Program from the first Philly show, 1975

[aconte]

Originally Posted by Bobsbats

Irv Lerner was an old time collector who owned a card store in Willow Grove PA. He was a nice guy who has since passed on, and had some great old Connie Mack relics, an old turnstile that I should have bought looking back on it.

Was he the Baseball Card Man and his store had a Connie Mack sign?
Also, big smoker too?

[cardinalcollector]

That's an awesome program which brings back memories from the 1970s. Irv Lerner, Bob Schmierer, Rob Lifson, Gar Miller, & Bob Bartosz are all familiar names to me.

[trdcrdkid]

I have a lot of Irv Lerner's old hobby publications from the 1960s and 70s, like this copy of Frank Nagy's Auction Corner from 1966 that I included in my post on Walter Corson:



George Vrechek did a profile of Irv for Sports Collector's Digest in 2008, which is available online here:

http://www.sportscollectorsdigest.com/irv_lerner/

And on the Old Baseball site with illustrations:

http://oldbaseball.com/refs/Irv_Lerner.pdf

Also, I did a post about Gar Miller here:

http://net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=234348

[Leon]

Thanks again for sharing these things, David. A lot of us enjoy them.

[brian1961]

Originally Posted by aconte

Was he the Baseball Card Man and his store had a Connie Mack sign?
Also, big smoker too?

For the past 25 or so years, Irv Lerner was known as "The Ring Man", collector and purveyor of championship rings. I did not know of his passing. Until recently, he would set up yearly at the National and sell rings.

I also was not aware that he once ran a card shop. When I first met him in 1972, he had an extraordinary baseball card collection. He would be classified as a collector / dealer.

I still own a few Bazooka items I purchased from Irv in 1972-73; I prized them then and most assuredly still do today.

For what it's worth, back in the 70s, when there was still public smoking at the big shoes, I never saw Irv smoke. Frank Nagy was almost always seen smoking, but not Irv.

I noticed the amazing freebee of the 1953 Stahl-Meyer Franks Whitey Lockman, contributed by Rob Lifson. The card was from his recent find, and would have been in virtually MINT condition. I wrote about that find. Stahl-Meyers were "never seen" in that kind of condition.

As always, thanks for posting this significant hobby document, David.

Kind regards, Brian Powell