How'd you start collecting?

adhunt99 · Jul 17, 2007

Just a thread I thought would be cool to know;

How did you all get into collecting cards?!

For me, I started when I was a little tacker in about 94, the 94/95 Fleer was the first set I got into, then the next years Fleer was also very good. This of course back in the day where an auto was 1:46,000,000,000,000 packs! The UD cards I didn't really like back then, except for ones like the 'electric court' and whatever that sort was a bit later on that was a parallel with holodraphic writing instead of gold on the cards... someone had a hill rc of it on here the other day!

Then I stopped for a while (read 15 years) cuz it just wasn't cool to collect cards once NBA was never televised and my beloved Tassie Devils folded.

Then one day I noticed that cards now had little pieces of jersey in them... Hang on, this is cool!! The first one I got was a D Rob ulitmate patch, still have it. Going to NY, meeting Gil etc, all made the obsession even worse! About $7k later here I am, practically drowning in the buggers!

So... what's your story

wolvesjr34 · Jul 17, 2007

It's such an addiction.... OMG - you know my story mate... but yeah nice to hear more of your story

I'm buggered from dealing with cards for the past 10 hours today LOL I'm not done either.

wjrwebber · Jul 17, 2007

I too started in 94/95, but it was Hoops, not Fleer. I liked the little potraits on the back of the cards and the full stats (you only had 5 or 6 years on the Fleer cards). Not knowing a whole lot you tended to get ripped off a beeing 8 an all though.

As I got older I ended up buying all of my friends collections over the years and it just kept mounting. It stayed quiet for a few years (damn you pokemon, I spent too much money on you!) Then I got a birthday present of around 3000 cards a few years back and started picking up more and more.

Then when I started at this site I decided to start player collecting which I hadn't done since my earlier days with the Mailman.

chadjaja · Jul 17, 2007

Had an Auntie that lived in the US that brought my brother and I packs of fleer back in 1986. Was hooked when I pulled Larry Bird card and its continued pretty much since without much break.

Moved onto Vintage a few years ago.

HBM · Jul 17, 2007

About 92-93, picked up a few boxes of cards for a mate while in the States and brought them back. From these boxes he produced three Michael Jordan rookie cards. He'd already paid for the boxes, all I had to do was pick them up in NYC for him while there. Dunno why he didn't trust the post...

Anyway, after being indoctrinated by him, said yes to opening a small card business at the back of a newsagency in Kensington. Then, in around 93-94, basketball cards took off, AFL cards were starting to be produced to a higher level and things really took off.

By Late 97, I could see the writing on the wall and sold my half of the business to the owner of the newsagency. When my mate did the same six months later, it went down the shitter and closed for good a few months after that. Apparently, the owner died about 6-7 years ago and STILL had all the old stock at his house, including several boxes of Finest from the years 93-94 to 97-98. If I could just get my hands on them...

During this time, I fell in love with collecting, and though I don't go overboard by any stretch of the imagination, it's still my vice in a way, and I spend more than I can afford on it.

spcard · Jul 17, 2007

93-94 Hoops, First pack ever pulled Zo Gold, No bad for a year 7 Kid.

nandalinnaung · Jul 17, 2007

Don't really remember, but I started collecting Horace Grant and Penny Hardaway in 94-95 season.. as i support Magic...

pennysdaman · Jul 17, 2007

I started collecting back in 93, i remember buy my very first pack of 92 93 UD and pulling the Jordan In Your FAce Dunk card......and it all started from there....had a few years off between 98 and 03 and started to replenih my Penny PC.......

BENNYBOI · Jul 18, 2007

Around 92-93 Got a Pack of Upper Deck and it went on from there started collecting Jordan a bit later then Shaq then Penny i was a walking beckett lol
i was obsessed
around 95-96 started to cool of a bit still brought a pack here and there stopped totally around 96-97

A few months ago my cousin was goin on about how cheap boxes were on ebay and i though ah what the hell ill get a couple
and now im back into it mainly collecting Jordans.
picked up some gr8 deals off ebay but i dont go overboard i get what i can afford but that will probably change down the track lol

ozflava · Jul 18, 2007

Cards all started for me with this sweet import store on Bourke Street, Melbourne around 1990-91. (no longer there) It was called Heaven and they imported stuff from America (loved the Gatorade gum they had). Anyways they used to sell the 1990 Fleer and we got hooked. It spiraled from there, and then crashed down about 96. I had my own store at age 15 back in 92......well I sweet talked my way into a book store and they let me run it. Those were good times.....made a tonne of cash. I remember trading a bunch of base to a kid for his Modra Cazaly greats "marks of the century" card.....it was awesome.

Then cards dried up, and they were really hard to come by where I lived. It wasn't until I moved to the US and was in Walmart one day and saw a bunch of packs. You can blame my resurgence into cards on 04-05 Fleer Genuine, love that series. Anyways thats the story (still have all my collections from the early days....Mullin, Timmy Hardaway, Spree, Shawn Bradley......and my buddies Dave Robinson cards)

cliffy21 · Jul 18, 2007

Nice taking a trip down memory lane! I started on 94'95 Ultra. Pulling an insert every pack got me hooked - those inserts were in reasonable demand back then Moved on to every Ultra brand with the occassional fleer, topps and upper deck. Didn't like UD and Topps very much in these days. Stopped when cards dried up after 97'98 but still had 95'96 Ultra insert sets that needed that one damn card to complete them So 10 years later I drove past an advert for card shows so contacted Sonny (Sashsquach) about those little buggers I still needed and he referred me to this great site and the rest is history

breakerswitch · Jul 18, 2007

Started back in 91-92 and was instantly hooked when I pulled a tim hardaway rookie card out of a pack of fleer. Then the card crazy stores started up and i just turned into a complete crack head for bball cards. Pretty much every kid at my school collected and we had great fun convincing the younger kids to trade their good cards for our crappy ones and for some reason trying to memorise the stats on the back of cards.
After card crazy went down hill and noone collected anymore I just stored all my old cards and started collecting kids. Then saw a few packs for sale one day last year and pulled a Tmac floor card and a dual auto and instantly turned into a fiend again. And here I am just loving it. BRING BACK CARD CRAZY!!!

cliffy21 · Jul 18, 2007

u memorised the stats? LMAO

ducky_poo · Jul 18, 2007

1st ever card was a greg anthony 93-94 fleer base and thats what started me.

1st pack was 94-95 fleer and pulled a shaq allstar. loved the design and kept on buying packs. used to get 3 packs a week from my parents from my allowance. lol. moved onto 95-96 and started 96-97 until the card shop i would get em from closed down and could find anywhere else that had em.

until i looked at my mj collection prob 2003/04 and thought mmmmmmmm wonder if id get anything for em on ebay and well thats that

adhunt99 · Jul 18, 2007

Keep the replies coming it's interesting to hear that the die-off of cards in australia was pretty much the same around the country in the late 90's!
We only had one dedicated card store in Hobart, Bills Sportscards - I remember buying one pack of the Topps SC 93/93 and pulling a shaq rookie, the owner just laughed my fav pull back in the days was a Jason Kidd finest mystery refractor! when i pulled it it was booked at $80 i was over the moon, in fact I think that card may still be at my parents house somewhere!

adhunt99 · Jul 18, 2007

ducky_poo said:
1st pack was 94-95 fleer and pulled a shaq allstar. loved the design and kept on buying packs.

I was thinking only last night I'd love to find the set of that year's allstar cards, all bumpy they were very cool!

breakerswitch · Jul 18, 2007

cliffy21 said:
u memorised the stats? LMAO

lol we even had competitions.

Matt26 · Jul 18, 2007

Great thread!

I started collecting back in 93/94 whe the Magic drafted Penny Hardaway.

Basketball collecting took off big time when a card shop opened not far from home. I remember going in there buying packs of Hoops hoping for a Penny Gold medallion RC and trying to save up for the Bird/Magic dual Hoops Gold commemorative card.

I had 3 shops in the local shopping centre selling cards, mates at school wheeling and dealing them and most of the local newsagents selling packs and becketts.

Those were great days! Except for the double beckett prices which was the norm!

Around 95 the local card shop got taken over by new people and with this the new owner and myself became really good mates.I ended working at the shop most weeks, after school or in the holidays. I also got to help out at the big shows at Parramatta Town Hall too....most time payment was in Food, Boxes or cards I wanted.

I also used to catch the train to Parramatta on my days off (Tough Stuff and Beckett in hand) to check out the cards at the 3 main stores there.

At the local shop we would sit busting boxes of Fleer/Stadium Club/Skybox/UD/Finest etc......though we had to cut back busting boxes of Topps Chrome! Way too expensive.

Met many great people working there and saw many great cards being pulled......Jordan Legacy #23/150, many Kobe Topps Chrome Rookie cards the list goes on. Also saw some awesome collections people had.

Around 98/99 the shop stopped making money and it closed.

Around that time I also lost interest with collecting.

A few years ago, a mate mentioned that a store selling Basketball stuff had opened in Parramatta and they had some cards. I checked out their store and their message board and it led me to this site.....the rest is history.

Cheers
Matt

SPREE FAN · Jul 18, 2007

i started in 92-93, had to get me a shaq rc..........now i have 3

it did pretty much spiral out of control, i have so many complete sets from 88-89 till 95-96.upper deck , fleer , topps , you name it i collected it.

it all stopped for me about 97 or 98, where there wasn't many places where you could get cards and the prices had gone from like $2 - $4 per pack to a minimum $10 per pack

i started back up when i first went to the states in 2001, where i pulled my first ever auto, i couldn't believe i pulled a tim duncan auto, so i frantically searched the pack for the odds of pulling an auto, and it was odds of 1:24 packs from memory........................gone were the days of "auto's found 1:2,734 packs

i have always been a sprewell fan (ever since i saw him drop 43 points in a college game) so i thought what better time to try and complete spree's master set, little did i know he had over 2000 cards to collect.

till this day i still need about 400 spree cards and have branched out to auto sets and other base set's i like the look of.

c'mon spree make a comeback , i need a challenge

ozballer23 · Jul 18, 2007

Back in 1993 (yr 7) I busted my first pack of 92-93 UD. Pulled the Jordan card #23 going for a dunk, continued for a couple of yrs till the fad died. Got back into it in 02-03 when I walked past a stall at a market, bought a pack and pulled a jersey card. Since then haven't been able to stop!

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