Long time lurker finally signed up
 

Long time lurker who finally registered a few weeks ago. Live in the Indianapolis area now, originally from the Youngstown, Ohio area.

I’m the childhood collector who never completely went away. My card collection as a kid starter with 1966 Topps bought for me by my grandfather. Sometime in the early 1970’s I discovered the hobby from some ads in The Sporting News.

One of those ads led me to one of the newsletters of the day and I placed a classified of some sort. That led to a letter from Bill MacTaggart of Grove City, PA inviting me to the card show he was having in his living room and front porch in a few months. Bill eventually moved the show to a hall in town and my brother and I set up at his show for several years until it folded. I still trade letters and Christmas cards with Bill.

I would set up at Jim Bohren’s shows in Niles, Ohio for many years and did a few other shows in NE Ohio and Western PA. I stopped setting up probably in the late 80’s. My collecting effort really slowed down when I got married and had a son in the mid 1990’s. I would occasionally jump in, but never with much gusto. My son went off to college in 2013 and I started to wade back in with more interest and more willingness to spend money.

I’m now working on finishing up my 1953 Topps set (where are you Dixie Howell) that will leave me with only the Pete Rose rookie from 1953 to whenever I decided to stop buying new Topps sets in the 90’s. Concentrating on the 1952 Topps 1-310 as well. About two dozen cards left including a few big boys.

Trying to also work on getting my cards organized better and have been getting some of my better cards graded. Either I will need to start selling off my collection down the road or I need to have things organized so my son can do the same when I’m gone. He likes to look at the cards. He has no interest in collecting them. Whenever I retire (or my company retires me), I have plenty of card work I can do.

I hope I can add a little knowledge to a few topics on the board. I also have a few questions I want to ask once I can get a few cards scanned.

Welcome; sounds like you're a wealth of knowledge about the early card show and vendors history. Looking forward to reading more from you.

Welcome aboard. There's always room for a fellow card enthusiast.

Welcome.

Have fun cardboarding it up!!!

Hello Dave and Welcome.

It's reassuring to see someone else realize that completing the '52 Topps set past #310 may be to much of a reach.

By the way, I'm sure you mean the 1963 Pete Rose rookie, not the 1953.

Have Fun,

Raymond

Hi Raymond

Poor sentence structure from me.

When I finish the 1953 Topps set I will have every Topps card from 1953 through the mid 90's except for the Pete Rose rookie.

Thanks to all for the greetings.

Welcome! Have fun here and with your collection.

Just curious Dave---
 

---wondering what has held you back on the Rose RC?

Over the years mostly just being cheap and stubborn.

Price skyrocketed back in the day, then the counterfeits showed up. Graded cards were just becoming a thing a few years before I phased out of the hobby and at the time I thought that concept was ridiculous. I also thought the rookie card concept was crazy too. I had a mental block on paying more than $100 for a card for a long, long time.

Clearly time has given me a different perspective on all of it. Fortunately time has also given me more disposable income.

When I started jumping back in a few years back, the Rose card was never near the top of my list. I think the 63 Topps rookies are pretty ugly - no real visual appeal to me. I went to the 52 and 53 Topps and 51 and 52 Bowman as my focus as I jumped back in.

I just added the Rose rookie to my EBay notification e-mails a few weeks ago. I'm sure at some point in the not too distant future I will pull the trigger and get one. I just want to watch the market a bit and get an understanding. I also need to pull out my binder of 63 Topps and get a better feel for what the rest of my set looks like. Given the full bleed colors, I imagine I probably have more chipped corners than I would like.

A belated welcome to the fray!! This place is what you make of it and is filled with a lot of good people. Caveat Emptor as it gets bigger....Happy collecting.

Welcome to the fun!

Welcome!!
Great bunch of collectors on this site - Enjoy!!
Jim

Welcome Dave from another new guy. Sounds like you’ve got a wealth of knowledge and many good stories. Looking forward to seeing your posts on this board.

Welcome Indydave!