1978 Topps Baseball Forum

The first cards I was given were 1977 Topps. I was old enough to bike to the convenience store and buy my own with 1980 Topps. I distinctly remember going to that store in 1981 and wondering what fleer and donruss were. So many choices! I first tried to put a complete set together via packs in 1984 and 1985. But it was so costly getting the last cards. I bought my first complete set in 1986 and have every year since. 

https://www.tcdb.com/ViewSet.cfm/sid/9500/1971-O-Pee-Chee-CFL

This was the first set I remember; I actually did not mind the red borders back then but I hate the 1990 Donruss borders.  I also remember putting together a hockey set with my meager allowance in the early 70s, along with some baseball.  I never continued collecting much after that as the small town I grew up near by did not have much in sports cards.

I got back into it in 1990 while in Florida for Spring Training.  I learned my lessons of what is really worth collecting (not as an investment but as nostalgia) and started focussing on vintage and OPC in the mid-90s. I now have partial sets of all sets from 1948 Bowman to the present with many complete.  And when I say partial, I mean many are over the 50% mark including the early 50s with some of the major cards in them already.  Of course, Mantle is missing the most in the majority of the sets.

I am loving this discussion... keep it going!

For me, I remember picking up packs of cards when I played little league in the late 70s.  After each game we would all get a ticket that we could use for any single item in the snack bar.  Most kids would get candy but my friends and I would pick up packs of baseball cards.  We'd sit on a rock and rip open the packs looking for Yankees, which were the only cards that mattered to us then.  I'd take the cards home and keep them in a little metal box that I had on the floor of my closet.

I didn't get serious about collecting until 1986.  My grandmother took my cousin and I to a retail supply store and picked up two of the boxes of wax packs, one for each of us.  We spent the rest of that day opening packs, comparing and trading to build that set.  That was the same year my dad started taking me to baseball card shows to see if we could find dealers selling commons to complete that set.  As a side bonus, the shows my dad took me too always had players signing so we started picking up signed balls at each show... Mantel, Dimagio, Pete Rose, Billy Marttin, etc and my dad would snap a picture of each as I handed them the ball to sign.  Been hooked ever since and now my son and I go to card shows and go to Cooperstown every year to pick up a couple new signed balls.  We're up over 70 hall of famers and several others who aren't in the hall.  Even my daughter started getting into the hobby this year looking at Pokemon and other odd ball cards (she's not a sports fan) but she's enjoying card shows and wants to go when they come up.  (side note, if anyone has pokemon cards, hit me up and I'll see if she wants them for something I can trade back from my cards)

When I was a kid in the 60's my money was split between baseball cards and Tastykakes

The -6 years rule is pretty close for me too.  The first set I collected was 1986 Topps Baseball.  I still have hundreds of the cards I collected that summer, bent corners, pinholes (for displaying on my bulletin board) and all.  I'm moving to a new house soon and am looking for a way to display them as some kind of tacky, wife discouraged wall decor.  Stay tuned!

Yes, 1978 Topps Baseball. First cards I purchased with money earned from working while in High School. Great set with many memories. My parents had purchased cards for me from the 1972 Topps set, which I love as well. But the 1978 set has more memories  since it was the first set that I traded cards with a friend at the time. I don't recall if penny sleeves, top loaders, or poly sheets were even available then, so it was rubber bands and shoe box storage for my cards (yikes).

Great thread all.