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How did you get hooked?


Mr. P

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What got you into cards in the first place? Was it a particular player, sport, or card that first pulled you in? Maybe it was a relative, someone who passed along their love of collecting to you...

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For me, it was a combination of multiple factors...

 

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One day in the early '80s (I was about 9 years old) my mom came home from yard sale shopping and brought home a shoebox full of assorted cards. Some kid had graduated from high school and his mom cleaned out his room. Granted, there wasn't anything of real value in there, but it was a treasure trove for me. Star Wars and E.T. and Indiana Jones cards, with various late-70s/early-80s sports luminaries sprinkled throughout. Your basic '84 Topps Dale Murphy was probably the biggest prize of the package.

 

Cards were ridiculously cheap and ubiquitous at the time. Literally every gas station and convenience store had shelf space for cards. You could buy a couple packs, a Twix bar, and a handful of Super Bubble gum for under a dollar. My collection grew from that single shoebox into my dad's old tackle box, then a cheap toolbox, and eventually a worn out footlocker.

 

By the time that "peak card collecting" occurred in the '90s, my brother and I had multiple chests of d-ring binders full of our choice premium cards, with footlockers holding complete sets.

 

In the early '00s a housefire completely destroyed everything we'd collected for nearly 20 years, including my own personal sports memorabilia and a box of love letters that I'd kept from junior high.

 

 

All that is left are the memories.

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We had a goody box in 1st grade that after you did your reading you got to choose a prize. I still have that beauty with its rounded and dog eared corners. That 1990 Topps Jose Canseco started it. The gas stations in Rhonesboro and Rosewood feed the habit locally. Walmart was when I really got hooked. D ring binders. Sorting and re sorting based upon coolness of that days players. Sneaking a dollar out of my grandmothers purse to buy a 1992 Topps Stadium Club Jay Novacek. Buying shoe boxes and binders off buddies when they outgrew their collections.

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It just came naturally since I loved sports. I thought it was cool back in the day that you could play a game of baseball with them. You'd shuffle the cards by mixing them up, and on the back they had walk, single, double, triple, home run, strike out, fly out, infield out on the back next to the stats. I forgot what year that was I want to say 1977 Topps. I hated when they had an out for one of my favorite players. I wish I would have kept all the cards that I collected, but I'd always keep my Yankees, Astros, Cowboys, and Oilers cards plus the star player cards back in the day. Instead we'd use them with clothes pins on our bike to make them sound like motorcycles. The more cards you used the louder the sound. One of my good friends back in the day was a Steelers fan and I'd give him all my Steelers cards, and he'd give me all his Cowboys cards. That was the only trading that I did.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Started when I was a kid. Sports cards, Evel Knievel, Kiss, etc. Also with Hot Wheels, G.I. Joe, comic books, and music (45s, 33s, 8-track). But as an adult I found myself only with the music items and comics from my childhood. Then it happened. A son was born, thus ushering in a new era of collecting. I said it was "for the boy". My wife said "Yeah, Whatever!!". Cards, memorabilia, autographed items, game day collectibles...enough stuff to fill man cave. And now, with 5 boys, (who love sports and music) and thousands of items to ponder at, Its a great feeling to share such a passion.

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