General Forum

I Had 2 different sets that got me into collecting. My first was 2004 Topps Total Football which I used to buy a pack or 2 of at the gas station once every couple months and loved every pack I got! still have my most valueable Rookie I pulled at the time which surprisingly has about the same Value today in Phillip Rivers.

My second set which got me to collect what I collect today was 2007 Topps Total Football in the Christmas of I believe it was 07 I recieved my 2nd and 3rd Hobby boxes i had ever recieved and hidden in 1 random pack in one of the 2 boxes was the craziest collecting moment of my life to this day. This was back before guaranteed hits were really a thing and I managed to pull not 1 but 2 autos Back to back in the SAME pack! I couldnt believe my luck and probably wont have that good luck again. The autos werent big Names (Selvin Young and Darius Walker) but that started me off on the road to my current Scrub Auto Collection which now totals over 3200 Autos.

20 years ago , my wife worked at a local card shop in a strip mall by our house. We weren't collectors. When they went out of business she brought home a shoe box full of catds that sat in our basement for the next 20 years. The whole time I had no idea what was in that box. Last summer I went throught he box and put the best ones asside. This was probably a first for KSA Grading, a non-collector walking into their shop for the first time with the following 4 cards. 2003 Lebron James Autographed rookie card, 2003 Lebron James numbered to 250 rookie card, 2002 Blue Eyes White Dragon Yugioh card, and 2002 Exodia the Forbidden One Yugioh card. that's enough to get anybody hooked wouldn't you say ?

1975 Topps baseball.  I was too young (4 or 5) for the 72's, which is my favorite set from the era.  The 73's were awesome and caught my interest and attention, but there were a couple of cards that bugged me at that young age (something about that Dave LaRoche card just didn't seem natural to me).  For whatever reason the 74s didn't do it (although I had a lot).  But in 1975 I wanted every darn card in that set.  I made my own checklist of sorts and carried it with me every time I went to a store or a friend's house.  

Definitely 1975 Topps was the gateway drug for me.

--Kent

I remember collecting the 1979-0 Topps basketball set as a child. The Dr.J would be the first of many basketball cards I'd collect wish I still had it and the 1980-1 Topps Magic/Bird RC.

1986 Topps. I don't remember much about opening them, I was 8, but I remember being excited to have a Pete Rose because it was #1 and worth a buck in Beckett at the time. I just had them put reorganizing them today. 

For me it wasn't a single card or set. It was just that my older brothers had cards and I started liking them. I don't recall my exact "I'm a card collector" moment. One of my first memories of trading cards was trading with my brother at around age 5. I don't remember starting in the hobby. This first memory we were "trading" using our plastic "locker" storage containers. One of the "trades" was a 1968 Topps Willie Mays for a 1965 Topps Ernie Banks. That is probably why the '65 Banks is one of my all time fave cards. Oh I use quotations around "trade" because I think sometmes it was just game to play with the cards not a "for keeps" trade. I eventually got all the cards we had because my brother stopped collecting and many of the cards found their way into our basement "Utility" room some would call it the laundry room because it housed the clothes washer and dryer, but it also the room/area where the hot water heater was, the fuse box and more so we used it as a storage room and over the years is was a Hoarding room.

1990 Pro Set Football. There was a guy in my neighborhood that used to have a card shop, and my mom bought from and for my brother and me boxes and boxes of his unwanted commons. It was so much fun to go through all of those cards and sort and re-sort.

1990 Pro Set Football was the most populous of all the sets in that lot, so that set is the one that stands out.

1983 Topps Baseball.  I was collecting Care Bear stickers from cereal boxes and my dad decided his 6 year old son should be collecting something a little more...boy like.  Thus began the lifelong obsession.

1987 Topps baseball

1975 Topps Mini set.  Unfortunately, the plastic pages of the day ruined the set.