Reminiscing about the "Good-Ole-Days" in this Hobby

[Seven]

Originally Posted by 2dueces

You mean $1 T206 commons when everyone was hot for Pete Rose and Johnny Bench? Opening 5 and 10 cent packs looking for your favorite team. Then again in the 80’s $10-20 T206 HOFer’s (Cobb was always more) while everyone was clamoring for 86 Donruss Jose Canceco? When most didn’t realize back scarcity ( I didn’t) and just collected T206’s. How about scores and scores of unsold 1986 Fleer Basketball at $15 a box and Namath rookies for under $100.
1990 ish bumper stickers I’ll trade you my house for 1952 Topps set. (Valued at $40k) then.
Many phases of olden days in my collecting years starting in 1966 when at 10 years old I opened my first pack of wax. Monster Laffs.

What a time to be alive! Is there a word for being nostalgic for a time you didn't get to experience? Because if there is, that totally fits the bill, for what I'm feeling.

[Fred]

the good ole days...

I remember in 1975 a friend of mine was in Sacramento and when he came home he had these miniature 1975 Topps cards. Apparently Sacramento was one of the test markets for that issue. I thought the cards were interesting but I liked the regular sized cards, but I had to have some because they were novel in the area I lived.

Subscribing to a couple of the hobby periodicals was a must if you wanted to see what was going on in the hobby. I had subscriptions to SCD and The Trader Speaks and read the Baseball Digest like it was required school reading material.

People look back and think a buck for T206 cards, but when you're a kid, allowances really weren't going to cover trying to get a lot of T206s, even at a buck a piece. Still, when you look at a T206 at a buck, it wasn't too crazy. I can remember an issue of The Trader Speaks that showed the Wags as a possible $1,000 or $10,000 card.

Trading, buying, selling was done through the mail as was a lot of hobby correspondence.

All good times!

[byrone]

I started my Sports Collectors Digest subscription in early 1980

Receiving the SCD in the mail every two weeks was a thrill I still remember

Pretty sure I memorized each issue before the next one arrived

[StraightRaceCards]

Originally Posted by Seven

What a time to be alive! Is there a word for being nostalgic for a time you didn't get to experience? Because if there is, that totally fits the bill, for what I'm feeling.

Im with you. I hear about these vintage card prices, especially T206 and kick myself for not finding out about vintage as a kid.

Bright side is that at least we are in card collecting now, what a joy it is! (At least for me!)

[MK]

I started buying packs in the early 60s when my Mother would let me have some change at the grocery store. Once I got an allowance, it all went to cards. When I learned about Card Collectors Co and others, it was game on. Years later I have been able to complete all my childhood sets and then some.

[skil55voy]

I started collecting in 1962. I managed to complete the set. I also managed to complete the 1965 Topps baseball and 3 of the Philadelphia football sets. I grew up in Michigan and I knew John Stomen. Besides publishing Sports Collector Digest he used to set up at shows with his son. Great guy. Used to let me sit in his booth and talk cards. I went in the Army in 1978 and ended up in Maryland. I knew Denny Eckes. He had a print shop near Fort Meade. I made him a Baltimore Orioles word search of every player that had played for them up until 1980. He hung it in his shop. He gave me a copy of the original Sport Americana price guide he produced with Dr. Beckett. Denny also set up at shows around the Baltimore area. Terrific guy. The great thing about the hobby is all of the dealers I have met. Even though they are spread out across the country you would still see them at some of the big shows regionally. Kevin Savage, JD Heckathorn and Dr. William Mcavoy. (SP?) I also knew Lloyd Thoerpe and Chuck Brooks who set up the "First" National show in Michigan. Today the people I deal with are great and it's the best thing about the hobby.

[GasHouseGang]

Originally Posted by MK

I started buying packs in the early 60s when my Mother would let me have some change at the grocery store. Once I got an allowance, it all went to cards. When I learned about Card Collectors Co and others, it was game on. Years later I have been able to complete all my childhood sets and then some.

It's always amazing to see the set prices in those old price sheets. The 1952 Topps set for $90, if I'm reading that correctly. When I saw these kind of offers I was always too interested in the current Topps issue or the latest Kellogg's set to spend my money on that "old" stuff.

[Huck]

Originally Posted by GasHouseGang

When I saw these kind of offers I was always too interested in the current Topps issue or the latest Kellogg's set to spend my money on that "old" stuff.

It is funny, how we get caught up in the new material and the old stuff was just that, the old stuff. With the amount of 91 Fleer cards owned, I could shingle a small house.

[rats60]

Originally Posted by MK

I started buying packs in the early 60s when my Mother would let me have some change at the grocery store. Once I got an allowance, it all went to cards. When I learned about Card Collectors Co and others, it was game on. Years later I have been able to complete all my childhood sets and then some.

Those look familiar. I have a similar story. I got a hold of catalogs from Woody Gelman and Bruce Yeko in the lare 60s and when I got my first job a few years later, I ordered from them in trying to complete my childhood collection back to 1958.

In the early 80s when I was working on finishing a Topps run back to 1951, one of my regular dealers showed me these little tobacco cards he just bought, I bought a Matty and Speaker for 20.00 each and I was hooked. Commons 5.00, Hofers 10-20, Cobbs 100-200. A year and a half later I had them all except for the big 3.

[Mark]

Originally Posted by MK

I started buying packs in the early 60s when my Mother would let me have some change at the grocery store. Once I got an allowance, it all went to cards. When I learned about Card Collectors Co and others, it was game on. Years later I have been able to complete all my childhood sets and then some.

Ted and Mike
Thanks for reminding us of the Trader Speaks and of the CCC. And If I may reminisce: I remember getting my first cards before I could read from the backs of Post cereal boxes. Still have them, and you can tell the ones that I cut myself with my safety scissors. I later picked up a few Topps cardsm but it wasn't until I was 9 or 10 that I really went after Topps cards. A few years later, a guy at a local flea market always had a shoebox full of 50's cards. That's where I got the bulk of my 56 set. Thanks to the Sporting News, I started buying from the Card Collectors' Co and from Jack Smalling, the autograph dealer who also sold t206's via a mimeographed list. He charged $1 for a common and $3.50 for a Cobb or a Mathewson. My interest in collecting baseball stuff drifted away for a couple of decades. Now it's back!

It was fun, but I had no idea what I was collecting, which cards existed, what was scarce, etc.

[Exhibitman]

We can never know about the days to come
But we think about them anyway

And stay right here 'cause these are the good old days
These are the good old days

I'm working on multiple columns about the good old days, from what it was like chasing around as a kid looking for cards, to the characters and mentors I met along the way. The latter is something I'd like to hear more about from our members. We so often focus on "I" when it comes to cards, it would be interesting to hear about some of the old-time collectors who helped fuel our collections.

[Seven]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

It would be interesting to hear about some of the old-time collectors who helped fuel our collections.

I'm not sure how well known he is, outside of the Tri-State area, but I had some pretty in depth conversations with George Mollyn, at Cooperstown when I was a kid. Bought some of my favorite cards off of him, we talked for at least an hour about The 1933 and 1934 Goudey sets, along with Mickey Mantle. But I always think fondly of the conversations I had with him.

If he doesn't mind me referring to him as an old-time collector, (though he is certainly young at heart) I can't even count the amount of impactful conversations I've had with Ted, either in person or through email. Truly a gentleman in every sense of the word, and one that I love to talk baseball and the hobby about. I've learned so much about Tobacco cards from him, and the stories about the hobby, he has, are second to none.

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by Seven

I'm not sure how well known he is, outside of the Tri-State area, but I had some pretty in depth conversations with George Mollyn, at Cooperstown when I was a kid. Bought some of my favorite cards off of him, we talked for at least an hour about The 1933 and 1934 Goudey sets, along with Mickey Mantle. But I always think fondly of the conversations I had with him.

If he doesn't mind me referring to him as an old-time collector, (though he is certainly young at heart) I can't even count the amount of impactful conversations I've had with Ted, either in person or through email. Truly a gentleman in every sense of the word, and one that I love to talk baseball and the hobby about. I've learned so much about Tobacco cards from him, and the stories about the hobby, he has, are second to none.

James

I really enjoy our Baseball conversations....and, I do appreciate your kind words.....Thanks.

I've set up at the Cooperstown Show from 1985 to 2015. George Mollyn's set-up at this HOF weekend Show in the VFW Bldg
was adjacent to mine for quite a number of years. George and I did a lot of deals (BB cards and Memorabilia).....a great guy.


TED Z

T206 Reference
.

[tedzan]

"ONLY THE BEGINNING, ONLY JUST THE START"......Chicago, 1969

Some really great stories, guys. Let us continue reminiscing about your beginning experiences in this hobby that make it all worthwhile.

March 1981, was really the START for me, driving down to Willow Grove, Pennsylvania to the Philly Show at the GEORGE WASHINGTON MOTOR LODGE.

I could fill up pages with my stories relating to my experiences during the early days at the Philly Shows....but, let's hear your stories.







TED Z

T206 Reference
.