[Archive]

Posted By: Chris Counts

In the spring of 1970, my mom gave me some money and sent me down the street to the corner grocery store to buy some vegetables. I was nine years old. For reasons I can't explain, I spent the money on baseball cards. The packs contained posters and I very distinctly remember the first one had Ollie Brown of the Padres in it and the second one had Willie Davis of the Dodgers. On my way home, my dad drove by on his way home from work and I explained to him what happened. He seemed amused and took me back to the grocery store where he bought my mom some vegetables and he bought me some more baseball cards.

About a year later (1971, when I was 10), my dad drove me to Hollywood to visit Goodwin Goldfaden at Adco Sports Book Exchange (at least I believe that's what he called it). He seemed completely unimpressed by my enthusiasm for old cards, he was a bit of a grouch (an understatement), and even at such an early age I clearly treated my cards better than he did (he nervously and noisely shuffled them like they were playing cards, constantly banging the edges and dinging the corners). I walked out with a handful of 1957 Topps cards, still one of my favorite sets. The highlight was a Don Drysdale rookie (I paid 15 cents for it ... at the time there was no premium for rookies). From that moment on I was hooked on old cards ...