Was NJ the epicenter of the card boom?
 

Seems like I missed the boat in NJ. Rich Klein references his Jersey days. Al Rosen was here. Believe Leon may have lived here (could be wrong). Seems like there was some period of time when the Parsippany show was huge. I guess everyone got the hell out. Id say I'm trying to hold the fort down but I think Probstein has the current mantle of King of the Garden State. Of course LOTG, RE, and Goldin are all here as well. Must be something in the water over here.

There is no place that is the same as it used to be - Jersey is no exception. It still seems that NJ has a very large concentration of cards and memorabilia dealers and collectors.

Pennsylvania (namely the greater Philadelphia area) preceded NJ in the BB card hobby "boom".

1975 was the beginning of the famous Willow Grove Show. Originally Sept and March. Subsequently, March, May, Sept. and Dec.

Bob Schmierer also promoted the Seashore Show in Ocean City, NJ in June.

1977 - Tony Carrafiel's Valley Forge Show (Nov and June) was a major Show.

Circa mid to late 1970's) Pittsburgh Show.

1979 - Ephrata Show (Lancaster County).

1979 - B & B Monthly Auctions (Warrington, PA)

Those are the major Shows, and there were many more smaller Shows throughout the state of PA.


The major NJ Show was initially at Montclair State College (Pat Gonella and Bill Jacbowitz, promoters). In 1981, it expanded to
the larger Meadowlands facility. And, there were many smaller Shows throughout NJ during the 1980's.

Also, there were several Atlantic City Shows (at the various Casinos) starting in 1982 and into the early 1990's.


TED Z
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I remember going to shows at Montclair State College (before it was a University) as a kid in the early 80s. It seemed like a pretty big show. I went to it every year as a kid. And I do remember that Meadowlands show.

Of course Mr. Mint (RIP) had his office in New Jersey - I remember going there once when I was in college, trying to sell some cards.

Bill Mastro has roots in NJ, I believe. And of course Barry Halper's collection was kept at his home in Livingston, NJ.

-Al

Although the biggest shows in the megalopolis were in the Philly area or in White Plains,

I do believe the New Jersey and Long Island areas had the most dealers/collectors/shows/stores on a day to day basis. Before I moved to Texas we had either a show or an auction almost every single night.

Regards
Rich

I remember those days well. I only set up at one Willow Grove show, and many at Ft. Washington in subsequent years. (Ted, do you remember chasing those cockroaches around at night at the awful Howard Johnsen motel at WG.) NJ, in those days, had some real hobby heavyweights, Lew Lipset, Alan Rosen, RIP, Rob Lifson and many others whose names I can't recall. There was also one lightweight (me) starting his business in Shrewsbury, NJ. Fond memories of those days,

Gloria Rothstein
 

Deserves some recognition as the Queen of show promoters, and the best there was in the late 80's early 90's. Ran some GREAT shows in the NY/NJ area.

New England had some great shows in the 80's---Bishop Guertin High School in Nashua, NH was the leader in the early 80's--The Greater Boston Card Club in mid 80's and Walter Hall in the 80's in Boston---they used to be 2-3 deep at tables in those days---In 1988, at Portland, Maine, we had Roger Clemens signing for $10 a auto with 4000 people at the show. Old Timer Bob Thing was always at these shows.---Times have changed!!

Major New York Shows that I set-up in are the Cooperstown Show on HOF weekend which started in 1980; and, is still in operation.

And, the Statler Hilton Hotel (now Hotel Pennsylvania across from MSG) Show promoted by Bob Lemke and Steve Ellingboe (circa 1982 - 1984).


TED Z
.

I always feel New Jersey has had a ton of collectors for years . They still have a few shows and I still attend one . My son and I are planning on getting a table soon .

Jeez. . . . Montclair State. I could walk there. . .. For those of you who attended the Montclair State show decades ago, you wouldn't recognize the place today. Not sure where that school gets money from but seems basically limitless. Whole campus has been transformed in last few years.

My daughter is an acting major at Montclair State. In just the 3 years that she has been there, the construction of new buildings is impressive.

Jeff

I loved going to the shows at Montclair St. Always found some great items that I could afford. One time, Brooks Robinson was there and I had him autograph a card. I was too young to drive so my dad drove me and my mom came along. She went with me to see Brooks. She asked him about his World Series ring, he took it off and let her try it on! What a great gesture. (The ring looked so huge to me!) Mike

Maryland also had a large collecting base during the 1970s.

Yep. Arlington, Ma where Halls shop was had 2 maybe three shops that had cards by 1981. And at least one 5+10 that stocked lots of current cards.

That last one was sort of my fault. I asked a friend of mine whose dad owned the 5+10 if he could get me a deal on a box of Donruss. They said they'd have to buy something like 10 boxes, and I said I'd buy two. My friend talked up my then fairly small collection and they bought some boxes. About a week later I stopped in and they had all three brands! And better still they'd sold something like 6 cases that week at full retail and had sold a box or two at above retail. So they gave me the one box for free.

Steve B

I believe a bunch of money was donated in trust to Montclair State by Yogi Berra and his wife. The school was receiving some money for scholarships while they were alive but a large chunk was given to the school when the Yankee great passed a few years ago. I remember reading about it. He, like Arnold Palmer, seemed to have the magic touch when it came to investing. While he had great quotes, he was a pretty smart guy where it counted...

'Nobody goes there any more, it's too crowded...'

Yes, Bill Mastro a Bernards High Mountaineer! New Jersey is the most densely populated state and many sports fans and collectors can be found. Despite this, I agree with one of the posters above. I think Pennsylvania might be the pulse of the hobby ( at least in the mid-atlantic region ) these days.

Isn't Josh Evans of Leland's also from New Jersey? John Taube, the bat authenticator for PSA, also has his office in New Jersey.

I'm too young to have seen the boom (27) but New Jersey seems to have a large print in the sports memorabilia world. From what my dad tells me, there seemed to be great shows all the time in New Jersey at malls and the Garden State Racetrack. I think being between large cities like Philadelphia and New York, with other cities like Baltimore, Washington D.C., and even Boston being somewhat close to the northern part of New Jersey, has allowed for NJ to be at the center of a large portion of the memorabilia craze and capitalize on it's central location.

I always had the sense that the stretch from the Philly area to NYC area was the center of the card collecting universe when it started to flourish. Makes sense if you think of the population covered by that area that would therefore include a huge number of fans devoted to various teams.

Don't forget about the ASCCA shows in NYC throughout the 1970s ;)

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