Tell your stories Of dealings with legends of the hobby

[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.

[thekingofclout]

September 27, 1971
Adco, The Ultimate Sports Nostalgia Trip, Can Be All Yours For A Mere $100,000

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...5327/index.htm

[tedzan]

Does anyone have any stories regarding Topps executive Sy Berger ?

I understand he was quite a character.


TED Z

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by tedzan

Does anyone have any stories regarding Topps executive Sy Berger ?

I understand he was quite a character.


TED Z

Ted:

There area couple of stories about Berger in "Mint Condition" the book by David Jamieson and a couple of nuggets here and there in the old hobby mags but I think the best stories may never be told. The Shorin family from what I have seen did not like their employees to tell tales except in controlled environments and it does not seem like Sy wants to tell too many stories these days beyond the usual three or four you see repeated everywhere.

I too would love to hear more stories about Sy and Woody Gelman, Len Brown and the other "bigwigs" at Topps back in the day. There must be hundreds of great untold stories from/about these guys. One such example would be the Rookie Banquet dinners in the 60's, which I believe were hosted by Berger and were quite raucous; I'll bet some whoppers happened at those over the years.

[T206Collector]

One of the smartest things I ever did in card collecting was to call Lionel Carter on the phone out of the clear blue and ask him about his T206 Eddie Plank, which I had just bought in a Mastro Auction. I even recorded the conversation on my computer and uploaded it to my website for everyone to hear. And I had the pleasure of exchanging several letters with the man before he passed away.

I did the same thing with Jeff Morey, who as far as I'm concerned is the king of all that is signed pre-war cards. Being able to talk with both of these legends of the hobby about their collections, of which I own an extremely small part, has been one of the biggest thrills of my collecting life.

Carter's Plank:



Morey's Doyle:

[Gary Dunaier]

Originally Posted by tedzan

Does anyone have any stories regarding Topps executive Sy Berger ?

Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but Fred Harris and Brendan Boyd's Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book, originally published in 1973, has an interview with Sy Berger. About the only "gossipy" thing in the interview is that at the time Mr. Berger was on a water diet.

[Wite3]

As a "younger" collector, I had several fantastic stories. I got back into collecting in 1987 at the ripe old age of 16. I got back into it because I bought my first PC and it had a modem that connected me to Prodigy service where there was a baseball card bulletin board. Flash forward and I was tasked (challenged really) to compile a list of all Phillies cards from 1949 to 1989...regionals, food, oddball, etc. I started to put it together and decided to go all the way back to the 1880s. Two years later I posted the first list and was immediately emailed that I should talk to Lew Lipset about the Felin's Franks that I had listed (at the time only had a mention of them and a question mark). So, I called him. He took the time to speak with me for nearly an hour about certain sets he had seen and handled (Felins, Father and Son Shoes, Demaree, etc.). Eventually, I ended up buying several cards from him and signing up for his newsletter and auctions.

It is now about 1991 and I was at a regular show in Southern California at the Beverly Garland Hotel in Studio City. I am buying older Phillies from a dealer I know who then tells me that if I am really interested in the older cards I should call Gar Miller. Okay...I call Gar. Talk to him for a bit and he eventually says send me your list and a check for what you can afford and I will fill what I have. I did that for about 6 months until my list was gone. He was great. I have talked (emailed) him a couple of times in the past 10 years.

A few years later I was talking to a friend who said that some of the oddball Topps things I had listed were incorrect team or did not exist. He said I should talk to another friend of his. Turned out I spent about 20 minutes on the phone with Sy Barger of Topps. He did confirm some stuff for me. I did not realize who it really was until about a year later when I saw an article on him in a magazine.

Terry Knouse and Mark Macrae I consider hobby greats as well and both started my Old Judge collection at the same National in the early '90s. Years can go by and Terry still remembers that I collect Phillies and interesting stuff. He once let me examine the T206 ledger and the collection of T3 proofs.

Kit Young handed me a stack of playing cards at a National in Anaheim and said I could buy any one of the commons for $150 each...stupid me was out of money and declined. Of course the set was the Allegenys. Still have the note where I wrote down all the Phillies from the set!!

Jim Montgomery, a great Florida collector, used to send me trades all the time as well. He was a hobby great and very generous who sold most of his collection and retired from the scene.

I know I ran into a few other greats. I seem to recall a very quick introduction to Barry Halper when I was in Cooperstown one year.

I feel that I have been very fortunate over the years to meet some great collectors and see some really impressive collections and personalities.

Joshua

PS We ought to do a post on the best hobby experiences we have had...not really best buys but just wonderful moments in our collecting careers.