before big box and the lcs; the dime store

myusasets · 07-08-2020, 02:33 PM

share a memory. i remember seeing 1961 fleer basketball cards appear with the baseball and football cards, and sort of shrugged because we didn't have a tv. but we had a basketball with laces. started to post this on basketball but can you imagine the ridicule.

ShoutFan2020 · 07-08-2020, 02:39 PM

Mine was the local news stand. For those who don't know what that is, it was a place common to every small town that sold things called newspapers, magazines, comics and cigars. Most of them had a section I wasn't old enough to walk into at the time.

Anyhow, owner had the cards at the front counter. He played a part in getting me hooked as he was the first to introduce to me to "if you play this player, I'll trade you a whole pack for him". Wait a second, some guys can be traded for whole other packs?

mfw13 · 07-08-2020, 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShoutFan2020

Mine was the local news stand. For those who don't know what that is, it was a place common to every small town that sold things called newspapers, magazines, comics and cigars. Most of them had a section I wasn't old enough to walk into at the time.

Anyhow, owner had the cards at the front counter. He played a part in getting me hooked as he was the first to introduce to me to "if you play this player, I'll trade you a whole pack for him". Wait a second, some guys can be traded for whole other packs?

When I was a kid (late 70's/early 80's) cards were everywhere....local corner store, drug store, supermarket, etc.

ShoutFan2020 · 07-08-2020, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mfw13

When I was a kid (late 70's/early 80's) cards were everywhere....local corner store, drug store, supermarket, etc.

Yeah my local convenience store and supermarket had them too but I remember mainly movie/TV cards (Jaws, Star Wars, Charlie's Angels, CHIPs, KISS) at those joints. In fact I remember my first lesson in "you have to pay for those" at the young age of 5 after pocketing some packs, walking past the register lady (that's all you had to do right?), and thanking my parents for the packs when we got home.

dani0100 · 07-08-2020, 04:31 PM

I also remember cards being at lots of places, but especially drug stores, convenience stores, five and dimes (Ben Franklin), etc.

I remember one convenience store by where I lived when I was around 9 until I stopped collecting when I was about 17. They seemed to have a good variety of stuff and mostly I was interested in baseball, but in 87 I ventured into Basketball and bought a few packs of 87 fleer basketball and some 87 Topps hockey. Man do I wish I would have bought lots more!

ter · 07-08-2020, 04:32 PM

My little town had a drug store and a variety store. For some reason the drug store carried only Topps baseball boxes. The variety store stocked Football, Fleer, Donruss when they appeared on the market. Never saw any basketball. Pretty sure the owner of the variety store cherry picked the stars showing cello and rack packs. Those 1975 topps rack packs were beautiful to a little kid.

kurri17 · 07-08-2020, 08:29 PM

Oh yes, the five-and-dime. For the majority of my collecting years '73 thru'79), we finally stayed in one small town. But T-G & Y and Sterlings (two of those for some strange reason) were the dime stores, but there were probably a dozen other places that had packs. I wore Walgreens and Kroger out, Kroger was the only place that got rack packs. But the dime stores were a constant, football, baseball, and basketball like clockwork, and I did all three. Well, let's be honest, I LIVED for all three. Those places are long gone now, every single one of them. Hadn't though about that until just now, I only go back there pretty much at the holidays. Wow. The world has moved on....why didn't someone tell me.

hxcmilkshake · 07-08-2020, 08:57 PM

Back in the day in Connecticut.....Brownstone Drug Store. Buying 1978 rack packs in 1979.

Sunshine Dairy had 1980 Topps basketball (rip those panels!) and Topps hockey.

Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk

MEF1954 · 07-08-2020, 11:27 PM

Grew up in Central NY in the 60s. Bought all my cards at a neighborhood grocery store about 4 blocks from my home. Those have been gone for a long,long time. 5 cents for Topps baseball and football. What I remember most where the non-sports cards, Beatles cards, JFK cards, Batman Cards, Man from Uncle, Outer Limits, and other TV show cards. Wish I had kept them all, as well as my comic books that I did buy from the local news stand including Avengers 1-20 as well as a lot of other Marvel & DC comics from the mid 60s.

kurri17 · 07-09-2020, 10:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hxcmilkshake

Back in the day in Connecticut.....Brownstone Drug Store. Buying 1978 rack packs in 1979.

Sunshine Dairy had 1980 Topps basketball (rip those panels!) and Topps hockey.

Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk

Oh, that brings something to mind. Walked into one of my card haunts in 1977, and along with the '77 football, they had put out a box of '72 as well. I guess it had just been put in the back with old stock. And of course, as a kid, I was like "why would I want that, I want the new stuff."

bkspoilers · 07-17-2020, 09:58 AM

Ah yes, as an 8 year old "Pack Searcher" in 1973, at the local Woolworths, looking through a cello box looking for Cardinals on top. To this day, I still have the only one I found, Joe Torre (card, not the pack).

VanLingoMungo46 · 07-17-2020, 10:17 AM

I used to go to the local corner store and buy packs. The first year I got interested was 1980 and I'll never forget getting that Carl Yastrzemski card. Awesome action pick with the "all star" banner running across the top. I still remember I was standing on my driveway chewing gum, right underneath that big oak tree that is no longer there. I was pumped!

rats60 · 07-17-2020, 10:17 AM

At the corner of our subdivision, there was a Stop-N-Go and across the street a 7-11. We would go to the stores every week to buy a pack of baseball cards. If they were the new series, we would each buy a box and trade to complete the series and eventually the set. When Topps went to one series in 1974, we had a small business and we were able to buy our cards through a whole supply company.

HRBELLI2017 · 07-17-2020, 11:50 AM

As a youngster I remember picking up cans and bottles for the 5 to 10cent return offered on them shortly after cans went from steel to aluminum.
Place was called George's Market.
Had more candy and cards than I knew what to do with.

07-08-2020, 02:33 PM	#1
myusasets Member Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: texas Posts: 1,944 myusasets myusasets	before big box and the lcs; the dime store share a memory. i remember seeing 1961 fleer basketball cards appear with the baseball and football cards, and sort of shrugged because we didn't have a tv. but we had a basketball with laces. started to post this on basketball but can you imagine the ridicule.

07-08-2020, 08:29 PM	#7
kurri17 Member Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: Tennessee Posts: 239 fifthcup90	Oh yes, the five-and-dime. For the majority of my collecting years '73 thru'79), we finally stayed in one small town. But T-G & Y and Sterlings (two of those for some strange reason) were the dime stores, but there were probably a dozen other places that had packs. I wore Walgreens and Kroger out, Kroger was the only place that got rack packs. But the dime stores were a constant, football, baseball, and basketball like clockwork, and I did all three. Well, let's be honest, I LIVED for all three. Those places are long gone now, every single one of them. Hadn't though about that until just now, I only go back there pretty much at the holidays. Wow. The world has moved on....why didn't someone tell me. __________________ Collecting Jari Kurri, '70s football, baseball, and hockey along with select graded vintage. Also collect '70s Kellogg's, graded and nice raw '71 thru '76 A's.

07-17-2020, 11:50 AM	#14
HRBELLI2017 Banned Join Date: Feb 2020 Location: Colorado Posts: 550 Sosafan35	As a youngster I remember picking up cans and bottles for the 5 to 10cent return offered on them shortly after cans went from steel to aluminum. Place was called George's Market. Had more candy and cards than I knew what to do with. Last edited by HRBELLI2017; 07-17-2020 at 01:34 PM.

07-08-2020, 02:39 PM	#2
ShoutFan2020 Member Join Date: Jun 2020 Posts: 1,008	Mine was the local news stand. For those who don't know what that is, it was a place common to every small town that sold things called newspapers, magazines, comics and cigars. Most of them had a section I wasn't old enough to walk into at the time. Anyhow, owner had the cards at the front counter. He played a part in getting me hooked as he was the first to introduce to me to "if you play this player, I'll trade you a whole pack for him". Wait a second, some guys can be traded for whole other packs?

07-08-2020, 04:31 PM	#5
dani0100 Member Join Date: Sep 2017 Location: Fargo, ND Posts: 676	I also remember cards being at lots of places, but especially drug stores, convenience stores, five and dimes (Ben Franklin), etc. I remember one convenience store by where I lived when I was around 9 until I stopped collecting when I was about 17. They seemed to have a good variety of stuff and mostly I was interested in baseball, but in 87 I ventured into Basketball and bought a few packs of 87 fleer basketball and some 87 Topps hockey. Man do I wish I would have bought lots more!

07-08-2020, 04:32 PM	#6
ter Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 136 thadrobison	My little town had a drug store and a variety store. For some reason the drug store carried only Topps baseball boxes. The variety store stocked Football, Fleer, Donruss when they appeared on the market. Never saw any basketball. Pretty sure the owner of the variety store cherry picked the stars showing cello and rack packs. Those 1975 topps rack packs were beautiful to a little kid.

07-08-2020, 08:57 PM	#8
hxcmilkshake Member Join Date: Apr 2018 Location: Apopka FL Posts: 11,233 hxcmilkshake	Back in the day in Connecticut.....Brownstone Drug Store. Buying 1978 rack packs in 1979. Sunshine Dairy had 1980 Topps basketball (rip those panels!) and Topps hockey. Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk

07-08-2020, 11:27 PM	#9
MEF1954 Member Join Date: Aug 2014 Posts: 86	Grew up in Central NY in the 60s. Bought all my cards at a neighborhood grocery store about 4 blocks from my home. Those have been gone for a long,long time. 5 cents for Topps baseball and football. What I remember most where the non-sports cards, Beatles cards, JFK cards, Batman Cards, Man from Uncle, Outer Limits, and other TV show cards. Wish I had kept them all, as well as my comic books that I did buy from the local news stand including Avengers 1-20 as well as a lot of other Marvel & DC comics from the mid 60s.

07-17-2020, 09:58 AM	#11
bkspoilers Member Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Bettendorf, IA Posts: 115	Ah yes, as an 8 year old "Pack Searcher" in 1973, at the local Woolworths, looking through a cello box looking for Cardinals on top. To this day, I still have the only one I found, Joe Torre (card, not the pack).

07-17-2020, 10:17 AM	#12
VanLingoMungo46 Member Join Date: Aug 2019 Posts: 696	I used to go to the local corner store and buy packs. The first year I got interested was 1980 and I'll never forget getting that Carl Yastrzemski card. Awesome action pick with the "all star" banner running across the top. I still remember I was standing on my driveway chewing gum, right underneath that big oak tree that is no longer there. I was pumped!

07-17-2020, 10:17 AM	#13
rats60 Member Join Date: Oct 2013 Posts: 9,915	At the corner of our subdivision, there was a Stop-N-Go and across the street a 7-11. We would go to the stores every week to buy a pack of baseball cards. If they were the new series, we would each buy a box and trade to complete the series and eventually the set. When Topps went to one series in 1974, we had a small business and we were able to buy our cards through a whole supply company.