[FrankWakefield]

Tom,

Bill Haber worked for Topps. He worked there for years, as he worked his way up he eventually reached what I think was a job with the title of Sports Director. He worked on getting at least one card, one image, of everyone who played in the majors. Back in the 60's he had a collection that was on par with, and in some ways better than those of Egan, Barker, and Carter. He had all of the PCL Bowmans. When I communicated with him it was a tug of war, I'd try to pry from him information about the white border tobacco cards, and the players depicted; he was always wanting to know about Colgans Chips, which ones I had, or had seen, which team variations existed. Sometimes we'd answer the other's questions as a way of steering the conversation back to what we wanted to know about. I sent him a few Colgans, at one time he was pushing out on those known, or those that were attributed on the various lists. He was a soft spoken, gentle fellow, had worked in banking at one time. And he was big on getting the birth and death dates, and the locations correct in the old Baseball Encyclopedia. I would think he's still acknowledged in that publication, if he isn't he should be. I know Mr. Lipset acknowledges him in the 2nd Encyclopedia on Early Gum and Candy Cards; I don't recall if he's mentioned in the other two. I'd think his collection in the 60's would have been in the top 10, his knowledge of baseball cards top 10, his cataloging and record keeping top notch. At Topps he was able to determine who got a card and who didn't (subject to the contract crossfire). I deem him one of the more important collectors to our hobby.

As for Sir EW Tigar, if this was about all card collecting then I think he leaps to the top of the list. But since I deem this to be about baseball card collecting, I allow for Mr. Burdick to barely nudge him out.