General Forum

Good advice from your dad.

My Dad got me started at age 4, bringing home packs of 1971 topps for me and my brothers. He would stop at the store every day after work and bring us our little treasures. Over time we accumulated between 2000-3000 1971 topps cards between the 3 of us. Has been an addiction ever since.

Started young then :) it's nice that you had brothers to enjoy the hobby with too.

What got me into card collecting was the 1983 Return of the Jedi "series one" set, because I was awestruck from the movie.   Around that time I also was hooked on the local TV broadcasts of the Detroit Tiger games on WDIV with George Kell and Al Kaline as the commentators.  It was a major building year which led to the 1984 world championship.  

A couple of friends who collected ROTJ cards were also collecting 1983 Topps baseball cards, and that fed my growing fandom with the quality "in action" and bust photos typical on the player cards.  I traded for some 1983 baseball and also started buying the gum packs with my allowance.

So 1983 Return of the Jedi got me into card collecting, and 1983 Topps got me into baseball card collecting.

1997 Fleer Baseball series 1 when I was 8. I got a Dwight Gooden Golden Memories insert in it. Nothing special, but I still have it to this day. 
 

My brother and I then really binged on 1997 Fleer series 2 and I got really into the inserts from that set: Headliners, New Horizons, Goudy Greats, Soaring Stars, Bleacher Blasters and Diamond Tributes. This is where I got really into late 90s inserts. I have the whole set of the first four and am still working towards completing the last two. 

Found a box (or binder) of random O-Pee-Chee hockey at a garage sale when I was in Gr. 10. About 200 from 1972-1989. I still have them although I did pull them and move them around a ton, so they're pretty beat up now. This was 1991, second year of the hockey junk wax era. Spent all my paper money on 91-92 Upper Deck and Pro Set, it didn't help that there was a hobby shop beside my high school and two near my house. Got out of it for a big chunk of my college / married life, I've since come back in the last 8 years. 

This is a little weird but in 1997 I went to Denny's for the first time with a big group of kids and they gave kids a baseball card. I got this super cool hologram Barry Larkin card. I was hooked. I started trading any other toys or allowance I could to get the other kids' cards too - Piazza, Caminiti, Knoblauch, Bagwell. I still buy the 1997 Pinnacle Denny's cards if I find them in the wild unopened, just for the joy of opening them. 

And I don't care if it's worth nothing, I still have that Barry Larkin card and you couldn't even pry it from my cold dead hands. 

Having a couple of friends also collecting makes it such a social hobby :)

Well done on getting the first four complete :)

Sounds like you had a good find at the garage sale and cool that you still have them.