Dealers (or fellow collectors) who lit the fire

[Rob D.]

Spent a couple hours today cutting the grass, and as I'm apt to do because it makes the time go by faster, I started thinking about cards and memorabilia. Specifically I daydreamed about the upcoming National and what I might hope to find.

Then it hit me: For the past three decades or so, the main thing I think about when cutting the grass is my collecting. What's more, my most vivid recollection of doing this is dates to the first time (they say you never forget your first time). It was 1975 or '76 and as a 12- or 13-year-old I had just received my first price list through the mail. I still remember the seller's name and city: Victor Franc in Canoga Park, Calif.

The idea that I, a kid in Ohio, could buy cards as old as those issued in 1910 (not to mention ones of Mickey Mantle and Bob Feller from the 1950s) from someone across the country in California was mind-boggling at the time. The fact I can remember the name and city of the seller but not what I bought also is a bit puzzling.

Anyway, anyone else remember the names of some of the not-so-big-time advertisers in SCD (when it was a legitimate publication) and The Trader Speaks who might have started you on the collecting trail?