1987 Topps Baseball Forum

How old where you when you first start collecting cards?  How did you acquire/store your cards ?  How did your collecting evolve over time?  Did you take any breaks?

I first started collecting Topps baseball cards when I was 10 years old in 1987.  I collected Topps baseball through 1991.  My cards were purchased almost exclusively through wax packs during those years and stored in shoeboxes with no other protection.  During that time I also picked up some football (Pro Set / Topps) and hockey (Pro Set / Topps), as well as other baseball brands (Donruss, Fleer, Score, Upper Deck).  When I came back to collecting at the age of 24 in 2001, I collected strictly Topps and Pre-Topps baseball which I have continued without interruption through the present.

nice thread, I look forward to the stories on this one, although don't have time to post my detail at this time

thanks, mark

     I first started collecting when I was 7, the 1959 Topps baseball. In 1962 I gave my 1959-1962 Topps cards, in cigar boxes, to my friend down the street. I have no idea if I had complete sets. At that age I think I wanted the gum more than the cards. My son takes great pleasure now in letting me know the value of those cards today. Fast forward to about 1998. We are big Reds fans and my son collected Pokey Reese cards, since he played 2B in school also. After he "discovered" girls, I sort of took over looking for cards he liked. Eventually I  was the sole collector and expanded to all Cincinnati Reds cards. I have collected ever since. Recently I made a trade here at TCDB for an oddball Jason LaRue card I did not know even existed. Oh, the thrill of the hunt!

I'd say I was seven, but I know I have some 1971 cards that I got from the pack, maybe even a few 1970s, so I may have been as young as five. But seven is when I got kind of serious and at eight I was a full-on collector. Only Topps. Only wax packs. Although, as I got older, I bought whole boxes of wax packs. That was the first thing I ever negotiated in my life. I asked the guy if he'd give me a discount if I bought the whole box. 10% off!

I stored my cards in a little plastic cabinet with drawers. It was made to store screws and nails and the like. It was perfect. The drawers were exactly the right width and about and inch longer than the cards. It had 27 drawers. There were 24 teams, leaving three drawers for special cards -- All-Stars, Highlights, etc. Then there were 26 teams -- one drawer for each team, one for all the special cards. Then there were more teams and I moved on to a home-made box. I had no idea I could buy something useful, so I installed permanent cardboard separators in the box, which could easily hold 1000 cards, all standing, with a longer tab in front of each team. That box, I still have, although now it just holds penny sleeves and plastic boxes and the like.

Around age 16, I started buying entire sets. I still looked at every card and sorted them by team. I played a 96 game season of "Dice-de-Dice" with the 1980 set. Bill Buckner won the batting title. The Cubs beat Houston in the NL playoffs. I don't remember the AL or the WS Champions. Why those cards are actually still in decent shape, I do not know. But they're ok.

I had breaks in my collecting, but never thought I'd stopped. The college years, I just wasn't around enough to enjoy the collection and had no money. After that, I got married and we lived in tiny places. But then I had a real job and started buying whole sets and slowly going back to finish my old sets. And my wife bought me a bunch of binders and plastic sheets. Now every card I have is in a binder. Finished 1979, '78, '77, and '76 pretty quickly. Replaced all the marked up checklists, too. 1975 took me well into my 30s to complete, but it was my pride forever. '74 and '73 weren't too bad, but 1972 too a long time, just completed last year. Now that set competes with 1975 as my favorites.

Most of my buying of individual cards as a teenager was from AU Sports in the Chicago area -- the best store anywhere. But then I started going to live auctions -- picked up the 1951 Blue Back set at one of those. Some e-auctions. And then the eBay phase started around the same time I discovered this site.

And now I still work on the sets, but have fun with other old lots and a few non-Topps and non-base sets. I can't decide if I want really cool, expensive, vintage cards, or fun new stuff. But whenever I buy a set, I still go through the whole box, sort them by team, put the team in order of goodness or how much I like the players, then put them all in the binders. And every decade or so, I go through and look at them all. Started that project again last summer some time. I'm on 2007 now. I should be through looking at them all again in a couple months. Then I'll probably start over again with the 1950's cards....

v3

Hey Redsfan,  I have you by two  years.   I started in 1957 as a 6 year old.   My older brother was already collecting.   Naturally, I collected Topps, what else was there?     Five cards and a stick of rock hard gum for a nickel.   Topps also made "Penny Packs".   One card and one stick of gum for a penny.   That's where I picked up my idol's card, #2 Yogi Berra, in a penny pack.    I know the store I bought it (Slabicko's)  and the exact place I opened it along with my brother and his buddy, John.    Shortly thereafter I also got my first "marking pen" made by Magic Marker Inc.    I though Yogi and Frank Robinson would look better with goatees, sunglasses and ear rings.   I still have the cards and will post them when I find them.   I already posted several months back, the 1961 Norm Larker I gave the same marking pen treatment.  

Absolutely great topic !!!

1986 was my first year of card collecting...so age 12 or so...my family had finally moved into an actual town ( mind you, there was only one, yes one stop light in the whole town )...Topps baseball cards were pretty much all I had to choose from back then at the local store. However, it started a passion for looking over the stats and set building that I still carry with me today.  Collected baseball & hockey mostly ( I live in Canada, eh )  until about 1993...girlfriend, college, full-time job, wife, then kids,etc etc. 

Got back into the hobby slowly about 3 years ago and totally enjoy the set building process all over again. Sometimes my yougest son ( age 13 ) helps out and it's nice to share the activity with him. Maybe that's the real value in collecting, not the $ amount that maybe a certain card might someday get for you if / when you find the right buyer, but the priceless feelings and experiences that build up over the years, until one day you give everything away to the next generation... 

I think I was 6 or 7.  I cant remember how exactly, because I played baseball most of the time. I guess I must have started because some of my teammates collected, because I remember looking through about 200-300 cards of 1983 Topps with one teammate. I remember he liked Ryne Sandberg. So he let me choose any 30 cards of players I wanted, except the Sandbergs. That was the Sandberg rookie I think (1983 Topps)

When I started I got some 1986 but mostly 1987 Topps. I was 7 and my brother a couple years older. At first we collected mostly Topps but gradually expanded out to other brands with the rest of the industry booming. We mostly opened wax packs with an occasional rack pack. On special occasions (birthdays) we could convince our parents to get a whole box for us to open up. We eventually ended up getting some complete sets and other older cards from card shows and our local card shop in Connecticut, or California after we moved in 1991. Our collecting lasted another three years after that. We got busy with growing up I guess. The last cards we had were 1993.

The cards got moved a few times over the years and in 2008 after I bought a house I was visiting my parents and was told I had to bring them home with me. Our childhood collection included roughly 25,000 cards I would guess. We had a few basketball but mostly all baseball. I began the process at that time of going through all the cards and sorting them by number to see what we had. By the time I had most of them sorted I had gotten sidetracked again and stopped without acquiring anything new. 

This last summer as I was having a stressfull time at work and decided to pull some cards out to look at them. I guess you could say I got caught up in the distraction from everyday life. My brother and I ended up dividing up our collection and I have acquired quite a few new cards since. My main goal is to finish up some old sets that are near completion. Mostly what would be considered junk wax but I feel a need to complete some since I am so close. I also have some late 70s early 80s and some newer ones I'm working on. I will eventually get my want list and for trade list up here and hope to make some deals. 

My brother and I recently bought a large collection of basketball and football so that has put my baseball collection on hold for a little bit as we figure out what we have and divide it up. I guess I pulled him back in to collecting as well. It is fun sorting them out and figuring out what we have. My 9 year old daughter and 6 year old son have been getting more excited about it too. I have been accumulating a lot so I need to develop more purpose to what I collect from here on out. Joined here just this month and have been very happy with the volumes of information that help me with the hobby.

Funny how most collectors go on hiatus when they reach the age of 15.  Do you think girls had anything to do with that?  Do you realize how much money and fun they cost you by changing your interests?    Also, cards don't talk back, well most anyway.

It's amazing how they can control our lives without even speaking...cards that is.

NJDevils wrote: Funny how most collectors go on hiatus when they reach the age of 15.  Do you think girls had anything to do with that?  Do you realize how much money and fun they cost you by changing your interests?    Also, cards don't talk back, well most anyway.