Woody & Richard Gelman and Card Collectors Co.

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Posted By: boxingcardman

I can't recall how, but around 1974 or 1975 I heard about the Card Collectors Company, Jr. Gelman's company. I found their address and sent for a catalog, my first ever foray into mail order (I was 9 or 10). The catalog finally came and it said that they had a warehouse fire and would be selling off their damaged cards cheaply. I didn't want those. The regular listings had the stars at various prices and assorted lots you could buy for a few cents a card. After much detailed study, I decided to buy some assorted lots of commons from old Topps issues (being a frugal lad, I wanted to be sure that my bucks were well spent on the most cards i could get). I sent in a few bucks via my parents for some assorted lots and a few weeks later an envelope arrived.

To this day I remember a lot of what I got. I ordered mixed lots of 1950s and 1960s hockey and a 1963 Mays. Every card I got was dead centered crisp as though from vending but every one had smoke damage, sometimes very slight, but there, which greatly disapppointed me. What I realized later on was that they simply threw the superstars with minor damage into the mixed lots. I remember that for a few cents each I got a 1958 group with Glenn Hall, Norm Ullman, Alex Delvecchio, Harry Howell and a couple of others, a 1962 lot with multiple Bobby Hulls, Stan Mikita and a few others, and some 1960s lots with Jacques Plante, Terry Sawchuk, and a bunch of other HOFers. I wish I'd ordered a lot more from a lot more issues.

Ah, the days of $1 superstars...sometimes I really miss it.