How did you get started?

[robcynd]

My start for "hockey" cards came in 2008. I'm not sure exactly what my first card was. I think it was some victory.

I do rememer my first "hit" from a legit product.

It was a 08-09 Trilogy pack, and I got a Berglund Premiere.

I love it, and don't think i'll ever stop.

[Slyner77]

Collected like crazy when I was a kid (I'm 24 now). Took some time off during high school to do typical high school stuff, then I started buying stuff again in 05-06 I know I had 7 Crosby YG's in my possession at one point in time mostly from target or walmart blasters (I currently have 0) I traded them for hejduk jerseys and autos etc, not really knowing the value of the Crosby....but I kept buying and learned more and more and really got hooked into the hobby, then I turned 21 and well hockey cards were no longer my interest as I wanted to go out to the bars with all my buddies, well that only lasted about 8 months and I was tired of wasting all that money on going out. So I got back into cards and met my now wife, who was actually pretty into hockey. She didnt know anything about cards, but loved the idea of opening packs and finding cool cards or cards of players she liked, then we found the forums online and began trading, we were crazy into cards. Then we found out we were going to have our first child and decided the smartest thing to do would be to sell our collection and get $$ to buy her crib, clothes, toys, etc....well we began selling a lot of our stuff made probably around 7k in a few months (wasnt expecting that much) Needless to say got everything we wanted to get for Khloe (our daughter) before she was born. Then finally about a month before Khloe was born, we were in the mall and my wife looks at me and says we should go to the card shop and get some packs just for fun, after contemplating this for a bit (I sold 100's of rare Hejduk cards including 1/1's) I decided what the heck lets do it. We had a ton of fun, I think we left the shop with a couple boxes instead of packs. And now here we are again trying to rebuild our Hejduk collection and player PC's of the other guys in our sig and also doing some sets now too, a little bit of everything really. Anyways we both promised we would never sell our hockey card collection again unless it is a last resort of some sort. Sorry for the long read : )

[Wickabee]

Collected / played with cards a lot as a kid in the early 90s. I eventually decided to collect the entire 92-93 US Series 1 set. After a few years of trying that, I gave up on hockey cards as playing drums was a lot more interesting. About a year ago I was doing some cleaning and came across all my old stuff, including that unfinished set. Through trading on sites such as this, I've since finished that set and started collecting others, as well as my Canucks. I still have tons of cards from back then, including the one card I would never, ever trade for anything in existence.
1991-92 Pro-Set Nicklas Lidstrom. The first RC I ever pulled. I was 7.

[Rockstartrev]

I started collecting in 1988. Decided to see what the card craze was all about so I went to the local corner store by the apartment I was living in at the time(I was 9), and bought a few packs of 88-89 O Pee Chee. I remember my first real hit came from one of the packs as I pulled #120(Wayne Gretzky)and was absolutely hooked from that point. I quit the hobby a few times during the "Junk Era" and once in the new millenium, more out of necessity as I had gone through a bad experience at the time. Come 2003, I got hooked again and havent looked back

[Goose97]

Ha ha! Working at a gas station sometime in 1990, behind the counter staring at an open box with packs of 90-91 Upper Deck in it. Tempted, and tempted I was, and bought a pack. Got a Gretzky base out of it.

Didn't really go all out till the following year when Pro-set over produced. UD was a nice product, Score was cheap, and OPC's last year with a piece of gum per pack.

[CoolHandLuke]

This is the first card I know for sure that I pulled in a pack:



This was in 1968, I was six years old and in grade 1. The way we collected back then was to put all cards in one pack using a elastic to hold them. We would bring them to friend or to school to trade them or play the famous closest to the wall game. Mainly the best cards were the one with the most rounder corner on them. The goal of the game was to get the colsest card to the wall and we would win all the cards. At time, if many were playing, you could win a good 20 or 30 cards. A "Coq" french word that we used to design a card that was on the wall and touching the floor at the same time. If two or more card was touching the wall as a "Coq" the one that what touching on the higest part of the wall was wining.

We would also use some cards along with a clip on the wheel of our bike. We like the noise it created. The cards would not last too long!!! and often we would take some of the big name to put on the bike.

Since My father was collecting many things, he always showed me eventually how to sort them and store them, this is why I still have cards from each year since. This was 41 years ago and got over 50,000 cards now.

[NastyPatches]

It was about 3 months ago I was on my way to a pizza place my friend told me to go to but it ended up being closed. Right beside it was a sports card store and since it had been about 10 years when I used to collect (mainly Baseball) I decided to stop in and check it out. Ended up buying an 08-09 spx box and have been hooked on cards since (manly hockey). Its always a ton of fun busting boxes of your favorite product or trying out the new stuff. I'm sure I will continue to collect for a long time!

[2FarGone]

I started way back in 1990 my wife bought me a box of proset hockey and 20 years later I'm still collecting.My main sports now are Hockey and Football.The hobby has certainly changed in the amount of time.I now have close to 150,000 cards.along with my wife our kids are now slowly getting interested in the hobby...

[Pheebs888]

Full story here: https://www.sportscardforum.com/artic...the-beginning/

might as well re-use the article lol

[SkyFire47]

i've always loved goalies the most and collected Patrick Roy and Martin Brodeur as a kid. fast forward to a year or 2 out of college and working and i happen to wander by a comic store that also sells hockey cards. walked in and randomly picked up a box of 05-06 Ice to bring home.

then i pull this bad boy:

05-06 Ice Lundqvist Ice Premieres Patch Auto /10


-favorite team? yup
-goalie? yup
-rookie? yup

figure i'd start collecting this guy. then i learn about the astronomical odds in pulling such a HUGE card and go on ebay. 10 min. later, i won the auction for an HG Glossy Young Guns and the rest is history!