What Was The Hobby Like Back In The Day?

[Seven]

Originally Posted by whitehse

Hi James,

I was collecting as a nine year old in 1973 and have not looked back since. By 1979 there were a few card shows around the Chicagoland area where I grew up and they were promoted by the Chicagoland Collectors group headed up by Bruce Paynter who was the promoter of the first National card show in Chicago (National card shows moved around back in the day and local promoters were responsible to put on the show with the over site of the National board). Most collectors in the area back then look at the Hillside, Illinois Holiday Inn as the place where the card shows happened once a month and that was usually it. No small shows held in schools or churches or anything like that, at least in the area in which I lived. In 1979 My dad, myself and another collector friend held a card show in our garage and we advertised that we were buying sports cards. We had a line down the street with people bringing us shopping bags of cards to sell and they could not believe it when we were handing them hundred dollar bulls for their cards. Remember, there were no price guides except for Beckett's annual guide so vintage cards were not pricey back then. At that garage show I walked away with a full set of 1955,57, 62 and 64 Topps baseball sets and hundreds of doubles to trade or sell. We continued to have shows and I remember paying $50 each for a Goudey Gehrig and Ruth that walked in the door which had a Beckett book value at the time of $200 and my dad thought I was nuts for spending that kind of money. I loved shows then because one never knew what was going to walk in the door. Cards shows started to become more popular in about 1981 and literally blew up in the mid-80's. It was a great time to be a collector because it was more about the card and not the grade and most people in the hobby were genuine collectors and not flippers.

There were no price guides until Dr. Beckett published his annual price guide I believe in 1980 or so which meant prices remained relatively the same for the year until the next annual price guide came out. There was no need to adjust prices as the demand was fairly static until the error craze came about in 1981 with the Fleer and Donruss errors, most notably the "C" Nettles card. This card and most of the Fleer errors were bringing crazy prices and this was the time we saw monthly or weekly price guides being produced such as the Card Prices Update (CPU). Once the weekly price guides came out we saw huge fluctuations in new cards and slowly, the vintage cards as well. I remember being at one of those early Chicago shows and was offered a near mint '53 Mantle for $50 bucks and I had spent everything I came with. I didnt have the funds and lost out. I also remember another show where a kid had a rare Babe Ruth rookie that he was asking $200 bucks for and everyone turned him down because they thought his asking price was too crazy.

The hobby was filled with Bill Mastro type people who had been in it since they were kids. I remember being young and seeing another young guy named Keith Olberman at many of the shows, buying and selling cards. It was a great hobby to be a part of during that time frame which allowed me to have an incredible collection and meet some awesome people both int he hobby and sports in general. There were certainly deals to be had but you had to know how to haggle and trading was much more preferred than selling.

Good times for sure.

Andrew,

It's always interesting hearing stories like this. I know everyone seems to romanticize the past, we look at it through rose colored glasses but that sounds like a truly wonderful time to collect. Card prices on the whole haven't even kept in line with inflation, they've blown past it! Even $200 for a Ruth or a Gehrig would have been an absolute steal if we look at the prices now.

I look at the state of the Hobby and I'm puzzled to say the least. I understand the concept of premium new products, a manufactured supply and demand, but I see people paying thousands of dollars for cards of players that haven't even sniffed the Big Leagues yet!

The Vintage side is a little more understandable, I can come to grips with the fact that as years pass, less and less cards from way back, whether they be the old tobacco, caramel or bubblegum cards are going to be around. Still the surge in pricing is incredible. Again just me rambling at this point. Maybe it was the pre-internet days, that kept prices down

Thanks for the insight!

- James