Yes Chris & Leon that is the same John. Sports Cards Plus or Sports Cards + as his cards and sign read was John's brick & mortar store on JFK in North Little Rock.
John ran that for many years maybe 1996-2009? He was one of the first to really work eBay. I would go in there and he had two people scanning items and listing them on eBay, another two people packing items in the back. It was quite an operation.
This was when he purchased the publication inventories of both the Sports Collectors Store in LaGrange, IL and B&E Collectibles. I think that there were over 1 million publications in two warehouses in North Little Rock in a tough area of town.
I would go with him to the warehouses to open boxes of stuff. I would then write on the box really good, good, etc.. and he would then take them back for listing. It was a little overwhelming to open a box labeled World Series programs and find six or seven say 1926 programs in a row.
One hot August day John stumbled over a program and kicked it out of the way. I picked it up and it was 1927 Davis Cup Challenge Round program from Philadelphia featuring Bill Tilden & Little Bill Johnston against the Four Musketeers of France. One of the really big moments in tennis history. John said "get it out of here, throw it away or something." We were so hot and tired it just got to you after a bit. Boy I would sure like to suffer like that again!
I got to see quite a few publications that I had never seen and will probably never see again.
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