Tell your stories Of dealings with legends of the hobby

[vintagechris]

After readong Bruce and Old Mill's stories, would love to hear some more stories that people have of dealings they had with some of the legnds of the hobby.

[bbcard1]

The two people I dealt with who were really pretty significant in the hobby were Paul Pollard who had a great collection...a lot of the reprint sets that are popularly available were made from Paul's collection...Paul lived in Lynchburg, VA...and the Lambert brothers who had a dandy little shop in Ironton Ohio long before baseball cards became any big deal. I have a low grade Ruth I got for $100 from them that will probably always live in my collection. Paul died a year or so back...long since lost touch with the Lamberts.

[Chris Counts]

I'm going to start with the first hobby legend I met, which was Goodwin Goldfadden, in about 1973. I found an ad somewhere with the address of his Adco Sports Book Exchange in Hollywood, and I convinced my father to drive my brother and I there one Saturday. When we arrived, we discovered the shop was so small that all three of us could barely fit inside. Cards and memorabilia were literally oozing out of every nook and cranny of the musty joint. Goodwin, meanwhile, appeared to have little patience with a pair of pre-teens filled with endless questions about cards. It soon became clear that we had better make a quick purchase before he threw us out. So I asked if we could see some 1957 Topps cards, which I had recently discovered and were just about the oldest cards I had ever seen. No doubt his store was filled with tobacco and early gum cards, but there was no way we were going to see them. We were thrilled, though, that he let us sort through a box of 57s.

It was like digging for gold. My brother and I each grabbed a small stack at about a dime a card. I remember grabbing all the Dodgers I could afford because I was simply amazed to see a card of a BROOKLYN Dodger. My brother and I each handed our stacks to Goodwin so he could tell us how much we owed him. I'll never forget the image of him thumbing through those cards with a look of disgust on his face. As he rifled through the cards, he would from time to time slam each stack against the nearest flat surface, like it was some kind of nervous habit, and in the process, he would ding a bunch of corners (I observed this habit in later transactions as well). Even as a clueless 12-year-old, I was horrified by the way he treated his cards with what seemed like contempt. My dad took the whole thing in stride and handed over a couple dollars for the cards. We thanked him and left, and on the way home my dad stopped nearby and bought us each an Orange Julius. Looking back on it, I realized that the trip to Goody's was my introduction to the business of vintage cards ...

[sox1903wschamp]

Great idea for a thread. I do not really have a story but I did meet Buck Barker when I was teenager back in the late 70's at a card show in St Louis.

I know I would appreciate the meeting more now after reading more of his history but I still remember thinking he was cool old time collector at the time. Even bought a few items from him and he had some great stuff.

[BobbyVCP]

Starting in 1973 I took the bus every Saturday during the summers to Goody's place on Santa Monica Blvd near Fairfax with my $50 I earned from working for my dad. Like a previous poster said it was wall to wall stuff. You would knock on the door he would let you in. I would tell him a few players I would want like Cobb, Mathewson, Johnson, etc and he would go in the back and a few minutes later come back with stacks of cards usually in rubber bands for you to go through and choose. The mentioned names where all $6 each and lower tier HOF's all $4. I only collected HOF players at the time so would usually end up leaving the store with about 10-15 cards each time. The most expensive card I ever bought from him was a T206 Plank for $50. Ruth cards where in the $25-35 range and Gehrig a little lower. I only had interest in Pre-war cards at the time and he had mostly T206, Goudey and Playball. As well for some reason it seemed that every one of his 39 PB's had the sample stamped backs.

[BobbyVCP]

BTW last I heard Goody is still alive and Matt from Beverly Hills Baseball Cards talks to him and visits.

[camlov2]

I remember collecting when I was younger and Jim Horne was always around to share info regarding cards. He even allowed me to look thorugh his collection and help sort out topps sets. Even today we discuss some random set each time we get together. The guy was great growing up, he even helped coach some of my baseball teams...

[Rickyy]

Wow Glad to hear Goody is still alive and well. I too dealt with him..over the phone about his ad....I think that was about 1974 and I was also a snotty nosed kid..and I got yelled at. But I did get some nice 56 Topps cards from him eventually.

Also bought complete 73 topps series 4 and 5 from Larry Fristch that year since I couldn't find them in my area stores. I spoke to him over the phone and he encouraged me to complete sets and then work backwards as I got older and had more money...but most of all enjoy and have fun.

My first big purchase was in 75..bought a complete 72 set from Stan Martucci in Staten Island off of his ad in a sports magazine.

I also bought a bunch of singles from the early 70's sets from Bruce Yeko after I read about him having over a million cards in the BB card flippin book.

I wish I was collecting pre war back then...now that would have been sweet!

Ricky Y

[Griffins]

My first dealings were with Goody too. You'd make a reservation, arrive at your appointed time, and he'd totally disregard it. Once in he proved to be an incredibly miserable guy. I recall getting '39 Playball Dimaggios for $5 and Greenberg for a buck, both having sample backs.
His wife, Esther, was really nice to kids and apologetic over the way Goody would treat us, but it made no difference to him.
There were so many good guys at the monthly Garden Grove shows back then- Jim Nowell, Gavin Riley, Merv Williams, Clay Hill, Steve Brunner, to name a few-once we clued into them my friends and I never had to deal with Goody's abuse again.
I dealt a lot with Richard Gelman's Wholesale Card Co too- T206's were .50 each I believe, and I remember getting a Uzit back in one order. My two buddies and I really got into T205's and T206's (about '73, when we were 12) and ended up running ads offer something like 50 '72 Topps for a T206, or 75 of them for a T205. We thought we'd get a few cards but within weeks got totally slammed with T's and had to go around the neighborhood buying more cards to fulfill the trades. I think I ended up with almost 300 T205's and T206's from a couple of ads, and a lot of the cards came from long time hobbyists that just hadn't kept up with the current sets.

[thekingofclout]

September 27, 1971
Adco, The Ultimate Sports Nostalgia Trip, Can Be All Yours For A Mere $100,000

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...5327/index.htm

[tedzan]

Does anyone have any stories regarding Topps executive Sy Berger ?

I understand he was quite a character.


TED Z

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by tedzan

Does anyone have any stories regarding Topps executive Sy Berger ?

I understand he was quite a character.


TED Z

Ted:

There area couple of stories about Berger in "Mint Condition" the book by David Jamieson and a couple of nuggets here and there in the old hobby mags but I think the best stories may never be told. The Shorin family from what I have seen did not like their employees to tell tales except in controlled environments and it does not seem like Sy wants to tell too many stories these days beyond the usual three or four you see repeated everywhere.

I too would love to hear more stories about Sy and Woody Gelman, Len Brown and the other "bigwigs" at Topps back in the day. There must be hundreds of great untold stories from/about these guys. One such example would be the Rookie Banquet dinners in the 60's, which I believe were hosted by Berger and were quite raucous; I'll bet some whoppers happened at those over the years.

[T206Collector]

One of the smartest things I ever did in card collecting was to call Lionel Carter on the phone out of the clear blue and ask him about his T206 Eddie Plank, which I had just bought in a Mastro Auction. I even recorded the conversation on my computer and uploaded it to my website for everyone to hear. And I had the pleasure of exchanging several letters with the man before he passed away.

I did the same thing with Jeff Morey, who as far as I'm concerned is the king of all that is signed pre-war cards. Being able to talk with both of these legends of the hobby about their collections, of which I own an extremely small part, has been one of the biggest thrills of my collecting life.

Carter's Plank:



Morey's Doyle:

[Orioles1954]

Can I share one on behalf of my neighbor who is not even a collector?

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Orioles1954

Can I share one on behalf of my neighbor who is not even a collector?

the more the merrier......

In the early winter of 1975, about six months after we began "serious" collectors of rare top condition baseball cards and memorabilia business interests took us to Beverly Hills for a five days of meetings.

A number of prominent East Coast collectors- most notably the late George Lyons and Lew Lipset, suggested that we visit with the best of the west.

We visited with Goody Goldfaden at a coffee shop not far from his store-where we were able to purchase a great looking N 162 set for $250. He offered us five more sets, but we did not have the foresight to recognize how valuable these cards would become. Over the years we spoke with and visited Goody many times. He actually knew my late Uncle who was then CEO of Universal Pictures.

Off to Orange County. Mike Berkus arranged a car service for us,took us to lunch and we spent the
whole day with Mike, Gavin Riley, Jim Nowell (the most impressive regional collection we had ever seen) and
the legendary Bill Heitman. Bill discussed his law practice and the fact that his dad was a collector.

We felt like a little kid who had an all expenses paid trip to Disney Land. In fact, we can not remember a better day with
anyone or at other time in the 59 years that we have lived on the planet.

Whilst some believe it is only baseball cards (i.e. Boxing Card Man), to us that was the day we fell totally
in love with the hobby. That love grows stronger every year.

Bruce Dorskind
America's Toughest Want List
bdorskind@dorskindgroup.com

America's premiere buyer of rare, high grade baseball memorabilia and ultra high grade type cards. All correspondence will be considered confidential

[Griffins]

Bruce, do you (or anyone else) have any idea where Gavin and Jim are now? Are they still collecting?

[BobbyVCP]

Bruce,

Was your late uncle Lew Waserman? If so I grew up with his grandchildren and went to his house many times.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

No, it were the Uncles Albert. The Pauls wrote a song about them. Something about handsii across the water.

I've heard many varying recollections of Goody. It seems as though he universally despised children. From what I gather, those who dealt with him as adults were apparently afforded more respect. I wonder what year he opted to veto the rubber bands?

For those of you who lucked out enough to pay his shop a visit, what was the approximate square footage of navigable floorspace?

[BobbyVCP]

[QUOTE=J
For those of you who lucked out enough to pay his shop a visit, what was the approximate square footage of navigable floorspace?[/QUOTE]

The store was narrow maybe 25 ft wide and went back fairly far. When you walked in it was on the right side and just a few feet in was a desk or table you stood at where he would bring you the cards to look at to buy. Not sure how far back it went because he always would go back into another room to grab the cards. Throughout the place was shelves up to the ceiling just packed with stuff. I heard he sold all his non card stuff like programs and books to Notre Dame or some school for around $500K. Then some people got together as a group and bought all of his cards but I have no idea for how much. I talked to someone that was in on it but don't recall who it is.

[martin neal]

Bruce, you may want to correst your post, you typed in my uncle instead of our uncle.

[Rob D.]

Originally Posted by martin neal

Bruce, you may want to correst your post, you typed in my uncle instead of our uncle.

Missile-launch code entered ... oops, another misfire.

[Rich Klein]

But I think this is as good as a place to mention my primary mentor in this biz "Tom Reid". I learned a ton from Tom over the years and I still miss him now that's it is 9 years since he has gone. I believe today may be the 9th anniversary of his passing, I know it was this week in 2001, I think it was actually about 9/6.

Tom was a hobby guy who was quite the character in many ways -- and he is still and always will be the ONLY person I ever allowed to smoke in my car. He was the promoter of the old Montclair State Shows in the 1970's and was a fixture for many years at all the big North Eastern shows

Regards
Rich

[bh3443]

Hi Rich! I loved that show in Montclaire! I was in my late teens/early 20's back then and had so much fun as well as buying/selling some great stuff.
Venturing out of Boston, I headed south to do shows in Meriden, CT, then those great monthly shows in NYC, on to Montclaire, NJ to arrive in paradise which for me in the late 70's/early 80's was Willow Grove, PA!
Some of the finest people I've had the privilidge of knowing were at those events and many of them came up to do my shows in Burlington, MA.
Tom was a great guy and I can still picture him at those Montclaire events!
Thanks for the nice post from you and everyone.

[Chris Counts]

I met Tom Reid at a Southern California show back in the 1970s when I was just a kid. I remember he was a really nice guy. Just before I left, he handed me his "card," which in this case turned out to be a 1950 American Nut pennant of Tommy Holmes. I still have it ...

[Gary Dunaier]

Originally Posted by tedzan

Does anyone have any stories regarding Topps executive Sy Berger ?

Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but Fred Harris and Brendan Boyd's Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book, originally published in 1973, has an interview with Sy Berger. About the only "gossipy" thing in the interview is that at the time Mr. Berger was on a water diet.

[Wite3]

As a "younger" collector, I had several fantastic stories. I got back into collecting in 1987 at the ripe old age of 16. I got back into it because I bought my first PC and it had a modem that connected me to Prodigy service where there was a baseball card bulletin board. Flash forward and I was tasked (challenged really) to compile a list of all Phillies cards from 1949 to 1989...regionals, food, oddball, etc. I started to put it together and decided to go all the way back to the 1880s. Two years later I posted the first list and was immediately emailed that I should talk to Lew Lipset about the Felin's Franks that I had listed (at the time only had a mention of them and a question mark). So, I called him. He took the time to speak with me for nearly an hour about certain sets he had seen and handled (Felins, Father and Son Shoes, Demaree, etc.). Eventually, I ended up buying several cards from him and signing up for his newsletter and auctions.

It is now about 1991 and I was at a regular show in Southern California at the Beverly Garland Hotel in Studio City. I am buying older Phillies from a dealer I know who then tells me that if I am really interested in the older cards I should call Gar Miller. Okay...I call Gar. Talk to him for a bit and he eventually says send me your list and a check for what you can afford and I will fill what I have. I did that for about 6 months until my list was gone. He was great. I have talked (emailed) him a couple of times in the past 10 years.

A few years later I was talking to a friend who said that some of the oddball Topps things I had listed were incorrect team or did not exist. He said I should talk to another friend of his. Turned out I spent about 20 minutes on the phone with Sy Barger of Topps. He did confirm some stuff for me. I did not realize who it really was until about a year later when I saw an article on him in a magazine.

Terry Knouse and Mark Macrae I consider hobby greats as well and both started my Old Judge collection at the same National in the early '90s. Years can go by and Terry still remembers that I collect Phillies and interesting stuff. He once let me examine the T206 ledger and the collection of T3 proofs.

Kit Young handed me a stack of playing cards at a National in Anaheim and said I could buy any one of the commons for $150 each...stupid me was out of money and declined. Of course the set was the Allegenys. Still have the note where I wrote down all the Phillies from the set!!

Jim Montgomery, a great Florida collector, used to send me trades all the time as well. He was a hobby great and very generous who sold most of his collection and retired from the scene.

I know I ran into a few other greats. I seem to recall a very quick introduction to Barry Halper when I was in Cooperstown one year.

I feel that I have been very fortunate over the years to meet some great collectors and see some really impressive collections and personalities.

Joshua

PS We ought to do a post on the best hobby experiences we have had...not really best buys but just wonderful moments in our collecting careers.

[tedzan]

George Moll is indeed a hobby Pioneer, who is not that well known to many. George was the dynamic force behind all the Bowman, Play Ball and Gum, Inc.
sportscards and non-sportscards from 1938-1943; and, 1948-1955. The George Moll Advertising Agency (of Philadelphia) produced all the Bowman Gum
trading cards....starting in 1938 with their famous HORRORS OF WAR set. In the 1930's, George Moll advised Warren Bowman to include trading cards with
his popular Blony bubble gum product.....and, the rest is history.

In 1981, while doing research for a Bowman article in the Spring edition of Bob Lemke's Baseball Cards Magazine, I visited with George Moll at his home in
Pennsylvania. I found him to be an enthusiastic 86 year old, who enjoyed talking BB cards. He showed me all his BB, FB and Non-sports cards. Including
tons of complete uncut sheets of BB, FB, and Non-Sports cards that were designed by the Moll Agency during 1938-1955 (and printed by Zabel Brothers).

As a teenager, George collected T-cards, but they were discarded. When he was about 40, he started collecting 1933 Goudey's. He told me these were
his favorite BB cards. Then he showed me the most fantastic 1933 Goudey set that I've seen. The cards were in an album within high quality Mylar plastic.
It comprised of 240 cards, not including Lajoie. Instead, the #106 card was Leo Durocher (who is normally #147 in this set). I've always wondered if the
Moll Agency printed this scarce "variation" card. It is a perfect replica of the original Goudey Durocher card.

George was an avid reader of all the hobby publications in the 1970's and the 1980's. His parting statement to me was...."Thank you for writing an article
about the Bowman cards, because all I read about is Topps cards. Please send me a copy when it is available."

With that, he told me to select an uncut sheet from his vast collection. I chose this 1952 Bowman FB (Large issue) sheet........







The following are examples of some of the fantastic trading cards produced by the Moll Agency (circa 1938 - 1955) for the Bowman Gum Company.
















There is much more I can relate to you of my afternoon visit with George Moll. But, I'll leave it at this.


TED Z

[Tomman1961]

I had the pleasure of writing a few times back and forth with Frank Nagy starting when I was about 22 years old in 1983. I was bidding in many of his auctions and picked up a lot of T-206 Hall of Famers. He offered me advice on pre-WW2 cards. Through him, I completed my Playball sets. Not bad for a 20's year old kid. By 1987 we both discussed the over produced junk that was out there. Nice man. Nice advice. I still have a letter or 2 from him. His hand writing was pretty tough to read though.

[mrmopar]

My only dealings have been during through the mail or later, on ebay. Some of the names I recognized from publications or articles on cards or the annual price guides as contributors. My only ventures outside of small local card shops/shows and mail order/ebay would be to pop into a card shop during my travels (family vacations, US Navy). I have never been to what most would consider a large show, like a National, and the Pacific NW doesn't really seem to be a major hub for sports cards compared to many other places, although there is a long standing card club...WSSCA, of which I am not a member.

http://www.wssca.net/

Not sure who might really be considered hobby legends though. To me, these were people selling cards. I remember buying quite frequently from TCMA and Renata Galasso through the mail in the early/mid 80s. Hall's Nostalgia and The Collector's Den stand out too, as does Card Collectors Co. I somehow got on tmany of their mailing lists for a time, maybe through Baseball Digest ads or some other means. I lived in the Seattle area, so I got catalogs from Michael Cramer's shop and visited it occasionally, before he grew into Pacific Trading Cards. Paul Marchent, BA Murray, Wayne's Shoebox, Kit Young, Bill Henderson, Stan Martucci, etc. are all names I know I bought cards from through the mail too from ads they placed.

I bought a few neat items from Ted Taylor on ebay, who was at one time a Fleet Executive. Got some neat Fleer proof/prototype items and some tougher Brooklyn Dodger autos.

[Exhibitman]

The lesson to take away from these stories is that true collectors are generous with their time, treat other collectors kindly, and encourage the hobby.

[ls7plus]

John Stommen, one of the original founders of Sports Collectors' Digest, was kind enough to pull a 1937 R314 Wide Pens Bob Feller rookie he hadn't originally intended to offer for sale from his personal collection and sell it to me in the early '90's, when I was just getting started in my quest for HOF'er rookie cards. A true gentleman, with a generous character for helping fellow collectors!

Larry