Evolution of collecting habits (aka "slow Thursday")

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Posted By: Rocky Lockwood

I have been watching this discussion and decided to join in. I, like many was caught up in the early 90s boom. I went to shows in Irvine, Vegas, Anaheim, Santa Monica etc. looking for great stuff from the 70s-80s and 90s. I had just finished attending a show in the LA Convention Center, and was feeling pretty disgusted with the onslaught of material that was hitting the market. I asked a vendor about where to find game used bats and he pointed me to Kendrich and Company (now gone) as a good source. I wandered down and on the way stumbled acrossed a little shop and decided to check it out. After seeing all of their new stuff I was stopped dead in my tracks by two cards. A T206 Boss Schmidt and a 35 Goudey with Greenberg, Fox, Walker, and Rowe. I walked out of there, less $25, and an obsession began. I have since built an entire set of T206 Tigers cards. Added a couple of T202s, a couple of T3s, some T205s. I haven't bought a card newer than 1935 since.

As a side note. The real turning point came in 95 when a burgler broke in and stole my collection. I was devasted. I called all of the local card shops and asked them to keep a lookout. Within hours calls started to roll in. One dealer followed the guy to his apartment and got the license plate number, another simply told the guy that the cards had been reported stolen, pulled them off the counter and called the cops. I got more than half of them back. The fact that the cards were so distinctive made the difference. Imagine calling someone and asking them the be on the lookout for a 1992 set of Topps. When I got the cards back I spent hours recleaning the cases (getting the fingerprinting dust off of them) and dedicated myself to making the T206 set.