Man I couldn't wait to get these back in the day...

[brianp-beme]

Check out this ad I saved from a 1985 SCD issue. What a world of difference 30 years makes. I loved getting the magazine and pouring through the ads, and I made a special effort to rip out and keep this one because it was so jam packed with the low condition vintage I collected. I don't remember ordering anything, but maybe/hope I did.

Thousand or more cards listed, and nary a scan...so all I can do is scan the ad for you.

Brian

[quinnsryche]

That's my dad's ad. Very cool to see. The year after I graduated high school I was working at the store full time while at Jr. college in '85. I LOVED going thru that paper every week! Remember when it was so big it was in 2 sections and came in a plastic bag? Always found something great to buy. Thanks for the memories.

[brianp-beme]

Cool to see we have connection on board to the seller. There are many incredible cards listed if you break out the old magnifying glass for my scans...a random one I just noticed: 8 different T209 series one cards in F-G condition for $29.95. There are countless 'oh my goodness'' cards, especially to a collector like myself that was active back then.

Brian

[Jantz]

I don't remember those ads because I wasn't collecting 30 years ago, but I do remember Teletrade on the phone.

Still cool to look back and see what prices were then.

[trdcrdkid]

Ah, Sports Collectors' Store. I have fond memories of going there in the late 70s and early 80s when it was still on the southwest side of Chicago, even though I was a kid and didn't have much money to spend, maybe $20 or $30 on a typical visit. I was not an active collector in 1985, when this ad came out, but when I got back into the hobby in the summer of 1991, this place was one of the first card shops I visited. When I started subscribing to SCD a year or two later, their ads almost always had great stuff that I coveted.

[Huysmans]

I too had an SCD subscription in the mid-to-late 1980s....
and I couldn't wait for that issue every week!
I think they came on Thursdays or Fridays.... But I can't remember for sure.
Great memories!

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Jantz

I don't remember those ads because I wasn't collecting 30 years ago, but I do remember Teletrade on the phone.

Still cool to look back and see what prices were then.

When I was doing the HOF Rookie thing I had gotten my Rose rookie from Teletrade. You could find some neat stuff in those auctions....

[BeanTown]

Originally Posted by Jantz

I don't remember those ads because I wasn't collecting 30 years ago, but I do remember Teletrade on the phone.

Still cool to look back and see what prices were then.

I think I built half a CJ set from Teletrade. The trick was to get connected on their bidding phone system which only had so many lines available. Then just bid away with minutes left as it would not allow you to do max bids.

[brian1961]

So true about Sports Collectors Digest back in the day. You would get your issue, go to a place in your home without any distractions, then go through it---page by page. I would have scrap paper handy to use as bookmarks. After a fun, concentrated hour of studying the magazine, I would go back to the bookmarked pages, weighing which cards I wanted the most, then pick up the phone and call. You had to be QUICK about it, though, because hot vintage cards in prime condition sold FAST. Many was the time I would hear, "sorry, that's already sold".

By the late 80s, SCD hit on the idea of offering subscribers the option of having their issues delivered via first class mail. Whoa--was that ever expensive, several hundred bucks! I just could not pull the trigger on that enticing way to get the latest issue a day or two before anybody else, to get first dibs on a card I might want.

However, for the good stuff I began to want, it did not matter when I got my SCD. More and more, the best stuff had to be fought out over a phone auction. The best card in my collection was from an SCD phone auction---Mr. Mint in 1988----Chapter 13 in my book, NEVER CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN!

The previous comment is a non--shameless plug for my own book. Look for chapter 8 RIGHT NOW on SPORTS COLLECTORS DAILY, concerning one of the toughest post-war regional sets of them all!

Thank you for a good thread topic. Anxiously waiting each week for SCD brings back a lot of fond memories.

---Brian Powell

[Leon]

I also remember getting super rare stuff at great prices, on ebay, when I first joined in 1999. I remember quite a few D359s, D304s and lots of scarce T series too. The difference today is that people know what they are and prices aren't what they used to be on there. You can still find some nice surprises and that is probably what keeps a lot of people coming back.

[runbrett]

I used to take two buses for about 10 miles from the southwest side to get to the store. We went there a lot in the winter in the mid 1970s since we tended to have nothing to do on weekends.

They had so many cards along every inch of the wall. I remember that we asked for a 1963 Fleer Clemente and they pulled out a box that must have had at least 400 of them.

I spent lots of time buying damaged cards that were 25 cents. 1950s stars were always in there. If I went alone I usually spent my bus money so I'd walk/run home.

[Gary Dunaier]

Originally Posted by brian1961

By the late 80s, SCD hit on the idea of offering subscribers the option of having their issues delivered via first class mail. Whoa--was that ever expensive, several hundred bucks!

If memory serves me right, they also offered the option of delivery via Federal Express for an even significantly higher price - but I think delivery the day after the copies came off the presses was guaranteed.

[brian1961]

Gary--- I had forgotten SCD further offered the FED EX "fastest option". I'm sure there were several very high power dealers and deep pocket collectors who gladly chose this most expensive of options. Thanks for mentioning this. ---Brian Powell