Lionel Carter obituary of Bob Jaspersen and Buck Barker, 1983
 

The program for the fourth annual National Sports Collectors' Convention, held in Chicago in 1983, has a three-page article by Lionel Carter with his reminiscences of two prominent collectors who had died the previous November: Bob Jaspersen, longtime publisher of Sport Fan, and Buck Barker, legendary collector and successor to Jefferson Burdick in updating the listings for the American Card Catalogue. Like just about everything Carter wrote, it's interesting reading, but it's especially interesting (to me) for the details about those men's non-collecting lives, and for the tidbits about hobby history.

I knew that Jaspersen had tried to organize a national sports collectors' convention in Chicago in 1956, some 13 years before the first convention of any kind; Jaspersen wrote a little about it in the 25th anniversary issue of Sport Fan (which I posted here: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=218561), and Charles Brooks wrote about it in passing in the July 1956 Sport Hobbyist, where he said it had been mentioned in the Sporting News, and at more length in the August 1956 issue, where he said that it had "failed to stir interest in many sport hobbyists" and had been postponed. Carter, who had been one of the local organizers along with John Sullivan, gives more details about the failed 1956 convention, including the dates (July 7-8), the location (the Larrabee Street YMCA, the site of which is now a park that I see every day from the train on my way to work), and the fact that only seven people responded to Jaspersen's announcement.

Carter's memories of Buck Barker are poignant and a little sad. Barker, much like Burdick, didn't know or care much about the monetary value of the cards he collected. In his 1962 article about the prices of T206 that I posted here (http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=217680), he started out by declaring "Being assigned to a discussion of prices for the T-206 White Border did not make the writer happy at all, because I firmly believe that price should not be of any particular importance in card collecting -- or any other real hobby." Barker didn't go to any of the early card conventions (Carter wrote in February 1974 in Ballcard Collector that Barker had never been to a show), but when he finally started going to some shows in the mid-70s, he got ripped off by people who took advantage of him when he was trying to be nice to them. He was a true old-school collector, and when the money involved in the hobby got too big, he just wasn't willing or able to adapt. He sounds like a great guy, though.

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That was a great read. Yes, with only 7 collectors expressing interest in the first convention, it didn't happen. I also like how Carter discusses how he didn't want to attend it because he didn't want his cards out where collectors would handle and bend them. He always had a keen eye for condition.

Belated thanks, David ...
 

Belated thanks to David (and Leon, too) for posting such interesting articles of hobby pioneers and their early efforts. Both Bob and Buck were certainly hobby giants and this article hints at why.

He Wasn't LyiN!!!
 

Mr. Carter was Surly TeLLiN the Truth
About BeiN Fussy!

Agreed! Nice cards Denny.

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Thanks for sharing a great article.

I've handled a ton of Lionel Carter owned cards & seen em from Poor to Mint
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Since we are showing off our Lionel Carters:


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Lionel Carter was an enigma. Truly, he helped found and promote our hobby. He was a prolific, tireless writer. I loved his stuff. Extremely opinionated, as I, but his opinions were always worth reading, pondering, and carried a great deal of weight.

A pit bull of a hobby watchdog, who had long sharp teeth, and never backed down. God bless his memory.

Where he and I would intensely disagree is the commercialization of the hobby. He would still have the cards penny ante, because he bought and built his massive collection penny ante, and via constant trading. Please do walk in his shoes a mile before you castigate him, guys.

Greed did rear its ugly head, as Mr. Carter feared. However, I saw some of it as a normal progression of an adult hobby. For a while, old Ferraris were back-markers in club races. Then, something happened, and they began to appreciate in value.

Poor Vincent van Gogh. His brother was his sales agent. He tried, and tried, and tried, and tried, to sell his paintings.

He sold one.

Only near the end of poor Vincent's life did a renown art critic come out and express enthusiasm and say van Gogh's work was distinctive, important, and should very much be considered a noteworthy addition to any art conisseur's collection.

For a time, old marbles just sat in bags and boxes, essentially forgotten.

For a time, old Barbies were just old Barbies.

For a time, old comic books, beer bottles and cans, etc were just keepsakes.

Now.......jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way!!!!!!!!!

Lionel Carter could not handle his hobby when the value of the cards he collected for pennies got to the point where each of them was worth more than dinner at Olive Garden. That just fried him.

Mr. Carter helped me greatly in the hobby as a late teen. I will ALWAYS be indebted to him. I will ALWAYS hold him in high esteem. I wrote respectfully in NEVER CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN of how he helped me with my collection in a major way two times in 1972-73. Those cards I am very happy to say I still own.

I just feel terrible he was not able to complete one of his life's ambitions, publishing his own book of his memoirs of serving our country in the cavalry during WWII. It was all print ready.....:(

Thank you, David, for printing this most significant article by Lionel of his obituary and memories of Mr. Jasperson and Mr. Barker.

---Brian Powell