Who had a positive impact on your collection ?

[Joe_G.]

My focus quickly migrated from available wax at local grocery store (84 Topps) to older cards as I attended local card shows. The older the better although it was tough to find anything in the Upper Peninsula of MI. My ability to collect older cards improved once I subscribed to SCD which opened the door to impressive dealers and collectors alike.

I ordered Lew Lipsets encyclopedias and quickly narrowed my Detroit interest to Old Judges. By the late 1980s I had contacted Bob Richardson and we wrote each other many times. It was always a special treat to receive a letter as it would typically include xerox copies of cards I had dreamed about. I managed to obtain Detroit Old Judges of Rowe, Thompson, and Twitchell from Bob before graduating HS and temporarily leaving the hobby. I returned to the hobby in 2003 and immediately wrote Bob to see how similar/different his interests and the hobby were. He was still collecting and we traded far more material as it was easier for me to find cards on his wantlist thanks to eBay.

Bob was single most influential collector, always willing to take the time to answer questions and help a fellow collector out regardless of age, knowledge, etc.