The answer to who originated sports collectibles - sorta OT

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Posted By: Robert Lifson

Hi Barry! I'm not sure if you were referring to me or not, it's been so long that it's hard to remember but I think I bought the 1877 Devlin letter from Goodie Goldfadden and traded it to Barry. I do remember buying the 1875 letter on Boston stationery signed by Morgan Bulkeley and Harry Wright. That was more than just a letter as described in Goodie Goldfadden's ad - it was the formal written declaration of the awarding of the pennant of 1875 for the National Association! I definitely traded that to Barry, and over the years traded for it back, sold it, traded for it again, and traded it back to Barry. This might have even happened twice on that item. That's why you can find the 1875 National Association letter in an old Wolffer's catalog as well as in Goldfadden's ad, as well as in the 1999 Halper auction catalog. Sometimes these great items changed hands back and forth like 1961 Topps cards years ago. Goldfadden had a lot of incredible early material from the Harry Wright estate, which was somehow broken up many years ago, and I couldn't believe he actually had this material for sale (it would be incredible today too, but I was a kid at the time and it seemed even more incredible). Goldfadden used to send me boxes of N173 Old Judge cabinets (they were small boxes, but they were boxes, with dozens of N173s). It was as if no one wanted the really great old stuff from him and I was doing his a favor, though I was probably paying great prices. There were no guides, whatever he wanted was the price and that's what I paid. He wasn't trying to give things away, prices were just a lot cheaper on the early stuff back then. The market changed quickly by the late 1970s.