Long Interview With Michael Aronstein (the MA in TCMA)
 

Here's a very long interview (3+ hours) with Michael and his son. He was the inaugural winner of the Jefferson Burdick award and is probably best known for TCMA. He's well into his 80's now but sounds like he still loves the hobby. He dives into a lot of details of his companies and provides some of the background and backstories on why and how he produced various products.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEliNFieEeA
If you want to follow along with all of the pictures, references, and liner notes go here: https://www.shoelesspodcast.com/season-four/04
It's also available on podcast platforms

This was a fantastic interview to listen to.

Brian, happy you enjoyed the podcast. Was a LOT of fun to do with Dan and my dad. We recorded that months ago and Dan did a fantastic job of compiling pertinent info for his liner notes section in the meantime.


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Chris, happy you enjoyed it. Even though my dad wasn’t actively collecting higher end material as I was growing up he, of course, heavily influenced my collecting journey. Mid-80’s was a fun time at our home during my childhood, that’s for sure.


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Listening now. I love the oral history of our hobby.

And as a side note, making sure the TCMA cards are properly catalogued is one of my passions for the work I do at COMC. (It was also that way during my Beckett time way back in the day). We've added so much over the years to our data base. And as always, if someone knows something I don't please let me know

Rich

Aronstein Interview
 

This is outstanding! Well worth the 3+ hours. I got a pretty good chuckle when they were discussing cutting the sheets of cards. (I fell on my keys!) Great, great stuff!

Terrific interview with Michael anad Andrew -- and a nostalgic "reconnect" to my first tentative foray into the hobby.
In 1975 I was a teenaged hockey collector on Vancouver Island, specializing in programs, media guides and magazines. My other great passion was writing about sports. I was determined to become a real-life Oscar Madison, but who was going to give an untried kid a break? After reading Michael's call for editorial contributions in the debut issue of Collectors Quarterly (Winter '75), I sent him a 600-word article on how to start a program/magazine collection. Three weeks later I received a "notice of acceptance" from CQ -- along with a personal note from Michael saying how much he enjoyed my story, and inviting me to send more. When the article was published in issue No. 3 (Summer '76) -- prominently positioned between Ed Broder's feature on Japanese baseball cards and Bob Solon's analysis of variations in the Kellogg 3D sets -- I was over the moon.
That first byline in CQ launched a career course that over the past 50 years has seen my work appear in dozens of publications in Canada and the US, as well as a 10 -year stint in Beijing as lead sports columnist for the largest English-language newspaper in Asia. In between, I've found time to author seven books and still feed my passion for collecting programs and magazines -- although my focus long ago switched from hockey to boxing.
And it was all because a ballsy young New Yorker took a chance on creating one of our hobby's best publications of the 1970s. Thanks, Mike.

Incredibly interesting! Heartfelt thanks to Michael and Andrew!

Amazing! Thanks so much for sharing this, will pass along to my dad.

Finally finished listening to the interview.....brought back a lot of memories of when I started collecting back in the early 70s...condition was not so important as long as I needed it ....the Power Memorial shows, the Gallagher brothers, the St Paul"s Church shows....and lots of familiar names, Bill Hongach, Renata Galasso and her father, John Zaso, who sold stamped cachets at all the shows and Keith Olbermann who I communicate with often.

I totally enjoyed it. :)

Will have to give this a listen soon! Andrew I know we corresponded a couple of times, I believe I even purchased a Philadelphia Athletics Team Postcard from you a little while back.

I love little peaks and insights to what I like to call the "Golden Years" of the Hobby. Always sounds like simpler, happier times, though I could be viewing things through a nostalgia lenses. Is it possible for you to be Nostalgic of a time you weren't alive for?

As a side note, whenever I see Michael's name brought up I always like to bring up the Baseball Nostalgia store that used to be up in Cooperstown. Truly my favorite hobby shop to ever exist. Purchased multiple cards and pieces there throughout my many trips to Cooperstown. Glad to see Michael and Andrew are doing well.

I liked it so much, I listened twice. 1 of 1 PSA 10