Southern California Sports Club in the 1970s

[Archive]

Posted By: Chris Counts

When I come to think, I can picture Clay Hill, Jim Nowell and Merv Williams. I don't have any recollection about the guy who reprinted the Rose rookies, but I probably knew him. I'm curious who he was. I remember the Rose rookie craze. It was like a plague What I do recall was that going to those meetings was like being a little kid in a candy store. Discovering cards from the 1950s was such a revelation to me I hardly had time to consider the possibilities of pre-war cards. I certainly had no idea so many varieties existed. There were white borders, gold borders, Goudeys and Play Balls. I hardly noticed the rest.

Barry, regarding the rare stuff, what remember most was that "serious" collectors were after tough cards from the 1950s. Most collectors I knew from this era were about 10 years older than me, and collected cards as youngsters in the late 1950s. After completing the Topps and Bowman sets from the era, which was reasonably easy to do (except for 1952 Topps), many of these guys started going after 50s regionals like Dan Dee, Stahl Meyers, Wilson Franks, etc. I saw way more of these cards then than I see now. Usually they were pretty beat up, but no one seemed to mind. There was also a thriving market for West Coast regionals like Mothers Cookies, Bell Brands and Morrells. But I doubt most of these guys would have known the difference between an e120 and an e121.

Like another board member related, I learned more about business during these meetings than in any course I ever took in college. But more than that, I felt like I was a part of tight-knit community of collectors, very much the way this board feels to me. We would regularly visit each other in our homes, which typically resembled baseball museums. Now a lot of collectors stash their best stuff in a safe deposit box or safe (I know I do!). But back then, nobody was too concerned about being ripped off ... it just wasn't that big of a risk ... ah, the good, old days ...