Photo of 5 Guys with a Wagner in the 70's

[whiteymet]

Hi Guys:

Going through some old photos. Found this shot from an early Detroit show in the mid 70's. All of us had a Wagner, thus the reason for the photo..

L-R Top Bill Mastro, Frank Nagy, Bill Haber ( for those that don't know, he wrote the backs of Topps cards back then)

Kneeling Mike Aronstein and yours truly. No comments about the hair please!! :>)

Also a Polariod SX-70 photo that is starting to crack of my Wagner with the rest of my set. Back then we put our cards on those sticky album pages with the plastic on top. UGH!!

Anyone else have some old photos?

Fred

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

Originally Posted by whiteymet

Back then we put our cards on those sticky album pages with the plastic on top. UGH!!

[wonkaticket]

This is one of the best posts on here in quite sometime. Thanks for sharing, I can bet you there are still collections out there in the same binders and sheets.

The hobby had to be so much fun then, finds could be had, deals could be worked and novel idea you had shows and the stuff at the shows was for sale vs. a giant auction preview.

Thanks again!

Cheers,

John

P.S. Fred do you still have your Wagner of not do you know where it ended up?

[whiteymet]

Hi John:

My Wagner went to Halper along with the rest of my collection at the time including my favorite cards of Konstanty, Stanky and Roberts from the Current All Stars.

It was Halper's first Wagner.

I never saw it again until 2012 when it showed up here:

http://www.goodwinandco.com/the-%E2%...-lot19548.aspx

I kinow it was mine by the faint crease in the upper right corner. Anyone know who consigned it to this auction?

Quite an increase in price from 1973 when I bought it for a then second highest price paid of $1100 to 2012 when it sold for 1.2M!!

Fred

[wonkaticket]

Fred, that's such a great story. Konstanty, Stanky and Roberts too boot huh? So you liked easy stuff to collect.

Again just amazing.

Cheers,

John

[scottglevy]

Very cool post!!

I remember seeing my first Wagner at the rare book room of the New York Public Library. My dad Hank worked (actually still works) for the press so he got us special credentials to view the collection, which was donated by Burdick. The collection was stunning ... so many early period cards pasted into a book including OJs, Mayos, T206s and other series.

I was also surprised by the lack of security. It was basically here's the book would you like to sit in a closed room unattended for an unlimited period of time to view it?

Sadly several of the cards, I believe including the Wagner, disappeared from the original collection - although I'm told that the bulk of it is still intact.

Best,
Scott

[Gmrson]

Great picture! When I saw the post title and then that the pic was from Detroit I was hoping to see collector Jim Hamon in there. I used to marvel at the picture of his Wagner card he had up in his Detroit area store.

[sportsnbikes]

Originally Posted by whiteymet

Hi John:

My Wagner went to Halper along with the rest of my collection at the time including my favorite cards of Konstanty, Stanky and Roberts from the Current All Stars.

It was Halper's first Wagner.

I never saw it again until 2012 when it showed up here:

http://www.goodwinandco.com/the-%E2%...-lot19548.aspx

I kinow it was mine by the faint crease in the upper right corner. Anyone know who consigned it to this auction?

Quite an increase in price from 1973 when I bought it for a then second highest price paid of $1100 to 2012 when it sold for 1.2M!!

Fred

Do you ever wish you would've held onto it and then sold it now? Not sure what you sold it for originally but dang...1.2 million off of an $1100 investment. That would've been a helluva payout.

[baztacula]

How many kids in the '70s even cared about tobacco cards? All I cared about was finding Tigers players in my Topps packs. If I had somehow stumbled upon a Wagner, I would have traded it straight up for a 1979 Aurelio Rodriguez without batting an eye.

[whiteymet]

Originally Posted by sportsnbikes

Do you ever wish you would've held onto it and then sold it now? Not sure what you sold it for originally but dang...1.2 million off of an $1100 investment. That would've been a helluva payout.

Hi Jeff:

At the time I sold my collection to Halper he was just coming into the hobby and was paying three times what anyone else was paying. The fact that at the time I was living about 20 minutes from him enabled him to visit and make it easy to move the collection.

Also I was soon to be married and wanted to start a business down the line. All of the above helped in my decision to sell.

Sure I have thought about it over the years. However the way I look at it is, if I held onto the Wagner I would have been baseball card "rich" and cash "poor".

I took the $$ I got from the collection and eventually turned it into a business that supported my family and me through the years, allowed me to own my own home mortgage free, put two kids through college loan free and have a net worth now north of what the Wagner sold for.

I would have not been able to start the business without the money I got for the collection. So, in the long run I think I came out OK.

BUT it sure would be nice to have my collection back, and as mentioned Wagner was not even my favorite card, nor were the tobacco cards. I know that is heresy here on Net 54!! I was REALLY into Topps stuff, test sets etc., odd ball issues and regionals.

Fred

[sportzjunky]

Originally Posted by wonkaticket

This is one of the best posts on here in quite sometime. Thanks for sharing, I can bet you there are still collections out there in the same binders and sheets.

The hobby had to be so much fun then, finds could be had, deals could be worked and novel idea you had shows and the stuff at the shows was for sale vs. a giant auction preview.

Thanks again!

Cheers,

John

P.S. Fred do you still have your Wagner of not do you know where it ended up?

First, OP, thanks for sharing that is an awesome story of the times.

Wonkaticket - I am here to tell you no truer words have ever been spoken. There is still a lot of cards out there to be found. And rare ones...

[pawpawdiv9]

Whew.. when i clicked on this..i imagined 5 guys hanging in their underwear smoking fat cigars. Awesome piece of americana.

[atx840]

Oldschool cool. Thanks for sharing!

[gnaz01]

Awesome post!!!

[joeadcock]

Agreed. Love anything from the 70's. Cool post.

I remember having some pants similar to those you are wearing. Along with my Traxx K mart sneakers and my Planet of the Apes belt.

[talkinbaseball]

I remember ordering the 1972 Topps Baseball set through the Sport Hobbyist.
When I received the set there was an issue of the old Sport Hobbyist with a article about the Detroit show, I wanted to go so bad but I was only 15, being from Connecticut my parents would've never let me go, included with the sport hobbyist was a couple of the diamond matchbooks from the 1930's, I still have the set, the sport Hobbyist and the matchbooks. I'll always remember the picture of Frank Nagy in his basement with I think a viceroy cigarette in his mouth.

john-

[E93]

Great post! Thanks for sharing.
JimB

[g_vezina_c55]

Best post since long time here. Really catch my attention. I enjoy saw old picture of cards and collector and also ready story of the old time wagner purchase.

thanks for sharing these pic and this story.

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

I hope all of your wagners are still working fine.

[g_vezina_c55]

Nagy and mastro is now out of thr hobby....

you are still in the hobby but didn t still have your wagner..

anyone know for the 2 other collector if they are still in the hobby and if they still own their wagner ?

[Rickyy]

Ha Great Post. You look Great Fred!

Ricky Y

[CW]

including my favorite cards of Konstanty, Stanky and Roberts from the Current All Stars.

Whoa.

Great photos -- thanks for sharing!

[spec]

Originally Posted by g_vezina_c55

Nagy and mastro is now out of thr hobby....

you are still in the hobby but didn t still have your wagner..

anyone know for the 2 other collector if they are still in the hobby and if they still own their wagner ?

Nelson,
Both Nagy and Haber are deceased. Haber died tragically of an asthma attack, as, I believe, did Mastro's original auction partner Don Steinbach, another legendary collector. As for Pete Ullman's wedding ring observation, I know both Nagy and Haber were married.

[whiteymet]

Originally Posted by spec

Nelson,
Both Nagy and Haber are deceased. Haber died tragically of an asthma attack, as, I believe, did Mastro's original auction partner Don Steinbach, another legendary collector. As for Pete Ullman's wedding ring observation, I know both Nagy and Haber were married.

Yeah, both Nagy and Haber were married as was Aronstein. He had one of the very early hobby get togethers at his home in late 69 early 70 that I attended. He gave us all a small uncut sheet of a TCMA issue and we all signed them and we each got one. Still have it, Irv lerner, Dennis Graye, Tom Collier, Mike Aronstein, Bill Mastro, Crawford Foxwell, Bill Zekus, Bob and Mike Jasperson, Bruce Yeko, Dan Dischley, Bill Himmelman, Jim MacAllister among others attended.

Later I attended a few of Crawford Foxwell's similar get togethers at his place in MD.

Don't know if Mike still has his Wagner. That's where mine came from. We were at a convention in Cincinnati that Mike did not attend. He turned up the Wagner in Long Island, the guy would not sell it to him, but let him call the convention and auction it off there. I sold my entire table at the show, had just gotten my tax refund, won the auction for $1100!

We drove straight back to L.I. to pick it up after the show.

Fred

Fred

[g_vezina_c55]

Thx a lot fred for all these memories

[the 'stache]

Great pictures, and a great thread! Thank you, Fred!

[joeadcock]

Fred

Here is a photo of me in elementary school in 1974. At this time of my life I was dreaming. Prewar was a bit off. I hate to think of what pants I was wearing then, hidden by the table.

This was my project on dinosaurs for school science fair.

[CW]

Originally Posted by joeadcock

Fred

Here is a photo of me in elementary school in 1974. At this time of my life I was dreaming. Prewar was a bit off. I hate to think of what pants I was wearing then, hidden by the table.

This was my project on dinosaurs for school science fair.

I give you credit for posting that photo, Joe.

While we're on the subject of crazy pants (circa Christmas 1977, but that was a bad ASS shirt, you have to admit!)....

[MVSNYC]

Chuck- I'm watching Empire Strikes Back right now! it's on Spike TV. epic flick.

Fred- awesome pics. thanks for sharing.

[MVSNYC]

PS- T-shirt spells Vader wrong, interesting.

[CW]

Haha! Never noticed that, Michael. I wish I still had it!

[johnmh71]

Originally Posted by CW

I give you credit for posting that photo, Joe.

While we're on the subject of crazy pants (circa Christmas 1977, but that was a bad ASS shirt, you have to admit!)....

I think I had the same pants. I was 6 at the time.

[tbob]

This is the best thread I've seen in quite a while. Really enjoyed it, thanks!

[slipk1068]

Enjoyable thread. Thanks for sharing Fred.