Hobby history: Collector directories, 1937-38 and 1940
 

In the very first issue of Card Collectors Bulletin, dated January 1, 1937, Jefferson Burdick printed a "Collectors Directory" listing the names, addresses, and specialties of 15 card collectors. They were all apparently among the 55 people to whom Burdick had sent this first issue of the Bulletin, but he only included people who had given their permission. In the second Bulletin a month later, he listed five more collectors, but said that others had said they did not want to be listed. Bulletin #3 a month later included four more names, but Bulletin #4 a month after that did not include any additions to the directory. These three lists are in the first three scans below.

When Burdick revived the Bulletin almost a year later on March 1, 1938, he listed seven new names for the directory, and address changes for five others (including himself). The newcomers included Howard M. Myers, who around this time was compiling the first-ever T206 checklist which Burdick later printed in 1941 (see here: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=239973), and James N. Colkitt, whose collection Burdick auctioned off in 1943 in the first-ever card auction (as I wrote about here: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=239891). Each of the three additional issues of the Bulletin that Burdick published in 1938 included more names for the Collectors Directory. The June 1, 1938 issue (#6) listed Lionel Carter and Harry Lilien, both of whom did a ton of great research on card sets over the years. The four 1938 additions to the Directory are also below.

After writing and then publishing the United States Card Collectors Catalog in the first half of 1939 (see here: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=241036), Burdick again began publishing The Card Collector's Bulletin (now with an apostrophe!) on August 1, 1939. In the April 1, 1940 issue (#5) of the new CCB, Burdick published a new Directory consisting of 34 names, many of whom had been listed in 1937-38 but some of whom had not. He lamented that this was less than a third of Bulletin subscribers, and promised "an additional long listing" in the next issue. The June 1, 1940 issue did list 12 more names, including Charles Bray (who would take over the Bulletin from Burdick nine years later), and Howard M. Myers and John D. Wagner from the 1937-38 list. The next issue (August 1, 1940) listed three new names and a change of address, but after that there were no more additions to the Directory. Burdick mentioned the reason why six years later in a short item in the February 1, 1946 CCB. He says that "years ago we did print a Directory of collectors, getting the express permission of each name printed. We found that many collectors did not wish to have their name and address mentioned in any way and so long since abandoned any extension of the idea."

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Very neat! Thanks for sharing.

Great read thanks David.

This is incredible.... love the history. Thanks so much!

Thanks for posting those, David. They are always fun to read.

Burdick distinguishes dealers from collectors in his address lists. Do you mean to say there were actually baseball card dealers in 1937? Could they make a living? And how many customers could they have had? I assume all of them had day jobs, and cards were a second income/hobby.

Some of them were general ephemera dealers, or maybe booksellers who also sold ephemera. Walter Corson did that for a while in the late 40s (see my profile of him, link in the index). Some of them might have been card collectors with day jobs who also did some buying and selling on the side, though I don’t know if that would have been true yet in 1937. Even when there were full time dealers starting in the 1950s, like Sam Rosen and Gordon Taylor (see my post on “Card dealers of the 1950s”), they weren’t just baseball card dealers; they dealt in all types of collectible cards, though baseball cards were the most popular types.

As you know Wagner and Burdick were advertising back in the Hobbies Magazine, starting in 1935. I would guess, even for the best dealers of the day, they had to have day jobs to pay their bills. It's not a lot different than many of the major league players from the 1800s to early 1900s. Most had jobs in the off season. If I recall even Matty pumped gas at one time.

Only those who also ran chat boards

I had a day job forever. I like this one better. It's fun.

Just kidding. I would bet that the dealers were also collectors and that they used their selling to finance the additions to their collections, like so many board members do today.

Would love to go knock on some of those doors and ask politely to poke around those attics!;)

I think many/most MLB players, except for the major stars, had off-season jobs well into the 1950's, or even later.

+1

First thing I did was scan the list for addresses in New England. Found one.
Tempting. The home at this address is old enough to have an attic full of treasures.