Reminiscing about the "Good-Ole-Days" in this Hobby

[Tere1071]

I previously recounted my journey through collecting beginning as a second grader in 1969 when I purchased my first packs and a neighbor gave me a stack of 40 or so 1966 Topps Baseball. All I could remember having from my entry into collecting was the 1966 Maris and 1969 Arrigo, everything else became destroyed. My 1970 and 1971 baseball cards didn't fare much better, but I also began collecting the football and basketball versions.

1972 saw an improvement in how I took care of my cards and I received my first older ones. First, an acquaintance gave me a near-set of 1960 Topps Football and two Topps Baseball: a 1960 Harry Anderson and a 1961 John Buzhardt. Wanting more, I placed an ad in a publication called The "Hot Sheet," the early 70s equivalent to Craigslist and Offer Up. I got a response from a collector who was around two years older than me. He had cards from 1960-1965, plus the Larry Frisch catalog, which was the prices he charged. That was the first time that I had used the money to purchase collectible cards. but I really still didn't know what I was doing. I continued to post in The Hot Sheet, and I was able to get series 1 and 2 of 1968 Topps Baseball, (yes, there were Ryans, but they were gone by 1974), plus a collector traded me about 15 1957 Topps Baseball. Here and there I acquired smatterings of 50s Topps Baseball and Football, most weren't in good shape, but they were "old."

1973 would redirect my innocence and introduce me to my future, but I didn't know it at the time. I don't remember how, but I heard about a baseball card show in Garden Grove, CA during that summer. My mother drove me to Walton Middle School; the tables were free, I had less than $1.00 in my pocket, and no one wanted my 200+ extras of 1972 Football, (no high numbers, I didn't know they existed until a few years later.) That show I picked up a 63 Fleer of Cepeda, a 51 Bowman Ned Garver, and a 1952 Topps Willard Marshall. There was no rhyme or reason, I just liked the way the cards looked. Someone had a 1966 Topps autographed Clemente for $3.00, but I didn't have the money. That scenario continues into the present.

For the following two years (1973-1975) I collected mainly from the packs and traded here and there for Topps and Bowmans from 1953-1967. There was nothing particularly "nice," but they continued to be "old" and the condition really didn't matter. The baseball card show had become a distant memory, but once again fate would intervene.

In May of 1975, my mother purchased our first home in a nearby city. After settling, I placed another ad in The Hot Sheet" and got a response. This contact was to change my life as a collector; his name was Wes Schleiger and he would serve as my formal introduction to the hobby. That show in 1973 at Walton Middle School was held by a club that held monthly meetings at that site. After a few months, Wes offered me a job helping at the monthly shows and at conventions. These were still the "good old days" as I was able to be around baseball cards, and on occasion, I had the money to purchase something for the collection. Some of my contemporaries who entered into the hobby about the same time found outstanding items at cheap prices. For me, my experience was more like working at a bank, I could touch the merchandise but I couldn't claim it as mine. Still, it sure beats working fast food.

The final phase of this "age of innocence," was when I was hired to work at what was to become one of the early baseball card shops in Southern California- Sports Nostalgia Shop in La Habra, CA (later it was renamed Sports Fan Attic), owned by Mark Christensen. Beckett had just come into the hobby and 1981 would see Fleer and Donruss begin producing their cards, which began a new era for collecting. The last moment of pure innocence was when I would sort the card into lots, I would always read the backs; that would soon stop as the multitude of cards to sort would grow exponentially. Still, although I couldn't buy most of what came through the shows and the shops where I worked full and part-time through 1995, I was blessed to have this experience.

Phil aka Tere1071

Complete 1953 Bowman Color, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, and 1975 Topps Baseball sets under revision as the budget and wife allows

Under construction:
1970 Topps Baseball - missing over 100 cards, mostly after #450 and the three insert sets

1971 Topps Coins- 120/153

1974 Topps Baseball Washington variations