Woody & Richard Gelman and Card Collectors Co.

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Posted By: Troy Kirk

I first ordered cards from the Card Collectors company when I was a kid in the late 1960s. I probably got their name from the back of Boys Life magazine. I remember going through my Topps checklists and trying to pick out Detroit Tiger players. I remember getting my order back and noticing that some of the 1969 cards I got had little red dots all over the player faces. I remember Dick Radatz in particular had the red dots on his face. I don't know if I still have that card or not, but I probably do somewhere.

In the mid 1970s I opened a book and out dropped a credit slip from the Card Collectors Company from 1968. It was for less than a dollar, something like 86 cents. I put together an order for all the 1967 high numbers I was missing, which was most of the series and sent in the credit slip and another couple of dollars. I think they were only about 4 or 5 cents each back then. When I got back the cards, they smelled smoky and they were slightly curled from top to bottom. There was a note that they had had a fire in their warehouse and that's why the smoky smell. Because of the smoky smell, they gave them to me for half price. They said I could send them back if I didn't like them. Instead, I sold them at cost to a friend who also needed the high numbers. He used an iron to flatten out the cards and he told me that worked fine. He probably had his mother do it. Then I sent in another order for the same cards but I said I didn't want smoky cards. They sent back all the high numbers I wanted in perfect condition, and not smoky. Their warehouse fire apparently didn't affect all of their stock, but they were trying to get rid of the smoky cards first, I guess. My high number 1967s are in a lot better condition than my lower numbers because I bought them from the Card Collectors Company and never played with them like I had with my lower numbers. But I have probably about 5 or 10 high numbers that are in pretty bad shape. Those are the ones that I already had before placing my order, so I foolishly didn't buy replacement cards for them. It would have probably cost me an extra 25 cents or so to get all of the cards in the series instead of just the ones I was missing. I guess those are the decisions you make when you are a kid.