As someone who benefited from Lew's incredible knowledge about vintage cards and the players depicted on them, I owe a real debt of gratitude to him, especially the encouragement he gave me in the early days of Full Count. His literary output on all things vintage was prodigious and I only wish he had managed to go on to tackle M and 30's cards. Understandably perhaps, he ran out of steam. My God, Old Judges alone would have consumed most authors. His auctions, in which I was both a buyer and consignor over many years, were the gold standard for the day. Moreover, fees, commissions, vigorish or whatever were lower by far than those charged by todays AH's.
Spare about a thought for Jeff Burdick, the man who invented the vintage card classification system we use today despite suffering terribly from arthritis.
|