Every Davey Lopes Baseball card made by Topps Chewing Gum, during his career as a player

I got into collecting baseball cards when I was around ten years old. My big brother would give me old cards and doubles that he acquired through collecting. The first card he gave me was a 1978 Davey Lopes card which still happens to be my favorite card in my collection. Davey Lopes was our favorite player, and I made it my mission to own every one of his cards. There were only a few baseball card companies around back then, and my brother always said that Topps was the best, so I of course adopted that same collecting standard.

Today, I own very few cards compared to the thousands I once owned in the 90s. The entirety of my baseball card collection now sits upon my bookshelf, in one small collectors album. It houses every Davey Lopes card made by Topps during his career as a player. Today I've cataloged them all here for posterity. I figured someone out there would be interested in seeing them, whether they're fans of Lopes, the Dodgers, or baseball collecting itself..

1973 Topps card #609

1st player card of his career. Look at that baby face!

1974 Topps card #112

1975 Topps card #93

Side by side of 1975 Topps card #93 and the Mini version

1976 Topps card #660

1976 Topps 'Record Breaker' card 

1977 Topps 'Stolen Base Leaders' card #4

1977 Topps card #180

1978 Topps card #440

Here it is! My very first baseball card. The card that got me into the hobby of  baseball card collecting.  I loved everything about it. The clean border on front, the fancy cursive of the team name, the little baseball with his position, how he was wearing a batters helmet over his cap, the interesting player info and stats, the fact that you could use the back of the card to play a game with your friends, and the lingering smell of the stale bubble gum that it was once packaged with.  The card still hypnotizes me to this very day.  The image of Davey Lopes with that hair and mustache just screams 70s or 80s baseball player!

1978 Topps 'N.L. Championships' card #412

1979 Topps card #290

1980 Topps card #560

1980 Topps Burger King Collector's Series card #28

1981 Topps card #50

1982 Topps card #740

1982 Topps 'In Action' Card #741

1982 Topps 'All Star' card #338

1983 Topps card# 64T

from the Topps 'Traded' set

1983 Topps card# 365

1984 Topps card #669

1984 Topps 'Stolen Base Leaders' card# 714

1985 Topps card #12

Late season trade to Chicago Cubs. That's why he's in an A's uniform.

1986 Topps card #125

It was weird seeing Davey Lopes in a Cubs uniform for awhile, but it sure was cool seeing him play at Wrigley field, not to mention hearing Harry Caray call games!

1987 Topps cards #445 and #4

1988 Topps card #226

Final year as a player in Major League Baseball

My late brother who passed away on Mother's Day a few years back, has been on my mind a lot lately. This coupled with the absence of baseball this spring, has moved my attention to baseball card collecting once again. I filled in a few missing pieces to my collection recently thanks to eBay. I've actually debated on taking up the hobby once again, with a focus on pre-90s cards. Davey Lopes of course is where I would start if I did such a thing.

If I wanted to dip my toes into collecting newer cards, there are tons to choose from. Lopes was a good enough player, that they never have stopped producing new Davey Lopes baseball cards.  There's also the old cards that I never collected very much as a kid like SSPC, Fleer, Donruss, and O-Pee-Chee. Furthermore, there are card sets that were produced by Hostess Snack cakes, Kellogg's, Fast Food companies, department stores, and many others.

So it remains to be seen if I will get active in the hobby once again, but I sure am having fun sorting cards and writing about them.  I'll keep you posted, and of course will share any retro memories and finds right here on this site.

Update 6-17-2020
I am indeed collecting baseball cards once again!  You can read about the journey here.