General Forum

The first football cards I ever had were 82 Topps. My dad bought me a pack at the corner store when I was 7 or 8. First baseball pack he bought me was 83 Fleer and the first card in the pack was Yaz. Kept with it through 88. Then a bit in 92 and 93 but not again until a friend started doing estate sales in 2017. Haven't stopped since then.

Think I have said this before, but, the first set I really remember collecting is these Regina NZ rugby cards — I was the second kid in my school to get the full set.

However, chronologically speaking I must have collected Ninja Turtles first!

My cousin showed me his 1994-95 Upper Deck Hockey Series 1 (Series 2 wasn't out yet) collection and gave me few cards. First pack I bought was from same set.

did you get his cards???

I'm definitely a young collector, and I inherited a lot of my dad's old complete sets, but my first one that really got me into collecting was 2011 Topps. (I was 7 I think) It was I think a good one to start with as a kid, because I cared so much about completing that set...

I eventually got it fully completed with all the short prints a couple years later, and it's still one of my all time favorite sets.

86 Topps was the big turn for me too.

When I was younger and playing little league, we would get a ticket at the end of each game to use in the snack bar.  I would get a pack of baseball cards with each ticket I got.  My friends and I would look to see if we got any Yankees, everthing else was junk.  As a result, I had a small box of 70s cards but never really got into it.
1986 is when it changed.  My grandmother took my cousin and me to a candy distribution center and picked up two retail boxes of baseball cards.  He and I sat there the entire afternoon opening packs and sorting, trading for anything we were missing.  That was the same year my dad first took me to a baseball card show.  I was interested in seeing if I could finish that 86 set.  When we got there, there were a couple past players signing so my dad bought two baseballs to get them signed.  You had to pay $40 to get Mickey Mantel to sign but if you bought his, Whitey Ford would sign for free.  While I was happy to get the two signed balls of players before my time, I was even more happy to get the cards I needed to finish my set.  I only wish the cards went up in value as much as those two balls have.

IIRC, this card was in the first pack I opened. Don't remember the others, but I'll never forget that lifetime .170 batting average proudly displayed on the back of the card and thinking that was the lowest average I'll probably ever see on a card.

What got me into the hobby was my dad's collection, the baseball, basketball, and football sticker magazines, and for Christmas, I was given two blasters of 2015 topps and hoops basketball. My love of the hobby then grew rapidly.

1973 Topps Baseball: This is the earliest set that I remember. I can't remember how I got the cards and don't remember opening packs. They may have been doubles from either a family member or a neighbor who collected. But I do remember that these were the first baseball cards that I saw and they got me interested collecting.

1977 Topps Baseball: The first packs I remember opening myself. My dad knew the owner of a local grocery store/deli and would get full unopened display boxes from him at a discount. I had tons of the 1977 cards. Sadly, not now.

1979 Topps Baseball: The first set that I started trading cards with. Before this set, I didn't know anyone else that collected cards. A friend and I would play a game similar to the card game "War" where we would each have our own piles of cards, separated by pitchers and fielders. We would then go through the piles and lay down a card. For the fielders, whichever card had the higher batting average, that person would keep both cards. Same with the pitcher pile. Whoever had the lower ERA would keep both cards. We'd do this until one of us ran out of cards. Good times and a great way to either grow or lose a collection!

My dad took me to my 1st MLB game in 1996 (San Diego Padres at Jack Murphy Stadium), and bought me my first pack of 1996 Topps baseball.