Long time lurker finally signed up

[IndyDave]

Long time lurker who finally registered a few weeks ago. Live in the Indianapolis area now, originally from the Youngstown, Ohio area.

I’m the childhood collector who never completely went away. My card collection as a kid starter with 1966 Topps bought for me by my grandfather. Sometime in the early 1970’s I discovered the hobby from some ads in The Sporting News.

One of those ads led me to one of the newsletters of the day and I placed a classified of some sort. That led to a letter from Bill MacTaggart of Grove City, PA inviting me to the card show he was having in his living room and front porch in a few months. Bill eventually moved the show to a hall in town and my brother and I set up at his show for several years until it folded. I still trade letters and Christmas cards with Bill.

I would set up at Jim Bohren’s shows in Niles, Ohio for many years and did a few other shows in NE Ohio and Western PA. I stopped setting up probably in the late 80’s. My collecting effort really slowed down when I got married and had a son in the mid 1990’s. I would occasionally jump in, but never with much gusto. My son went off to college in 2013 and I started to wade back in with more interest and more willingness to spend money.

I’m now working on finishing up my 1953 Topps set (where are you Dixie Howell) that will leave me with only the Pete Rose rookie from 1953 to whenever I decided to stop buying new Topps sets in the 90’s. Concentrating on the 1952 Topps 1-310 as well. About two dozen cards left including a few big boys.

Trying to also work on getting my cards organized better and have been getting some of my better cards graded. Either I will need to start selling off my collection down the road or I need to have things organized so my son can do the same when I’m gone. He likes to look at the cards. He has no interest in collecting them. Whenever I retire (or my company retires me), I have plenty of card work I can do.

I hope I can add a little knowledge to a few topics on the board. I also have a few questions I want to ask once I can get a few cards scanned.