[Johnphotoman]

Who did find a warehouse with Bond Bread cards in it? Where did BCS get their cards? What do these two stories have in common - we cannot believe either of the two stories. For reasons discussed earlier, those two stories does not make any sense to many collectors.

Most of us know the story of David Festberg selling trading cards in the 1980s. Most of us heard he found a stash of Bond Bread cards in 1988. But we have reason to believe the Festberg warehouse story is a rumor.

Most of us know that BCS sold Bond Bread cards in the 1980s. BCS is said to have purchased their cards from a widows dealer. Is that a true story? Can we trust what BCS said in a letter about the cards they had for sale?

When questioned by Ted Z, Festberg acted like he knew nothing about finding a stash of Bond Bread cards in a warehouse, we have other reasons to believe that there was no warehouse find by David Festberg! The BCS letters are not without their share of controversy. Stanley Apfelbaum was a hustler, and a person of questionable character. A little bit of background, “The Baseball Card Society” was founded in 1988 by Stanley Apfelbaum as a way to sell baseball cards to subscribers for a fee, of course plus shipping and handling. Stanley Apfelbaum, a former numismatist of telemarketing fame. Although Mr. Apfelbaum is no longer with us; his reputation for boiler room tactics, altering coins, and frankly ripping off investors in the coin world still is.

While we can not say that BCS was a scam, it was not as truthful as could have been. Mr. Apfelbaum told some truth in his promotional letters, but much of what he had to say was just hype or a flat out lie to sell baseball cards. As for the Bond Bread cards, he added a lot of hype to sell the set for more money then they were worth at the time. But much of the hype was fact, the facts were just embellished.

It is almost certain that Mr. Apfelbaum did buy his cards from a big time widows collector. But he did not buy the best of the best, a 24 card set out of a 48 card set, he brought what was left. It was just hype to say BCS purchased the best of a 48 card set, 24 in all. The BCS cards were not cards left over that did not make it into Bond Bread loaves of bread, just more hype and a lie. The cards were not from Bond Bread 1947, but they were from 1947.

I did try to figure out who was that big time dealer who passed away and their widow sold off the collection. I had no luck, but I will keep looking. Sadly I believe that information is lost.

Many of the hobby’s pioneers came to mind. Jefferson Burdick who was on a different level then everybody else. Jefferson Burdick a collector of printed ephemera, he is best known for collecting trading and baseball cards. Burdick is often considered to be the greatest card collector in history,and has been called "The Father of Card Collecting. He started The American Card Catalog, otherwise known as the ACC. He died in 1963. But Burdick donated his entire collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1947. Writing in 1948, he stated his belief that it should be "a national collection belonging to everybody.

Then there was Larry Fritsch- but he died December 8, 2007. How about Renata Galasso, but she was a woman- also still alive. Renata was quite a business woman. The story goes that she started putting together sets and selling them as a way to pay for college in the early 70's, and ended up growing the business to the point where she called herself the "Worlds Largest Hobby Card Dealer".

Alan Rosen "Mr. Mint"- died January 24, 2013) was an American sports collectibles dealer who was especially active in the 1980s and 1990s. None of the above could be that famous collector.

More to come: What I have is long, so I have broken it up in parts. The last part may be the smoking gun. John.