Who remembers how much baseball cards cost/pack when they were a kid?

[MyDogSparty]

Does anyone remember how much a pack of baseball cards used to cost when they were a kid and how many cards came in a pack? I seem to remember spending about .10 cents per pack in the mid 70's but I can't be sure and I don't know how many cards you got in a wax pack. I do however remember the gum.

[MedicCook]

When I was a kid in the 80's Topps wax packs cost about $0.50 and I think it was 16 cards per pack plus gum.

[Ubiquitous]

early to mid 80's it was 45 cents, by the end of the 80's it was up to 55 cents. Early 90's Upper Deck shot it up to 1.25.

I believe it was 15 cards plus gum, in 1983 it was 30 cents.

Apparently I remembered it wrong because upon looking it up on EBay the baseball cards I was buying were 30 cents to 35 cents. Perhaps the gas station I bought them from were marking them up.

[Ubiquitous]

Does anyone remember how much a pack of baseball cards used to cost when they were a kid and how many cards came in a pack? I seem to remember spending about .10 cents per pack in the mid 70's but I can't be sure and I don't know how many cards you got in a wax pack. I do however remember the gum.

EBay boxes have the 1975 Topps at 15 cents a piece.

[MyDogSparty]

EBay boxes have the 1975 Topps at 15 cents a piece.

That was a good source Ubi. I saw a 1972 & 1973 box that had them advertised for 10 cents a pack. In 1974 & 1975 it went up to 15 cents a pack. I'm guessing that there were 15 or more cards per pack too but I can't be sure.

[EdTarbusz]

The first year I collected was 1972 and they were a dime a pack for 10 cards.

[EdTarbusz]

That was a good source Ubi. I saw a 1972 & 1973 box that had them advertised for 10 cents a pack. In 1974 & 1975 it went up to 15 cents a pack. I'm guessing that there were 15 or more cards per pack too but I can't be sure.

The packs were the same size (10 cards) when they went to 15 cents a pack. The celo packs were a quarter and probably had around 20 cards each.

[Ubiquitous]

I saw celo packs for some 70's years at 33 cards I saw some other ones at 25 cards.

[EdTarbusz]

I saw celo packs for some 70's years at 33 cards I saw some other ones at 25 cards.

The first time I remember seeing celo packs was around 1974 or 1975, and they may have had 33 cards in them, but they always seemed to be about double the amount of cards in a pack to me.

[Mike D.]

I started collecting in 1987, and remember paying 45 cents for Topps packs at the local gas station. I remember distinctly, because I used to get $1 a week allowance, and it was good for two packs and two nickel candies on the way home from church.

I think the packs had 15-16 cards and the "gum".

A few years later, I remember buying several boxes of 1990 Donruss because I could get a whole box for like $14. To a teenager, that was more cards than I'd ever bought at one time before. I must have bought 5 boxes of those ugly, worthless cards. Sure had fun busting packs, though!

[DaClyde]

In 1987, when I actually started buying packs, Topps were up to 17 cards for about 40 cents. Rack packs were like 72 cents at the local Hills.

[icee82]

One dime for ten cards and some delicious bubble gum.

[KCGHOST]

Seems like a dime for five cards and some awful pink bubble gum. Mid '50's.

[gosox55]

1955 Bowman 5 cents 9 cards and a large slab of gum.

[Extra Innings]

0.50 I think is what '89 Topps was going for. I remember being able to buy a wax box of it in 1992 for $15. I thought it was the best deal ever and wondered why it was so cheap. Does anyone remember what the price per pack was for '92 Triple Play? My local card shop always had trouble keep those packs in stock, it seemed to be "the" item at the time.

[chucksk8er]

0.50 I think is what '89 Topps was going for. I remember being able to buy a wax box of it in 1992 for $15. I thought it was the best deal ever and wondered why it was so cheap. Does anyone remember what the price per pack was for '92 Triple Play? My local card shop always had trouble keep those packs in stock, it seemed to be "the" item at the time.


I remember it being the same way with me too. I want to say they were right around $1

[Dalkowski110]

Dad remembers '53-'58 Topps packs costing around a nickel each. He says Bowman cost around the same and the cards weren't as good, but the gum was much better. Dad's cards weren't thrown out by his mother, amazingly. He saved a single wax pack wrapper from 1953 Topps after opening it. However, a flood destroyed almost all of his collection around 1979. :(

[J.P]

I grew up in Cuba, we didnt have baseball cards, we used to cut players' pictures off the newspaper and glue them to a notebook. In case you dont know, newspapers in Cuba are also used as toiler paper(I'm dead serious), my uncle used to get so mad everytime his toilet paper had a hole in it from me cutting out the pictures :rofl:

[Dodgerfan1]

Back in the mid-'80s, when baseball card values went sky high and collecting them was trendy, baseball card conventions were held on a regular basis and were advertised prominently. I don't know how often they are held today, but I know they aren't nearly as popular. I once saw an interesting piece on television about the history of baseball cards. Seems the gum was the main product, with manufacturers such as Goudey and Philadelphia Gum throwing in a baseball card as a 'prize'. Of course, even before that, the cards were offered with packs of cigarettes. Now, the cards come without the sugar dusted stick of gum that used to shatter when dropped.

I do recall in the late '60s/early '70s paying around a dime for a pack of baseball cards and a stick of the reprehensible gum, which used to annoy me because I would never eat it anyway and it sometimes left an indelible mark on the card it was resting on top of. I used to hate that.

Now, of course, baseball cards are ridiculously high-priced and I'm sure many kids who would otherwise have bought a pack or two have thought twice about it. The higher priced 'premium' cards are also a product of the '80s and '90s when collecting baseball cards was 'in' and brands such as Score and Upper Deck jumped on the BB card gravy train.

[houfan]

When I started collecting in 1970, the packs were .10 each, with 10 cards and an insert in each pack. For .25 you could get a cello block of cards, with 30 cards in a block. The price went up to .15 a pack in the mid-1970's.