Crawford Foxwell, Tom Collier, Mike Aronstein

[TCMA]

Just came across this postcard Crawford Foxwell sent to my father in 1970 at the dawn of the age of card conventions. Eight years before I was even born:

[zimp]

I was there

[whiteymet]

Me too. I have a sheet of TCMA cards where all the attendee's signed the back. We all got a sheet with everyone's "autograph" as I recall.

I'll try to find it and post it here.

Fred McKie

[CTDean]

Thanks for posting the postcard from Crawford to your dad. It brought back a lot of memories. Crawford (Crab) was one of the really great guys in this hobby, and a really good friend. He was always willing to part with good pre-war material to help collectors, including all of the T-206 commons you wanted at $1 each. Thanks again! Great postcard!

[TCMA]

Originally Posted by whiteymet

Me too. I have a sheet of TCMA cards where all the attendee's signed the back. We all got a sheet with everyone's "autograph" as I recall.

I'll try to find it and post it here.

Fred McKie

Fred, I know my father has at least one of those sheets you mentioned. Maybe two. I've seen them and have a pretty good idea where they're at. If I get the chance I'll scan one and post .

[whiteymet]

Finally got around to digging out the "autographed" poster of all the collectors who attended one of the first "conventions" at Mike Aronstein's home in 1970.


Highlighted names as far as I am aware of had the T206 set complete with a Wagner card at some point in their collecting history.

From top left

Bill Haber long time collector wrote the backs of Topps cards

Crawford Foxwell whose postcard started this thread. He later hosted a similar get together at his home in Maryland

Bill Zekus He was either a publication or autograph collector I forget which

David Zemsky Sorry, I have no recollection of him

Nate Cohen again, no recollection

Tom Dischley brother of Dan Discley publisher of The Trader Speaks

Dennis Graye an enigmatic collector who would show up with GREAT material then disappear for a year or two and show up again with great stuff. Wonder what ever happened to him? From Michigan if I recall correctly.

Mike Jasperson, son of Bob Jasperson works for Topps now I believe

Fred McKie some college sophomore at the time trying to keep up with the big guys!

Bruce Yeko owner of Wholesale Cards, at the time the largest mail order house

Irv Lerner long time collector/dealer from Philly had a Wagner at one point not sure if he had the entire T206 set or not

Dan Dischley the aforementioned publisher of the Trader Speaks THE collector publication of the time. Was also a police officer in Long Island, NY. Recall him taking a few of us to a "Gentlemen's Club" in Long Island in later years after a show in L.I.

Mike Aronstein our host and the MA in TCMA

Bob Jasperson long time collector and Publisher of Sports Fan and various collecting publications

Bill Mastro a high school student at the time whose father drove myself and Bill to the meeting from New Jersey. He hung around the hobby for awhile.

Upper right corner

Tom Collier the TC of TCMA. Never knew if his story of one of his many wives getting mad at him and ripping up his Wagner card and flushing it down the toilet was true or not.

Bill Himmelman long time collector from NJ I believe. I know he is still around, maybe here on Net54 but I personally, unfortunately, have lost track of him.

Jim MacAllister collector from Philly I think. Don't think he is still "around" could be wrong. Anyone know?

Myron Aronstein Mike Aronstein's Uncle as I recall.

Any corrections/updates on the above welcomed.

Fred

[TCMA]

Originally Posted by whiteymet

Bill Himmelman long time collector from NJ I believe. I know he is still around, maybe here on Net54 but I personally, unfortunately, have lost track of him.

Fred, thanks for posting this! Bill Himmelman and my father are still very close and they get together whenever my father is back here in NY.

[trdcrdkid]

I was going to post this as a new thread, but then I remembered this thread and knew I should post it here. I was looking through issues of Ballcard Collector from 1970 and in the July 1970 issue (v5, n7, #46 overall), I found the following account of the March 15, 1970 mini-convention at Mike Aronstein's house that is the subject of this thread. It's not clear to me who wrote the unsigned article -- I thought it might be George R. Martin, the editor of Ballcard Collector, but Martin lived in Tennessee, and the author says he flew there with Dennis Graye, who lived in Detroit. I guess it might be one of the people from Fred's signed piece who are not named in the article. Anyway, I hope people find this interesting, especially those of you who were there. (Except Bill Mastro, who I hear is otherwise occupied.)

[Rich Klein]

He left Topps 2 years ago IIRC and is now a full time case breaker in new cards.

Rich

[TCMA]

Originally Posted by trdcrdkid

I was going to post this as a new thread, but then I remembered this thread and knew I should post it here. I was looking through issues of Ballcard Collector from 1970 and in the July 1970 issue (v5, n7, #46 overall), I found the following account of the March 15, 1970 mini-convention at Mike Aronstein's house that is the subject of this thread.

Amazing!! Thank you SO much for posting this. Exactly the type of thing I've been trying to track down. Sounds like there were quite a few cameras on hand at this event, though I don't think I've ever seen any photos. Knowing my father they are around somewhere and will turn up if I dig around long enough.

[TCMA]

Originally Posted by zimp

I was there

Hi Bill, you don't happen to have any pictures from that day do you?

[zimp]

Originally Posted by TCMA

Hi Bill, you don't happen to have any pictures from that day do you?

I do have pictures but do not know how to post them

[Leon]

Originally Posted by zimp

I do have pictures but do not know how to post them

You can always send them to me and I will help Bill.....

leon@net54baseball.com

best
leon

[trdcrdkid]

Andrew --

I can't find any pictures of that 1970 convention at your dad's house in any of my hobby publications, but here are some pictures of Crawford Foxwell from the article in the June 1971 The Trader Speaks (by editor Dan Dischley) about the second annual Mid-Atlantic convention at Foxwell's house. Your dad was there, but he's not in any of these pictures.

[TCMA]

Originally Posted by zimp

I do have pictures but do not know how to post them

Bill, could you email them to me? I can then post them. My email address is thejafe@mac.com .

[TCMA]

Originally Posted by Leon

You can always send them to me and I will help Bill.....

leon@net54baseball.com

best
leon

Or send them to Leon, either way . I would LOVE to see these.

[TCMA]

Originally Posted by trdcrdkid

Andrew --

I can't find any pictures of that 1970 convention at your dad's house in any of my hobby publications, but here are some pictures of Crawford Foxwell from the article in the June 1971 The Trader Speaks (by editor Dan Dischley) about the second annual Mid-Atlantic convention at Foxwell's house. Your dad was there, but he's not in any of these pictures.

David, thanks AGAIN for your posts. This one is great!

[TCMA]

Going through some things in storage last night I came across a box of family photos marked "1970's." Did some digging and found this photo from what must be around the time period of my dad's gathering.

Wish I could make out the labels on the binders there on the shelf behind him. Might try to scan this image and enlarge when I've got some time.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by TCMA

Or send them to Leon, either way . I would LOVE to see these.

Sent from Bill....

[Leon]

and some more from Bill Z...

[trdcrdkid]

Thanks, Leon! I was wondering who the people in the pictures are, but I can tell from other pictures I have that that's Bill Z with the red hair and sideburns, Charles Blazina with the yellow shirt, tie, and glasses, and Bob Jaspersen with the white shirt, dark coat, and dark tie. In fact, the last picture you posted was obviously taken at the same time as this picture I posted previously from the June 1970 Trader Speaks, which identifies the nine people in it. Dan Dischley gave the impression that the picture was from Crawford Foxwell's convention, but it looks like maybe it was from Mike Aronstein's. Unless Bill Z's pictures are from Foxwell's convention too? I don't know.

[TCMA]

Originally Posted by trdcrdkid

Unless Bill Z's pictures are from Foxwell's convention too? I don't know.

Great shots! That must be Crawford Foxwell's home because it's definitely not my dad's place.

[CTDean]

Yes, those photos were taken at Crawford's home in Cambridge, MD.

[trdcrdkid]

Originally Posted by CTDean

Yes, those photos were taken at Crawford's home in Cambridge, MD.

At the 1970 convention where the TTS picture was taken, and which Foxwell described in Ballcard Collector: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=218560. Mystery solved!

[whiteymet]

Hey Andrew:

I found a photo of your Dad! I had forgotten all about an article I wrote about Frank Nagy in the August 1974 Sports Scoop until another collector sent it to me awhile back.

You can see the photo of your Dad, yours truly and Frank Nagy on page two.

Best,

Fred

P.S. Sorry guys I can't figure out how to load so you can read the article. I kept trying but it would not load. I went to paint and kept reducing the scan until the upload would take. If anyone wants scan of the entire article PM me.

I enlarged just the photos

[Leon]

Hey Fred
We have a limit on the size of the image that can be hosted in our s/w. In other words where it resides. However, if you send the article to me (email) I can host it on my personal site and post the pics here, as I do with some things which need to be larger to be seen better.

Originally Posted by whiteymet

Hey Andrew:

I found a photo of your Dad! I had forgotten all about an article I wrote about Frank Nagy in the August 1974 Sports Scoop until another collector sent it to me awhile back.

You can see the photo of your Dad, yours truly and Frank Nagy on page two.

Best,

Fred

P.S. Sorry guys I can't figure out how to load so you can read the article. I kept trying but it would not load. I went to paint and kept reducing the scan until the upload would take. If anyone wants scan of the entire article PM me.

I enlarged just the photos

[Leon]

The first one is a bit blurry due to the scan being that way...but they are more readable now, especially for us older guys.

[TCMA]

Fred, thanks!! Believe it or not I actually have the original photo . Despite having the photo I had no idea where/when it was taken until you posted this. Greatly appreciated .

Also, believe it or not but about an hour ago I was going through my family's old photos from the 70's and found about ten different photos from the day of my dad's 1970 convention in his basement. Hopefully I'll have a chance to scan them and post tomorrow evening.

[trdcrdkid]

Reviving this thread one more time, because I now have yet another account of the legendary 1970 Aronstein convention, by another of the attendees -- Bob Jaspersen, editor/publisher of Sport Fan. It appeared in the May-June 1970 issue of Sport Fan, the first issue put out by Jaspersen following a 10-year gap due to health problems. Jaspersen lists the attendees of Aronstein's get-together and also mentions some of the other conventions that had recently happened or were planned, all of which I've written about in previous posts.

When I have time later this week, I'll post Jaspersen's series of Sport Fan articles from 1954-56 about his planned national sports collector's convention in Chicago in July 1956, and his postmortem after it fell through.

[TCMA]

Originally Posted by trdcrdkid

Reviving this thread one more time, because I now have yet another account of the legendary 1970 Aronstein convention, by another of the attendees -- Bob Jaspersen, editor/publisher of Sport Fan.

Another great one! Will add this to my archive .

[TCMA]

Just a heads-up. This coming March 15th marks the 50th Anniversary of this event.

[nsaddict]

What a great Hall of Fame post, I truly enjoyed it! And to revive it years later. The hobby was very different then or should it be ? Those days are long gone unfortunately.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by TCMA

Just a heads-up. This coming March 15th marks the 50th Anniversary of this event.

How time flies!! Great stuff.

and a baseball card because that is what we do.

[Brian Van Horn]

Thank you for the pictures, especially of Bill Zimpleman, one of the best gentlemen in the hobby.