Quote:
Originally Posted by Writehooks
For me, it started with mailing $8 (Canadian!) to a guy in Detroit for a four-issue subscription to The Sports Hobbyist, circa 1974. I remember the price, because he sent a note with the first issue, commenting on how "cool" the Canuck $2 bills looked. It was a pretty amateurish publication, but fascinating nonetheless.
As I recall, the only professional-looking ad was for The Card Collectors Company in NYC. When I received their first catalog, I spent the whopping sum of $40 to acquire complete Topps hockey sets from 1962-65. I subsequently acquired a couple of dozen T206s (which I later swapped for more hockey cards) and began corresponding with some of the classified advertisers. Subscriptions to The Trader Speaks and SCD quickly followed, and I've been hooked ever since...
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In 1974, I was 13 years old and had been collecting with every penny I could find, including searching for pop bottles. I too saw the Sports Hobbyist and couldn't believe what was available. 1952 Mantle was $75.00. I worked all summer to get the funds and my dad told me I was crazy when I gave him the money for him to write me a check.
Mickey never came. I received a 1955 Sandy Koufax, a 1956 Campanella and 1955 Jackie Robinson. I think they snuck in a few others like Spahn and so forth and.....a friggen $25.00 credit. Memo. Probably didn't order too much through the mail again. Makes for a great Story though. I believe they were selling a Wagner for $1,500 at the time. Glad I didn't end up with a $1000.00 credit memo.