frank nagy

[robw1959]

Originally Posted by jakebeckleyoldeagleeye

Any of you old time collectors remember Frank Nagy's auctions and buying from him?

Yes. I began collecting vintage in 1975, and subscribed to his mail order auctions regularly for a couple of years, beginning in 1976, I think. For some reason, I eschewed the Goudey Ruth cards that were going for $50 a piece, but glommed onto the Topps 1950 team cards, thinking they were so scarce that they would be super valuable some day. I did land one good deal that I can recall . . . a lot of (150) T206 cards for just $15! OF course they were low end, but still quite a bargain. He would actually send you the cards before you paid for them back then, and you would then either pay upon approval or return the cards for a full refund. I remember returning a card only once - a Batter Up Jimmy Foxx I had won for about $9.75. Of course you could see what you were bidding on since there were no pictures in the descriptions. I complained to him that the top was missing, and I was only getting "half a card" for my money. He wrote me back a lengthy letter, explaining that he had seen Foxx go for $15 or more in even worse condition that the one I had bid on, but he also affirmed my right to return it. What a good guy Frank Nagy was.

[barrysloate]

It's interesting how many of the cards pictured here from Nagy's collection ended up in AUTH holders. Did old time collectors not care at all about condition, and whether the card seemed undersized or trimmed? You would think an advanced collector who handled so many cards would have been continually upgrading his sets, and replacing cards that appeared to have problems.

[japhi]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

It's interesting how many of the cards pictured here from Nagy's collection ended up in AUTH holders. Did old time collectors not care at all about condition, and whether the card seemed undersized or trimmed? You would think an advanced collector who handled so many cards would have been continually upgrading his sets, and replacing cards that appeared to have problems.

Was thinking the same.

I think this tells us a lot about what condition cards were available at the time. Amazing that in the last 20 years all these high end 100 year old cards show up, but a guy who devoted his life to pre war cards 50 years ago had a collection of low grade.

[barrysloate]

Originally Posted by japhi

Was thinking the same.

I think this tells us a lot about what condition cards were available at the time. Amazing that in the last 20 years all these high end 100 year old cards show up, but a guy who devoted his life to pre war cards 50 years ago had a collection of low grade.

Excellent point.

[trdcrdkid]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

It's interesting how many of the cards pictured here from Nagy's collection ended up in AUTH holders. Did old time collectors not care at all about condition, and whether the card seemed undersized or trimmed? You would think an advanced collector who handled so many cards would have been continually upgrading his sets, and replacing cards that appeared to have problems.

Lionel Carter did that, and so did a couple of other guys, but they were considered oddballs within the hobby. Most collectors didn't care too much about condition except in a very broad sense, and some, such as Buck Barker, didn't care about it at all. (The spiritual ancestors of the OBC guys.) Here is an article about card conditions that Carter wrote for the April 1973 Ballcard Collector, with some observations that were ahead of their time in many ways.

[barrysloate]

It seems that if you are always buying big collections, as I assume these old timers were doing regularly, wouldn't part of the fun be replacing damaged or problem cards with cleaner and fresher ones? I used to do that all the time, and it seems so natural to me. Nagy must have handled a million cards, so why not keep the best ones? I'm not talking about Mint, but simply replacing a creased card with one without creases.

[trdcrdkid]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

It seems that if you are always buying big collections, as I assume these old timers were doing regularly, wouldn't part of the fun be replacing damaged or problem cards with cleaner and fresher ones? I used to do that all the time, and it seems so natural to me. Nagy must have handled a million cards, so why not keep the best ones? I'm not talking about Mint, but simply replacing a creased card with one without creases.

For all we know he may have done that, but all of the trimmed AUTH cards from Nagy's collection shown above look pretty nice, as do many of those with low technical grades (like that SGC 10 CJ Strunk). I think Nagy, like most collectors of his era, went for eye appeal, and didn't really care about flaws (including modest trimming) that would today give a card a low technical grade.

[jakebeckleyoldeagleeye]

Thanks for all those memories of Mr. Nagy and only wish I would have bought more from him.

[whiteymet]

I knew Frank well and visited his home many times.

Someone mentioned about his cards smelling of cigarette smoke. I distinctly remember him smoking while going through cards. He would get so distracted he would forget to take the cigarette out of his mouth to put the ashes in the ashtray.I would watch in awe as the ash at the end of the cigarette got longer and longer until it fell off under it's own weight tumble on his belly and he would curse and knock the ashes off his shirt!!

I had forgotten all about an article I wrote about Frank until someone was kind enough to send me a copy of the August 1974 Sports Scoop. See my article below

Fred