Tell your stories Of dealings with legends of the hobby

[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:

[Orioles1954]

Can I share one on behalf of my neighbor who is not even a collector?

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Orioles1954

Can I share one on behalf of my neighbor who is not even a collector?

the more the merrier......

In the early winter of 1975, about six months after we began "serious" collectors of rare top condition baseball cards and memorabilia business interests took us to Beverly Hills for a five days of meetings.

A number of prominent East Coast collectors- most notably the late George Lyons and Lew Lipset, suggested that we visit with the best of the west.

We visited with Goody Goldfaden at a coffee shop not far from his store-where we were able to purchase a great looking N 162 set for $250. He offered us five more sets, but we did not have the foresight to recognize how valuable these cards would become. Over the years we spoke with and visited Goody many times. He actually knew my late Uncle who was then CEO of Universal Pictures.

Off to Orange County. Mike Berkus arranged a car service for us,took us to lunch and we spent the
whole day with Mike, Gavin Riley, Jim Nowell (the most impressive regional collection we had ever seen) and
the legendary Bill Heitman. Bill discussed his law practice and the fact that his dad was a collector.

We felt like a little kid who had an all expenses paid trip to Disney Land. In fact, we can not remember a better day with
anyone or at other time in the 59 years that we have lived on the planet.

Whilst some believe it is only baseball cards (i.e. Boxing Card Man), to us that was the day we fell totally
in love with the hobby. That love grows stronger every year.

Bruce Dorskind
America's Toughest Want List
bdorskind@dorskindgroup.com

America's premiere buyer of rare, high grade baseball memorabilia and ultra high grade type cards. All correspondence will be considered confidential

[Griffins]

Bruce, do you (or anyone else) have any idea where Gavin and Jim are now? Are they still collecting?

[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.

[tedzan]

George Moll is indeed a hobby Pioneer, who is not that well known to many. George was the dynamic force behind all the Bowman, Play Ball and Gum, Inc.
sportscards and non-sportscards from 1938-1943; and, 1948-1955. The George Moll Advertising Agency (of Philadelphia) produced all the Bowman Gum
trading cards....starting in 1938 with their famous HORRORS OF WAR set. In the 1930's, George Moll advised Warren Bowman to include trading cards with
his popular Blony bubble gum product.....and, the rest is history.

In 1981, while doing research for a Bowman article in the Spring edition of Bob Lemke's Baseball Cards Magazine, I visited with George Moll at his home in
Pennsylvania. I found him to be an enthusiastic 86 year old, who enjoyed talking BB cards. He showed me all his BB, FB and Non-sports cards. Including
tons of complete uncut sheets of BB, FB, and Non-Sports cards that were designed by the Moll Agency during 1938-1955 (and printed by Zabel Brothers).

As a teenager, George collected T-cards, but they were discarded. When he was about 40, he started collecting 1933 Goudey's. He told me these were
his favorite BB cards. Then he showed me the most fantastic 1933 Goudey set that I've seen. The cards were in an album within high quality Mylar plastic.
It comprised of 240 cards, not including Lajoie. Instead, the #106 card was Leo Durocher (who is normally #147 in this set). I've always wondered if the
Moll Agency printed this scarce "variation" card. It is a perfect replica of the original Goudey Durocher card.

George was an avid reader of all the hobby publications in the 1970's and the 1980's. His parting statement to me was...."Thank you for writing an article
about the Bowman cards, because all I read about is Topps cards. Please send me a copy when it is available."

With that, he told me to select an uncut sheet from his vast collection. I chose this 1952 Bowman FB (Large issue) sheet........







The following are examples of some of the fantastic trading cards produced by the Moll Agency (circa 1938 - 1955) for the Bowman Gum Company.
















There is much more I can relate to you of my afternoon visit with George Moll. But, I'll leave it at this.


TED Z

[Tomman1961]

I had the pleasure of writing a few times back and forth with Frank Nagy starting when I was about 22 years old in 1983. I was bidding in many of his auctions and picked up a lot of T-206 Hall of Famers. He offered me advice on pre-WW2 cards. Through him, I completed my Playball sets. Not bad for a 20's year old kid. By 1987 we both discussed the over produced junk that was out there. Nice man. Nice advice. I still have a letter or 2 from him. His hand writing was pretty tough to read though.