White. The first packs I purchased were 1976T baseball.

ThoseBackPages

First Packs: 1977 Topps Star Wars

First Full Box: 1981 Donruss

First Sealed Case: 1986 Topps 3-box Rack

Goot

Man, I'm 20 and I have a hard time remembering this kind of stuff.... I don't know how some of you do it!

First cards I remember playing with (because that's what you did with them) were 1991 Topps. I was born in '91, but these were my uncles cards so I must have been a few years old when I started paying any attention to them. He had them in a shoebox, with each team sorted and wrapped together with a rubber band and the cool thing is, I still have them in that shoebox! Another funny part about that set is that Chipper Jones's rookie card is in that set too.


However, first legitimate pack of cards that really sticks out in my mind is the 1996 Upper Deck Baseball set with those awesome Ken Griffey Jr. "A Cut Above" cards!!!

Big27

I assume it was packs of 1987 Topps - I think they were two for $0.89 at the candy aisle at my local supermarket.

Used to buy them for the gum but never really knew what to do with the cardboard pieces featuring pictures of players of a sport I knew nothing about.

RookieWax

It's crazy that I remember just about everything about it: It was the summer of '78(I was 11 years old), I went grocery shopping with my father and grandmother at a small Italian food store called Lombardi's in Dearborn, Michigan. Bought it at the checkout and opened it the minute we got back in the car. I even remember that I pulled a Detroit Tiger from that pack - a Vern Ruhle card.

Justus

1987 Topps baseball for me too, was immediately hooked on the wood grain. I don't think I bought a pack of '87 Donruss until maybe 2 years later and liked those even more. That is still one of my favorite designs....I actually bought a box for my son for Christmas this past year.

Griffins

"70 Topps, 4th series. Pretty instant hook.

recbball

1976 Topps Marvel Super Heroes Stickers.
I was 7 and all the cool kids were collecting them.
If you had Capt. America on your folder or luch box you were the man, lol.

Brick

No. Sometime in the mid 50s. I remember getting excited about a Willie Mays card in a pack I bought. Never did save them.

georgebailey2

<< <i>It's crazy that I remember just about everything about it: It was the summer of '68(I was 11 years old), I went grocery shopping with my father and grandmother at a small Italian food store called Lombardi's in Dearborn, Michigan. Bought it at the checkout and opened it the minute we got back in the car. I even remember that I pulled a Detroit Tiger from that pack - a Vern Ruhle card. >>



Quick, call Keith Olbermann! We have a new variation, a 1968 Vern Ruhle!

Just yanking your chain. I believe the 1968 part, just a different Tiger (Ruhle didn't come up until 1974 and I think his first card was '75).

For me, I probably opened one pack of 1971 and McCovey comes to mind but I didn't open multiple packs until 1972. I loved the "In Action" cards, particulary the series that had the "So You Think You Know Baseball" scenarios, and the "Boyhood Photos of the Stars".

Statman

My first year of collecting was 1974 - I remember two of the cards in my first pack - Dave Cash and Danny Ozark. I still have both cards - complete with my name written on the back. I'll always keep those as part of my '74 set.

uyu906

1976 Topps Baseball. I bought pack after pack looking for my childhood hero - Brooks Robinson. I stopped buying them for that year after finally getting one. It was my most prized possession. I still have that well loved card - and I wouldn't get rid of it for the world. I think I will be buried with it.

bking

<< <i>"70 Topps, 4th series. Pretty instant hook. >>



Same here, although 1st series. Not sure I ever bought any series after 4 in my big years from 70-73

CARDSANDCOINS

First pack was 1974 Topps Baseball
in 1974 a the Mundelein Illinois Little League Field
First card was Mike Sadek of the Giants.
Years later I read that he had met the Pope and had him sign a ball.
The pope wrote "JP II" on the sweet spot. The ball was sold for $25,000 for charity.

alnavman

can't remember the first pack I ever bought but do remember the time my brother and I got caught taking quarters from my mom's purse.....talk about someone being upset.....she was mad and my dad was even madder....we went and bought fleer football card packs with the quarters but caught it from both my parents afterwards.......

cpamike

I remember it well. It was May 29, 1976 and I bought a 1976 Topps Baseball pack from the Country Store, basically a glorified ice cream truck. The only card I remember pulling was a Tug McGraw who I loved as a Met fan even though he was on the Phillies by that point. I still have that card. The first rack pack I opened later that summer was a 1975 Topps Baseball as Topps would dump their excess inventory on whoever they could back then. I don't remember who I got in that initial pack, but I got hooked on those cards big time. Great memories!!!

stevek

Was a pack of Old Judge cards.

itzagoner

it may have been Wacky Packages, who knows? before i ever got into buying baseball card packs, i was into decorating my bedroom door, windows, and any other inanimate object with stickers.

one thing i DO remember, though.....there was a penny vending machine at the supermarket, actually it was in the little aisleway between the store and the pharmacy, next to the gumball machine.

any chance i got to put a penny in and get a card out, i did, and so began a slow progression of collecting early to mid-1960's Topps Nobodys.

they're all long gone, of course.

Kid4hof03

1979 Topps football, the first card I remember seeing in the pack was Terry Bradshaw.

saucywombat

I remember being given packs of 1982 Topps to open (would have been 6) but I remember buying myself for the first time and being very stoked about buying 1985 Topps packs at 7-11, I didn't buy any cards in 1986 because I didn't like the design, and in 1987 I went crazy for Topps because of the Bo Jackson card and the fact that the team logos reappeared on the cards (unlike '86).

nearmint

The first pack I bought was a pack of first series 1969 Topps football cards, from the Red Owl store down the block. I opened that and went back in for another pack. Then another five. Then ten at a time. I remember my mouth getting really sore from the gum, my jaw from chewing and my cheeks from lacerations.

SportsCardCollector

Remember my first pack? Not only do I remember it, I still have my first pack!

I've told this story before, but it means so much to me that I'll share it again.

The first pack of cards I ever bought was a pack of 1964 Topps baseball. There was a drugstore around the corner from us and one day when I went in there for candy I saw the box of cards on the counter and decided to buy a pack for 5 cents. I could have had a Hershey bar for my nickel, but I decided to see what baseball cards were all about. At the time, the Dodgers were the 1963 World Series champs, so I was a big fan of them and their star pitcher, Sandy Koufax. You can imagine how thrilled I was as a kid when I opened the pack and found these 5 cards:




Of course, the Koufax was on top so it has gum stains on it. I didn't care at the time because the gum was good.

It's interesting that in those days the least desirable card in that pack would have been the Reds rookie card. Rookie cards back then were considered pretty worthless because they showed nobodys who might or might not turn into somebodys. Very different from today when a rookie card of an unproven player is often worth $100+.

For some reason, that was the only pack I bought that year. But it got me hooked for hundreds of 5 cent trips to that same drug store over the years that followed. I always wonder what the druggist would have said if I had gone in and asked to buy a whole Topps box (for the staggering amount of $1.20!). I'm sure he would have thought I was nuts.

Thanks for the thread, zendude, and giving me a chance to stroll down memory lane. It reminded me of how I got into this hobby.

dzolot

I was eight years old in 1986 and someone (i have no idea who it was) bought me a box (or alteast a bunch of packs) of 1986 topps and a storage box that was made out of plastic and rounded to look like a baseball. I remember I pulled two Wade Boggs cards!! After reading the back of the cards I started to follow him on the Red Sox and he became my favorite player! I dont' know why, but I didn't really to get into collecting until 1988/89. I must still have those 86 cards some where, and I know i have the Boggs!!

bking

OK, how many folks on here owe their math skills to the back of baseball cards?

By the age of 11, I could balance a box score.

itzagoner

<< <i>OK, how many folks on here owe their math skills to the back of baseball cards?

By the age of 11, I could balance a box score. >>



yup, with you there...my uncle gave me the game day program from the time i was about 6 or 7, and i became his personal scorekeeper....i developed good math skills because of that, but even better was getting to know the game itself, every nuance, every rule......and every fiddling, fumbling attempt to figure out how to properly write in a double switch or multiple pinch hitters.

from the cards themselves came the ability to memorize and recite statistics and player facts.

metsfan

First pack was in 1972 when I was 9. I loved the vibrance of the cards, but didn't really buy much then, decided to put the 1973 set together and that's when I really caught the "bug".

Garabaldi

My first pack was from 1981 Topps baseball and I still have shoe boxes full of them. Every single one them has elastic band marks, but they are still grouped together by teams.

MattyC

86 Topps wax on the corner of 67th and 11th in Brooklyn.

Gooden Record Breaker seemed like the Hope Diamond.

stevek

<< <i>OK, how many folks on here owe their math skills to the back of baseball cards?

By the age of 11, I could balance a box score. >>



Yes, to me the backs are much more interesting, I mean how long can ya stare at a guy's pic on the front for crying out loud - LOL.....but the backs ya can read the stats over and over again...which is exactly why when I'm buying high grade cards, the back is very important to me to be well centered with no ink smears or stains.

It used to tick me off the years Topps didn't list all the season's stats, but only a summary, I used to hate that...whereby I really enjoyed the years Topps presented the player's full stats from each season.

bking

<< <i>

<< <i>OK, how many folks on here owe their math skills to the back of baseball cards?

By the age of 11, I could balance a box score. >>



Yes, to me the backs are much more interesting, I mean how long can ya stare at a guy's pic on the front for crying out loud - LOL.....but the backs ya can read the stats over and over again...which is exactly why when I'm buying high grade cards, the back is very important to me to be well centered with no ink smears or stains.

It used to tick me off the years Topps didn't list all the season's stats, but only a summary, I used to hate that...whereby I really enjoyed the years Topps presented the player's full stats from each season. >>



It's my main beef with the 1971 set - I just didn't like the backs growing up and it's stuck with me.

CWUCAT62

1982 Fleer Baseball. Bought 4 packs of them, loved the stickers & pulled my favorite team (at the time). The chase was over for a Milwaukee Brewers logo sticker & I was thrilled. You see I was 8 years old & was born in Portland, Oregon. Milwaukie, Oregon is just a few minutes outside of Portland and home of the Big League Brewers, or so I thought. Being 8 was great!

PowderedH2O

I had some cards from 1972 (somebody gave me a shoebox full of baseball cards that I promptly traded away or my mom threw away or something), but in the early Fall of 1973 my friend Chris was showing off his baseball and football cards. So, I promptly went out and bought a pack of Topps Football cards. The first cards I cared about were Kent Nix and Dave Long, because they were on the Saints and I lived in New Orleans. Shortly thereafter I bought as many football cards as I could get my grubby little paws on.

EchoCanyon

The first pack I ever opened was 1971 baseball. I was 6. My Dad was given a box, probably through his job (worked in shipping/receiving for a novelty chocolate company in Brooklyn). He kept the box on top of our refrigerator and every night, when he got home, he would reach in and grab three packs -- one for my brother, one for my sister, one for me. I think we were most excited about the gum. As we looked through the players, he opened the freezer, took our some ice, and made an evening drink. Sadly, we didn't keep those cards.

I remember opening 72s -- still my favorite set -- and sorting players by teams, then alphabetizing the stack. We lived with our grandparents and I remember asking Nana which came first, Reds or Red Sox. Sadly, we didn't keep those cards.

I remember opening 73s and was immediately struck by the baseball player icon in the corner. I'd get nine cards, with nine different positions and place them on my bed in baseball diamond. I vividly remember Duffy Dyer as my catcher. The good news, this was the beginning of us (and when I say we/us, I include my older brother) keeping all our cards. They bad news, very few last series and no Mike Schmidt cards.

kmnorton

1972 Topps. Maury Wills was in it, I do remember that because it became my favorite card. Funny story, I went back to my folks house about 10 years ago and was helping them clean out the carport. They had a long forgotten wood pile in the corner and as I was moving the pieces of wood, I found a ball of 1975 wrappers all scrunched together. I would go to the 7-11 and get cards, open them on the way home and stash the evidence. I had to sneak the cards in through the bedroom window because they thought I was spending too much money on cards (really nothing has changed on that front; substitute "wife" for "parents").

Good times.

tigerdean

It was 1977 Topps Baseball for me. I started playing catcher in baseball that year and Ted Simmons was my hero. I would get a dollar and buy how many packs that would buy me and I handled them A LOT because I loved them. That led to football and that led to more and that led to me now having boxes under my wife's dresser which I still catch hell about. I unfortunately think I sold that worn out 77 set to a friend and lost touch. I think I am going to try and touch base with him and see if he still has it. I would really like to have it back.

MithrilMan

1973 Topps Series 1. This card was one I remember in that pack:

summerof68

My first two packs were 1968 rack packs. Don Sutton was on the back of one and Tom Seaver was on the front of the other. Instantly fell in love with that "burlap sack" design which many collectors hate to this day.

vintagechris

1980 Topps football for me. My Mom worked at the mall and during Christmas break I had gone with her to the mall to play video Games(they were huge back then). As I was cutting through the Treasury Drug Store, I saw the cards. Bought a couple packs and was completely hooked. Took the rest of my video game money and bought more cards.

From 1980 to 1987, My Mom would buy me two packs of cards everyday and bring them home from work for me. Mom really fueled my collecting back then. I never will forget the excitement of finding out what the new cards looked like.

F1ferrari

I can remember the display of 1982 Topps rack packs at Big K (that was later bought by WalMart) when I was about 8. I remember buying a few there, and a gas station close to my house had '82 Donruss and Fleer packs.

Another factor fed my addiction: my mother's parents lived out of town, but ran a service station and were able to buy boxes at wholesale prices.

Socalguy1967

I can remember it vividly. We were at a drive-thru dairy in Rancho Cucamonga. I asked my Mom to buy me a pack of baseball cards. It was 1976 Topps and for some reason, I remember getting Stan Perzanowski.

johnny1976

1980 topps hockey. Bought it from a store up the block from my grand parents house. Couldn't tell you what was in it, however I remember my dad and I scratching off the pucks. Good times.

GoDodgersFan

1978 Topps Baseball at a local store in Van Nuys, Ca. Truly the best of times since my Dodgers were pretty darn
good back then.

mexpo75

Hate to admit it, but it was either Beatles, Monkees, or the Flying Nun! I was in love with Sally Field.