1978 Topps Baseball Forum

I just thought back to when I first bought a pack of cards and did the math.  Exactly correct.  So it sounds like age 6 is a common age to start collecting.

I would have sworn that this was the first set of cards I collected https://www.tcdb.com/CollectionSummary.cfm/sid/220283?CollectionID=1

However, when entering my collection here I did discover this one pre-dates it which surprises me https://www.tcdb.com/CollectionSummary.cfm/sid/75162?CollectionID=1

Guess I was a non-sport collector before sport (I would have been 8 years old so memory is a bit hazy!).

I was a late bloomer as I was born in 1967 and my first set I completed was 1981. I did buy some cards in 1979 and 1980 but 1981 was the first set completed buying packs. In my case I got an allowance of $5 and I had to figure out how many packs I could buy with my $5 to cover sales tax. I would walk down to the local drug store and buy my packs. I would walk home eating gum, opening packs and putting the opened cards back into my bag because who could wait to get home to open those packs?

My Dad was an outdoorsman and cared nothing for any of the major sports so I discovered and fell in love with the major sports and card collecting all on my own. I still remember when I first discovered MLB was on TV on Saturday afternoon on my small black and white television in my room. It must have been around 1978 and I remember the Yankees were one of the teams playing that day. Soon after I spent Saturday afternoon watching baseball and I would watch Twins broadcasts when they were on locally. They had a lot of west coast games so I would lay in bed with my ear piece running from the tv listening to those late games until I fell asleep (usually only a few innings into the game).

So this was the first set I completed when I returned to card collecting about 6 years ago after a long hiatus.  This was my birth year, and as a Tigers fan, you cannot beat the rookie cards in this set.  When I was a kid, I collected this set and got about 1/4 of it completed, including the big name cards.  

I returned to collecting after stumbling across a pile of 1978 cards at a garage sale in 2014.  I bought them to see if any of them would go into my set, and I was hooked again.
 

I then started purchasing lots off of ebay.  Back then you could find a nice lot of 500 78s for $10-20.  It was kind of like opening packs.  You never knew what you were going to get.  I got a lot of doubles, triples, and whatever 23x is.  I tried not to purchase individual cards, because I felt like that was "cheating"  If I had run across this site then, I certainly would have traded.  When it was all said and done and thousands of cards later, I still was missing Fran Healy and Jason Thompson.  There was nothing special about those cards, but they just never came in the boxes of cards I purchased.  I finally bit the bullet and bought a lot of 20 of each of those guys and finished my set.

So it was the first set I finished when I returned to collecting.  I still love that the heart of the 84 Tigers all had their rookie cards in this set; Trammell, Whitaker, Morris, Parrish.  Hard to believe that the Parrish card was the most expensive of the lot for a while.

i was 8 also, starting with '74 topps.  i can't remember why though.  my brother never collected that i know of, but he did have the 72 nfl sunoco stamps, and i got the extras he didn't need, to start my own book.  i forget when i actually finished the 74 set, either in 99 for the 25th anniversary or 04 for the 30th.  now i'm trying to complete the 75 - 85 sets by 24, when it will be 50 years.  86-93 i already have, so that would give me the first 20 years of collecting complete.

-- So it was the first set I finished when I returned to collecting.  I still love that the heart of the 84 Tigers all had their rookie cards in this set; Trammell, Whitaker, Morris, Parrish.  Hard to believe that the Parrish card was the most expensive of the lot for a while. --

The Parrish card was higher because of Dale Murphy being on there also. Dale's early superstardom along with all-star Parrish helped give it nice value.

Those early memories are so important. I began collecting at age 4 in 1988, and have never stopped. I still have every card I've ever had...most of my early collecting involved my brother, as he would bring me cards when he went to the comic store, which was weekly. My earliest memories are of his Star Wars cards, which he gave me the duplicates. They weren't the first cards I had, but they are the first I remember. 

The first set I completed was 1990 Marvel Universe, which he bought, complete, at a comic show at most likely the Dutchess Mall in Fishkill, NY. I attended my first card/comic show in 1992, at the same mall, and they provided some great memories...and some horrible memories..as well. 19 years ago today I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life, and I would do anything to change that if I could. It was also the date of the last local card show until last year. 

Edit to add: All these years later and I still haven't finished the Star Wars cards, or the 1988 Bigfoot cards that my brother remembers as being the first set I ever had. 

1969 was first set for me. I was a very "seasoned" 10 years old. Don't know what got me collecting, other than I loved baseball. Watched it, played little league, backyard ball, etc. I do remember an old shoebox full of pre 1969 cards that my brothers had collected, which sat around, and eventually disappeared. (Although my Mom says she doesn't know anything about it, we think she pitched them!)

This was the first set my brother and I completed together. "We" had been collecting for a few years at this point, but as I was the younger brother, this was the first set that we both used a lot of our spending money on. We also traded heartily with a small group of neughborhood kids who collected as well. We'd walk or ride to the general store, buy our cards and maybe a soda or candy bar and then plant ourselves and our overflowing shoeboxes on the sidewalk and trade for what we needed. Randy Moffitt was our final card and we pulled it. No need for a trade. It was armageddon among our little group that day. Somehow I lost this set in our sibling divorce. My older brother was defintely the lead collector, but still. I have since re-collected the set (with plenty of help from you all) and my brother nabbed us tickets to Super Bowl XLIX (unabashed Pats and all things Boston fan) and now all is forgiven. Loving everyone's stories. 

I was 14 when I started. I collected a bunch of 89 score, topps donruss and fleer. My mom was ticked off when I bought 5 packs of the 89 fleer and 2 of those packs had FFace on the bat knob. And the 3rd had a black box. Walmart was super hot in selling cards back in the day.   She told be I could not buy that product anymore. 😭. 
 

I used to ride my BMX dirt bike (yes still the peddle type) 6.5 miles one way to spend 20.00 on cards.  I made the money by mowing my neighborhood yards at 25.00 all 1 acre plots.  The rest of the money went to help support the family with food and clothing for school after the summer was over 

I had 25 yards I mowed in my neighborhood a week and with a family of 7 and 1 parent income on a military style family times got pretty rough. When the 3 older ones left the nest I was able to keep what I made with the condition I pay for my clothes (mom must approve) for school.