How did you start collecting

[selby56]

I was like any other kid. When we went to Walmart, I always wanted to get a pack or two. I remember when the Fleer Focus cards came out and the front of the packs were clear, so you could see the first card in the pack. I'd sort through each one and get all the ones with Browns players on the front. Those were good days.

[B.I.G.Poppa]

It was a random on and off thing for me. I used to buy basketball packs so I could learn more about basketball players, as I was starting to get into the NBA around the same time. It began to turn into addiction for me, as I begged my parents to buy me packs and those retail packages (150 cards for $5!) almost everyday.

[SportsCardSeller]

I was about 5 or 6 when my uncle had me put all of his cards he was opening from a box of 1986 Topps into 9 pocket pages in a binder. The world hasn't been the same since. Thanks Uncle Rick!

Same for me but when I was like 8 my uncle bought huge boxes of wax packs off of ebay and had loads of cards. He had me help him break them and put them in binder pages.

[gsj68]

i liked the gum and the steeler cards were a bonus

[Bondsaway]

A next door neighbor gave me 3 brown paper bags full of every kind of card. At the time I just put them in my room. I pulled out a few Yankees to use for my bike.

Years later when I was in the USAF I went home and got into the cards. First card I found was a Joe Montana RC card. Those 3 bags held almost every great card imaginable. I thought it was just commons boy was I wrong. But didn't start collecting till I was in the military.

[gladdyontherise]

i thought it was cool..lol

[FrankMcdee]

My grandmother bought a huge stack of baseball cards at a garage sale. They were mostly 71-76 topps. It was 1978 then and I soon put together two sets of 78 topps via buying packs at the grocery store.

[GoJets9096822]

My dads friend got me a complete set of 1987 Topps, and I was hooked.

[key2win]

I first starting collecting basketball cards in 1992. I bought my first box at Price Club (now Costco) which was 91-92 Hoops Series 2. I remember I first wanted the box because of the Barcelona Olympic Cards they made.

[sportyryan101]

My friends and I used to collect and trade back when I was like 5..

I starting collecting back in 1963 when Topps put out the Civil War News cards (and I'm looking to rebuild the set if anyone has some). The buddies I hung out with started to buy Baseball cards and we always traded for the Tiger and put the EVIL Yankees (Mickey Mantle) into our bicycle spokes. Oh how I long to have those back.

When we moved to a smaller house my mother got rid of my cards. In 1996 my son wanted to collect Dennis Rodman. We have a great collection of him now. I started to collect Shareef Abdur-Rahim. I had a wonderful collection of him. I bought a card shop and when it closed down I decided to only collect Football cards. maschmit got most of my Abdur-Rahim collection.

A couple of years ago I sold off everything and re-started and now I collect Lions Auto's. My prize Auto's are Barry Sanders, Bobby Layne, Dick "Night Train" Lane & Doak Walker.

I will alway cherish the memories of my son and myself going to card shows and the way he would wheel and deal for the cards he needed. When we set-up at shows together he would take all the $1-5 cards around to the tables and sell every one of them. Those were some of the best times that we had 1 on 1.

Dan

[Brads55]

I was about 5 or 6 when my uncle had me put all of his cards he was opening from a box of 1986 Topps into 9 pocket pages in a binder. The world hasn't been the same since. Thanks Uncle Rick!

I ran this once on another site and we really got to know the members.

Share with us the story of how you got into collecting and what it means to you.

Dan