View Full Version : Mr. Mint's phone not ringing so much anymore?
RobertGT
05-07-2012, 01:25 PM
Saw this recent article in the NY Daily News. Hopefully it's not a repost.
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-04-21/news/31380168_1_topps-cards-mickey-mantle-rookie-card-goudeys
ullmandds
05-07-2012, 01:32 PM
awwwwww...should we pool our funds and send him a fruit basket?
MacDice
05-07-2012, 01:46 PM
Anyone else remember the Mr. Mint trading cards that he had made up, autographed and then tried to pass them out every time you stopped by his table at a show?
He also had bobble heads.
ullmandds
05-07-2012, 01:51 PM
i have one of those howie mandel/mr mint cards somewhere...I wonder if he'd buy it back?
MacDice
05-07-2012, 01:53 PM
i have one of those howie mandel/mr mint cards somewhere...I wonder if he'd buy it back?
Depends if it is graded or not...
keithsky
05-07-2012, 02:24 PM
If I remember right in Sports Collectors Digest back a couple years ago he was supposed to retire in Dec of 2010. Guess that never happened, to bad. I also remember him a couple years ago being mad about not getting the head tables at the Nationals so said he was going to do them anymore. Boo Hoo. Guess he figured the hobby would fall apart and go away without him there. Seems to me they go on just fine without him there. Never saw a guy so in love with himself before.
autograf
05-07-2012, 02:41 PM
Nice Free advertising..........maybe not as dumb as we thought.......
Don't forget about Pennants and Beanie Babies on his self promoting band wagon.........
HRBAKER
05-07-2012, 03:29 PM
Nice Free advertising..........maybe not as dumb as we thought.......
Don't forget about Pennants and Beanie Babies on his self promoting band wagon.........
....and Pogs.
ctownboy
05-07-2012, 04:54 PM
I thought he was into Japanese made toy robots....
David
iggyman
05-07-2012, 06:09 PM
Not that I'm trying to write his obituary, but at the end of the day was Mr Mint. good or bad for the hobby???
Lovely Day...
ullmandds
05-07-2012, 06:13 PM
I think Mr Mint was good for the publicity and for raising awareness of the hobby. He also ripped off little old ladies and others for their card collections...but then again...this is what most dealers have been doing since I was a kid!
I don't think he was as bad for the hobby as the TPG's!
RichardSimon
05-07-2012, 06:21 PM
Nice Free advertising..........maybe not as dumb as we thought.......
Don't forget about Pennants and Beanie Babies on his self promoting band wagon.........
The sportswriter who wrote the story Bill Madden sold his collection (or consigned it, I don't remember) to a dealer. Guess who?
This is not the first time he has written about Rosen and given him free publicity.
danmckee
05-07-2012, 06:44 PM
I vote very good for the hobby at the time. I had several deals with him and all were very fair. Although I have heard the horror stories.
He scared me to death 1 time when I was a young man.
I was at our table and Alan came over and grabbed dad to go look at something. He sat his briefcase down and off they went leaving me by my lonesome. Well the hell with the cards, I was watching skirts walk by the table in those days.
Him and dad came back and I asked "Mr. Alan, what is in the briefcase?"
He opened it up and there was about $200K in there in $100 bills.
I almost died that he left that in my responsibility!
I should have grabbed it and ran and bought me some skirts for the evening :)
zljones
05-07-2012, 06:55 PM
I vote very good for the hobby at the time. I had several deals with him and all were very fair. Although I have heard the horror stories.
He scared me to death 1 time when I was a young man.
I was at our table and Alan came over and grabbed dad to go look at something. He sat his briefcase down and off they went leaving me by my lonesome. Well the hell with the cards, I was watching skirts walk by the table in those days.
Him and dad came back and I asked "Mr. Alan, what is in the briefcase?"
He opened it up and there was about $200K in there in $100 bills.
I almost died that he left that in my responsibility!
I should have grabbed it and ran and bought me some skirts for the evening :)
You would have got some high quality skirts for that kind of money, maybe even a few of them:p
iggyman
05-07-2012, 07:00 PM
Thanks for the story Dan! Good stuff, as always.
I'm in agreement with both you and Peter. Ultimately, he created a buzz with his antics, which was obviously good for the business side of this hobby. Perhaps, we are missing some of that today?
I wonder how Jefferson Burdick and some of his hobby friends would feel about Mr. Mint. I'm sure not too fondly.
Lovely Day...
nolemmings
05-07-2012, 07:34 PM
I'm extremely disappointed to think that you would ever have to pay to land some nice skirts Dan. Always thought your smooth talkin would be more than enough to reel them in. Another myth busted I guess.
Republicaninmass
05-07-2012, 07:38 PM
Couldnt happen to a nicer guy, I used to call him Mr vg-ex
hangman62
05-07-2012, 08:39 PM
Nice story..but hot ladys at a card show ?...I cant say Ive seen many..in 20 yrs or so !... maybe every once in a while...but I seem to recall.. alot more of the Yankee T shirt wearin, $1.99 flip flop wearin, NON member of Golds Gym type of gals ...???
travrosty
05-07-2012, 11:28 PM
The sportswriter who wrote the story Bill Madden sold his collection (or consigned it, I don't remember) to a dealer. Guess who?
This is not the first time he has written about Rosen and given him free publicity.
__________________
It did seem like just one long advertisement.
I'm not a fan of his style of self promotion, but I think he was good for the hobby.
kmac32
05-08-2012, 12:30 AM
If Mr. Mint's phones not a ringin', that would be me a calling'
thekingofclout
05-08-2012, 03:28 AM
Couldnt happen to a nicer guy, I used to call him Mr vg-ex
like
GrayGhost
05-08-2012, 06:46 AM
I remember Alan in the boom years of the hobby. The man did a LOT Of good. I recall him and his amazing buys, the SCD Auctions which were huge then, in the days when the major mega catalog/online auctions were NOT the norm.
Yes, he wasn't perfect and his style, boasting and always getting the top spots at shows rubbed some people wrong. In the end tho, mainstream pub for him and esp the hobby was the best.
One personal moment I'll always recall: Years back my dad and I set up at a Paper/Collectibles show in Marlboro Mass. I bought a vintage signed Mantle Ball, "To Pamela, Best Wishes". Sig looked like a hybrid between the straight M's and the elegant card s how style. I took a flyer on it, tho I felt it was prob good. Anyways, a couple months or so later, I was set up at the Tom McDonough show in W Warwick RI and had the ball out for 100.00..ha Only paid 50. A customer was looking at it, Alan came by walking the show and looked at the ball and said "no doubt bout that one, Nice Mantle ball". The customer bought the ball right away.
I really miss those days, running up my CC and before I was out of work, as now. The hobby was so much fun then, and so were the shows.
Thank you Mr. Mint for all the memories