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  1. #11




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    I first started ripping packs in 1985-86. Still remember the first card pulled from my first pack of OPC. No idea why I remember it, but it was Mark Napier. Saw the Oilers jersey, only to be disappointed it wasn't a Gretzky.

    Funny! I remember a similar thing happening to me back then with a player named Wayne Presley. Whenever I saw the name "Wayne" peeking out from the side of a card, I got excited. But when I saw the full card I would say "oh man, it's only Wayne Presley" (no offense meant, Mr. Presley).

    Anyhow, here's my story:

    I grew up playing baseball in the 1980s. It was a pretty great time here in New York. The Mets had Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Keith Hernandez. The Yankees had Don Mattingly, Rickey Henderson, Dave Winfield. So the first cards I collected were baseball cards (1984 Topps was the first set of cards I remember collecting).

    But a few years later I met a new friend. He played hockey, as did all of his older brothers (I think there were five of them). I remember going down to his basement to play Nintendo for the first time, and there were bags of hockey equipment everywhere! Eventually they taught me to play the game and I learned about the NHL teams and players. I enjoyed the sport so much that I ended up playing ice hockey at the high school and college level.

    But back to the cards: The first packs of hockey cards I bought were from the 1988-89 Topps set (rookie cards of Hull, Turgeon, Shanahan, Nieuwendyk). I don't remember the very first card out of the very first pack, but I do remember getting excited when I pulled cards of some of the big-name players like Lemieux, Roy, Gretzky.

    I stopped collecting in the 1990s, but rediscovered my childhood collection a few years ago. Been dabbling in the hobby ever since. I'm mostly focusing on completing a few sets, and also adding some vintage and autographed cards to my collection.

  2. #12





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    Similar to satchmo1927, I started collecting baseball cards (Griffey Jr and Ripken Jr) and stopped in middle school. Then a couple years ago I was talking to a coworker and cards somehow came up. Did a little research and bought into a 2 box SPGU break from 450 Sports on ebay. A 6 jersey all star card was hit and I got it in the random thanks to Jakub Voracek and the rest is a couple year old history. Shortly into the new hobby I decided to try to focus on Ryan Miller and Justin Abdelkader (both Spartan grads, I was a student when Abby scored the nation championship goal) as the 13/14 and older Sabres breaks are usually on the cheaper side.

  3. #13




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    Great stories everyone! Let's keep going!

  4. #14





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    Hi. I'm Mike, and I am a card addict. It all started in 1989...

    I grew up in the Bay Area in CA, and we didn't have hockey after the Seals left (before I was old enough to go to games). So I never followed hockey. I played baseball since I was 7. I collected a few baseball cards as a kid, but only accumulated a shoebox full, and none of it was worth much. Got bored with it as I hit high school, and they stayed in my bedroom closet for the next 15 years or so. (Luckily, they were still there later after I got addicted again.)

    Then I met a guy who got me into card collecting again (and I curse Tony's name every day!!!). I went to a card show once in 1989, and I was infected with the disease. I spent the next five years or so spending just about all the disposable cash I had on stuff that turned out to be worthless (90-95 were dark days for baseball card collecting). I collected a little of everything, but mostly baseball. I stopped collecting when the bottom fell out of the market, and basically avoided it for about 6 or 7 years.

    When I injured my shoulder and stopped playing baseball for good when I was 41, an interesting thing happened. I started to lose interest in baseball. I gave up my Nationals season tickets, I stopped playing fantasy baseball, and I stopped following baseball. (When the SF Giants won their first WS in 2010, I didn't even know they were in the playoffs until my brother asked me where I was going to watch the Series.) As I stopped paying attention to baseball, I started getting into hockey. It also helped that I had met my wife a few years before, and she already had Capitals season tickets!

    So when eTopps started up with the whole web-based collecting scam, I bought in again and wasted a lot more money. I was so into it then I was selling at shows about 2-3 times a year. Then when the lockout hit and eTopps stopped selling hockey cards, I stopped that, but I still had the bug. By this time, I was collecting solely hockey cards, and I haven't bought a pack of baseball (or anything else) cards in more than 15 years. Now that I am older and wiser, I can somewhat control my addiction. I still can't cutoff completely, but at least I can prevent the "benders" where I get out of control. It is also not as destructible as it was because I make a little bit of money now, so I can afford a disposable income hobby. My attitude now is that any money I spend on cards will be totally wasted/gone, so I only spend money I don't care about and won't miss. "Investing" in cards is about the stupidest thing anyone could do, and if you don't spend 100% of your time doing it (and lie and cheat half the time) you'll never make any money doing it.

    So to make a short story long...

    My very first hockey card I purchased at that very first card show: 1989 Topps Joe Sakic RC

    I still have that card.

  5. #15




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    I remember when i was little my dad was heavily into setting up at shows as a dealer up in North Jersey, and I would hide underneath the table and rip off all the protective plastics on the 1994-95 finest hockey commons my dad didnt want XD. Earliest box I remembered him ripping was a 1995 select certified football box. I didn't start collecting MYSELF until about 2004, that's when I remember buying my own packs for the first time for football. I collected football heavily up until about the 2010-11 season where I got into hockey and its been hockey primarily since. Wasn't a hockey fan til that year too so I have my friends to thank! My first hockey box was a blaster of 10-11 upper deck and I got a pk subban rookie materials in it..
    Avid New Jersey Devils Collector/Cam Janssen Supercollector.
    Always looking for Patty Elias, Cam Janssen, and other Retired Devils Autos/Patches/and Low Serial Numbered Rookies.
    as well as Rangers Cards also. I BUY LOTS
    Find me on Instagram Demayonaise91

  6. #16




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    Hi Mike!

    Seems like you're well along on the 12-step program. We're all proud of you. ;-)



    Hi. I'm Mike, and I am a card addict. It all started in 1989...

    I grew up in the Bay Area in CA, and we didn't have hockey after the Seals left (before I was old enough to go to games). So I never followed hockey. I played baseball since I was 7. I collected a few baseball cards as a kid, but only accumulated a shoebox full, and none of it was worth much. Got bored with it as I hit high school, and they stayed in my bedroom closet for the next 15 years or so. (Luckily, they were still there later after I got addicted again.)

    Then I met a guy who got me into card collecting again (and I curse Tony's name every day!!!). I went to a card show once in 1989, and I was infected with the disease. I spent the next five years or so spending just about all the disposable cash I had on stuff that turned out to be worthless (90-95 were dark days for baseball card collecting). I collected a little of everything, but mostly baseball. I stopped collecting when the bottom fell out of the market, and basically avoided it for about 6 or 7 years.

    When I injured my shoulder and stopped playing baseball for good when I was 41, an interesting thing happened. I started to lose interest in baseball. I gave up my Nationals season tickets, I stopped playing fantasy baseball, and I stopped following baseball. (When the SF Giants won their first WS in 2010, I didn't even know they were in the playoffs until my brother asked me where I was going to watch the Series.) As I stopped paying attention to baseball, I started getting into hockey. It also helped that I had met my wife a few years before, and she already had Capitals season tickets!

    So when eTopps started up with the whole web-based collecting scam, I bought in again and wasted a lot more money. I was so into it then I was selling at shows about 2-3 times a year. Then when the lockout hit and eTopps stopped selling hockey cards, I stopped that, but I still had the bug. By this time, I was collecting solely hockey cards, and I haven't bought a pack of baseball (or anything else) cards in more than 15 years. Now that I am older and wiser, I can somewhat control my addiction. I still can't cutoff completely, but at least I can prevent the "benders" where I get out of control. It is also not as destructible as it was because I make a little bit of money now, so I can afford a disposable income hobby. My attitude now is that any money I spend on cards will be totally wasted/gone, so I only spend money I don't care about and won't miss. "Investing" in cards is about the stupidest thing anyone could do, and if you don't spend 100% of your time doing it (and lie and cheat half the time) you'll never make any money doing it.

    So to make a short story long...

    My very first hockey card I purchased at that very first card show: 1989 Topps Joe Sakic RC

    I still have that card.


  7. #17




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    Good stories so far. It appears that i may be one of the older "collectors" on here.
    My story starts many many many years ago, in the late 60's early 70's. I was probably 14 or 15 at the time. Once a week or so i would walk to the corner store to buy a treat, would buy a bottle of pop and a pack or 2 of hockey cards depending how much change i had. At that time i wasn't a collector in terms of trying to complete the set. Just bought them to see the cards, and of course to use them to play with other friends to win their cards. We played various games that ultimately damaged the cards, especially the corners. Throw them against the wall, flip them etc. So if you lost all your cards to someone else, tough luck lol, and you buy more when you have the chance.

    Fast forward about 10 years later, I hadn't thought about my hockey cards at all, was living on my own, going to work every day. I got a call from my mother who told me they sold the house as they were moving down east to a house that's been in the family for a long time, and she inherited it. She told me they were cleaning out my old room and found a few things and asked if i wanted them, or throw them out. She mentioned some MAD magazines, and some old Circus magazines. I said throw them out. She mentioned she found a small box of hockey cards. For some reason I said I'd like to have those. As it turn out they were various cards from 74-75 and 75-76 OPC. And yes the corners are beat to death, the surfaces are a little rough on a few of them, and the checklist card has some of the boxes penciled in beside the name of some of the cards i had at one time or another. There is even a WHA card in the stack too. One of the cards is a "rookie" of Glenn Resh, Islanders goalie.
    That did not get me into buying more cards however.
    I did though get back into it heavily in the 90's/early 2000's then gave it up for a while, then got back into it in 2009-10, stopped again till about 2013-14 to today but i'm buying/collecting very little these days.
    Currently i am now the owner of the house down east as I inherited the house from my mother about 10 years ago now.
    And as i type this, behind me in a shoe box of cards, is that box of cards from long long ago that my mother thought i'd like to have.
    Oh yea, first ever card? No idea lol

  8. #18




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    Cool story!

    It's interesting to see how so many collectors end up coming back to the hobby at some point.


    Good stories so far. It appears that i may be one of the older "collectors" on here.
    My story starts many many many years ago, in the late 60's early 70's. I was probably 14 or 15 at the time. Once a week or so i would walk to the corner store to buy a treat, would buy a bottle of pop and a pack or 2 of hockey cards depending how much change i had. At that time i wasn't a collector in terms of trying to complete the set. Just bought them to see the cards, and of course to use them to play with other friends to win their cards. We played various games that ultimately damaged the cards, especially the corners. Throw them against the wall, flip them etc. So if you lost all your cards to someone else, tough luck lol, and you buy more when you have the chance.

    Fast forward about 10 years later, I hadn't thought about my hockey cards at all, was living on my own, going to work every day. I got a call from my mother who told me they sold the house as they were moving down east to a house that's been in the family for a long time, and she inherited it. She told me they were cleaning out my old room and found a few things and asked if i wanted them, or throw them out. She mentioned some MAD magazines, and some old Circus magazines. I said throw them out. She mentioned she found a small box of hockey cards. For some reason I said I'd like to have those. As it turn out they were various cards from 74-75 and 75-76 OPC. And yes the corners are beat to death, the surfaces are a little rough on a few of them, and the checklist card has some of the boxes penciled in beside the name of some of the cards i had at one time or another. There is even a WHA card in the stack too. One of the cards is a "rookie" of Glenn Resh, Islanders goalie.
    That did not get me into buying more cards however.
    I did though get back into it heavily in the 90's/early 2000's then gave it up for a while, then got back into it in 2009-10, stopped again till about 2013-14 to today but i'm buying/collecting very little these days.
    Currently i am now the owner of the house down east as I inherited the house from my mother about 10 years ago now.
    And as i type this, behind me in a shoe box of cards, is that box of cards from long long ago that my mother thought i'd like to have.
    Oh yea, first ever card? No idea lol


  9. #19




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    My story is similar to some of yours.

    Started in 1990 and continued through 99-00. I was young, so never could afford more than a pack or two at a time. Only ripped 3 complete boxes that entire span and I still remember them vividly - 91-92 Pro Set Platinum S2, 93-94 UD S2, and 98-99 Pacific.
    I picked it back up briefly during/after college from 05 to 08.
    In 2016 I couldn't sleep one night and read an online story about the value of hockey cards. I decided to look on Ebay to see what '90s boxes were going for. Remember, I could never afford these boxes at the time and a sealed box was like the holy grail. I made the fateful decision to buy a few. Ripped 'em and loved it! Decided to try to collect 1 sealed box of each 90s product and also put together a Blues collection. Haven't looked back since and have been collecting hard using some new strategies to keep costs down.

  10. #20




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    Anyone else want to share their story?

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