Besides the aesthetic beauty in the black borders, this set teases in-game action shots and horizontal layouts. During the next few years, Topps slowly pulled collectors away from staged shots and portraits and brought us closer into the game. The decade is a turning point in producing sports cards, with some classic issues on the horizon.

These are a solid decade before my time... or even being born. I had always thought they would have looked nicer without the white boarder.

Yep-like some others on here this was the first set I completed. Rough did not begin to describe the condition. Then about 20 years later my Dad surprised me with about 1500 1971 cards he bought from a guy he worked with and handed them to me. Much better condition! Still it's probably and overall VGEX set but one I'd probably never part with.

I also started my baseball card collecting fanaticism in 1971 and stopped buying wax packs when I started high school in 1976. Luckily, my story is a rare one as my parents moved twice after that but took my card collection with them and ultimately sent it back to me in the mid 90's. Slowly finishing the 25% or so from my collections to finally arrive at complete sets. Possibly more fun now then when I was collecting them as a kid.....

The 1971 Topps set was my first. I immediately became obsessed with collecting, and I always spent my allowance on cards.

This was the first set of cards that I collected on my own. I was turning 7 that summer. I remember going on vacation with my family to San Diego (from NJ) and bringing my 1971 cards with me and laying them out on the carpet of my grandparents' house.

I started collecting Baseball Cards in 1971 and never stopped. I was 9 and my brothers and I got the money by collecting deposit bottles tossed by the workers building new homes. A nickel apiece meant 2 for every pack. We did it all summer and had 3 Time Savers stores in bicycle distance. I think they stopped selling after 3 or 4 series. I really enjoyed completing my set later in life at card shows. I didn't even need a want list because I could pick out the cards I hadn't seen before. The want list came in later when I realized that condition was important.

Topps -green backs

For about 40 years I had four of these coins (Jenkins, Kessinger, Santo, and Morgan) without any idea of what they were. But I liked them, so I kept them, rattling around in the bottom of a box. I believe it was this site where I finally figured out what they were in 2011 or so. They must've come out of some of the very first packs I ever bought or was given. About a year ago, I finally added another one to the collection, and about two weeks ago, I finally got sick of seeing my spreadsheet of complete sets interrupted by a 5/153 in 1971, so I've started my quest to complete this set. This meant going to a coin store to buy proper storage supplies, and there's lots of stapling involved (to create the little holders). But I'm going to enjoy this. I'll have about 60 different ones once my latest eBay win arrives. I'll have a few to trade, too. And the quest shall continue. They look fabulous in the binder, and many are missing scans of the backs on this site, so maybe I can get to level 7 here someday....
v3

This was the last year that Topps listed incomplete statistics on the back of their cards.

The first packs of baseball cards that I opened were from 1971 Topps 3rd series. I had some older cards from friends and neighbors, but I had never opened my own packs. My dad bought me 10 packs at the grocery store. I figured out that they were from the 3rd series years later because the only card that I remember was #275 Vada Pinson. I mispronounced his name "Vida" because Vida Blue was having a phenomenal season and was the only name that I knew that was close to Vada. My dad quickly corrected my pronunciation and said that Vada Pinson was a very good player. The photo on this card was taken at a very memorable game. I won't post a link, but you can use a search engine to search this card and see a great story about that game and the photo used for this card (hope it is still there when you search). Oh yes, these packs had baseball coins in them! And where was that elusive Vida Blue card for all those fans following this phenom? Unfortunately, it would not appear until the 5th Series (card #544)!

I'm fairly certain this was the year I started collecting (up through 76.) The sad thing about my collection is somewhere along the way all cards roughly above 500 are missing.

I don't remember the first cards I bought as a kid, but I have alot of 1971 Baseball and Football I bought up at our corner store. However I also remember having hockey and basketball cards from a year earlier. I may have acquired them from my older brother though.
Anyway, I love the 1971's of all sports

You probably have the O-Pee-Chee version.

i have one card from this set and it has a yellow back. It says printed in canada. trying to see i can submit an alternate photo

These cards are the first cards I can remember having, they still remain a favorite of mine. Sentimental, I guess.