Quote:
Originally Posted by whiteymet
Hey Leon:
Thanks for posting! I recall having one of these survey's from Dick.
Great memories of trading with lots of these guys. Funny, the things you remember. John England (had a BEAUTIFUL wife), Bill Haber, Stan McClure, Rich Egan, Eric Lange, Elliot Dock ( one of the few younger than me at the time. Still is I guess. He was BIG into R330 Double Plays), Frank Nagy ( spent a few nights at his place over the years, didn't want to leave the basement!! He only slept about 3 hours a night.), Dick Reuss and his traveling buddy Tom Wickman, Jack Wallin ( another Beautiful wife), Tom Collier, Irv Lerner, Joe Michaelowicz ( whose wife Karen was more into collecting than he was!! especially the T200 premiums), Bob Wilson, John Rumierz, Billy Mastro, Mike Aronstein etc. etc. etc.
Strange, I don't see the name of Stan Makowsy. A long time collector of Topps test sets and other stuff, because he lived in Brooklyn where Topps would "issue" their test sets. I recall visiting him and seeing his Dice Cards. He was a sports announcer known as Stan Martin on some NYC radio stations. Think he had a set of the Topps 3-D though not listed here.
Helps me nail down when I completed some of my sets that he does not list me as having on here. T200, T205, and T207 which I completed after my T206 set which he does note on the list. Or maybe Dick just wasn't aware at the time that I had them. Other sets as well.
So many memories. I recall Jack Wallin having a STACK of Willie Jones Sealtest cards at a card show ( I forget were, maybe Chicago, on the day Ken Norton broke Ali's jaw). John England was my first trade with an advanced collector through the mail. I traded him some 39 Play Balls. Nice guy! Visiting Stan McClure in Washington D.C. He kept his cards in bureau drawers. We went into his bedroom and he opened up drawer after drawer all with cards in them. Tom Collier. TOUGH to deal with. Heard a story, I never knew if it was true or not. One of his many wives got mad at him and tore up his Wagner and flushed it down the toilet!!
Thanks for posting Leon! Sorry to run on with the memories!
I notice no one has answered your question about if current collectors would participate in such a list now.
I don't have much anymore that would get me on a list of such exclusive cards and/or sets, ( well maybe a few in the post war) but count me in if someone wants to start one. Maybe one here and one in the postwar section!
Fred
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Like Fred, I thank Leon for a trip down memory lane. I traded with most of the collectors listed, but was just getting started as a serious collector at the time. Still, it's a hoot to see I was listed once, for having an R319 Lajoie. The veteran collectors teased me no end for being the only person to have Lajoie before finishing the rest of the set (Harry McCurdy was my last card). I had been lucky enough to pick up a Lajoie from a man who as a youngster wrote Goudey when he couldn't find No. 106 and was rewarded with the now iconic card.
A couple of things I hope today's collectors note: 1, the thrust of this survey illustrates the emphasis that was put on completing sets back then (a collector was generally measured not by how many cards he had, or what they were worth, but by how many sets he had finished); 2, how difficult it was to complete some of the tougher sets in the days before eBay or even frequent card shows or abundant publications (Frank Nagy, for instance, had spent decades collecting and still had only 80 E107s; and no one had completed sets like R300 and R328 not even factoring in the impossible Andrews or Lindstrom cards).
Also note the focus on '40s and '50s regionals. Most of us younger collectors were drawn into the hobby by a desire to rebuild or complete the Topps and Bowman sets of our youth ,and the regionals featured familiar names. Furthermore, if you lived in an area when a regional was issued, a stock of duplicates was useful in prying vintage gems from the oldtimers.
Bo.b Ric.har.dson