Lionel Carter's card columns in Sport Fan, 1955-57
 

In the fall of 1955, legendary card collector Lionel Carter discovered Sport Fan, the hobby publication that Bob Jaspersen had been publishing off and on since 1951, since late 1954 in a ditto format. (To see what earlier incarnations of Sport Fan looked like, see this post of mine: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=222250.) Carter liked what he saw and offered to write a column on card collecting, an offer that Jaspersen happily accepted, since he was looking for material. Carter's debut column, on "Sport Card Publications", appeared in the October 1955 issue of Sport Fan, followed by one on tobacco cards in the November-December 1955 issue. Over the next two years, through the end of 1957, Carter wrote a total of 12 columns for Sport Fan on the history of baseball cards, from tobacco cards up through Topps and Bowman cards. (This doesn't include his column in the April 1957 issue, which recounted his and his wife's vacation to Florida for spring training, during which they met with Charles Bray and Wirt Gammon.) He only missed a couple of issues during that time.

Below I've scanned and posted those 12 columns, some of which take up two pages. The earlier ones have the date of the issue on the page, but for the record, these are from the following issues of Sport Fan, which was published somewhat erratically: October 1955, November-December 1955, January-February 1956, March 1956, April 1956, May 1956, June 1956, December 1956, March 1957, May 1957, Summer 1957, November-December 1957. The page sizes varied somewhat, especially in the earlier issues when Jaspersen was trying to save paper and experimenting with different sizes. Some of the dittoes are pretty faded, in which cases I tried to adjust the contrast to make them more legible.

Carter wrote a few more columns in 1958 and 1959 before Sport Fan went on a 10-year hiatus due to Jaspersen's health problems; there was one on the new World Tobacco Index, one on M cards (periodicals), one on the new baseball card issues of 1958, and one responding to reader mail and miscellaneous things. I may post those later if anybody is interested.

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Wow!
 

Mr. Carter seemed pretty "grumpy" about the 1933 Goudey Lajoie card! "Jefferson Burdick, Goudey supplied "Mr. Card Collector with a few copies" :) :) Amazing!

Awesome material and thanks for sharing!

Peace, Mike

Great stuff David. Its always fun reading these. Thank you.

Just scanned through a bit but I'll read the whole thing later on. Interesting that Carter mentions only 5 Wagners were known to exist at that point and it was a $50 card.

Thanks, David. I loved reading through Mr. Carter's comments. His writing was always direct and pungent. Why some think he was grumpy is probably because they never knew the man. He was opinionated, true. However, his opinions carried a great deal of weight; he knew of which he was writing. He really was a founding father of our hobby, from a journalism point of view. As such, he guarded our hobby as a pit bulldog, and was never afraid to speak out against something, or someone, who was out of line and veering to the left. A true Chicagoan, though he resided in the nearby suburb of Evanston, Illinois.

Any comments from Lionel Carter on regional baseball cards, David?

I loved Buck Barker labeling collectors who mounted their cards as "MOUNTIES". That was a hoot. I guess that extends to us who have had our cherished cards graded; as such, we are "MOUNTIES". I love it.

I salute Lionel Carter and Buck Barker, and while we're at it, SPORT FAN publisher, Bob Jasperson. Three fabulous gentlemen who befriended and helped young collectors such as I when we were just starting out in the adult collecting hobby.

Best regards, David. ---Brian Powell

Brian -- although Carter mainly wrote about national issues, he did sometimes write about regionals. In the June 1956 Sport Fan he had a "Card Notes" item which discussed Johnston Cookie cards, in addition to 1956 Topps high numbers. I think his overview of the 1958 baseball card issues in Sport Fan, which I'll probably post at some point, discusses some of that year's regionals.

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Are there many surviving 1915 Cracker Jack Albums he mentioned?
I know Sotheby's sold an album with complete set awhile back..

neat stuff, thanks for sharing!
:)