1987 Topps Baseball Forum

I have really enjoyed reading this thread....I stopped at billly and will come back to that later

thanks to all for sharing their stories

mark

My very first card set was the 1967 New Orleans Saints Team - As I have grown you never realize how much stuff you accumulate through the years.  Just last night I completed my card book - at the age of 48 I went through all the card boxes and transferred them to books - I now have the complete set from 1967 - 2015 - all New Orleans Saints, Mostly Topps, there are some Fleer etc.  As a huge fan I am lucky that my wife loves sports as well.  We have a Sports room used to be the man cave.  The man cave is now in the garage. My collection has grown from cards to signed mini helmets, jerseys, footballs, baseballs, bats, etc. Friends actualy come to visit just to see and sit in the room.  There are over 900 autographed items all cased, displayed and certified. What is really funny is that people actually send me things or notify me of items that are available.  

I'm back, and the story continues...

1960s - This decade saw a huge transition in card collecting. In the 60s, I started to add FB cards to my collection, and once again developed a game to use the cards as players. Lotsa fun! However, with JrHigh~HS~College, working, the collecting took a big hit....just no spare time to devote. I also got married, had son#1, moved 3 times, went back to school for my MA. I took my favorite boxes wherever I moved, but stored the rest in my parent's attic along with my massive yearbook collection. The rest of the 60's saw me secure my 1st real job, and started my never ending coaching career.

and then the 70s........to be continued.....

I started collecting mainly football in 1976...I was in 1st grade and there was a drug store on the walk to and  from school. I would always buy wax packs on the way to school. Freinds would trade at recess.  Another tradition was on the way to church choir, my mom and I woulld stop at a drugstore near church for her to get mints, and she would buy me football cards. I would keep them sorted by team in shoeboxes, but already understood the value that they had. I never rubber banded them; kept them in the dark etc.

Started collecting hockey and baseball in the early 80's. We would ride our bikes to a local card shop(LCS) and sit for hours in the store talking to the guy who owned it and other local regulars. In high school, freinds would split hobby boxes and we would do breaks in the store. Trading, buying, sorting. We would help the store owner organize the cards from his huge breaks in exchange for out pick of commons to complete sets. Plus the "hang" was just super cool. We were also allowed to have first choice of RC's and other cool cards as the duplicates piled up.

In the early 90's I decided that living in a van and touring the country playing punk rock was more fun than anythign else, so collecting took a sideline to that for about 10 years. Got back into it in my mid 30's and boy was I overwhelmed!! GU's Relics/Autos' Serial numbers?....packs that were $100 each. An infinite amount of card types and companies...I was floored! I don't see how people keep up, let alone get started in this day.

I decided to pick up where I left off...as a base set and player collector. I could not justify paying more than $5 for a pack, or $100 for a box. I have been happy as a clam ever since! It keeps me busy, and keeps me connected to the games I love: Hockey, football, baseball.

As of now, I have been inventorying all of my cards, and to date have over 27,000. I am only halfway through my 70's 80's and 90's stuff, and am adding as new sets come out.

I have a website with my needs, and what I have:

http://www.jimscardvault.webs.com/

It is rough since I am not an IT guy, but it gets the job done

I was 9, 1975 Topps Mini.  Started football in 1976.  Did baseball and football for maybe 2 years, then concentrated mainly on baseball.  Bought collections from older kids to get large lots of 60s and early 70s cards.  Back then I used boxes and eventually got these paper albums that you slid the cards' corners into, like a picture album.  Boy do I regret that, now two corners of each card has a slight indent across it for my complete sets from 1971 to 1980 (fortunately 1975 mins were too small to fit in the paper albmums).  Got out of collecting in about 82.  Having more than one set (Topps, Donruss, Fleer) to collect, plus all the errors to chase turned me off.  Picked it back up in 1999.  Not sure if that was a good idea, since way too much money is going into this hobby (obsession) and I don't even follow pro baseball anymore.  Maybe that's why I like the Fleer Greats of the Game sets the best.

I like the Greats of the Game too.  Printed on nice  firm stock.

CluelessJoe wrote: I was 9, 1975 Topps Mini.  Started football in 1976.  Did baseball and football for maybe 2 years, then concentrated mainly on baseball.  Bought collections from older kids to get large lots of 60s and early 70s cards.  Back then I used boxes and eventually got these paper albums that you slid the cards' corners into, like a picture album.  Boy do I regret that, now two corners of each card has a slight indent across it for my complete sets from 1971 to 1980 (fortunately 1975 mins were too small to fit in the paper albmums).  Got out of collecting in about 82.  Having more than one set (Topps, Donruss, Fleer) to collect, plus all the errors to chase turned me off.  Picked it back up in 1999.  Not sure if that was a good idea, since way too much money is going into this hobby (obsession) and I don't even follow pro baseball anymore.  Maybe that's why I like the Fleer Greats of the Game sets the best.

Officially, 8 years old. Took my 25-cent allowance to school. During lunch I'd go across the street to the 5 & 10 and buy some cards and Spiderman comics.

Unofficially, 3 years old. I have two 1963 cards that I've always had and still have. My Dad must have given them to me.

the 70s and 80s......

The 1970s didn't produce much more collecting....with 2 more sons to play ball with.....I was very busy working to make a living, support the family and continue coaching for fun. In the early 80s, we relocated to a different part of the state, I collected my special boxes of cards and decided to clear out my long stored collection of vintage cards in my parent's attic. BTW: I always chose action cards to head-shots to keep in the special collection. So I was looking forward to getting all my NRMT portrait cards of Mantle, Mays, Musial and many more all together before we moved south. WELL...they were no more....Mom and Dad decided to insulate the attic, and unbeknownst to all of us, we realized the workers must have walked out with EVERYTHING....sad,,,sad,,,day.

The move went well, the card collection that I had left [boo hoo!] became  really interesting again. I began going to shows, found local card shops to browse...one was a coffee shop / card store that collectors were able to sit around and talk/trade cards and drink coffee, the other was owned by a Mamson look alike lol.....and did he have cards! As time went by, he wanted out of the shop and cards...so with a little inheritance $, I bought them all!  COLLECTING was back! SORTING was back.....I pretty much made up for all those hiatus years and more. I thought, maybe a card shop was in my future, but in the meantime card shows would have to do...the boys were old enough to help, so we did years of card shows with some great stories [ I referred to 2 shows in an earlier thread.] My house wasn't big enough, so I had an addition added. I was back, into it full throttle, mostly BB, collected FB....and regretfully traded all my vintage non-sports cards for BB and FB rookie and star cards.....BIG MISTAKE! I missed those Presidents, Davey Crocketts and Flags cards.

.....to be continued....the 90s.....

I started in 1986 I was 9 years old. I started playing baseball and at the ball field seen packs of 86 Topps and it just went from there was hooked till 1996. i went into the army and spent three years in Germany so couldn't really collect anything. and collected here and there till about 2008. got out in 2011 and started back up. One of biggest supporters of collecting cards was my Grandmother, and she told my wife never to come between me and my cards that she is not only marring me that she is marring my cards too.

1981. Six years old. Started with Topps rack packs my Dad would buy at Toys R Us. Also a lot of the topps scratch off set. My brother, site member Switza, got my doubles. He was one year old at the time, probably the youngest starting age on here. Discovered Donruss and Fleer, as well as Donruss Golf, at a downtown 7/11 that summer. We lived in Oklahoma then. My uncle, two years older than me, was in Illinois. He collected topps basketball, so I would trade him baseball for basketball in the mail.

Moved back to Illinois in 1982. Was surprised when suddenly all the cards in packs looked different. I had no idea that sets had years and new ones would come out every spring. Got a set of 1982 Topps football for birthday or Christmas that year, the first football I remember owning. Collected heavily through the 80s. Then Upper Deck happened, and cards were up around $1 per pack, which was absurd.  Didn't quit though. Hoops got me real into basketball cards. Graduated HS in 92.  Started having money and got heavier into it.

In 2003, I quit my job and moved to Hollywood. Took my collection with me in a Uhaul truck. Quit collecting soon after that but kept my cards. Moved back to Illinois in 2005, this time in a Ford Mustang, which isn't meant for hauling. Sold my entire 20+ year collection for next to nothing because I had no way to move it. Was into other things when I got back. In 2011 I thought it would be fun to buy some wrestling cards. That grew into full-on collecting again real quick. Bought my house in 2013, and my parents said I should take my stuff from their storage unit since this house has an attic. I had never been to the storage unit. Went to load my stuff up, and it Turns out I had left about 40,000 cards behind when I had moved away in '03. Suddenly my collection was fairly large. Found this site not long after, and here I am.