Down memory lane...1974 dealer price list

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Posted By: Chuck Ross

Hello all...I'm new to the forum, though I know a couple of the regular posters. Started collecting baseball as a kid back in the 60's and even managed to get some vintage stuff from dealers before I gave it up in the mid-70's. Got back into collecting late 90's with eBay but have focused since then on pre-war (1933-1942) nonsports issues. Though I no longer collect baseball I love reading the posts here. I recently dug up a dealer's price list from the period in the early 70's when I was collecting baseball cards heavily. Here are his prices for full Topps sets, in "A-1" condition: 1954, $90; 1955, $75; 1956, $85; 1957, $100; 1958, $65; 1959, $75; 1960, $55; 1961, $50; 1962, $50; 1963, $45; 1964, $40; 1965, $40, 1966, $40; 1967, $40; 1968, $25; 1969, $22; 1970, $18; 1971, $16; 1972, $13; 1973, $13. That's right, every set from '54-'73 for a total of $917. He also had 1951 Berk Ross set for $20 and Fleer 1963 for $18. Thought you guys might enjoy this. Now I just need a time machine....

Chuck R

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Posted By: prewarsports

I also just came across a 1982 autograph price list from a nation-wide dealer. His 3X5 cards were 16 cents each and they included players like Roger Maris, but the best was that he had (10) Willie Foster autographs (only died a few years before the ad) and many Hilton Smith and Turky Stearns autographs. Prices? $1 each for the Fosters and 35 cents each for the Hilton Smiths and Turkey Stearns. I dont think investing in Microsoft stock at the IPO would have garnered a better return on your dollar then these. A Willie Foster 3X5 is an easy $2000-$3000 item now. Could have had a $50,000+ return on a $20 investment.

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Posted By: BOTN

Hi Chuck

Great post. Thanks for sharing. Anyone else have any ads from dealers like this one? I got a late start in the hobby in 1989 so I do not have anything that exciting.

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Posted By: Glen V

Remember Sports Nostalgia? Which I would have bought some of those $6 Ryan rookies.

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Posted By: jay behrens

Those are some pretty stiff prices for 50s cards for 1980. I put together a 1955 set in the early 80s and the whole set prolly didn't cost me more than about $250 in Ex/NM+ condition. And the Clemente didn't cost me anymore than about $40-50 and the Koufax half that.

Jay

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Posted By: Joe P.

I would pay a penny a pack at a candy store near my grade school PS 86 on East 96th St Manhattan, stuff the gum in my mouth and then go down the steps of the entrance to the Lexington Ave subway on the corner.
We had an area there that was perfect for me and my other 10 year old schoolmates to do our card flipping.
This was 1941 so I don't know how long flipping went on as a kid sport.
The idea was that one would flip, and the other would try to match heads or tails.
After awhile we had it down to a science and matching a flip was a give, but until that moment, stacks were won and lost by the new entrants into the gambling world.

After looking at BOTN's post, it automatically made me think of slabs.
Thinking of 1989 slabs made me wonder.

How would the flipping of our 1941 Play Ball's be affected if they were slabbed?

Would the landing on the street of a flipped slabbed 1941 PB damage the slab?

If per chance there is a match of the flipped slabbed PB's, Joe D and Teddy are facing up, but one of the slabbie's appears to be cracked, ... is it still a match, or is it now Ungradable?

I guess what I'm asking is:
Which slabber will hold up in a flipping contest?
PSA, SGC or XYZ?

Joe

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Posted By: Chuck Ross

Joe P's message about flipping made me think of the version we had when I was a kid and first buying baseball cards....though these cards are a bit off topic for this forum, some of you in your mid-40's probably remember the game we played with our '68 and '69 Topps, the cards that had the colored circles enclosing the team name...you and your opponent would alternately flip cards from your respective face-down piles onto a center face up pile...whenever two cards matched in color (i.e. Tigers and Cardinals or players from the same team) the guy putting the second card down took the whole stack. No telling how many Ryan rookies I gambled away. To this day, if someone names a team I can still recall the color of that team's colored circle on those cards.

Chuck R