Got my first pre-war from Bruce Yeko at Wholesale Cards. A T206, 75 cents, note that Playballs were $1.50. Goudey's, on a different page are $4

As a grade schooler and Red Sox fan growing up in Canada, I was in awe of the Halls' ads in the trade rags of the time. So much incredible stuff; lots of oddball/regional Red Sox pieces, too.

It was an absolute thrill to visit their store a million years ago. I was all of 10 years old and on a vacation. Even though it was so long ago, I still don't know how I snagged T206 Chase (trophy) and Frank Smith (Chicago and Boston variation) for $1 or $5 each!?! They're still around here somewhere, though packed away and unseen for decades. I don't even know which backs they might have, but I want to say Piedmont.

It would be many years later when I was to meet the Halls again. Still as nice as ever, and still running a really great auction the old fashioned way. I sure do miss those auctions. They managed to keep their offerings extremely eclectic, too.

Let me just hop in a time machine really quick for those prices. Holy smokes :eek:

I used to buy cards (mainly complete sets I think) from Walter Abe in Foster City, CA in the mid to late 1970s. My dad used to read The Sporting News so I probably found him in that fine publication. Anyone ever heard of or remember Walter?

Wayne Miller and Dan McKee
 

First baseball auction I ever went to was in Ellicott City, MD in 1986 where my wife and I were fortunate to sit next to Dan McKee. He was very helpful that day and every pre-war card I ever bought was from him.

First show I ever went to was the Wayne Miller show in Columbia, MD.
Dealers included Mr. Mint, Bill Mastro, Joshua Evans, Kit Young, and probably several of you. Almost passed out from the unbelievable baseball treasures STUFFED into that small room.

Yeah, but the New York Yankees stamps are more expensive than a T206. What is this guy smoking :)

Ted Elmo was a great guy, mostly autographs. He advertised in SCD all of the time. He passed (I'm guessing) at least 15 years ago. I think he had an asthma condition. The cloud on his reputation came out of Ted being too trusting. When the autographed Black and White HOF plaque debacle hit the hobby about 30 years ago Ted bought in and got burned when it turned out they were forgeries. I don't think he ever recovered from that financial hit.
_________________________
Always BUYING Vintage autographs
jim@stinsonsports.com

Walter is still in the business. He owns three stores in the Bay Area (Peninsula Sports Cards in Belmont, South Bay Sports Card in Sunnyvale and Stevens Creek Sports Card in San Jose.

A great guy who has been successful for a long time

Good to hear! I remember him being a nice guy. He must be up there in age! Glad to hear he’s still around.

Thanks for the information, Jim. I'll never forget how patient Ted was with me - I must have been all of ten years old when I first corresponded with him. I remember that when I sent him fifty cents for a Frankie Frisch index card, I taped two quarters to a card and just dropped it into an envelope. Simpler times. At one point, he offered me a Babe Ruth signed bank deposit slip for forty dollars. Unfortunately, to a twelve year old in 1967, it may as well have been $40,000. I think about that a lot more often than I should...:eek:

Don't feel so bad, Alan. We've all been there in one form or another, especially as young, poor collectors.

The best/worst story of this sort I ever heard was from a friend who may even be lurking and see this. He's told it to me before, and I believe he's already posted it here many years ago, so it's information that's already been shared. But it's a doozy.

When he was a kid, he used to buy T cards from Wirt Gammon, as so many longtime collectors did in that era. Wirt wrote him, offering a Wagner, saying something to the effect of, "This is something really rare that you should get if you can.". Price tag? $50. My friend couldn't really swing it. $50 was a lot of money to a young guy that long ago.

Circling Back to Bruce/Scott Oran
 

I had mentioned I found Bruce on FB, checking his friends list (it's easy there are only 17) there was a Scott Oran as well who appears to be slightly more active than Bruce.

So. based on what I saw on Bruce's list, both Orans are still with us

Rich

A little off track but I remember when I was around 6-7 yrs old, someone cashed in a roll of mercury dimes at the 7-11 down the street, for face value. I think I had around 2.20, at the time, so I got 22 of them. Man, I wish I would have had more money. But, as you said, back in the late 60s, as kids, that was a lot of money.

Some cool stories in this thread.

Jim Hamon set up at all of the Detroit area shows and had a couple of stores 70’s & 80’s. And not dealers, but one of the 1st promoters of card shows in Detroit area.Husband & wife the Torpe’s. Jim Hawkins sports writer for Detroit Free Press took over their shows in the 90’s. Here they are.

Alan,

I bet you walked around at more shows than Mitch and I set up at? We set up at over 1,000 shows between 1976 and 2010; over 300 of them were shows we ran in Bayside, NY; Riverside, CT; and Manhattan, NY. But I now just set up at the National every year and I have done 40 of them. Last year I counted priorities to set up at the National and there were only 22 dealers (on record) left with a higher priority than me. Stop by and say hello as always -- Booth 800 only 8 booths in the main entrance. My wife wants me to stop doing the National too, but as long as I keep making money and I maintain my health, I will continue to set up. See you in July.

Steve_NY

Mic drop! About what year would this have been?

I actually recall the exact year: 1969. For anyone wondering, there's no way of knowing which copy this was, as the offer was made via mail.

Wirt is fondly remembered by customers as sending as many T206s as would fit inside in an old metal, flip top Band-Aid container for customer perusal. All done on the honor system! The buyer then took whatever cards they wanted, put their money and the other cards back in the little box and shipped back to Wirt. What a time! In the case of this particular Wagner, I don't believe that even the trusting Wirt sent it ahead of potential payment! I think it speaks volumes for Wirt that he offered it to a young man as opposed to any older buyers who would be more prone to come up with the $50.

Of interest is that I remember reading that Larry Fritsch bought his first Wagner in the early 1970's for $1200. Quite the price hike in less than 5 years!

One of my favorite people that I have met on Net54 was Frank Ward. He was incredibly knowledgeable, and very willing to share his knowledge. He had a great website that always had awesome items in it. He was always very kind to me. Does anyone know what happened to him? I've always been curious.

-Al

Sure, back in the Eighties and Nineties there must have been two or three NY-area shows per month, and I saw you at most of them. The rise of Ebay certainly knocked the wind out of most of the smaller shows. Collectors looking for non-rare items all depend on Ebay these days. I recently went to a relatively small show on Long Island and couldn't find anything I wanted to buy. I'm tempted to say that shows aren't what they used to be, but the truth is that my collecting goals have changed quite a bit as well. Back in the day, you'd arrive at a show and would be pumped to see ten year old Topps commons available.:D

Best of luck at the National; I won't be going, as I have neither the funds nor the energy to travel to the Midwest. If there's another National in Baltimore or Atlantic City in our lifetime, I'll be there!:)

Brigandi split into two separate entities, they still have the store with the coin/precious metals arm of the business and the Chris and Caserta took on the memorabilia and card side of it under BC Vintage. They are very much still in business just as 2 entities now.

https://bcvintage.com/

Thats the website for the sports and card side.

Had a friend who bought thousands of commons and semi-stars for TTM autos. Anyone
time he had a 1500+ in the mail. Kit was/is a wonderful dealer.

Bill was another dealer my friend bought from. I remember going to the PO once back
in the mid 80's to pick up a box that either Kit or Bill sent him. A treasure of commons
from all 4 sports.

Lew sold me 100 count lots of T-206's in the early/mid 80's. Bought maybe 9 or 10.
Also some stars and semi stars. Always a pleasure to do business with.

There was/is a dealer from St. Louis who was great to deal with. Helped me finish several
pre 1970 sets. Another dealer who dealt only in rings and press pins. Can't remember his
name. Had pro and collegiate items.

Tom Reid was a car accident if I remember correctly

I never heard about Tom and car accident but I did not find out immediately so that is possible.

Ahhh, Teletrade! I remember buying a lot of vintage cards back in the day through it.
Most of you may not be old enough to remember when eBay used to post the user ids of anyone who bid on a card, unscrambled so you knew exactly who you were bidding against and who won the card. One of the best things about that was that you could contact the bidders and develop friendships with fellow collectors. We had an idea who the ‘flippers’ were and who actually was bidding for their collections. I still remember some of my fiercest competitors and great guys like ‘ockday’ (Alan) and ‘screwblue’ (Ohio State fan, Tim) etc. my memory is not what used to be but sometimes I’ll be at a National and someone of my generation will say whatever happened to uffda or Vendomecat etc and I have to smile as I remember what I like to call the silver age of collecting from the 80’s and 90’s when there were no sniping services and you had to stay up late and refresh and refresh at the deadline lol ��

I still have my Excel spreadsheet with all those IDs and feedback ratings! 🤣

I remember those days well. There were always a ton of auctions ending Sunday evenings and then late Sunday evening or Monday most would jump on the CU or other forums to show off what they got. And like you I developed a few hobby friends from those battles since as you said, you knew exactly who you were bidding against.
But like everything else, eBay had to f&@k it up.

Do you know where he is? I’m David’s daughter and looking for him