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

[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
.

[Collectorsince62]

I bought my first pack of cards in 1962 at age 7. I remember seeing that beautiful green wrapper in a box next to the cash register at the local five and dime. A day or two later my Mom let me ride my bike to that store (a very big deal at the time), I plunked down my nickel and started a journey that continues today. Some early thoughts on the good old days, which for me were between 1962 and 1980 . . .
Buying packs and opening them with my friends. Great memories. We preferred the Ben Franklin store - you could get six packs for a quarter. Sitting on front porches trading cards - Cardinal cards were gold. Seeing my best friend's Golden Press set his grandmother gave him for his birthday - begging my Mom to drive me across town to the store selling them (she did). Pulling a wagon full of empty soda bottles to the "supermarket" for the two cent deposit, then quickly turning that into packs of cards. Seeing cards for the first time from the older kids in the neighborhood - price guides and the internet were decades away, there was no way to know what older cards even existed much less what they looked like. Sending away to the Card Collectors Company, Gar Miller (bless his heart), Bruce Yeko and Larry Fritsch to get World Series cards, the Baseball Thrills series, All Star and MVP cards, high numbers, the Fleer Ted Williams set and the occasional vintage cards my Dad remembered seeing when he was a kid. Sitting on the grocery store floor while my Mom shopped looking through every box of Jello and Post Cereal hoping to find Cardinals. I once sent a quarter to Topps asking for a Maury Wills or Colts team card - surely they made them. I'll never forget the thrill of opening a pack and seeing the 1965 World Series cards for the first time after the Cardinals beat the Yankees. We all waited anxiously for someone in the neighborhood to announce the new series of cards was here.
Money from umpiring was spent picking up collections from the older kids once they became more interested in cars and girls. I would religiously write to the Cardinals for a free set of player postcards every year. When I got my license I started advertising in local papers. Everything was fun, with zero interest in value or investment. Then things changed. Beckett published the first price guide. Fleer and Donruss broke the monopoly. Rookie cards commanded a premium (Joe Charboneau, really?). Intentional error cards. But I was still hooked. Bought a subscription to SCD -anyone remember when you had to send auction bids through the mail and just sit and wait to find out if you won? Attended the early conventions here in St. Louis - instant auctions as cards just walked in continuously. Buck Barker would walk in and sit at a table with a box containing cards no one had ever seen before. Bill Henderson - "king of the commons" was a savior to all of us set collectors - and he would trade. The hobby was flying, but a lot of the innocence was gone. It was still fun, but not in the same way it was fun as a ten-year-old. As Tom Stanton writes in The Road to Cooperstown "Baseball's appeal isn't complicated or confusing, it's about the beauty of the game, it's about being part of something larger than yourself, about tradition - receiving it and passing it, and it's about holding on to a bit of your childhood." I think of my baseball cards that way and I'm grateful I have good old days I'll always remember fondly.

[brianp-beme]

Wow, extra special writeup Collectorsince62, and I especially like this snippet from your memories of the time:

Originally Posted by Collectorsince62

I once sent a quarter to Topps asking for a Maury Wills or Colts team card - surely they made them.

That just captures the innocence of collecting then.

Brian

[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
.