Hobby history: Card dealers of the 1960s, part 2: Yeko and Oreck

[Leon]

Originally Posted by mikemb

...

I could not wait for the package to arrive. The only sad part was when you opened it up and found the small credit slip, meaning some of your choices were not available.

Mike

Same things with Larry Frisch (RIP). He would send what he had and a note saying what he didn't have, IIRC. His grading was always a surprise too.

[Paul S]

One person I don't really hear much about anymore is Gar Miller. I did a few send-a-ways with him in the Sixties. Never got an IOU and I was picking postwar HOFers, or soon-to-be HOFers. He always included a short personalized note. According to his website he is still active but hasn't done a show in decades. Anybody else here deal with him?

[Griffins]

Originally Posted by Paul S

One person I don't really hear much about anymore is Gar Miller. I did a few send-a-ways with him in the Sixties. Never got an IOU and I was picking postwar HOFers, or soon-to-be HOFers. He always included a short personalized note. According to his website he is still active but hasn't done a show in decades. Anybody else here deal with him?

I bought a card from Gar a few years ago
Thanked him for being so kind to me as a kid 30 years earlier and sending me his book on cards
He sent me back an updated copy with a nice note. Class act.

[moeson]

Originally Posted by Paul S

One person I don't really hear much about anymore is Gar Miller. I did a few send-a-ways with him in the Sixties. Never got an IOU and I was picking postwar HOFers, or soon-to-be HOFers. He always included a short personalized note. According to his website he is still active but hasn't done a show in decades. Anybody else here deal with him?

Gar was the first dealer that I ever bought cards from back in 1971. Out of nostalgia, I recently checked out his website and bought a few cards from him. Same great service after all these years!

[Jerry G]

This is the July 1, 1966 price list that starts out with the announcement that Wholesale Cards has bought out Marshall Oreck. Bruce Yecko is justifiably very proud that the new catalog (see David's post above for scan) will be similar to the one that Marshall "has published for the last three years, but with 50 more sets" and promised that the catalog will be "the most complete book of information on recent issues ever published." I emphatically agree.

With each order you would receive a new price list. Often, Bruce would place comments or state which cards were currently in stock along the boarder of the price list. On this one, he responded to my question of availability of a regional issue, 1965 Big Red Biographies and offered to pay $0.15 each for mine. I wasn't selling then, but 51 years later, I did and received substantially more from a advanced net54 football collector.

Directly below the red ink message, you might notice a cut out corner of the price list. This is where Bruce wrote out my credit slip, which was obviously redeemed. I'm sure it was for less than a dollar as my total orders were usually between $2 and $4. I wasn't smart enough to ask my dad to write a check, but I was smart enough to tape down all the nickles, dimes and quarters.

[Jay Wolt]

David great stuff!
Thanks for posting

[jsq]

Originally Posted by Paul S

One person I don't really hear much about anymore is Gar Miller. I did a few send-a-ways with him in the Sixties. Never got an IOU and I was picking postwar HOFers, or soon-to-be HOFers. He always included a short personalized note. According to his website he is still active but hasn't done a show in decades. Anybody else here deal with him?

yes i remember Gar, i bought his "baseball card collecting guidebook" he sold in the 1970's. that book helped move the hobby forward as he contacted many major city library systems and they bought bulk quantitiy for distribution to all their branches in the 1970's. before becketts guide their was a lack of info for the public, this froze many collections in place as people did not know what to do with their collection. Jim's price guide followed Gar's rudimentary guide and really broke the ice with the mass public.

Gar is a nice guy and a true hobby pioneer, he was also a very good baseball player thru college.

Gar was getting a volume of cards as early as the 50's as i recall, he purchased from friends and acquaintances when he was at college playing ball etc for 1950's that was pretty forward thinking.

talked to Gar about 3 years ago and he is a font of knowledge on the hobby history. Gar was an early pioneer in hotel buying trips and hobby advertising to the general public.

Gar and Mike Aronstein are two VERY underapreciated hobby pioneers. they did a lot of work educating the public and making the hobby.

hello Gar if you are reading this.

[Leon]

Got my first R319 Ruth #144 from Gar, from a Xerox scan he sent me.....many years ago. Great thread.

Originally Posted by jsq

yes i remember Gar, i bought his "baseball card collecting guidebook" he sold in the 1970's. that book helped move the hobby forward as he contacted many major city library systems and they bought bulk quantitiy for distribution to all their branches in the 1970's. before becketts guide their was a lack of info for the public, this froze many collections in place as people did not know what to do with their collection. Jim's price guide followed Gar's rudimentary guide and really broke the ice with the mass public.

Gar is a nice guy and a true hobby pioneer, he was also a very good baseball player thru college.

Gar was getting a volume of cards as early as the 50's as i recall, he purchased from friends and acquaintances when he was at college playing ball etc for 1950's that was pretty forward thinking.

talked to Gar about 3 years ago and he is a font of knowledge on the hobby history. Gar was an early pioneer in hotel buying trips and hobby advertising to the general public.

Gar and Mike Aronstein are two VERY underapreciated hobby pioneers. they did a lot of work educating the public and making the hobby.

hello Gar if you are reading this.

[jchcollins]

What an incredible treasure threads like this are. I'm very much interested in the "early" hobby that a lot of this represents. It again reminds me that with baseball cards like many other things - I was born too late. I started buying Topps packs as a 9 year-old in 1986. It was a few years later before I discovered "old" (the word vintage was not yet en vogue...) cards and the ability to buy them at shops, and later - through the mail. My first real treasure was a 1966 Topps Koufax that my Mom ponied-up about $20 for. :-)

[Wite3]

When I was 17 and 18 in the late 80s and early 90s, I started to send Gar a check and my wantlist and he would just fill what he thought was fair. I did this probably 10-15 times over a 3 or 4 year period...loved that he did that and I was always surprised and happy with what I got...I remember completing my '53 Bowman B/W set with him among other things. He was a fountain of knowledge and pointed me in several directions for cards I was seeking that he did not have. Great hobby guy.

Joshua

[Hot Springs Bathers]

I think I have mentioned this before but during the 1980's I would send Gar a check, usually in the $20-35.00 range and he would fill my T206 and T205 want lists.

His efforts along with some big purchases from George Lyons helped me on both of those sets. Gar then helped me work my way through some early Bowman material. I am glad he is still involved. A very nice man!

Wish I still had all of those cards!!!!!

[Jerry G]

Originally Posted by Leon

Same things with Larry Frisch (RIP). He would send what he had and a note saying what he didn't have, IIRC. His grading was always a surprise too.

If you were a college student in the 70's... you might understand how this credit slip was overlooked.