Cards that Got You into Collecting

[donny_bobes]

What card(s) made you start/get back into collecting? Ill start.
I collected basketball cards very often when I was a kid, but ended up losing interest. Then,during the pandemic, I got very bored and reignited the collection, starting with a 2008 Topps Signature Edition Dwight Howard /2499. I then remembered how memorabilia cards were always my favorite, as it was the closest I could get to the game. I found online a interesting 2002 Topps Heritage Dikembe Mutoumbo with a piece of floor from the Boston Garden. Later on, I bought a neat game worn Hedo Turkoglu Raptors patch /25 from 2014 NBA Hoops
These cards all helped form the foundation of my collection and how it is today, how about you?

[volumeaccumulation]

1990 Score Bo Jackson. Still have my first card!

[Oaktreesports]

This card when my brother had a binder full of cards back in the late 1990s. This was the crown jewel card that every kid on the block wanted.

I have one in my display case now.

[Smalltown]

I mentioned this in a thread in the Star Wars section. For me it was 1983 O-Pee-Chee Return of the Jedi cards. I had just seen ROTJ in the theatre with my mother (my first ever movie) and we went to Eatons (Canadian department store at the time) and I got a toy, Gamorrean Guard, and a pack of Cards. I was hooked. Still have the set wrapped in a couple elastics somewhere.

But if we’re talking Basketball cards it was, I think, 1988, at a card show at a mall in either Syracuse or Rochester on our trip home from a vacation. I was wandering the tables when I came to this one with cards like I had never seen before. Tall boys. Flipping through them I settled on a couple that I like the look of and were in my price range - around fifty cents. I didn’t really know either player. The vender said something like “good eye there kid. That’s a legend. Earl the Pearl Monroe.” The nickname got me and I paid my fifty cents.



I pretty sure I still have it too.

[siuwongkee]

I loved pulling Bandi Dragon Ball from those slot machine since I was 8 years old. Then in 1993, I was introduced to the hobby but my mom forbided me to spend time there. (She was right) Then in 1997-98 (I cannot comfirmed the time-line) since I had a lot of spare time I went to a card shop and ripped 80k worth of cards in 8-12 months. (Again I only know my last set is 1998-99 Upper Deck Basketball, but I cannot find when it was released from the internet) This put my family in debts and my family had to settle the debts with installments and my mom asked me never went to sports card shop ever again. (But she allowed me to spend like $1.5k US a month on TCG.)

Things jumped to 2023. I ripped a few cases of YuGiOh RC04 for fun, I kept around 20 cards and I planned to send what I pulled for Grading. Since I was grading things I thought it would be ok to send those MTG foils I kept in the suitcase of cards since the 97 era. After grading the MTG, I took alook of the sports card (Since I mainly collect Antoine Walker and I knew he had not been doing good since 99, so I expected those cards have no value at all) and to my surprise, some cards do have increased in value, so I sent 80 of the 120 cards collection from 97 to BGS and I thought it will be a better idea to spend my entertainment expense on sports cards rather than apps.

So to sum up, Dragon Ball shinny cards got me into card collection. But I do not really consider myself a collector, I just usually kept what I ripped from box and that's it. I collected Walker because a bad person wanted to quit the hobby and pursuaded a 17 years old kid whom didnt watch the game that Walker would be at least as good as Kobe hahahahahah. And even at the 97-98 era, I did not have a great intention in buying Walker cards, just my GOOD luck always pulled him from boxes.

I think now is the only time I started consider myself a collector and I determine to collect sets and players I have more than 3-5 cards from the year 1997-1998 and 1998-1999. (except Walker !!!!!!)

[SacKingsCards]

I like reading other people's collecting stories and experiences. Such variety of backgrounds that lead all of us more or less to the same place.

My brother collected mostly baseball cards as a kid so I joined him in organizing and bindering base sets, but then there was a 10-12 year period where I didn't collect. What brought me back was getting my first job in college in early 2009. I was now making money and naturally was thinking about what I could spend it on. Basketball has always been my favorite hobby in the sense of playing and watching the sport, so I started looking into how I could funnel that money into consuming more basketball. Wasn't really interested in going to more games since LA is a bit of a trek, especially in traffic, for me, and so I came across Blowout and decided collecting cards and/or memorabilia sounded fun. Shortly thereafter I found myself at Walmart and saw blasters of 09-10 UD and 09-10 Prestige so I grabbed some. When I pulled these two cards I was hooked



I liked being able to have (and especially pull) cards of my favorite team and player (Durant) that I could then build upon and form a collection. Not much has changed in the last 14 years I suppose.

[darz90scardz]

Even though I was into Marvel and baseball cards before getting into basketball stuff, this was the first b-ball box I ever opened. I think a lot of the credit to my affinity for ridiculously busy designs is owed to this set, 94-95 Fleer Superstars.

[mindcycle]

I got into basketball cards when this was card was hot..



Stepped away in the late 90's until 2012 or thereabouts. There wasn't really any one card in particular, but I remember buying Panini Prestige boxes from Target thinking that was "high end".. lol

This is the card that got me back into focusing on Nuggets cards again though.

[dengbang]

As a Chicago native, MJ was the athlete to watch. I remember seeing this card on advertisement in Beckett and I've always been on the chase. I could've easily bought it by now but choose not to, probably because it would mean that some part of my collecting journey has come to an end.

[SacKingsCards]

Even though I was into Marvel and baseball cards before getting into basketball stuff, this was the first b-ball box I ever opened. I think a lot of the credit to my affinity for ridiculously busy designs is owed to this set, 94-95 Fleer Superstars.

It's kind of amazing how our start to collecting affects our preferences. I am probably the only person in the world who loves pre-2012 Panini stuff because it resonates so much with my collecting origins. Especially 2009-10 in my case.

As a Chicago native, MJ was the athlete to watch. I remember seeing this card on advertisement in Beckett and I've always been on the chase. I could've easily bought it by now but choose not to, probably because it would mean that some part of my collecting journey has come to an end.

Are you trying to acquire it in a specific way? Card show? Or pulling it yourself? Or simply putting off purchasing due to delaying the end of that part of your journey?

[dengbang]

Are you trying to acquire it in a specific way? Card show? Or pulling it yourself? Or simply putting off purchasing due to delaying the end of that part of your journey?

It was a card that, as a kid in the 90's, represented my childhood. I guess to retain the nostalgia, I keep the chase alive until I stop collecting. I'd love to be able to pull the card, but that's not realistic. I'll probably pick it up at The National when it's time to hang it up...and maybe make a video out of the journey lol

[ZOMBIExZOMBIE]

1994-95 Upper Deck Collector’s Choice. Card #1 Penny Hardaway

I love that set and that card brings me so much joy to look at because I’m right back in the card store in St. Paul, MN

[pdxhobbyking]

I pulled a Carmelo Anthony Marks of Excellence out of a blaster box in 2004-05 and caught the bug again after collecting cards in the 90s. Crazy to think that was almost 20 years ago. Here is to the next 20!

[Attila]

The card that got me into collecting was the 1998-99 Skybox Smooth insert of Ray Allen. (With the incredible rarity of 1:6 from Series One packs) I just remember staring at that card for minutes. The slightly raised "hand" graphics or whatever is on the front of the card. The sparkly foil... It's still a pretty vivid and candid memory more than 20 years later.

[darz90scardz]

The card that got me into collecting was the 1998-99 Skybox Smooth insert of Ray Allen. (With the incredible rarity of 1:6 from Series One packs) I just remember staring at that card for minutes. The slightly raised "hand" graphics or whatever is on the front of the card. The sparkly foil... It's still a pretty vivid and candid memory more than 20 years later.

I definitely remember these but don’t think I have one in the collection anymore. It’s almost like a speckled finish on the front right? Grabbing Marbury as we speak, I like the photo used.

[dengbang]

The card that got me into collecting was the 1998-99 Skybox Smooth insert of Ray Allen.

Definitely remembered pulling these from single packs back then. That figure reminds me of mixing clear gel glue with glitter. Only back in the 90s would that work.

[bcspecialist]

I loved pulling Bandi Dragon Ball from those slot machine since I was 8 years old.

Wow those Dragon Ball cards from the slot machines were also the first cards I ever collected.
Those were the best. I still have those cards from my childhood.

[cookies]

for me it was 1990 skybox. the cards looked so different. the pics on the back were a nice touch. Loved the MJ playing golf and Karl Malone on a horse.

it didn’t hurt that I lived near Seattle and it was Shawn Kemp’s rookie year — and i got him to sign my Skybox rookie at a public appearance.

[threepointplay]

Coming from the United Kingdom, trading cards were simply not a thing; they were just not available as they were in the U.S.A. For us it was all about stickers.

In 1978 (when I was a ten-year old) Panini launched the first self-adhesive stickers (before that you had to glue the stickers into an album) covering the English & Scottish leagues and these were readily available in local corner shops. There was one such shop just outside our school gates; so I have vivid memories of buying packs with my pocket money, ripping them open and swapping stickers with my friends in the playground. "Got...got...got..NEED!". Around the same time my father started to collect cigarette cards, concentrating on the sporting stars of his youth in the 1940s and 1950s; we even went to a few shows together. This went on for a few years, until I hit my teens and (like a lot of others) I moved onto music, video games & girls!

Fast forward to the early 1990s and a 25 year old me visited the U.S.A. for the first time. I found myself in a convenience store, picking up food & drink supplies and at the counter were some Upper Deck baseball card packs. Now, I come from a sporting family (even in our 50s and 80s it is thing my father & I still bond over most!) and I have always watched a lot of sport. So as cable/satellite TV and the internet opened up the world, I was devouring the coverage on offer and so was already well versed on the NFL, NBA & MLB. Out of curiosity, I bought a couple of packs and opened them back at the hotel I was staying in.

I was hooked almost instantly. The combination sticker collecting as a young boy, my father teaching me about collecting cigarette cards and my interest in US sports, were all encapsulated in those couple of packs. By the end of the holiday I had bought a bunch more and immediately started researching sports trading cards when I returned home. The 1990s sports card boom had reached these shores and so I quickly fell down a rabbit hole of baseball, basketball & football cards over the next year couple of years, before I decided to focus my attention on basketball cards. I event set up as a 'dealer' at a few local shows in the mid-1990s.

Whilst I have had different levels of engagement in the hobby over the last 30 years, as my career, travel/living abroad, starting business & family took priority, my collection was simply boxed away, with the expectation that I would return to it as time and money allowed. But it all started with those two Upper Deck baseball packs.

[Attila]

The card that got me into collecting was the 1998-99 Skybox Smooth insert of Ray Allen. (With the incredible rarity of 1:6 from Series One packs) I just remember staring at that card for minutes. The slightly raised "hand" graphics or whatever is on the front of the card. The sparkly foil... It's still a pretty vivid and candid memory more than 20 years later.

I definitely remember these but don’t think I have one in the collection anymore. It’s almost like a speckled finish on the front right? Grabbing Marbury as we speak, I like the photo used.

It indeed has this weird speckle finish on the front!

[siuwongkee]

I loved pulling Bandi Dragon Ball from those slot machine since I was 8 years old.

Wow those Dragon Ball cards from the slot machines were also the first cards I ever collected.
Those were the best. I still have those cards from my childhood.

Yeah and they are still selling those. That's why I love the 90s parallels. Most of them are very Bandai DB card style.

[darz90scardz]

^ Won’t forget seeing this one in binders