[wrapperguy]

Luckily, my Dad and I have been going to shows and hunting for baseball stuff since the 1983 Chicago National. Back then, you could run ads in the newspaper or find nice items at garage sales.
1 - At a garage sale, Dad found about 250 beautiful 1965 Topps football cards including 5 Namath rookies, 4 of which we sold via Mastro over the years that graded 7 or 8. At the same garage sale, Dad bought 2 1959 White Sox World Series programs.
2 - Ran an ad in the Chicago Tribune for "Baseball Items". Went to a guy's house who had created a scrapbook from the late 1930's, which was my Dad's hey day. Dad and this guy had a ball just reminiscing and I loved listening to all the good stories. The man sold us his scrapbook for $50. In it were cut up R310 Butterfingers of all the stars of the day. On the second to last page, sitting there in photo corners was a beautiful T222 of Walter Johnson. Sold via Mastro 5 years ago and helped pay for my oldest son's first year of college.
3 - Dad would go to a local shop in Des Plaines, the suburb right next to Rosemont, home of the Chicago Nationals, and got to know the owner well as they were contemporaries. Dad goes in the shop one day about 15 minutes after a guy had come in with some 1930's stuff. Dad paid $300 total for an EX National Chicle complete set, half of a 1938 Goudey set, and a bunch of 1939 Playballs.
4 - I did my teaching in a well-to-do North Shore suburb of Chicago. In between classes in 1984, I am looking in the classifieds and see a garage sale advertising "baseball stuff" being held in a more wealthy suburb. I figure what else do I have to do on a Saturday morning? I am the first guy there and immediately see a deck of cards that have "Philadelphia Athletics" on them. The owner asks me if I like baseball stuff. I say sure, and he replies "The good stuff is inside!" He has a dozen Black Bats dating back to the mid-1930s, 65 autographed baseballs, and a near complete run of press pins with duplicates from 1911-1961.
Amazingly, I had stumbled upon the garage sale of Bill Harridge, grandson of American League president, Will Harridge! Dad and I went back later that week and helped him identify most of the autographed balls and bought 4 of them. I bought and later sold the Black Bats. The press pins were too expensive so I brokered the deal with Jim Johnston, one of the early press pin gurus. Those were the days!