i think this will be a good thread to let everyone know what the very first Card/Pack or set that you bought or collected.
Can you remember?

My first pack i ever bought was going back to 1970-71 when i was 7 years old.
it was the good old 70-71 O-Pee-Chee that started it all for me buying packs at the local variety store.i clearly remember pulling Bobby Orr cards quite often as there were 2 inserts of him between the two series and 6 different cards (1 regular/4 award and 1 all star) making a total of 8 bobby orr cards in all. after that year i was hooked on collecting and after i completed that set i was trading my doubles for the older cards from kids in school or the neighbour hood.
i clearly remember trading a few 70-71 opc cards for a 66-67 Sawchuk that an older kid had in school at recess.

My first pack and set were from the 1969-70 OPC...... and I still have them....... along with all the other cards I collected back then. Only problem they been flipped 100's of times against the wall.

The first cards I remember collecting were from the 72 73 opc set. I was six years old,the Orr and the Stanley Cup were considered the coolest cards. There must have been fifty kids playing and trading hockey cards at school. When the third series WHA cards came everyone stopped buying that set which explains why there are not many out there now. I remember seeing some tallboys that a much older kid had, I thought they were ancient. I never once managed to complete a set when I was a kid but have finally completed the 64/67/70/71 and of coarse the 72 tan framed set as an adult. I always wanted to complete the 72 73 set and have finally done it at the age of forty three!! WooooHoooo!! Sweet Revenge.

The first pack of hockey I ever bought was 1968-69 OPC. Any hockey card packs in the area of New Brunswick I grew up in quickly left the counters and the corner store shops never seemed to be able to get more. I was never lucky enough to buy more than a handful of packs. I can't say it was first card but pretty darn close; a decent centered Bobby Orr and a miscut Bobby Hull. Imagine my surprise in 1989 in going through some of my stuff when back visiting and finding the whole stash nicely secured with one of those wide elastic bands. I later sold the Orr and with its proceeds got a nice 2nd yr Parkie Beleveau plus that cool 74-75 Howes card. Alas through the years all the remaining original 68-69 have been traded away. I have had fun though and those cards were a springboard to renewed collecting in later years..... Still have a weak spot in my heart for those funky cards. Don't think they are funky? Have a closer look at how OPC lo-tech photoshopped the Big M.

We moved from Fredericton to Missisauga in 1970 and I got hooked on buying cards then. I was almost 6 at the time. The thing I remember most is playing knocksies, leansies or another game, I forget the name, where you had to throw a card on top of another card to win. The more cards you cover in a throw the more cards you won. Also, I remember every few days somebody would walk into the school yard, me included, at Corsair Public and yell SCRAMBLES, throwing a big handfull of cards into the air and all the kids going on a feeding frenzy trying to grab as many as they could. At 10 cents a pack and nobody thinking of future value it was what hockey cards were really about to us. On some plain I still miss those days and I will never forget it. But, I did manage to hold onto a crapload of those cards, haha.

I was able to keep together an almost complete set from 1969 OPC....I remember opening the packs as fast as I could to get enough gum together for a really good chew...

I still have a pack from that year:

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Marty,I also remember that game when you had to try to get your card to land on top of other previously thrown cards. We called it (ironically) Topps. You could lose or win a lot of cards in that game,all depends on how many were called at the beginning. ie: 5 card topps or 10 card topps. Some kid once buried a bobby orr card in the sandbox and yelled out that he did and we would all run to the sand and start digging,even though there was doggie doodoo in the sand too. Ahhh good times!

1976-77 OPC was the one I remember first. I can still picture the box on the store counter. I was a Flyer and Habs fan then I guess as they were the strong teams at the time. I still have a beat up Brian Trottier RC from my original collection.

My first pack was OPC 1977, not a great year for the value but an excelent year for the gum (as far as I can remamber). But most of all, I still remember the Gretzky rookie cards making noise in the wheel of my bicycle!

Don't remember the first pack I ever bought but the first and only standard issue card set I ever made was 1971-72 when I was 12 and 13. I do remember that I only actually purchased around five packs of cards and that I traded like Sam Pollock to complete my set. "You need this Gary Croteau? Give me all your traders!" I sold that set for $160 in the fall of 1989 when the book value was $200, regretted it almost immediately, and bought back another set, in beautiful condition with a few upgrades, for a lot more than $160 about 10-12 years ago.

Just found this forum and love this question. March break 1968, a nice sunny day. My mom took my brother and I for a drive. We stopped in Lakefield, Ontario a small village. Went into the 5 & dime store (I believe that was it's actual name), wooden counters, tin roof. I was 8 and had just discovered the joys of hockey that winter. In this store I saw my very first packs of hockey cards - 1967-68. They only had 5 packs left and I bought all 5. I don't remember who I got, but I remember thinking they were great. I looked everywhere for more but couldn't find any. The next winter I was all over those 68-69 cards. Continued buying and completing my sets of OPC hockey right through the 1971-72 set, inserts and all. Still have them all. I stopped in 72 when I entered high school as it would not be cool to be seen buying little kids' cards...even though I still wanted to. Fast forward 1978-79. I enter university and am living in residence. January, 79 another guy off the floor and I go over to the variety store. I see OPC hockey wax. I buy 5 packs (1st time since 72). The guy I am with gets the urge as well and buys some. We take them back to the residence and open them in the common room with a few other guys there. Next thing you know almost everyone on the floor is buying packs and having a ball playing the old leaners, topsies games, and saying got 'em, need 'em. End of the year most of the guys just gave them to me (I sometimes wish I had waited a year to go to university and then I would have had a bunch of Gretzky rookies instead of Bossys). No more cards until 1989 when my wife and I are walking along and go into a coin and card store. There, for the first time ever, I see a Rocket Richard card - 54-55 parkie - for $25. Unknown to me, she slips back later and buys it for me for Christmas. And I've been hooked ever since...and lovin' it.

This is a good thread to ask this question because I've always been interested: Since OPC didn't come out until January did you guys try to first get Topps cards? Or did OPC produce cards earlier in the season in the '60s and '70s?