Posted By:
warshawlawI was living in NYC at the time and it was big news there.
They were ultra heavy on old Topps cards because Woody Gelman was one of the owners and a Topps insider.
The fire sale was amazing. They had so many Topps cards of the 1950s and 1960s that they did not even want to check them for damage. They just clustered them into lots and sold them in bricks. I was a kid but I bought several of them. Alas, they were all hockey except one (hey, east coast and the golden era of the NHL, what can I say?). I remember getting lots that were perfect mint cards except for a little smoke damage around the edges--looked like minor foxing. Best of all, they left in all the stars. I remember getting Hull, Plante, Hall, Mikita, Sawchuk, etc. for like a nickel a card. I even got a 1963 Mays that was so sharp it could cut you, just a little toasted at the edges. I wish I had some of them left but I guess I traded them away a long time ago.
Richard Gelman (Woody's son) ran the operation into the ground after the old man stepped away. As I recall, it was dead shortly after I moved to CA (late 1970's); at least my inquiries went unanswered. The company was revived around 10-15 years ago to sell reprints and modern crap but it failed.
From time to time reprinted classic books by the Nostalgia Press surface for sale on ebay; that's how I got my ACC.