Hobby history: The hobby 50 years ago, July 1967

[trdcrdkid]

The last of the hobby publishers mentioned by Nagy was Steve Mitchell, who had actually not yet launched his publication at the time Nagy was writing. Steve, who is a member of this board and another extremely nice guy, graduated from high school in the spring of 1967 and decided to launch his own hobby publication to compete with The Ballcard Collector. He called it Sports Collectors' Journal, and launched it in July 1967, almost exactly 50 years ago. Below is the front page, with Mitchell's editorial and the list of four writers he had recruited, two of whom appeared in the debut issue.



Below I've posted the next five pages of the issue, including a full-page want list from Gene Lebo (who started out co-publishing The Ballcard Collector with George Martin) and articles by Mike Wheat and Mike Bondarenko. I didn't scan the full-page ads by Frank Nagy and George Martin (Nagy's has the same content as his Card Collector's Bulletin ad posted above), but I did scan the Mail Bag, with encouraging letters that Mitchell had received from people he wrote to for help. Sports Collector's Journal would keep going for two years, publishing some quality material, before Steve was forced to suspend publication in 1969 when he was drafted. He attempted a brief revival in 1971-72 before becoming one of the founders of Sports Scoop, a great publication that unfortunately lasted less than two years in 1973-74.

July 1967 was a low point for the hobby in many ways, but things were going to get better, of course. In 1968, two long-running hobby publications made their debut: in March, Mike Bondarenko launched Sports Collectors' News, which lasted for the next decade (except for a three-year break from 1970-73), and in November Dan Dischley started The Trader Speaks, which he would publish for almost 15 years before selling it in August 1983. Of course, the early 1970s saw a major boom in the hobby after the doldrums of the 1960s, as baby boomers started getting enough money to try to recapture their youth through baseball cards. (It's more complicated than that, but demographics play a major role in any explanation.)

[KCRfan1]

This is wonderful information and a great read! Thanks for posting!!!!

[Piratedogcardshows]

Great information as always David. What I got from the post was how eager they were to help each other any way they could.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Jason

Great information as always David. What I got from the post was how eager they were to help each other any way they could.

And that still goes on today with a lot of collectors.

Great stuff, thanks for posting it David.

[TCMA]

"Bill Harbers errors and variations."

[ALR-bishop]

[Nick55]

Thanks for posting the various publications from 1967. What I find most fascinating is there are many similarities in the hobby today to what the hobby was like in 1967. For instance, note the comment from one of the readers about the concern for kids being priced out of the hobby by the "card companies" charging a premium for certain cards. Note also the concern by one of the editors regarding false ads, with the inference that people are getting ripped off. On the positive side, I love the passion from many of the readers in 1967 on the hobby in general and how they are willing to help each other out. We see that today, of course. It's also interesting how message boards like this one have in essence replaced these old publications in many ways.

I tend to think collecting certain sets was easier back then in 1967 in terms of affordability, but I'm not as so convinced that is the case. Note in the publication shown in the latest post from Bishop that buying a complete set of 1952 Topps baseball would cost one about $175 ($35 for lower series, $90 for the high series, and by extrapolation, about $50 for the middle series). In today's dollars, that's over $1,200. That's certainly alot of money for a kid, but also for an adult making the median U.S. salary.

Anyway, that's just a few random thoughts. Thanks again for posting the articles.

[Den*nis O*Brien]

....to the OP for sharing this terrific reading material. I was interested in the Sell/Buy ads placed by Don Steinbach.