Who had a positive impact on your collection ?

[clydepepper]

Originally Posted by frankbmd

I’ll say it if no one else will

Net54

My father didn’t give a damn about cards or baseball.

My mother threw out my childhood collection from the fifties.

My cousin who might have been a positive influence died prematurely.

My wallet tells me that a host of dealers had a negative impact.

Leon, if I’m wrong about the positive impact of this site, I gather that everyone who posted above me in this thread disagrees with me, since Net54 hasn’t been mentioned once.

Frank - I could not agree more! Here's to Leon and all his minions!

[Chris Counts]

Nobody played a bigger role for me than my dad. When I was nine in 1970, my mom gave me $1 and sent me to the grocery store for some broccoli. For reasons beyond my reason, I spent the money on baseball cards. As I was walking home, my dad drove by and offer me a ride. I explained what had happened, and he drove me back to the store, where he bought some broccoli — and some more baseball cards.

For the next half dozen years, he drove me and brother around to card shows in Orange County, and even the occasional trip to LA to visit Goodwin Goldfadden's legendary shop.

My brother and I still collect, and dad is still alive at 95. Thanks dad!

Another guy I give a lot of credit too is John Parks. I'm not sure if he is still alive, but he later founded the monthly card club meetings at the Issac Walton School in Garden Grove in the mid 1970s. He lived nearby, and I literally discovered vintage cards in his garage. My brother and I would spent hours going through his cards, and he was always patient with us, and never charged us much. He was truly an old school collector/dealer, and I mean that as a supreme compliment ...

[Baseballcrazy62]

There is a good chance that most of our dads had to cover for us once in a while. My Dad is 94 and we still talk about cards all the time. Mostly about all the stuff we should have bought and didn't. Thanks for the story!!

[xplainer]

Three guys on here have really educated me on T206 cards, and have helped me out on purchases(from them) and advice on others.
Scot Reader
BocaBirdMan Mike
Luke Lyon.
Scot is very open and glad to share information he has worked on very hard and spent alot of time on. Great researcher that doesn't mind telling you what he knows.
Mike and Luke are long distance friends who has taught me things, shared opinions, and we have worked out sweet deals. For both sides! My favorites sellers on this site.
That is my top three.

[angolajones]

My Mom got me into baseball cards. I was 4 years old and 1977 Topps packs are what she bought for me. After opening them, I was hooked. She would take me to the corner grocery store and get packs and open and sort them with me. We bought the cardboard organizer by team in 1980 with the two rows and blue silhouettes on the outside. I remember going to card shows at the fairgrounds and how packed it was. We came home with a 1962 Maris that a neighbor boys stole from me.

Unfortunately, the majority of my collecting was during the junk wax era.

Got out of collecting after high school and just recently got back thanks to finding this site on the Internet.

[T205 GB]

An older board member gave me some words of advice. He passed away unfortunately about a year later. I have visited his site at Arlington Cemetery and that's the closest to in person I ever got but the emails and stories we shared is what lit my passion for prewar. I am sure Joe is deeply missed on this board.

[bauce]

For vintage: this place.

Now I am intimidated by all the great stuff in other people's collections.

[glchen]

I'd thank Brad Green, a member on this board. His Lefty Grove collection (Link) with all of the color variations gave me the start and motivations for my player set collections.

[Baseballcrazy62]

Just checked out that Grove Collection. I really like those Wheaties panels.

[Bicem]

Think my earliest influencers were Steve Murray, Kevin Struss, Craig Lipman, JC, Wesley Liu, Robert Silverman.

Even before I knew them I admired their collections and taste in cards.