Do you remember the first pack of cards you opened? What got you collecting?

1980scollector · February 18, 2009 5:54AM

I can remember plain as day the first pack of baseball cards I remember opening. I bought a cello pack of 1984 fleer baseball at a gas station in my hometown and I remember a Yaz being in the pack and my brother wanting the card from me. I was six or seven and he was around twelve. I remember that year I chased Darryl Strawberry rookie cards really hard. My brother and his friends always got me trade what few I got in packs. I was just a little kid but the magic of that first pack is still in my memory. I can remember my brother in 1987 having me go through all my 1985 topps cards looking for a Mark McGwire because he was hitting lots of home runs. I remember building my first set on my own in 1985(1985 fleer set). I spent every dime I got for anything on sportscards. It was a time in my life where He-Man took a back set to Pete Rose, Darryle Strawberry, Dwight Gooden and Eric Davis(my childhood hero). I remember so many things in my childhood through baseball card timelines if that makes sense.

My parents did not have much extra money to buy me sportscards. We were a middle class family but my parents thought about the future rather than the present. I remember friends getting boxes of cards and factory sets and I only remember getting two boxes of cards in 1984(topps for Christmas and my uncle brought my brother and I a 1984 donruss box to split on his visit to Tennessee). My first factory set was a 1986 topps christmas factory set from my aunt.

I see so few kids care about baseball cards and I can see a gap opening. I am sure my kids will think fondly of some Wii video game as they get older but it sure would be nice for kids to get into the game.

I like the way the hobby was in the mid 80s the best.

So few shops now and even less kids that care about cards unless they are autographed or have a game used piece of jock strap on it.

I miss that time in the hobby dearly.

I just wanted to be like my older brother so that is what got me collecting cards.

CrimsonTider · February 18, 2009 5:56AM

My first pack was 1980 topps, I was playing tee-ball

MBMiller25 · February 18, 2009 5:59AM

I dont rember specifically my first ever pack, but my guess would be one of the following: 1988 Topps, 1988 Score, 1987 Topps. All my friends were collecting, so I started as well. I can remember going to warehouse clubs and buying 1988 Topps Wax boxes for like $10-$15 each at the time. My parents would take me there once a week and I would buy a huge jug of Now and Later candies and sell them to my friends at school for .25 ea. I would take that money and use it to buy another jug of Now and Laters and a wax box of cards. I was in 7th or 8th grade at this time.

billwaltonsbeard · February 18, 2009 5:59AM

1987 Topps. To this day I have a soft spot for those worthless, overproduced cards.

ymarea · February 18, 2009 6:02AM

The first pack I opened was 1970 baseball. I can't recall exaclty what was in it.

What got me collecting was my tough neighborhood. On the mean streets of Simi Valley, CA, a kid either collected cards or he died. Tough town.

uyu906 · February 18, 2009 6:03AM

1976 Topps Baseball when I was eight years old. I bought one pack in the spring, and wanted a Brooks Robinson so bad. That pack didn't have it, but I saved money from taking glass soda bottles back to the store for a month or so from around my neighborhood, and then used that to buy 10-15 packs. Brooks was in one of those, and I was hooked forever. I still have that Brooks card, which is tattered, and would not give that particular card up for anything. In fact, I may be buried with it one day!

jmoran19 · February 18, 2009 6:10AM

The first pack I can remember opening is a 1970 1st series baseball pack, I was 7 and can remember pulling these cards like it happened yesterday; Tommie Agee, John Blue Moon Odom, Tito Fuentes, Tim Cullen, Davey Johnson

jradke4 · February 18, 2009 6:20AM

My first packs were 80 Topps Baseball...but for some reason i have what appears to be an opened old pack of 76 Topps football in my collection (cant be mine as I was born in Nov of 73). I cant see my parents buying a pack of football cards at 3...though the cards look like a 3 year old opened them. Dont remember who was in the packs. My collection really took off in 1984 and by 1986 I was buying complete sets at the local card shop as well as packs and boxes when I had the money. I remember spending hours in that place going through their binders to complete my sets that i was making out of packs. All that time in there paid off...I got a job there in my jr year of hs. Cash in hand and wax at a wholesale. Got some nice 90 leaf sets and unopened boxes and early stadium club baseball and football as well.

clayshooter22 · February 18, 2009 6:22AM

I can't remember that far back but I do remember opening 82 Topps Wax and sorting out those cool "in action" star cards. Too bad I threw away those worthless Cal Ripken rookies.

TheCARDKid · February 18, 2009 6:49AM

1985 Topps. Bought 6-8 packs? at a mall somewhere in California.

Loved the design. The colors were great of the different teams. The best cards I got where Sanberg, Jimmy Key, couple other minor stars. Still have my original collection (about vg condition). Some of them I creased on purpose to make them look old....that was "cool". Maybe 5 cards out of 50 or 70. Thankfully I saved them.

I got rid of some other toys I had as a kid, sold them in the 90's...muscle men, micro machines.

The 80's were a dream, I can't even believe it.

I bought a box of 85 rack recently (2 puckets, 2 clemens, mcgwire). The players were so cool back then, like Tim Wallach, the Mets (K Hernandez, Strawberry, Mookie Wilson), Jim Rice, Sanberg, Mattingly. And skinny....D Strawberry listed at 6"6 190 lbs! These guys were like 170. Amazing.

Dboneesq · February 18, 2009 6:51AM

I don't remember exactly, but my best guess would be a 1964 or 1965 baseball wax pack. I DO remember opening up 1966 and 1967 packs as often as I could! My allowance was a quarter per week, and when I got it I jumped on my bike and headed to the candy store or the deli to get one or two packs of candy and 3 or 4 packs of cards! Best memories around that time was my birthday ... when I woke up there would be a box of cards sitting at the foot of my bed! Yup ... 24 new UNSEARCHED packs that were NOT resealed (Who thought of those things then! LOL). I was amazed that I got a WHOLE BOX because DAMN, that box cost $1.20!!!! Yup, $1.20 went a long way back when I was a 9 year old kid!

goraiders · February 18, 2009 6:59AM

Mine was 83 football,looking and trading for marcus allen,all I could get.Lawerence Taylor was high on my radar as well.
Then 84 came and i figured out a way to get money whenever mom sent me to the store
for any type of groceries,just steal them and buy 84 topps,man I wanted as many Erick dickerson's
as possible.Lesson for any kids reading this;Don't try and stuff a box of spaghetti down your pants
at 9yrs. old,it doesn't work.

J.R.

RonBurgundy · February 18, 2009 7:31AM

78 Topps rack pack, in my tiny hometown grocery store. remember it like it was yesterday

mtcards · February 18, 2009 7:38AM

I bought craploads of 1981 Fleer Baseball at 30 cents a pack from the Little General store on Lake Worth Avenue in Lake Worth Florida

sayheykid54 · February 18, 2009 7:42AM

1978 Topps baseball wax packs. 20 cents back in the day!!

Brian48 · February 18, 2009 7:46AM

The 1978 Red Sox pennant run was what got me interested in collecting. Don't remember exactly who I pulled from my first pack, but I know I got a Yaz in there with the first batch. Right after attending my first game ever at Fenway Park (R.Sox vs Blue Jays - Eckersley was winning pitcher), me and my friends wondered into a card shop a couple of blocks away from the ballpark. As soon as I walked in and saw the display of all the vintage cards and other memorabilia, I was hooked. I went to this shop for several years until it finally closed. I remember buying 3 Topps Wayne Gretzky rookies for $1.00 a piece as well as a 1971 OPC Guy LaFleur, also for $1.00.

gogosox55 · February 18, 2009 7:55AM

I usually just lurk and read all the great threads for info and pleasure but I'll contribute:

I can remember opening 5c 1955 Bowman packs (if I was lucky I got 10-25c as an allowance). Not the very first put the second pack had Nellie Fox as the 2d card of the nine. Being a White Sox fan, especially of Fox, I was hooked. Although I think the 53 Bowman and 57 Topps are better designed, to this day the 55s are my favorite vintage set.

JackWESQ · February 18, 2009 8:39AM

1986 Topps Baseball.

/s/ JackWESQ

dodgersin9 · February 18, 2009 8:40AM

The first pack I opened was in 1966, and the first card on top of the pack was Sonny Siebert. I still have that card. I don't recall the rest of the cards in the pack but I probably still have those as well. I have about 200 cards from '66 from my childhood. Most of them, including the Siebert card, have creases and rounded corners from being much loved by a 7 year old boy.

TNP777 · February 18, 2009 8:42AM

I opened '76 football when I was 10. Although I was already pretty much a Rams fan, being from the Northwest I thought it was pretty cool to get in on the first year of the fledgling Seahawks. The first baseball I opened was '78 wax. The '78 set remains one of my all-time favorites - name me pretty much any player and I can probably come up with a mental image of his '78 card. The game on the back was cool, the cursive team lettering was cool, the all-star logos were cool. Just an overall cool set.

zippy · February 18, 2009 8:43AM

1957 Topps Baseball, 1st series, 5¢ packs & the Gum was Great!!
Didn't know there were series & kept getting mad with all the dupes I had
So I started trading with a few kids
That's how it all started

CubsFan41 · February 18, 2009 8:45AM

1978 topps baseball. Still my favorite. Kept the cards rubber banded in team sets in a gallon sized jar.

ripkenintheminors · February 18, 2009 8:48AM

1st packs came from Gatlin's Grocery up the road. They were 2 packs of 1989 Donruss. I pulled a card of Hershiser and thought I had arrived.

mcolney1 · February 18, 2009 9:09AM

1973 Topps Baseball last series with the Schmidt rookie. Other than a bout with college and chasing girls I've never stopped collecting.

sfmays24 · February 18, 2009 9:17AM

1977 Topps Baseball Wax Pack, purchased at Harold's Market... kept the gum and placed the cards on my spokes, a blue schwinn stingray... what a sweet ride it was.

PSASAP · February 18, 2009 9:18AM

Vote for Pedro!

Mphilking · February 18, 2009 9:22AM

1972 High # Baseball. My brother grounded out to first with the bases loaded in a baseball game and there was an error at first so he went to second, ball thrown away, slid into third and the ball went into the woods so he made it home easy. My father told him if he ever hit a grand slam he'd buy him a box of baseball cards. My brother never liked me but he was either forced into giving me some or I got the doubles. I LOVED them! We had to inital them on the back so I wouldn't accidentally take his.............. He gave them all to me years later and I sold my original collection probably five years ago. 1972 has always been my favorite set and I remember having most of the high numbers.

jim70mustang · February 18, 2009 9:33AM

My first pack was 1961 Topps baseball. In the pack I got the Mantle card that show a homerun of 535 feet and going out of the ballpark. All my buddies wanted that card. I held out, but evenually one of them got it. Now i'm hook, line, and sinker.

Jim

IchiroDeported · February 18, 2009 9:39AM

86' Topps baseball at Almacs grocery store, (rack pack) with BOGGS showing

prior to that i had only bought non sports stuff; star trek, star wars, mork and mindy cards lol.

kidzfund · February 18, 2009 9:42AM

Boy I'm feeling old.

I don't remember my first pack, but I remember buying packs at 7-11 and Longs in the mid to late 60's. I remember opening the 69-70 tall boys in Longs and getting Lew Alcindor. I was a big UCLA fan so I was stoked. Sent it in a couple of years ago and got a 7 - shoulda been a 8.

I'm a pack rat so I kept everything. Fortunately, after I got married, my parents called and asked me what I wanted to do with the boxes of cards 'cause they were cleaning up the house. God Bless her. Except for a few cards I sold in the late 90's I still have everycard from my childhood.

Joe

daddymc · February 18, 2009 9:45AM

My first cards that I remember buying were 1977 Star Wars Blue, but the first sports cards I actually remember getting were 1978 basketball. I don't remember if I bought any baseball before 1980.

leftofdial · February 18, 2009 9:55AM

This is a fun thread- I don't remember what store they came from , but 75 Topps football were the 1st cards I opened. Then in the winter, we would stop at Valley Dairy on Washington Street in Grand forks, ND on the way home from church to get milk, butter, or whatever and since it was allowance day, i would buy the 75 Topps hockey cards with it. We also had the 75 Topps Cloth Hockey Patches which probably weren't in many markets at the time.
In 1979, we moved to Wyoming and one of my big things was collecting aluminum cans and Coors bottles to cash in to buy 79 topps Baseball. The above 4 aren't worth much monetarily, but they'll always be my favorites!

Bosox1976 · February 18, 2009 10:03AM

In early summer 1974, my brother and I were sitting on the sidewalk outside of a Woolworth's in, what was at the time, a tough part of Boston (Mattapan Square) - while we were opening our 74T baseball packs there was a purse snatching 50 yards away. The snatcher dropped the purse right at our feet as he ran down the block. Kooky - hadn't thought about it in years. Cool thread.

74-75 Topps hockey (Bobby Orr era!) was the first set I ever completed.

Indy78 · February 18, 2009 10:12AM

1978 Topps baseball were my first packs. I believe the name of the store was Stop N Shop or something along those lines. All I remember was wondering if I should buy wax or cello and why one is better than other. I couldn't figure it out, so to be safe, I ended up buying 2 or 3 of both. I was 9 at the time and didn't have much money to buy lots of packs, but I still ended up with about 400 different cards by the end of the summer. Last year, I pulled out those that I had boxed and saved all these years and decided to finish off the set. The ones I saved were in surprisingly good shape, even after a dozen or so moves I've made since '78.

Dboneesq · February 18, 2009 10:21AM

<< <i>while we were opening our 74T baseball packs there was a purse snatching 50 yards away. The snatcher dropped the purse right at our feet as he ran down the block. >>

Part II - We opened up the purse ... took what we could ... and went back inside Woolworth's and bought every last pack they had.

grote15 · February 18, 2009 10:32AM

1978 Topps...rack packs at the neighborhodd toy store..

durango444 · February 18, 2009 10:40AM

Back in 1976 my mom's friend brought over her son that collected. He had some 1976 football cards he had just bought. I was into coins and had a decent collection for a 10 year old kid. I grew up in Stratford, CT and used to go to Paul's Coin Shop there. He eventually sold cards there as well. Well soon there after I bought packs of 1976 football. Since I had a decent coin collection I sold some off and bought and bought 36 pack boxes of it. And bought and bought. This carried over to 1977 baseball as well. Soon I was setting up tables at the Milford flea market. I had tons of stuff. I remember buying vending cases of 1971 and 1972 football with an older collector. In high school I kinda stopped collecting. I had it all. In 1984 I went off to college in Miami and sold everything and I mean everything for some stupid low number under $5K if I remember correctly. It's been a long time. If I was to guess ungraded today an easy $50K plus plus. Who the heck knew.

Years later I did garner the honor of having the 2003 #1 PSA 1971 football set. It is still #2 all-time. Sold that one too. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

TheHun · February 18, 2009 11:12AM

I took a trip to Toronto, Canada.

My brother and I were given some spending money. I bought 2 packs of 1971-72 O-Pee-Chee hockey.

I got a Lafleur rookie, A Gordie Howe retirement card and Jacques Plante which are my favorite and still have to this day.

The smell of the gum and cardboard, the wrapper, the lime green card backs ....

then went to Mr. Submarine for some sub sandwiches.

TheDudeAbides · February 18, 2009 11:34AM

I mentioned this before, but it was 1968, a Sunday, left church and went to a Ma & Pa grocery store. My parents would go there to get the Sunday papers. I was 6 going on 7 years old. Opened the pack in the back seat of a 67 Buick LeSabre, only card I remember was Hank Aaron #110. Still have the Aaron. Wanted Banks. Wish I knew how to upload a picture on here. Reading all of your memories forced me to pull that card out for a look. Good times.

bman90278 · February 18, 2009 11:37AM

I kinda remember opening 1973 BB cards, but the 74's are more clear. My father bought me and my brother quite a bit of rack packs back in 75 as well. I guess I'm getting old.

brian

otwcards · February 18, 2009 12:07PM

<< <i>I was amazed that I got a WHOLE BOX because DAMN, that box cost $1.20!!!! Yup, $1.20 went a long way back when I was a 9 year old kid! >>

And only a few years later, the dasm things doubled to $2.40 per box!!!

The first pack I can remember was 1970 and the card I remember in the pack was a Rod Carew AS... I had opened packs a year or two before, but for some reason this one stands out. I think it is because it's the first time I ever bought a pack with money I earned.

My uncle had a bakery in Seaside Heights, NJ and my cousin and I spent a rainy Saturday helping him clean up after we filled doughnuts all morning hoping the rain would stop so we could go to the beach. Anyway, he gave us each $2.50 and we ran off to the pharmacy next door and bought a few packs of cards. We sat on the bench outside under an awning and opened the packs. To this day, I don't know why the Carew sticks out in my memory. Maybe it was the difference in design from the other cards. Maybe it was because I had seen the Twins play the Yankees a few weeks earlier.

The other vivid memory from those days was my quest to finish off my first 1974 set of the summer and the fact that I could NEVER get a Willie Crawford card. I needed it and nearly completed another set buying packs to get him. I think I finally traded about 10 Mets and Yankees cards to get him from a friend after school. And wouldn't you know it, Willie Crawford seemed to come out of almost every pack I opened the rest of that summer!!!

Oh, and did anyone else save the gum? We used to buy boxes and with that much gum, we'd have a stash for a few days...

Stone193 · February 18, 2009 2:49PM

No - wish I could say I do.

I do remember going to my cousin's house in Quincy and we bought packs of 57T BB - we had a good time - since he was a Sox fan - trading was pain free!

Thanx for asking.
mike

lawnmowerman · February 18, 2009 3:08PM

1976 Topps. I remember pulling the Johnny Bench card thinking it was the coolest card ever.

IchiroDeported · February 18, 2009 3:09PM

no way dude; you already posted the coolest card eva!

ldferg · February 18, 2009 8:19PM

1977 topps football cello pack: seahawks checklist on top, jim zorn on the back.

bought it at a 7-11 store. i think i was getting it for the gum since i had no idea what the cards were for.

1980scollector · February 19, 2009 1:14AM

Thanks to all of you for the replies. I read each of them and enjoyed them. I envisioned two kids under an awning busting 70 packs after a hard days work filling doughnuts and another kid smiling at a Carew AS. A kid selling his coins to amass a serious 1976 Topps football habit. I like the story of the Aaron #110 and still having it. These were great and really are fun to read and try and envision.

OAKESY25 · February 19, 2009 1:27AM

82 topps.. was the probably the first.. but Iripped a lot of 83 topps and to a lesser extent fleer.
I preferred the fleer.. because the edges looked nice and bright white compared to the topps
when they were in my baseball card box I had.. fleer was always in limited supply at my drug store though.
Any time I went in with my mom.. I got a pack or 2 and all I cared about was getting a cub or sox player..

GoDodgersFan · February 19, 2009 3:10AM

1978 Topps Baseball cards. Purchased them at a local store in Van Nuys (CA) and the addiction started. I could
not collect enough of the Dodgers especially Steve Garvey, Ron Cey, and others.

Boy, the SF Valley was awesome in the 1970s and early 1980s.

onebamafan · February 19, 2009 3:10AM

1981 Donruss or Fleer???????? Come on daddy needs a new Fernand Valenzuela!

BPorter26 · February 19, 2009 4:28AM

I don't remember my first pack, but I do remember my first box. It was 1983 Topps Baseball. A buddy and I split the box which was $10 so of course 5 a piece. I remember to the day pulling out a Reggie Jackson, Jim Rice, Carlton Fisk ,Wade Boggs and many other great players. It was great being a kid in the 80's

Stingray · February 19, 2009 4:35AM

Christ I hate dating myself, but I remember buying 1974 Topps BB at the local Kresge store for $0.10 a piece. Would get ten packs everytime for my dollar.

Do you remember the first pack of cards you opened? What got you collecting?

Comments