Tell your stories Of dealings with legends of the hobby

[Chris-Counts]

I'm going to start with the first hobby legend I met, which was Goodwin Goldfadden, in about 1973. I found an ad somewhere with the address of his Adco Sports Book Exchange in Hollywood, and I convinced my father to drive my brother and I there one Saturday. When we arrived, we discovered the shop was so small that all three of us could barely fit inside. Cards and memorabilia were literally oozing out of every nook and cranny of the musty joint. Goodwin, meanwhile, appeared to have little patience with a pair of pre-teens filled with endless questions about cards. It soon became clear that we had better make a quick purchase before he threw us out. So I asked if we could see some 1957 Topps cards, which I had recently discovered and were just about the oldest cards I had ever seen. No doubt his store was filled with tobacco and early gum cards, but there was no way we were going to see them. We were thrilled, though, that he let us sort through a box of 57s.

It was like digging for gold. My brother and I each grabbed a small stack at about a dime a card. I remember grabbing all the Dodgers I could afford because I was simply amazed to see a card of a BROOKLYN Dodger. My brother and I each handed our stacks to Goodwin so he could tell us how much we owed him. I'll never forget the image of him thumbing through those cards with a look of disgust on his face. As he rifled through the cards, he would from time to time slam each stack against the nearest flat surface, like it was some kind of nervous habit, and in the process, he would ding a bunch of corners (I observed this habit in later transactions as well). Even as a clueless 12-year-old, I was horrified by the way he treated his cards with what seemed like contempt. My dad took the whole thing in stride and handed over a couple dollars for the cards. We thanked him and left, and on the way home my dad stopped nearby and bought us each an Orange Julius. Looking back on it, I realized that the trip to Goody's was my introduction to the business of vintage cards ...

[sox1903wschamp]

Great idea for a thread. I do not really have a story but I did meet Buck Barker when I was teenager back in the late 70's at a card show in St Louis.

I know I would appreciate the meeting more now after reading more of his history but I still remember thinking he was cool old time collector at the time. Even bought a few items from him and he had some great stuff.

[BobbyVCP]

Starting in 1973 I took the bus every Saturday during the summers to Goody's place on Santa Monica Blvd near Fairfax with my $50 I earned from working for my dad. Like a previous poster said it was wall to wall stuff. You would knock on the door he would let you in. I would tell him a few players I would want like Cobb, Mathewson, Johnson, etc and he would go in the back and a few minutes later come back with stacks of cards usually in rubber bands for you to go through and choose. The mentioned names where all $6 each and lower tier HOF's all $4. I only collected HOF players at the time so would usually end up leaving the store with about 10-15 cards each time. The most expensive card I ever bought from him was a T206 Plank for $50. Ruth cards where in the $25-35 range and Gehrig a little lower. I only had interest in Pre-war cards at the time and he had mostly T206, Goudey and Playball. As well for some reason it seemed that every one of his 39 PB's had the sample stamped backs.

[BobbyVCP]

BTW last I heard Goody is still alive and Matt from Beverly Hills Baseball Cards talks to him and visits.

[camlov2]

I remember collecting when I was younger and Jim Horne was always around to share info regarding cards. He even allowed me to look thorugh his collection and help sort out topps sets. Even today we discuss some random set each time we get together. The guy was great growing up, he even helped coach some of my baseball teams...

[Rickyy]

Wow Glad to hear Goody is still alive and well. I too dealt with him..over the phone about his ad....I think that was about 1974 and I was also a snotty nosed kid..and I got yelled at. But I did get some nice 56 Topps cards from him eventually.

Also bought complete 73 topps series 4 and 5 from Larry Fristch that year since I couldn't find them in my area stores. I spoke to him over the phone and he encouraged me to complete sets and then work backwards as I got older and had more money...but most of all enjoy and have fun.

My first big purchase was in 75..bought a complete 72 set from Stan Martucci in Staten Island off of his ad in a sports magazine.

I also bought a bunch of singles from the early 70's sets from Bruce Yeko after I read about him having over a million cards in the BB card flippin book.

I wish I was collecting pre war back then...now that would have been sweet!

Ricky Y

[Griffins]

My first dealings were with Goody too. You'd make a reservation, arrive at your appointed time, and he'd totally disregard it. Once in he proved to be an incredibly miserable guy. I recall getting '39 Playball Dimaggios for $5 and Greenberg for a buck, both having sample backs.
His wife, Esther, was really nice to kids and apologetic over the way Goody would treat us, but it made no difference to him.
There were so many good guys at the monthly Garden Grove shows back then- Jim Nowell, Gavin Riley, Merv Williams, Clay Hill, Steve Brunner, to name a few-once we clued into them my friends and I never had to deal with Goody's abuse again.
I dealt a lot with Richard Gelman's Wholesale Card Co too- T206's were .50 each I believe, and I remember getting a Uzit back in one order. My two buddies and I really got into T205's and T206's (about '73, when we were 12) and ended up running ads offer something like 50 '72 Topps for a T206, or 75 of them for a T205. We thought we'd get a few cards but within weeks got totally slammed with T's and had to go around the neighborhood buying more cards to fulfill the trades. I think I ended up with almost 300 T205's and T206's from a couple of ads, and a lot of the cards came from long time hobbyists that just hadn't kept up with the current sets.