1969 Michigan convention (in Ballcard Collector)

[trdcrdkid]

In my post last week about the first-ever sports collectors' convention in Brea, California on August 23, 1969 (here: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=221671), I mentioned that one of the 13 collectors at that convention, Dennis Graye, was visiting from Michigan, and that when he returned home, he was so enthused about his experience that he helped organize a mini-convention at the home of Lloyd Toerpe. This was such a success that Graye, Toerpe, and several other Michigan collectors began organizing a bigger show for 1970, and this became the annual Midwest Sports Collectors Convention (the Detroit show), the country's biggest show throughout the 1970s. Toerpe told this story in the program for the 1974 Detroit show, which I posted in this thread: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=220678 ("History of the Detroit show, 1970-1978").

Well, it turns out that Toerpe wrote a contemporary account of that 1969 convention at his home, which was published in the December 1969 Ballcard Collector. Here is that account. The convention took place on Sunday, October 5, 1969, and it wasn't actually in Detroit -- it started out in Flint, where Toerpe was living, and after four hours there the conventioneers drove in five cars (!) to the homes of two other collectors who lived nearby, Ed Lotz and Ray Billbrough. Attendance peaked at 10 collectors, and everybody had a great time, by Toerpe's account.

[Stonepony]

Early collectors really went for the magazines, periodicals and photos. I recall my dad having tons of boxes of old magazines.

[Leon]

Can you imagine 5 cars of collectors pulling up to your house, probably at the same time, for a convention/get together? Then aftger several hours they piled into their cars again and went to another collectors house. It sounds like what we used to do, called bar hopping, but with cards. Great stuff.