How did you start your card collecting obsession?

[Tom12]

I started mine when I was in year 3 (2006) and I went to a newsagency with my nan and she asked me whether I wanted to get a comic or anything like that. I was looking around and couldn't find anything I wanted but then I saw this box of teamcoach and it was love at first sightI got 2 packs and it was the most fun I'd ever had opening the packs and remember being the happiest kid alive getting Joel Bowden common So how did your obsession start?

 

[Lions2003]

bowden common

In 2007 i bought a few packs of champs then i got the folder, then i just kept buying & buying em & end up becoming obsessed & buying way to many packs each year of champs ; then i found out about scond series & i went broke, now i collect NBA aswell (to put a long story short )!!!

 

[magohaydz]

I started mine back in 1990 when the Ninja Turtles first movie came out. I ended up getting the entire set of them - that was alot of gum! I still have the set, though being 9 years old and knowing nothing about collecting and preserving cards, and the fact they are now 20 years old, they are pretty trashed (still not as bad as those Jordan Rookie cards in the other thread though).

That was the end of cards for me until I was 13 and we went on a family caravaning holiday from Bridgetown to Broome for 3 weeks on the road. At the time Chicken Treat had a deal where if you got some certain meal deal they gave you a pack of 93-94 Hoops cards. The obsession was struck from the first pack. In hindsight thats a really bad idea - giving people collector cards after they eat the greasiest substance known to man.

 

[GiRDS-]

collected every single select release from 2000 - 2004 with my dad then they released a ****ty second set , like accolade, tradition and champs, so we stopped, then when the cetenary cards came out we sold everything and just collected them and are still collecting them.

 

[ratsdm]

Panini's Return of the Jedi sticker album back in about 1984. then i moved to Australia as a 10 year old in 1986, got into Aussie rules to assimilate, which meant collecting footy cards. That grew into NBA cards as a late teen.

Then had a few years off and last year my wife bought me a pack of footy cards as a bit of a joke, now i am obsessed again!!

 

[boofhead]

On friday night in the 70,s my dad used to bring me home a pack AFL scanlens cards.
Ive been collecting Hawthorn cards ever since.I wish i still had the cards from then in mint condition.
We used to carry the cards in our pockets with a rubber band around them.

 

[tangent]

Excellent thread Tom. In about 1985, DC Comics rebooted their entire line (original Crisis). I started seriously collecting mainstream DC comics from that point on. About 10 years later I went to a collectables fair to look for comics and found a few DC comics card sets so picked them up as they were cheap. That broadened my obsession to all things DC and I picked up phonecards, pogs etc. Eventually eBay came along and I realised that international shipping for comics wasn't worth it due to the high weight, but cards were relatively cheap to ship. I still have standing orders for comics, but don't actively try and fill my gaps. Cards, however, have taken over since they are not only cheap to ship but also much more convenient to store. Once my gaps became impossible to fill, I broadened my collection to Stargate and a few other entertainment products.

 

[Lions2003]

Some sweet reads there fella's, keep it up :v:

 

[taffster74]

Back in about 1980. At first it was the old Scanlen NSWRL cards and Cricket cards... I'd just buy and buy packs with my pocket money (back then they were like about 15-20 cent's a pack!!!) and whatever change was left out of runs to the cornershop for milk or bread. But of course, being a young whipper-snapper (I was five when i started collecting), if I didn't have a full set at the end of the season, I'd throw all of my cards in the trash. I'm talking rookie cards of the likes of Mal Meninga ('81 state of origin), Wally Lewis (81 state of origin), Guru Growthe, Sterling, Mortimer (all three), Cliff Lyons, Fatty Vaughn, Wayne Pierce, Allan Border, the Waugh Twins, McGrath, Healy, Hughes... just to name a few. Of course when Return of the Jedi came out, I got that also (had the complete set - had being the word here). After that, it was the Transformer's set - am still missing #18 Optimus Prime Fact file. Of course, my TF set is in pretty bad condition (rubber bands, flicks etc). I dropped out of collecting cards after that until 1995 when I started with NBA basketball. My bkball cards and all cards bought since then are in very good condition - either in folders (PC's, AU's, GU's), Snap-lock or screwdowns (high $$), clear cases or collector boxes.

 

[onvison]

I used to buy packs when i was in grade school at 13, i would use my lunch money to get one pack of 1993 Fleer from a consignment shop on the way home from school. One day I pulled the lottery exchange card. The Owner begged me to sell him the card for 100 bucks but I refused and decided to send it in. I still have the set and since you can pick this set up on ebay for about 10 bucks, I made the wrong choice lol. Too bad it wasnt 92, shaq would have paid off. Anyway that card is what got me hooked.

 

[ratsdm]

I used to buy packs when i was in grade school at 13, i would use my lunch money to get one pack of 1993 Fleer from a consignment shop on the way home from school. One day I pulled the lottery exchange card. The Owner begged me to sell him the card for 100 bucks but I refused and decided to send it in. I still have the set and since you can pick this set up on ebay for about 10 bucks, I made the wrong choice lol. Too bad it wasnt 92, shaq would have paid off. Anyway that card is what got me hooked.

I pulled one of those cards too, and I have been waiting since then for the set to skyrocket in value!!!!

 

[Tom12]

Some good stories

 

[skip20]

Started in primary school with Ninja Turtle Cards - still missing 4 for the whole set! Then i moved onto Stimorol / Scanlens AFL cards after finishing my footy games and Dad would buy me and my brother a couple packs each. In highschool the basketball fad was on and I started with the early and mid 90s Hoops, Fleer, Topps and UpperDeck. Got a few sets but was out of the hobby until just a couple of years ago when I got back into things through ebay and this great site!

 

[kingjack]

Well it all started one weekend a year or 2 ago when i went away with the member on here jacko he bought a box of teamcoach and busted a Rhys Palmer starwild card. I knew i wanted one of these "wildcards" So i went and bought like 100 packs of teamcoach and never hit one. Then oneday i finnaly hit one but it was Matt Campbell. I then decided buying packs was useless so i started to collect Swan because he is my favourite player and had very few cards to track down. And now i have finished my PC im just picking up random things.

 

[w4nted]

Back in the late 80s NBA was huge at Primary school. Not sure why it was NBA and not AFL... So thats where it started. I used to collect Fleer mainly, but also some Skybox and Upper Deck. I did also collect AFL, but i have nothing to show for it now. And if i did, id be in the same boat as Magohaydz... they'd be in bad condition. From there it branched out into Xmen.
Most recently i started collecting 2 sets of Herald Sun cards, one each for my sons. I figured id collect a third set for me and that way we'd have more swap options. Big mistake! I enjoyed collecting the Sharp Shooters and Best & Fairest cards more than them. I really wanted to finish those sets, so i googled card trading and found this site I completed all three sets (including inserts) but by then i was hooked... so i dug out my incomplete Xmen set from the 90s to have a crack at finishing it (still trying to find more to finish that set too). From there i discovered Select Champions and Teamcoach and of course Prestige. Every day i seem to find something else that i want be it sets from previous years i.e. Medal, AAs etc... or now its non-sport i.e. sketch cards and base sets from TV shows from my childhood.

 

[package]

Yeah, i used to BORROW 40c from my parents wallet and buy a pack of footy cards every now and then in the mid-late 80s. Then sure enough by the time I had a Job at Maccas at age 15, the big card boom hit! So my first paycheck went on a lockerbox of UD 93/94 and quite a few packs of 93/94 Series 1 hobby. Hit a Karl Malone flight team and traded up for a few more packs and the rest is history...

 

[Verse1]

wow cool stories guys. Mine started when i was in year 3 back in the 80's with ARL and Batman the Movie cards. We used to play flicks to win each others cards

I sort of stopped for a year then got into the Ninja Turtles in yr 5 or 6 then got into NBA in Yr 7 when i started high school (it was massive back then with card shops in every suburb). Stopped when MJ retired after the 96 championship for about 15 years then started getting back into basketball and it got me think about my card collecting back in the days so checked out ebay and found Gary (westriot) and bought a few boxes pulled some sick cards at i was obsessed all over again

 

[hodgie]

I agree, great thread Tom. My dad use to bring home a packed of Scanlen footy cards, probably 79,80 ish. I had a great collection and use to put them on the floor and look at them, I also BORROWED money from mum and dad ( I dont recommend this to any youngsters out there) and would buy packets just to get more cards.

Anyway, one day my beautiful mother decided to throw them in the bin as they were to messy in the draw. This was to teach me a lesson about keeping things clean. So I learnt my lesson, and even now I still reminder that most of those cards command nice $$.

Since I began to earnt money at 13 I began buying my own cards and have never looked back. I collected footy, basketball and cricket but it became costly to keep up so I sold all of my footy and basketball to concentrate on cricket. I now collect for my son, hopefully one day he to will love cricket and collecting cards as my dada and I did.

AHHHH, the memories.

Craig

 

[A_Iverson_I]

There are a few other threads like this, so not gonna go into the whole story again lol...... all I'll say is it was because of McGyver..... if you wanna know the full story I'm sure you can find it in the older threads!

At the time Chicken Treat had a deal where if you got some certain meal deal they gave you a pack of 93-94 Hoops cards.

Haha...... I remember that!!

 

[package]

VERSE1. Lol. I remember playing flicks for the batman cards. Had so many in that little box under your desk in year 5. I remember playing for what we called "100 down" where it was 1 flick for 100 cards. Could be where my gambling addiction came from?