Whatever happened to these long-time dealers?

[ALBB]

Gar Miller

[Daveyc]

This is the first I have heard that TJ Schwartz had passed. I was a voracious Tuff Stuff reader for many years and "on your side" was the first column I turned to every month. I never met him, or bought anything from him, but I certainly enjoyed his writing.

RIP TJ

[Daveyc]

Is Kit Young still active? I know he used to advertise everywhere and had set up a hobby trade show that was in Hawaii, I think. He must be getting up there in age.

[Rich Klein]

Originally Posted by Daveyc

Is Kit Young still active? I know he used to advertise everywhere and had set up a hobby trade show that was in Hawaii, I think. He must be getting up there in age.

Kit is doing fine. His business is still going strong. His house in Hawaii burned down in the Maui fires but thankfully no one was hurt during that event. He did find a new place to stay in Hawaii this past winter.

He is reasonably active on facebook.

Rich

[darkhorse9]

When I was a kid (in the late 70's) the dealer that first exposed me to vintage cards was Jim Elder out of Odessa, Florida. Every month I would get his catalog and dream of owning some of them. I remember saving up enough to be able to by a 1951 Bowman (Johnny Wyrostek) and then later a 1941 Play Ball of Harry "Gunboat" Gumpert.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Hilarious. The 51B Wyrostek was the second vintage card I ever purchased. The first was 57T Jablonski. Third, 57T Ditmar. Fourth, 52B Dropo. The Ditmar disappeared years ago, but still have the others. Dropo signed his for me about 30 years ago.

Funnier still is that these cards were all newer when I purchased them than the junk wax that came out at the same time is today.

[jingram058]

Harvey Brandwein, who used to run The National Pastime and also organized card shows, is retired but still living.

[whitehse]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

Kit is doing fine. His business is still going strong. His house in Hawaii burned down in the Maui fires but thankfully no one was hurt during that event. He did find a new place to stay in Hawaii this past winter.

He is reasonably active on facebook.

Rich

Wow I have not thought of Kit Young in years.

I remember seeing him at one of the very early National conventions in Chicago when I was probably 20 years old. I stopped to see if he had any interest is four early to mid-60's Topps complete sets I brought with me and told him I felt they were in VG + condition. He looked through the cards and said to a friend sitting next to him "this kid knows how to grade". I felt so honored to have a guy in the hobby like Kit Young pay me that compliment.

We agreed on a price and he grabbed his checks that were laying on the table (it wasnt a check book...it was like he grabbed the next stack of checks out of the box the bank sends you) and wrote me out the biggest check I had ever seen in my life. I shook his hand, said our goodbyes and saw my dad standing there with his eyes wide and mouth hanging open. And all he said was..."you took a check from that guy"? LOL

[tibor1]

Had a friend who bought thousands of commons and semi-stars for TTM autos. Anyone
time he had a 1500+ in the mail. Kit was/is a wonderful dealer.