Was NJ the epicenter of the card boom?

[Donscards]

New England had some great shows in the 80's---Bishop Guertin High School in Nashua, NH was the leader in the early 80's--The Greater Boston Card Club in mid 80's and Walter Hall in the 80's in Boston---they used to be 2-3 deep at tables in those days---In 1988, at Portland, Maine, we had Roger Clemens signing for $10 a auto with 4000 people at the show. Old Timer Bob Thing was always at these shows.---Times have changed!!

[tedzan]

Major New York Shows that I set-up in are the Cooperstown Show on HOF weekend which started in 1980; and, is still in operation.

And, the Statler Hilton Hotel (now Hotel Pennsylvania across from MSG) Show promoted by Bob Lemke and Steve Ellingboe (circa 1982 - 1984).


TED Z
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[Rookiemonster]

I always feel New Jersey has had a ton of collectors for years . They still have a few shows and I still attend one . My son and I are planning on getting a table soon .

[skelly]

Yes, Bill Mastro a Bernards High Mountaineer! New Jersey is the most densely populated state and many sports fans and collectors can be found. Despite this, I agree with one of the posters above. I think Pennsylvania might be the pulse of the hobby ( at least in the mid-atlantic region ) these days.

[justrun7]

Isn't Josh Evans of Leland's also from New Jersey? John Taube, the bat authenticator for PSA, also has his office in New Jersey.

I'm too young to have seen the boom (27) but New Jersey seems to have a large print in the sports memorabilia world. From what my dad tells me, there seemed to be great shows all the time in New Jersey at malls and the Garden State Racetrack. I think being between large cities like Philadelphia and New York, with other cities like Baltimore, Washington D.C., and even Boston being somewhat close to the northern part of New Jersey, has allowed for NJ to be at the center of a large portion of the memorabilia craze and capitalize on it's central location.

[icollectDCsports]

I always had the sense that the stretch from the Philly area to NYC area was the center of the card collecting universe when it started to flourish. Makes sense if you think of the population covered by that area that would therefore include a huge number of fans devoted to various teams.

[TCMA]

Don't forget about the ASCCA shows in NYC throughout the 1970s

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=226421

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Donscards

New England had some great shows in the 80's---Bishop Guertin High School in Nashua, NH was the leader in the early 80's--The Greater Boston Card Club in mid 80's and Walter Hall in the 80's in Boston---they used to be 2-3 deep at tables in those days---In 1988, at Portland, Maine, we had Roger Clemens signing for $10 a auto with 4000 people at the show. Old Timer Bob Thing was always at these shows.---Times have changed!!

Yep. Arlington, Ma where Halls shop was had 2 maybe three shops that had cards by 1981. And at least one 5+10 that stocked lots of current cards.

That last one was sort of my fault. I asked a friend of mine whose dad owned the 5+10 if he could get me a deal on a box of Donruss. They said they'd have to buy something like 10 boxes, and I said I'd buy two. My friend talked up my then fairly small collection and they bought some boxes. About a week later I stopped in and they had all three brands! And better still they'd sold something like 6 cases that week at full retail and had sold a box or two at above retail. So they gave me the one box for free.

Steve B