Goodwin Goldfaden, Hobby Pioneer

[vrechek]

I just learned from Goodie Goldfaden's great nephew that Goodie passed away Sunday night January 1, 2012, after battling illness for several weeks. The funeral is on Wednesday in the LA area. I haven't seen the obituary yet which should be in the LA Times. To the best of my knowledge, Goodie is survived by his wife Frieda, of Sherman Oaks.

Goodie was born in Cleveland on the same date as Joe DiMaggio (11/24/14) and started selling sports publications in 1925! I met Goodie a few years ago and wrote about him in Sports Collectors Digest. Goodie opened a store for sports publications in LA, considered himself the first dealer in strictly sports collectibles, sold baseball cards as well, attended the first card and memorabilia conventions, sold a half-million sports publications to Notre Dame University, and then started over again accumulating tons of publications. He sold his entire inventory more times than he could remember - and Goodie had a very good memory. He was still advertising to buy sports publications within the past few years, and still very sharp, driving through LA traffic to get things out of his warehouse. I was fortunate to have met Goodie and thank Jim McConnell for introducing me. Before I met Goodie I talked to Bill Mastro about him, who described him as a little bulldog. I would add that he was a very likeable bulldog. Thinking of Goodie brings a smile to my face today.

Please share any thoughts you may have about Goodwin Goldfaden. I will be doing a story for Sports Collectors Digest.