What Was The Hobby Like Back In The Day?

[Seven]

Every so often, I'll see a post here or there on a thread talking about the Card Collecting Hobby years back. I know on the forum there are a number of collectors who have been around for a long time, so if you wouldn't mind me asking, What was it like back in the day? How were shows? The general community?

I'm in my mid 20's and I'll freely admit I feel a little overwhelmed nowadays, at least when it comes to the newer stuff, so I try to stick to vintage. Even with vintage though, some cards just seem like a pipe dream, at the moment, with the amount of money they can end up costing. Was it always like that? Or were there better deals to be made, 20, 30, 40 years ago?

I'll cease my rambling there. Regardless I love this community and would love to hear from the more experienced collectors what the hobby used to be like.

- James.

[TCMA]

I think you’ll enjoy the blog post I made for the SABR Baseball Cards Research Committee earlier this year. Check it out:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/sabrbas...ago-today/amp/


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Seven]

Originally Posted by TCMA

I think you’ll enjoy the blog post I made for the SABR Baseball Cards Research Committee earlier this year. Check it out:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/sabrbas...ago-today/amp/


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Will Gladly check it out. I'm open to reading some books on the Hobby as well if you have any suggestions.

Side Note: SABR's baseball cards twitter account is one of my favorites to follow.

[bmattioli]

I'm a '70's kid who bought my cards with my paper route tip money, the rest was saved.
7 Topps packs for a dollar and I loved the Hostess cards which were cut and saved, Food issues are my passion..

[lumberjack]

In Detroit in the mid 1970s we had a collectors club, which I believe was called the South East Michigan Collectors Association. If there had been a letterhead, it would have to have been printed on the horizontal. Tim Zwick, whom I believe is out there, could fill us in on the club's short history. Dues were something like $5 a year.

We just couldn't generate interest, which is a puzzle as the Detroit conventions always were popular.

Chicago had a number of advanced collectors as well, but their club did much better attracting members. I believe they would host a show and have their meeting at the same time.

This doesn't have much to do with the above, but Mr. Mint, who was like a hurricane, walked around with a small suitcase filled with cash. I think everyone knows that. He kept after Frank Nagy, hoping Nagy would let him run amok....Frank Nagy, who had seen it all, would just say, "Bring more suitcases...."
lumberjack

[whitehse]

Originally Posted by Seven

Every so often, I'll see a post here or there on a thread talking about the Card Collecting Hobby years back. I know on the forum there are a number of collectors who have been around for a long time, so if you wouldn't mind me asking, What was it like back in the day? How were shows? The general community?

I'm in my mid 20's and I'll freely admit I feel a little overwhelmed nowadays, at least when it comes to the newer stuff, so I try to stick to vintage. Even with vintage though, some cards just seem like a pipe dream, at the moment, with the amount of money they can end up costing. Was it always like that? Or were there better deals to be made, 20, 30, 40 years ago?

I'll cease my rambling there. Regardless I love this community and would love to hear from the more experienced collectors what the hobby used to be like.

- James.

Hi James,

I was collecting as a nine year old in 1973 and have not looked back since. By 1979 there were a few card shows around the Chicagoland area where I grew up and they were promoted by the Chicagoland Collectors group headed up by Bruce Paynter who was the promoter of the first National card show in Chicago (National card shows moved around back in the day and local promoters were responsible to put on the show with the over site of the National board). Most collectors in the area back then look at the Hillside, Illinois Holiday Inn as the place where the card shows happened once a month and that was usually it. No small shows held in schools or churches or anything like that, at least in the area in which I lived. In 1979 My dad, myself and another collector friend held a card show in our garage and we advertised that we were buying sports cards. We had a line down the street with people bringing us shopping bags of cards to sell and they could not believe it when we were handing them hundred dollar bulls for their cards. Remember, there were no price guides except for Beckett's annual guide so vintage cards were not pricey back then. At that garage show I walked away with a full set of 1955,57, 62 and 64 Topps baseball sets and hundreds of doubles to trade or sell. We continued to have shows and I remember paying $50 each for a Goudey Gehrig and Ruth that walked in the door which had a Beckett book value at the time of $200 and my dad thought I was nuts for spending that kind of money. I loved shows then because one never knew what was going to walk in the door. Cards shows started to become more popular in about 1981 and literally blew up in the mid-80's. It was a great time to be a collector because it was more about the card and not the grade and most people in the hobby were genuine collectors and not flippers.

There were no price guides until Dr. Beckett published his annual price guide I believe in 1980 or so which meant prices remained relatively the same for the year until the next annual price guide came out. There was no need to adjust prices as the demand was fairly static until the error craze came about in 1981 with the Fleer and Donruss errors, most notably the "C" Nettles card. This card and most of the Fleer errors were bringing crazy prices and this was the time we saw monthly or weekly price guides being produced such as the Card Prices Update (CPU). Once the weekly price guides came out we saw huge fluctuations in new cards and slowly, the vintage cards as well. I remember being at one of those early Chicago shows and was offered a near mint '53 Mantle for $50 bucks and I had spent everything I came with. I didnt have the funds and lost out. I also remember another show where a kid had a rare Babe Ruth rookie that he was asking $200 bucks for and everyone turned him down because they thought his asking price was too crazy.

The hobby was filled with Bill Mastro type people who had been in it since they were kids. I remember being young and seeing another young guy named Keith Olberman at many of the shows, buying and selling cards. It was a great hobby to be a part of during that time frame which allowed me to have an incredible collection and meet some awesome people both int he hobby and sports in general. There were certainly deals to be had but you had to know how to haggle and trading was much more preferred than selling.

I am sure others have clearer memories of those days back then than I do.

Good times for sure.

[whitehse]

Originally Posted by lumberjack

In Detroit in the mid 1970s we had a collectors club, which I believe was called the South East Michigan Collectors Association. If there had been a letterhead, it would have to have been printed on the horizontal. Tim Zwick, whom I believe is out there, could fill us in on the club's short history. Dues were something like $5 a year.

We just couldn't generate interest, which is a puzzle as the Detroit conventions always were popular.

Chicago had a number of advanced collectors as well, but their club did much better attracting members. I believe they would host a show and have their meeting at the same time.

This doesn't have much to do with the above, but Mr. Mint, who was like a hurricane, walked around with a small suitcase filled with cash. I think everyone knows that. He kept after Frank Nagy, hoping Nagy would let him run amok....Frank Nagy, who had seen it all, would just say, "Bring more suitcases...."
lumberjack

Great stories....We had always heard about the Detroit shows especially with Jim Hawkins but I never went. Chicago always seemed to be a great place to get cards so there was no reason to go to Detroit.

Mr. Mint....ugh. That guy was a weasel from the very beginning in my opinion. Too many stories about him and they are all very true...and then some.

[GasHouseGang]

I grew up in a small town in the midwest and I was the same as Bruce. I used my lawn mowing money in the 1970's ($3 a lawn) to buy cards and saved the rest. That wouldn't even buy a pack now. Everyone that collected bought that year's Topps packs putting together sets one card at a time and traded with each other to try get cards you didn't have. I didn't know there were any dealers or other ways to get cards. If it wasn't available at the local grocery store, it didn't exist. That was life before the internet.

[Seven]

Originally Posted by whitehse

Hi James,

I was collecting as a nine year old in 1973 and have not looked back since. By 1979 there were a few card shows around the Chicagoland area where I grew up and they were promoted by the Chicagoland Collectors group headed up by Bruce Paynter who was the promoter of the first National card show in Chicago (National card shows moved around back in the day and local promoters were responsible to put on the show with the over site of the National board). Most collectors in the area back then look at the Hillside, Illinois Holiday Inn as the place where the card shows happened once a month and that was usually it. No small shows held in schools or churches or anything like that, at least in the area in which I lived. In 1979 My dad, myself and another collector friend held a card show in our garage and we advertised that we were buying sports cards. We had a line down the street with people bringing us shopping bags of cards to sell and they could not believe it when we were handing them hundred dollar bulls for their cards. Remember, there were no price guides except for Beckett's annual guide so vintage cards were not pricey back then. At that garage show I walked away with a full set of 1955,57, 62 and 64 Topps baseball sets and hundreds of doubles to trade or sell. We continued to have shows and I remember paying $50 each for a Goudey Gehrig and Ruth that walked in the door which had a Beckett book value at the time of $200 and my dad thought I was nuts for spending that kind of money. I loved shows then because one never knew what was going to walk in the door. Cards shows started to become more popular in about 1981 and literally blew up in the mid-80's. It was a great time to be a collector because it was more about the card and not the grade and most people in the hobby were genuine collectors and not flippers.

There were no price guides until Dr. Beckett published his annual price guide I believe in 1980 or so which meant prices remained relatively the same for the year until the next annual price guide came out. There was no need to adjust prices as the demand was fairly static until the error craze came about in 1981 with the Fleer and Donruss errors, most notably the "C" Nettles card. This card and most of the Fleer errors were bringing crazy prices and this was the time we saw monthly or weekly price guides being produced such as the Card Prices Update (CPU). Once the weekly price guides came out we saw huge fluctuations in new cards and slowly, the vintage cards as well. I remember being at one of those early Chicago shows and was offered a near mint '53 Mantle for $50 bucks and I had spent everything I came with. I didnt have the funds and lost out. I also remember another show where a kid had a rare Babe Ruth rookie that he was asking $200 bucks for and everyone turned him down because they thought his asking price was too crazy.

The hobby was filled with Bill Mastro type people who had been in it since they were kids. I remember being young and seeing another young guy named Keith Olberman at many of the shows, buying and selling cards. It was a great hobby to be a part of during that time frame which allowed me to have an incredible collection and meet some awesome people both int he hobby and sports in general. There were certainly deals to be had but you had to know how to haggle and trading was much more preferred than selling.

Good times for sure.

Andrew,

It's always interesting hearing stories like this. I know everyone seems to romanticize the past, we look at it through rose colored glasses but that sounds like a truly wonderful time to collect. Card prices on the whole haven't even kept in line with inflation, they've blown past it! Even $200 for a Ruth or a Gehrig would have been an absolute steal if we look at the prices now.

I look at the state of the Hobby and I'm puzzled to say the least. I understand the concept of premium new products, a manufactured supply and demand, but I see people paying thousands of dollars for cards of players that haven't even sniffed the Big Leagues yet!

The Vintage side is a little more understandable, I can come to grips with the fact that as years pass, less and less cards from way back, whether they be the old tobacco, caramel or bubblegum cards are going to be around. Still the surge in pricing is incredible. Again just me rambling at this point. Maybe it was the pre-internet days, that kept prices down

Thanks for the insight!

- James

[Seven]

Originally Posted by lumberjack

In Detroit in the mid 1970s we had a collectors club, which I believe was called the South East Michigan Collectors Association. If there had been a letterhead, it would have to have been printed on the horizontal. Tim Zwick, whom I believe is out there, could fill us in on the club's short history. Dues were something like $5 a year.

We just couldn't generate interest, which is a puzzle as the Detroit conventions always were popular.

Chicago had a number of advanced collectors as well, but their club did much better attracting members. I believe they would host a show and have their meeting at the same time.

This doesn't have much to do with the above, but Mr. Mint, who was like a hurricane, walked around with a small suitcase filled with cash. I think everyone knows that. He kept after Frank Nagy, hoping Nagy would let him run amok....Frank Nagy, who had seen it all, would just say, "Bring more suitcases...."
lumberjack

I've read many stories of Mr. Mint, but that one is pretty funny. I would love to hear more of the history behind that Association.

[NiceDocter]

Ah the good old days. I was an active collector as a kid between 1966 and 1972..... saved those cards (THANKS MOM !!! rip) and got back into it again in a big way in 1980. I bought collections as a kid from other kids.... a shopping bag full for 5 or 10 bucks! Dealers and collectors were very much overlapping in those days as a lot of the shows had regular guys buy tables and set up. Fees were low (maybe 20-25) a table.... condition was not so important as the card itself. There was a lot of trust in those days.... lots of times I would buy a pile at a guys table and then say "Hold this for me please" after paying and just pick the pile up on my way out the door later on. Once I saw a guy in The Trader Speaks ( one of the greatest old time sports collecting digests) advertise Ty Cobb checks for $20..... I sent the guy a check for $20 plus postage, he sent me 6 checks (!!!!!) and said pick the one you want and send the rest back! And I did! It was a better time in a lot of ways although to tell you the truth I still get some of that same spirit in dealing with many of the guys here on this board and at the fewer and smaller shows I go to. Lets all remember its more about the stories and the relationships than the stuff..... although we all sure like that stuff!!! Rocky

[riggs336]

Mail auctions! I loved them. You would write your high bid on a postcard, mail it in and wait a few weeks to see if you won.

[Tere1071]

Originally Posted by Seven

I've read many stories of Mr. Mint, but that one is pretty funny. I would love to hear more of the history behind that Association.

Beginning in the early 70s there was a collectors club organized in Orange County, California. One of its inceptors was a gentleman named John Parks who taught at a middle school in Garden Grove. I attended my first show there in 1973, no charge for a table. That day I remember getting a 63 Fleer Cepeda, 51 Bowman Garver and a 52 Topps Willard Marshall. It was during that time I responded to a Fritsch ad and purchased a vending box of 1973 fourth series Topps baseball for the princely sum of 5.00.

I didn't get to return to the Garden Grove location until late 1975. It was a club where you got a membership card and there was a monthly meeting held on the first Thursday. After a few changes in location, it finally settled in Fountain Valley at Mile Square Park where it became a fixture for more than a decade.

Most people who sold at these meetings were primarily collectors. The corner retail store was still the main source for us to buy packs of cards, Paul's Liquor of South Gate, CA was the major contributor to my early collecting (1969-75). We would bring our cards to school to show, much like kids later brought their Pokemon cards to play with. Collecting seemed to be a fairly normal thing to do IF you purchased from a store. I purchased some older cards responding to ads and my peers thought I was crazy spending money that way, I wonder if they would still think the same today.

Sports collectors stores weren't common until the late 70s-early 80s. In 1981 with the inception of Donruss and Fleer it became much easier to purchase cases and many of you who collected as youngsters at that time already know how things turned out. By the mid-90s many of the stores were out of business. Local shows also began to disappear as collectors left the hobby angry that the cards they purchased suddenly weren't worth much.

Collecting in the 1970s seemed magical. It wasn't about investment for most, just having cards took you into another realm. It's easy to wax nostalgic and in 40+ years from now, those actively breaking cases and following collecting investment advice may look back and consider this era special. What stood out for me and perhaps for others was the fun and innocence.

[rats60]

I was buying cards from Woody Gelman, Card Collectors Co, Bruce Yeko, Wholesale Card Co and Larry Fritsch to complete my Topps sets. I was paying 1.00 or less for cards. Some prices from that era, Roberto Clemente RC 1.00, Tom Seaver RC .10, 1963 7th series including Rose RC and Stargell RC 5.99 or .11 per card. Most commons were .05 to .10. Stars were .25 to 1.00.

[Tere1071]

Originally Posted by whitehse

Great stories....We had always heard about the Detroit shows especially with Jim Hawkins but I never went. Chicago always seemed to be a great place to get cards so there was no reason to go to Detroit.

Mr. Mint....ugh. That guy was a weasel from the very beginning in my opinion. Too many stories about him and they are all very true...and then some.

Around 1987 I purchased some Yankees World Series programs from 1921, 22, 23, 26, 27 and 28 for the store I worked at. They varied in condition, but most were intact. We took them to one of the local conventions where Al Rosen was selling. He saw the programs and the prices we were asking and became furious. I remember him telling someone rather loudly that "we wanted a million bucks for our stuff." Hundreds were more like it and we had no trouble selling them through Sports Collectors Digest. It was rather enjoyable seeing him get worked up because we wouldn't drop our prices.

Remember, Al Rosen and other "superstar" dealers are/were large fish in a very small pond. Collecting will always exist without their presence.

[rats60]

Originally Posted by NiceDocter

Ah the good old days. I was an active collector as a kid between 1966 and 1972..... saved those cards (THANKS MOM !!! rip) and got back into it again in a big way in 1980. I bought collections as a kid from other kids.... a shopping bag full for 5 or 10 bucks! Dealers and collectors were very much overlapping in those days as a lot of the shows had regular guys buy tables and set up. Fees were low (maybe 20-25) a table.... condition was not so important as the card itself. There was a lot of trust in those days.... lots of times I would buy a pile at a guys table and then say "Hold this for me please" after paying and just pick the pile up on my way out the door later on. Once I saw a guy in The Trader Speaks ( one of the greatest old time sports collecting digests) advertise Ty Cobb checks for $20..... I sent the guy a check for $20 plus postage, he sent me 6 checks (!!!!!) and said pick the one you want and send the rest back! And I did! It was a better time in a lot of ways although to tell you the truth I still get some of that same spirit in dealing with many of the guys here on this board and at the fewer and smaller shows I go to. Lets all remember its more about the stories and the relationships than the stuff..... although we all sure like that stuff!!! Rocky

My brother and I did too. One collection we bought for 25.00 was basically a 1958 set, 2 1959 sets, 2 1960 sets plus extras. The boy’s mother insisted that we get our money back because her son was notorious for taking advantage of other kids. We told her we were happy with the deal and kept the cards. In retrospect it was a very smart move.

[Exhibitman]

I got my first cards in 1970 when I was 5, then a lot more in 1971. I don’t really date my ‘serious’ collecting until about 1974-1975. With a brief detour in HS I have been at it ever since. So, some reflections on the OP question:

In the middle to late 1970s there was virtually no hobby, at least not as we think of it today. The publications were amateur labors of love that mostly consisted of a few articles and mail order ads. You literally had to know of the publications to even know to get them, because they were not retailed. My first ‘break’ in terms of card knowledge was seeing The Complete Book Of Baseball Cards by Steve Clark in a bookstore in 1975 and pestering my parents to buy it for me. I read it over and over, gleaning what I could from it and drooling over the images of T and R cards I dreamed of owning. I also found listings for hobby publications and organizations in there.

There were no price guides, so you pretty much winged it. A card might be worth a lot more from day to day depending on who it was who you dealt with. Also, no one gave a damn about condition. It was all about completion and amassing more, not what condition it was in.

You got cards from wherever you could. I lived in NYC the first few years I collected and my friends and I had free run of the streets after school and on weekends (at like 9-10-11 years old; very different times) so we ended up going to antique stores, old book stores, junk stores, mom and pop candy stores, drug stores, basically anywhere we thought we might find cards. When you found a “honey hole” (as the American Pickers guys would call it), you would try to keep it secret from your friends and clear it out as fast as your allowance would let you. Corner candy stores were also good places to go because they would put out old remnant wax packs for sale. I remember one store near my house that had a barrel of mixed wax dating back several years that I dove into frequently, and another one where I cleaned out a half box of 1971 Topps 2nd series football in February 1977.

People generally had no idea that cards were collected or had value--this was before the news stories on Mr. Mint and so forth--so when you told someone you were a collector, they’d often just hand you their grown kids’ old cards. I had neighbors whose father was a professor at a local college and he’d ask around campus for cards for them, so they had the greatest collection. My greatest ‘find’ ever was when I was 12 and newly arrived in Los Angeles. My parents took me to someone’s house. The hostess asked me what I liked to do, I said collect cards, and she handed me a 2’ square box filled to the brim with her kids’ old cards. Thousands and thousands of them. I had the greatest sorting party on the floor of my bedroom that evening, culminating in finding a 1955 Ted Williams.

Card shows were practically non-existent, though there were card clubs that were starting up and they started to have annual or bi-annual shows usually clustered around a holiday. My first show was the American Sports Card Collectors Association show the Saturday morning of Thanksgiving weekend 1976 at the Roosevelt Hotel in NYC, thanks to discovering the ASCCA from either the Clark book or some publication I found through the Clark book. I finished my Topps run of Willie Mays cards there, with a loan against my allowance of $45 to enable me to buy the 1952-1953 cards. My mother nearly killed my father when she found out he’d allowed me to spend that much on two baseball cards; several years later I sold the 1953 Mays for $350. In Los Angeles I went to the shows in Anaheim that became the National. I bought my first T206--a Johnson ready to pitch--from Mike Berkus at one of those shows. Set me back $12. As a kid with limited funds my thing was the discount boxes. I still have a 1953 Musial I pulled out of one of them for a buck. I filled in most of a run of Mantle cards from those boxes. Not a 1952...

When we moved to LA in 1977, I ended up finding a card club, the West Coast Card Club, in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. This was when I was 12-15. We had monthly meetings at a church basement in Northridge. For ten bucks you could rent a 6’ table and sell. If I made $50 in a night I was thrilled. No one gave a crap about sales tax, business licenses, etc. It was just a silly thing we did. My parents would just shake their heads and let me loose for an evening at the church. Every meeting there was an auction. I remember paying $3.25 for a 1952 Bowman Mantle at one auction, about a buck a card for a group of signed 1953 Bowman cards in another.

There were a few hobby shops but they were odd places run by even odder people. The first one in LA was run by Goody Goldfadden. He was a pioneer and legend of the hobby but also a legendary jerk, especially to kids. I went to his store once and it was enough.

The collecting made you into a little businessman. When you found a good source of cards you’d use the extras to trade your friends for more cards. The usual ratio was one ‘old’ card for anywhere from 10-30 new cards. That was how you could quickly fill out your newer sets. Since there was a dearth of information on old cards, if you knew something you quickly learned to keep it secret and use it to your advantage in a deal. I once spotted a very rare regional card in another kid’s stash and got it as a ‘throw-in’ on a deal because he had no idea what it was. We were ruthless little sharks. On the other side of the coin, since there was so little easily gotten data, you would often think something was amazing when it really was pretty common. A trading buddy had a Callahan HOF Carl Hubbell and thought it was the greatest thing ever. It wasn’t.

Collecting also gave you invaluable experience interacting with adults. If you knew your cards you were treated with respect as a colleague, not as a dumbass kid. I remember ‘talking cards’ with a variety of guys as old as my grandfather, as an equal.

[Tere1071]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

I got my first cards in 1970 when I was 5, then a lot more in 1971. I don’t really date my ‘serious’ collecting until about 1974-1975. With a brief detour in HS I have been at it ever since. So, some reflections on the OP question:

In the middle to late 1970s there was virtually no hobby, at least not as we think of it today. The publications were amateur labors of love that mostly consisted of a few articles and mail order ads. You literally had to know of the publications to even know to get them, because they were not retailed. My first ‘break’ in terms of card knowledge was seeing The Complete Book Of Baseball Cards by Steve Clark in a bookstore in 1975 and pestering my parents to buy it for me. I read it over and over, gleaning what I could from it and drooling over the images of T and R cards I dreamed of owning. I also found listings for hobby publications and organizations in there.

There were no price guides, so you pretty much winged it. A card might be worth a lot more from day to day depending on who it was who you dealt with. Also, no one gave a damn about condition. It was all about completion and amassing more, not what condition it was in.

You got cards from wherever you could. I lived in NYC the first few years I collected and my friends and I had free run of the streets after school and on weekends (at like 9-10-11 years old; very different times) so we ended up going to antique stores, old book stores, junk stores, mom and pop candy stores, drug stores, basically anywhere we thought we might find cards. When you found a “honey hole” (as the American Pickers guys would call it), you would try to keep it secret from your friends and clear it out as fast as your allowance would let you. Corner candy stores were also good places to go because they would put out old remnant wax packs for sale. I remember one store near my house that had a barrel of mixed wax dating back several years that I dove into frequently, and another one where I cleaned out a half box of 1971 Topps 2nd series football in February 1977.

People generally had no idea that cards were collected or had value--this was before the news stories on Mr. Mint and so forth--so when you told someone you were a collector, they’d often just hand you their grown kids’ old cards. I had neighbors whose father was a professor at a local college and he’d ask around campus for cards for them, so they had the greatest collection. My greatest ‘find’ ever was when I was 12 and newly arrived in Los Angeles. My parents took me to someone’s house. The hostess asked me what I liked to do, I said collect cards, and she handed me a 2’ square box filled to the brim with her kids’ old cards. Thousands and thousands of them. I had the greatest sorting party on the floor of my bedroom that evening, culminating in finding a 1955 Ted Williams.

Card shows were practically non-existent, though there were card clubs that were starting up and they started to have annual or bi-annual shows usually clustered around a holiday. My first show was the American Sports Card Collectors Association show the Saturday morning of Thanksgiving weekend 1976 at the Roosevelt Hotel in NYC, thanks to discovering the ASCCA from either the Clark book or some publication I found through the Clark book. I finished my Topps run of Willie Mays cards there, with a loan against my allowance of $45 to enable me to buy the 1952-1953 cards. My mother nearly killed my father when she found out he’d allowed me to spend that much on two baseball cards; several years later I sold the 1953 Mays for $350. In Los Angeles I went to the shows in Anaheim that became the National. I bought my first T206--a Johnson ready to pitch--from Mike Berkus at one of those shows. Set me back $12. As a kid with limited funds my thing was the discount boxes. I still have a 1953 Musial I pulled out of one of them for a buck. I filled in most of a run of Mantle cards from those boxes. Not a 1952...

When we moved to LA in 1977, I ended up finding a card club, the West Coast Card Club, in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. This was when I was 12-15. We had monthly meetings at a church basement in Northridge. For ten bucks you could rent a 6’ table and sell. If I made $50 in a night I was thrilled. No one gave a crap about sales tax, business licenses, etc. It was just a silly thing we did. My parents would just shake their heads and let me loose for an evening at the church. Every meeting there was an auction. I remember paying $3.25 for a 1952 Bowman Mantle at one auction, about a buck a card for a group of signed 1953 Bowman cards in another.

There were a few hobby shops but they were odd places run by even odder people. The first one in LA was run by Goody Goldfadden. He was a pioneer and legend of the hobby but also a legendary jerk, especially to kids. I went to his store once and it was enough.

The collecting made you into a little businessman. When you found a good source of cards you’d use the extras to trade your friends for more cards. The usual ratio was one ‘old’ card for anywhere from 10-30 new cards. That was how you could quickly fill out your newer sets. Since there was a dearth of information on old cards, if you knew something you quickly learned to keep it secret and use it to your advantage in a deal. I once spotted a very rare regional card in another kid’s stash and got it as a ‘throw-in’ on a deal because he had no idea what it was. On the other side of the coin, since there was so little easily gotten data, you would often think something was amazing when it really was pretty common. A trading buddy had a Callahan HOF Carl Hubbell and thought it was the greatest thing ever. It wasn’t.

Collecting also gave you invaluable experience interacting with adults. If you knew your cards you were treated with respect as a colleague, not as a dumbass kid. I remember ‘talking cards’ with a variety of guys as old as my grandfather.

I worked with a gentleman and once a month beginning in 1978 we used to drive out to the valley to work at a show that I believe was organized by All-Star Cards, but it was in. We were coming from Norwalk, so as soon as I got home from high school it was off to the meeting. Occasionally we would go to All-Star Cards or to Max Himmelstein's store before the meeting. Most of the shops are gone, I think Porky's from back then is still in the retail business. I knew Goody, definitely an interesting character.

[drcy]

It may (or may not have) been more wholesome back then, but the cards are the same and there is more widespread knowledge about them today.

The collecting and enjoying of the cards should be no different than 40, 50, 70 years ago.

Things are more complicated and commoditized these days in ways I guess, but fakes, scammers, trimmers, auctions, deals have been around a long time.

Trading was a common and widespread practice and culture back then, including through the mail and including at the start of the internet age. That is one big differernce.

[Seven]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

I got my first cards in 1970 when I was 5, then a lot more in 1971. I don’t really date my ‘serious’ collecting until about 1974-1975. With a brief detour in HS I have been at it ever since. So, some reflections on the OP question:

In the middle to late 1970s there was virtually no hobby, at least not as we think of it today. The publications were amateur labors of love that mostly consisted of a few articles and mail order ads. You literally had to know of the publications to even know to get them, because they were not retailed. My first ‘break’ in terms of card knowledge was seeing The Complete Book Of Baseball Cards by Steve Clark in a bookstore in 1975 and pestering my parents to buy it for me. I read it over and over, gleaning what I could from it and drooling over the images of T and R cards I dreamed of owning. I also found listings for hobby publications and organizations in there.

There were no price guides, so you pretty much winged it. A card might be worth a lot more from day to day depending on who it was who you dealt with. Also, no one gave a damn about condition. It was all about completion and amassing more, not what condition it was in.

You got cards from wherever you could. I lived in NYC the first few years I collected and my friends and I had free run of the streets after school and on weekends (at like 9-10-11 years old; very different times) so we ended up going to antique stores, old book stores, junk stores, mom and pop candy stores, drug stores, basically anywhere we thought we might find cards. When you found a “honey hole” (as the American Pickers guys would call it), you would try to keep it secret from your friends and clear it out as fast as your allowance would let you. Corner candy stores were also good places to go because they would put out old remnant wax packs for sale. I remember one store near my house that had a barrel of mixed wax dating back several years that I dove into frequently, and another one where I cleaned out a half box of 1971 Topps 2nd series football in February 1977.

People generally had no idea that cards were collected or had value--this was before the news stories on Mr. Mint and so forth--so when you told someone you were a collector, they’d often just hand you their grown kids’ old cards. I had neighbors whose father was a professor at a local college and he’d ask around campus for cards for them, so they had the greatest collection. My greatest ‘find’ ever was when I was 12 and newly arrived in Los Angeles. My parents took me to someone’s house. The hostess asked me what I liked to do, I said collect cards, and she handed me a 2’ square box filled to the brim with her kids’ old cards. Thousands and thousands of them. I had the greatest sorting party on the floor of my bedroom that evening, culminating in finding a 1955 Ted Williams.

Card shows were practically non-existent, though there were card clubs that were starting up and they started to have annual or bi-annual shows usually clustered around a holiday. My first show was the American Sports Card Collectors Association show the Saturday morning of Thanksgiving weekend 1976 at the Roosevelt Hotel in NYC, thanks to discovering the ASCCA from either the Clark book or some publication I found through the Clark book. I finished my Topps run of Willie Mays cards there, with a loan against my allowance of $45 to enable me to buy the 1952-1953 cards. My mother nearly killed my father when she found out he’d allowed me to spend that much on two baseball cards; several years later I sold the 1953 Mays for $350. In Los Angeles I went to the shows in Anaheim that became the National. I bought my first T206--a Johnson ready to pitch--from Mike Berkus at one of those shows. Set me back $12. As a kid with limited funds my thing was the discount boxes. I still have a 1953 Musial I pulled out of one of them for a buck. I filled in most of a run of Mantle cards from those boxes. Not a 1952...

When we moved to LA in 1977, I ended up finding a card club, the West Coast Card Club, in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. This was when I was 12-15. We had monthly meetings at a church basement in Northridge. For ten bucks you could rent a 6’ table and sell. If I made $50 in a night I was thrilled. No one gave a crap about sales tax, business licenses, etc. It was just a silly thing we did. My parents would just shake their heads and let me loose for an evening at the church. Every meeting there was an auction. I remember paying $3.25 for a 1952 Bowman Mantle at one auction, about a buck a card for a group of signed 1953 Bowman cards in another.

There were a few hobby shops but they were odd places run by even odder people. The first one in LA was run by Goody Goldfadden. He was a pioneer and legend of the hobby but also a legendary jerk, especially to kids. I went to his store once and it was enough.

The collecting made you into a little businessman. When you found a good source of cards you’d use the extras to trade your friends for more cards. The usual ratio was one ‘old’ card for anywhere from 10-30 new cards. That was how you could quickly fill out your newer sets. Since there was a dearth of information on old cards, if you knew something you quickly learned to keep it secret and use it to your advantage in a deal. I once spotted a very rare regional card in another kid’s stash and got it as a ‘throw-in’ on a deal because he had no idea what it was. We were ruthless little sharks. On the other side of the coin, since there was so little easily gotten data, you would often think something was amazing when it really was pretty common. A trading buddy had a Callahan HOF Carl Hubbell and thought it was the greatest thing ever. It wasn’t.

Collecting also gave you invaluable experience interacting with adults. If you knew your cards you were treated with respect as a colleague, not as a dumbass kid. I remember ‘talking cards’ with a variety of guys as old as my grandfather, as an equal.

Adam,

Thank you for such a well detailed rundown. I find one striking similarity between collecting today and collecting many years ago; the treatment from adults in the community. One of my fondest collecting memories from when I was younger, was going to the small card show run in the Cooperstown VA by Ted, and interacting with people 30-40 years my senior, and their willingness ot engage in conversation concerning cards. I was fascinated by Lou Gehirg's #61 in the 34 Goudey set and probably prattled on about it for nearly 10 minutes. That's the one thing I'm very glad to see hasn't changed.

The deals to have been had before the commoditization of the hobby are quite frankly, insane. What I wouldn't kill to spend $325 on a 52 Bowman Mantle let alone win one for $3.25! Or a Walter Johnson for $12? Talk about a steal! Though I'd imagine back when you were a kid that was a good chunk of your funds.

I'm noticing a distinct lack of hobby shops today. I live in the NY area, and there aren't many. The ones that exist, don't have nearly as many vintage offerings as I would hope, I'll have to stick to the boards, Ebay, Auctions and shows. I will say one thing though, concerning ones near the Hall of Fame, I absolutely love Baseball Nostalgia. I wish it was a little bit closer than a four hour drive, but it's probably better off, on my wallet at least, that it isn't.

Originally Posted by NiceDocter

Ah the good old days. I was an active collector as a kid between 1966 and 1972..... saved those cards (THANKS MOM !!! rip) and got back into it again in a big way in 1980. I bought collections as a kid from other kids.... a shopping bag full for 5 or 10 bucks! Dealers and collectors were very much overlapping in those days as a lot of the shows had regular guys buy tables and set up. Fees were low (maybe 20-25) a table.... condition was not so important as the card itself. There was a lot of trust in those days.... lots of times I would buy a pile at a guys table and then say "Hold this for me please" after paying and just pick the pile up on my way out the door later on. Once I saw a guy in The Trader Speaks ( one of the greatest old time sports collecting digests) advertise Ty Cobb checks for $20..... I sent the guy a check for $20 plus postage, he sent me 6 checks (!!!!!) and said pick the one you want and send the rest back! And I did! It was a better time in a lot of ways although to tell you the truth I still get some of that same spirit in dealing with many of the guys here on this board and at the fewer and smaller shows I go to. Lets all remember its more about the stories and the relationships than the stuff..... although we all sure like that stuff!!! Rocky

The stories and the relationships is defintely what it's still all about. I love the honor system that you spoke about in the story with the Ty Cobb checks. I'd imagine you have many similar stories. While I pride myself as a Card Collector first, and Autographs second, I would love to own a Cobb signature one day.

Originally Posted by drcy

It may (or may not have) been more wholesome back then, but the cards are the same and there is more widespread knowledge about them today.

The collecting and enjoying of the cards should be no different than 40, 50, 70 years ago.

Things are more complicated and commoditized these days in ways I guess, but fakes, scammers, trimmers, auctions, deals have been around a long time.

Trading was common and widespread thought before.

David,

I would defintely agree that things are more complicated and commodity based these days. I Know 30, 40, 50 years ago there certainly wasn't scandals from PSA concerning vintage cards being trimmed and younger collectors defintely wouldn't have had as much of an issue buying into the vintage side of the hobby. As I mentioned above, collecting premier cards of your favorite player from the past was certainly easier back then, financially at least. Thank you for the response.

[cardsagain74]

One thing rarely talked about (and not mentioned here either) in the history of the hobby was when football, basketball, and hockey cards became relevant.

I was 14 when I went to my first show in 1988. By then, baseball card prices were starting to flourish (but the other major sports were still practically worthless). I remember seeing Jordan and Montana rookies for about 4 bucks each at that show. They stayed in the displays, cause no one cared yet.

In the next year, that started to change. Then once the '90s began and the junk wax boom was in full force, those cards became permanently just as marketable as baseball cards.

Anyone who put away a ton of quality basketball, football, and hockey material in the late 80s quickly found gold at the end of a rainbow

[Exhibitman]

"I love the honor system that you spoke about in the story with the Ty Cobb checks."

You gotta remember, most everyone thought this stuff was crap, junk, and we were crazy to waste our money on it. They would give it you and be happy you were hauling it away. That was true of a lot of categories of collectibles. I once got paid for clearing out an archive of entertainment memorabilia. The stuff I salvaged from the trash was worth thousands over the years when I used to sell it at entertainment shows and auctions.

"I worked with a gentleman and once a month beginning in 1978 we used to drive out to the valley to work at a show that I believe was organized by All-Star Cards"

Yep, that's the one. All Star's owner started the club and show. It ran for a few years, then he sold the store and the monthly meetings became larger shows a few times a year.

"One thing rarely talked about (and not mentioned here either) in the history of the hobby was when football, basketball, and hockey cards became relevant."

Sooooo true. No one wanted it. I once traded a box of football cards to get a single prewar baseball card. The FB cards were worthless at the time. I probably threw away thousands in vintage FB that way. Every time I think of it I throw up a little in my mouth.

[2dueces]

Went around the neighborhood getting glass pop bottles
for the (I think it was $.02) so I could buy $.5 packs of
1966 Topps baseball and Monster Laffs. Traded with friends
To make whole sets. If I remember no card was valued
More than others. Mantles and Mays were just #’s to complete sets

[2dueces]

Went around the neighborhood getting glass pop bottles
for the (I think it was $.02) so I could buy $.5 packs of
1966 Topps baseball and Monster Laffs. Traded with friends
To make whole sets. If I remember no card was valued
More than others. Mantles and Mays were just #’s to complete sets

[HRBAKER]

Originally Posted by 2dueces

Went around the neighborhood getting glass pop bottles
for the (I think it was $.02) so I could buy $.5 packs of
1966 Topps baseball and Monster Laffs. Traded with friends
To make whole sets. If I remember no card was valued
More than others. Mantles and Mays were just #’s to complete sets

This was exactly how I earned my first card money. Walking down the road picking up pop bottles. I remember it being a literal goldmine to go to the park and pick up all the bottles people had tossed in the trash cans during picnics on Saturday and Sunday.

[packs]

I'm a lot younger than you guys but I remember when eBay came around my family didn't have internet at home but my dad did have it at work. I used to call him every few days and ask him to look for cards for me and ask him to place bids while we were on the phone. I ended up with some really good deals for the time but also wound up with a Josh Clarke T206 instead of a Fred Clarke.

[slipk1068]

I started collecting prewar in 1988 and got this book from my mom for my birthday in August. The book is called "300 All-Time Stars Baseball Cards"

[Seven]

Originally Posted by slipk1068

I started collecting prewar in 1988 and got this book from my mom for my birthday in August. The book is called "300 All-Time Stars Baseball Cards"

Wow. A NM 1914 Cracker Jack Joe Jackson Books for over 80K nowadays. Pretty astonishing to say the least. It's nice that you've still hung onto that book.

[bmattioli]

Originally Posted by packs

I'm a lot younger than you guys but I remember when eBay came around my family didn't have internet at home but my dad did have it at work. I used to call him every few days and ask him to look for cards for me and ask him to place bids while we were on the phone. I ended up with some really good deals for the time but also wound up with a Josh Clarke T206 instead of a Fred Clarke.

Early EBay finds and purchases can be a whole different thread in itself.. Back in the early/mid 90's and EBay infancy many great deals most without pictures mind you could be had. It was wonderful!!

[GasHouseGang]

Originally Posted by 2dueces

Went around the neighborhood getting glass pop bottles
for the (I think it was $.02) so I could buy $.5 packs of
1966 Topps baseball and Monster Laffs. Traded with friends
To make whole sets. If I remember no card was valued
More than others. Mantles and Mays were just #’s to complete sets

I remember looking for those pop bottles like they were gold! Two cents apiece added up fast. I mostly bought Batman or other non-sports cards or a Chocolate Soldier Soda. Baseball cards were up against some stiff competition for those pennies back then. Once in awhile I would get some baseball and hope for some Cardinals.

[TedWill1939]

I started ripping wax around 1980. Found my fathers 1950s cards in grandma's basement a few years later and was hooked. As was stated, people thought vintage was junk. I found cards at yardsales, thrift stores, ect. By 1986 I found mail order companys, and was buying current sets and found opportunities to buy vintage. Being a kid, the prices were out of reach. Around 1987 or 88 cards exploded, everybody was buying and selling cards. In my small area we had 3 card shops that sprung up. People started to travel to shows. The rest is history.
It was a special time, learning about the Golden Era players, viewing the great designs, reliving your parents childhood, for free or short money.

[rjackson44]

Remember going to the corner store buying 71 topps packs and supers.then going to the school yard to flip them .those were the days

[skil55voy]

I grew up in Detroit. I started collecting in 1962. I went into the Army in 1978 and was stationed in Maryland. I met Denny Eckes. He had a shop in Laurel, Maryland. He helped Beckett make his first price guide and he also published the first T206 checklist book. (For the author, he didn't write) There were a few shows around the area the, Nick Schoff and Bill Scott had a "store" near DC that was great. When I got out in 1981 and returned to Detroit it was booming with shows. Lloyd and Carol Toerpe put on a "National" in Plymouth with dealers from all over. John Stomen did shows and was producer of Sports Collectors Digest. He was a great guy and would trade cards. Jim Hawkins produced some great shows with autograph guests. A few of the dealers got together and managed to get most of the 1968 Tigers to come around for a whole year to sign. I used to trade cards with Kevin Savage of Ohio. The atmosphere back then was great. Most of the dealers knew what I was collecting and would look for things I needed. They were always willing to cut the price. There were lotsa shops to go to. Ebay changed it all. In some ways it's good and in some ways bad. The Nationals back then were great. There were NO corporate booths. It was great meeting people for the first time from other parts of the country. (Dr. Mcavoy, Joe Colabella, etc.) It's too money driven now and I detest the "grading" of cards. No standards, just someone's opinion.

[toppcat]

I've been reading through several hundred old hobby pubs, mostly from the 60's and 70's, during quarantine and can say that the 70's were really a time of convention growth, which went from semi-informal gatherings in homes at the beginning of the decade to taverns, motels then hotels by the middle of the decade and of course the first National in 1980. Mainstream media coverage started kicking in around 1974 as well.

I came onto the scene in 1981 and there were card shops springing up everywhere and almost countless shows by 1983-84 at the latest. In terms of being able to buy awesome stuff at great prices though, by about 1971-72 it was getting harder and harder to do so. Really tough times were still available and sold but they were already drying up. And superstar pricing began around 1970 as well, although it took a couple years to catch on. But there was still a lot to buy at fairly good prices as early Willow Grove attendees will no doubt attest. And no one knew what full checklists were for many sets still in the 70's, which was a constant theme in the hobby pubs and info was sent around to fill things in. Richard Egan in particular was a catalyst for this.

[bnorth]

Back in the day for me was mid/late 80s. I didn't get into cards till my late teens. As a player collector(Wade Boggs) it was hard to find the oddball cards. Actually all cards in general were rare at the time. I lived in a small town with one card shop. We did have card shows about every other weekend with around 5/6 dealers.

I was lucky and my mom worked at a place that gave 20% off to employees. Her boss would let her sell my little brother and me cards(wax packs, boxes, cases) at cost. Then we got the extra 20% off so we got cards at 20% under dealer cost. Man did we rip a ton of wax in the late 80s/early 90s.

Then ebay hit the scene. The cards that sometimes took months to find could now be found in days. A lot of the error, variation, regional issues, and test issues were still rare. It wasn't till early 2000s that pretty much everything was super easy to find. I would find anybody selling rare(at the time) stuff and buy out their entire inventory to resell myself with out any competition.

[DHogan]

I was in 3rd grade in 1967, in catholic school. I wasn't really a collector. More of hoarder. We used to play card flipping games in the play ground at recess. If the nuns saw us with cards, they would take them. One kid use to rat me out even when I didn't have my cards out. He would tell the nuns Dave has baseball cards in his pockets. The nuns would go thru my pockets, take the cards. And give me detention. The nuns must have retired rich on all the cards they took from us.

[lumberjack]

Someone mentioned Dr. Beckett's first price guide. He would set up at shows in Michigan after the guide came out. I once heard him tell a collector that he was afraid that the guide would become not so much a guide, but a bottom line for what a card would sell for and this is what happened. Nobody, nobody would sell a card for less than what his guide listed as its price.
lumberjack

[toppcat]

First Beckett Price Survey Results (1977):

[Rhotchkiss]

Price guides were great. I used to study them for hours and I memorized the prices of all the cards in all the conditions.

Remember checklists? Do they even make those anymore?

[Mark17]

Originally Posted by toppcat

First Beckett Price Survey Results (1977):

I love the article by Barry Halper, pumping his T206 Collins proof card as perhaps being worth more than a Wagner. Best line is where he stakes his reputation on it.

I wonder whether Barry knew the copious amount of fraudulent stuff in his collection would one day be exposed, and if so, what he thought of that.

[FrankWakefield]

I grew up too far south to call them pop bottles... But I'd bicycle around to pick them up outa ditches on the road I lived on. Coke bottles brought 4 cents, Pepsi and RC only 3 cents. This was in 1965 - 1968 mainly. I bought a few 1964 cards from allowance money. Back then people would get soft drinks in bottles and pitch them outa their cars as they drove away from town. There weren't aluminum cans, nor paper cups, for the most part. Seems odd now to think about throwing out glass bottles. Anyway, I'd bicycle along eyeing the ditch, picking them up, usually starting about 7:30am. Morning dew was sometime on the bottles. I'd pile them into the bike basket, peddle home and hose the mud off the bottles, then bicycle to a small grocery store maybe 3 blocks away. And I'd turn in the bottles, I'd get credit for them, then I'd buy nickel packs of Topps cards. I'd bicycle home with one hand on the handlebars, chewing nasty bubblegum like it was nectar as I looked at the cards. In the day near the end of the season, kids would switch to football cards as their team faded from contention / Topps diminished card printing for the later series and would switch production to football cards. Good memories thinking about those cards... At that time I had no knowledge of any cards older than 1959; only had seen 1959 through 1963 cards from seeing them among other kids' cards if they had older brothers. Usually the newest year attracted interest, and cards from earlier sets had little 'swap' value. And I confess to having bicycled around with Mantle and Maris clothespinned to the frame so that the spokes hit the cards creating a pleasing motorcycle like sound. We were idiots...

[LuckyLarry]

I was born in Southern California in 1953 and the sweet spot for my collecting was 1963-1967 Topps baseball cards and 1962 Topps Civil War News. I remember the Philadelphia football cards from that era too. That's me in 1966 my last year in Little League (United California Bank Tigers) holding an Ed Mathews bat.

We played baseball in the street from sunup to sundown. All the other kids on our street collected cards too, and we were always trading. We never flipped cards, and I don't remember bringing cards to school either. I had a paper route delivering the Los Angeles Hearld Examiner so I had money, and I usually bought my cards at the Little League field which was just around the corner. I'd take my packs up in the grandstands to watch the game and I remember loving the gum. The wax wrapper went on the ground under the seats. I sorted my cards by teams and never even once thought about completing a set. After a while we would always get the same cards at the snack bar as I suppose they were working through a box. Once we heard that this liquor store across town had a different batch of players (I knew nothing about different series of cards) so I rode my blue Schwinn sting-ray across town and was happy to get some different players. I remember once the Kreminliff brothers Dad bought them a whole box!

During 7th or 8th grade cards didn't seem so important, and I sold them to one of the neighborhood kids Joey Feller for enough money to buy lunch at Fosters Freeze. My mother was a collector too (matchbook covers) and I know if I wouldn't have sold them she would never have thrown them out.

My mom died in 2004 and while we were cleaning out the house, I made a sweep of the attic to see if I could find any of my cards. These cards had slipped between the floorboards of the attic in between the floor joists. I guess I needed some pictures of ball players for some project and the 1962 Post Cereal cards were the victims lol. Also a bent and water stained 1967 Topps Vic Roznovsky second series card which proudly holds it's place in my set.

Larry

[vintagechris]

Originally Posted by lumberjack

He kept after Frank Nagy, hoping Nagy would let him run amok....Frank Nagy, who had seen it all, would just say, "Bring more suitcases...."
lumberjack

That's classic! Bring more suitcases.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by Rhotchkiss

Price guides were great. I used to study them for hours and I memorized the prices of all the cards in all the conditions.

Remember checklists? Do they even make those anymore?

Sure. I checklist the sets I cover in my books. If you want modern checklists try baseballcardpedia.com. There are also quite a few checklists available readily online.

[whitehse]

Originally Posted by lumberjack

Someone mentioned Dr. Beckett's first price guide. He would set up at shows in Michigan after the guide came out. I once heard him tell a collector that he was afraid that the guide would become not so much a guide, but a bottom line for what a card would sell for and this is what happened. Nobody, nobody would sell a card for less than what his guide listed as its price.
lumberjack

I remember being at a mall show in suburban Chicago around the mid-90s and being set up to a husband and wife team who had been hobby dealers for decades. She had a man sitting at her table going through the quarter cards who looked vaguely familiar but I could not place him. He moved on to my table and bought a few cheap cards and kept moving but it wasn't until later when I asked the wife of the dealer team next to me who that man was and she casually mentioned it was Dr. Beckett. She had known him from the beginning and were good friends and to say I was shocked was an understatement. In a world where his name was synonymous with baseball cards and likely helped to push ahead the card boom, he was just a quite and totally unassuming man who was still collecting like the rest of us. Of course, this was after he sold the business so there was no conflict of interest at that point.

[hysell]

Yes, i got started collecting in 1974 , at that time ALL cards come out at the same time , NO series runs , then ? I got $ 5.00 ever 2 weeks for my chores around the house , did meow yards & scooped snow in the winter time & in 1976 I got a paper route , also . 10 cents per pack in 1974 , then . 15 cents a year or two , later , so, around $ 6.00 could get you a whole box of cards back then , now it's a pack at that price ?....LOL I would sell & trade cards at school and with other friends also .The 1st card show I went to was in 1981 & that was SO COOL , back then . Card trading seems to be a lost form , but I still do a lot around here & other places to this day

[jefferyepayne]

This is an awesome thread. When I opened it, I was expecting to see lots of stories about collecting in the 50s and 60s but after reading a few posts I realized I'm one of those old guys you are referring to!

I started collecting football cards in 1972. Got serious about opening packs in 1973 and had complete or near complete sets for Topps football from 1970 to 1983 before life got in the way (college, grad school, work, marriage, kids). Also collected baseball but started doing that a bit later than football ... started around 1976. I had most of the Topps baseball cards from the 70s as well by the time I went to college.

Mostly I put each year's sets together by opening packs and trading doubles with friends. I used my allowance pretty much year around to buy packs or boxes, sometimes getting lucky when a store would want to dump bunches of them after the season(s) was over. Always hit the local Ben Franklin after baseball and football season ended to clean them out of their inventory they didn't want any more and were willing to dump ;-) I also used to try and convince older kids to sell me their cards once they lost interest and was able to pick up some late 60s / early 70s collections this way.

A buddy and I discovered a card shop in the nearest city, three flea markets where dealers would sometimes set up, and two antique stores that would occasionally have cards. Through these avenues, we picked up older cards (mostly 50s and 60s) although I had a t206 and a '20s baseball strip card as well. But cards weren't expensive like they are today so picked up lots of stars for a song including a '55 Ted Williams, '58 Hank Aaron, '62 Mickey Mantle, '64 Rose to name a few. Always was looking for star players I could add and tried to get a type card for each older set I knew about.

When the Beckett books began being published my buddy and I were in heaven as we loved looking up our cards to see how much they were worth ... never mind some of them were complete beaters but we didn't care. Also loved to learn about all of the sets we didn't even know existed. Cracker Jacks, Goudey, National Chicle, etc. were all sets we had never seen a card for before. I really wish I had paid attention to the ads in the Beckett books as when I go back and look at them today (I still have the first baseball and first football price guides) I realize that we should have been thinking outside of our local area and reaching out to dealers, participating in mail-in auctions, maybe getting our parents to drive us to a show or card collecting group but none of that crossed our minds at the time. We were just too busy playing sports, chewing bubble gum, trading cards, and just being kids at that point.

Unfortunately I took a 25 year hiatus from the hobby but lugged my 15,000+ cards with me pretty much everywhere I went during that timeframe. Oh, the deals I could have had during that timeframe if I had been collecting as I had the cash to buy lots of stuff once I started working and prices were still very cheap through the '80s for vintage cards.

My kids got me back into collecting when they started playing sports and I've been doing it ever since ... more than a decade at this point and it is great to be back in the hobby. I focus pretty much exclusively on all things football at this point but always appreciate reading the Net54 threads on baseball too as, yes, I am still lugging around my childhood baseball sets. Such is the life of a collector.

jeff

[IndyDave]

I was probably 12 or 13 when I discovered the hobby in the early 70's.

I know I requested a catalog from some of the early sellers with ads in the Sporting News and somehow got a book that had Topps and Bowman checklists. I remember having my mom write a check so I could get some cards from some of the neat old sets I saw.

I'm not sure what got me "subscribed" to some of the early newsletters of the day - most likely a response to an advertisement in the Sporting News, Baseball Digest or Street and Smith's.

I grew up in a suburb of Youngstown Ohio. Somewhere along the line I placed a classified in one of those newsletters and shortly thereafter received a letter from Bill MacTaggart, inviting me to a baseball card show he was having at his house in Grove City, Pennsylvania, about an hour away. My dad agreed to drive my brother and I over and we had a wonderful time.

Bill eventually moved the show to a hall in Grove City then to a larger place in town. My brother and I started setting up at the shows to sell some of our duplicates and my parents would drive us over. Bill and Jean and their kids were great hosts. I still correspond with Bill all these years later and received a letter from him earlier this week. Made good friends with dealers Ray and Joyce Lingard, their son Dale from Ontario, George Sebo from Youngstown and collector Glenn Vasbinder from the Pittsburgh area. I've lost touch with all of them, although my brother ran in to George last year at a show. Pretty sure Ray and Joyce have passed away.

We would set up and those shows and be thrilled to sell $40 or $50 of stuff. I guess at the time my brother and I were "modern" dealers - we had nothing older than 4 or 5 years. We spent more time walking around buying things than at our tables. And spending time talking to our friends. I lost track of how many different card issues that I couldn't get in Youngstown, that Dale or Bill would buy for me and ship to us. I know Dale sent us all kinds of OPC hockey issues and pretty sure Bill got us some of the 1973 Topps candy lids and some Topps hockey that we didn't get.

One of my favorite things to buy at that time at shows were "bricks" of older cards. 25 or 50 or 100 different cards from an older set, wrapped in Saran wrap or some other cling wrap. The cards would usually be different conditions but as whole would be very cheap.

Sometime in the mid 70's we talked my parents in to driving us to one of the shows at the Troy Hilton. I had never seen so many baseball cards in my life. I distinctly recall being talked in to buying a brick of 1958 Topps by a dealer. I think it was 50 different cards for I'm sure either $10 or $20. Hank Aaron was on top. Yeah I had to be talked in to that. I often wonder which of the hobby legends sold me that brick.

Other shows started to pop up in our area. Jim Borgen started a show at the McKinley Memorial in Niles Ohio. We set up at Jim's show for several years as well. Bill's show in Grove City was in June each year and Jim's show in Niles was in July. Jim added autograph guests with the first one being - who else in NE Ohio? - Bob Feller.

Bill's show eventually died off as we had more and more shows in Cleveland and Pittsburgh to go to and occasionally set up. Jim's show couldn't compete either after awhile.

The hobby as whole was never as condition conscious as it has become. The grading scale was poor - fair - good - very good - excellent and mint. I think we were all generally happy with very good or better. Centering? As long as the card didn't look cut off we never worried about. Much more concerned about corners and creases.

The first "big" card I remember. No, not Mickey Mantle. I remember when the prices of the 1967 Brooks Robinson high number went to $20 and I thought that was absolutely absurd.

Eventually I had subscriptions to Sports Collectors Digest and Traders Speaks. Used to devour those when they arrived to get my orders out quickly and hopefully get what I wanted. I ran in to John Stommen of SCD fame at a show after I moved to Indiana. I introduced myself as Dave Carson of Poland Ohio and he told me my street address. Guess I was a long time subscriber.

Somewhere along the line Frank Nagy sent me his auction catalog and I was hooked. Oh how I could not wait for that package to arrive in the mail, wrapped in white butcher paper and tied together with a string. With my "winnings" on approval. The first time they arrived with me having to send a check I was amazed. I always made to sure to pay Frank as soon as I could.

As I've read since then about the vast quantity of cards Frank had, I've often wonder how many "winners" there were for certain cards. I seemingly won a lot of bids. I do have a 1963-64 Parkhurst hockey set, completely assembled through Frank's auctions.

Sorry for rambling on - I know I've posted much of this in other threads on the board. I was more or less on a hobby hiatus from I got married until my son went off to college. I've gotten back in over the past five years with vintage stuff and have made several good friends in the hobby in the Indy area.

My son is an absolute sports freak but never got in to collecting. We look at my cards occasionally but the time is coming to get my stuff in order and start paring down the collection. I'm hopefully 2 - 2.5 years out from retiring from work on my terms (if I can be so lucky) and then its time to start selling stuff off, starting with all the duplicates including some of those card bricks sitting in the basement that I put together for the last shows I did as a dealer nearly 30 years ago.

[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by IndyDave

Somewhere along the line I placed a classified in one of those newsletters and shortly thereafter received a letter from Bill MacTaggart, inviting me to a baseball card show he was having at his house in Grove City, Pennsylvania, about an hour away.

Case in point. I grew up 1 hour from Grove City as well but on the PA side. :-(

jeff

[judgebuck]

I first started collecting baseball cards in 1958 by buying packs at the local small town grocery store in west Kentucky. I was heavy into buying cards from 1958-63. Packs of five cards were five cents each, and there were also one-card packs for one cent. A box of 36 five-card packs was $1.80.

Football cards were popular as well, with Fleer joining Topps in 1960. Hartland statutes were special about this time, too. I remember ordering a few cards from Card Collector Company in NY. The 1961-62 Fleer basketball cards were popular with us young collectors, but it seemed they were a little hard to find.

We all liked the 1961-63 Post Cereal baseball cards and the 1962 Post Cereal football cards. We would accompany our mothers to the grocery store and inspect the back of the cereal boxes before deciding which cereal we wanted to eat that week.

I returned to collecting around 1979. I believe that was when the first Beckett softcover price guide came out. I was then in the workforce, and I sometimes bought collections from others who needed or wanted the money for something else. I guess it was early-mid 1980s that I began to go to shows in St. Louis. Often, when someone brought cards into the show to sell, an auction would be held on the spot. I remember turning down an offer from a dealer in St. Louis to sell me two Aaron rookies for $125. I thought that was too high. I would frequently buy lower grade 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth cards at the St. Louis shows for $150 and bring them back home and sell them to other local collectors for $300 each. Local card shops began to pop up in the 80s as well.

Looking back, here is the biggest regret I have: I don't regret having bought any card or collection; but, I regret having sold many cards. The values just seem to go up and up. That's why now, at age 68, I'm having a hard time downsizing my collection. I know I'm not going to be here forever, and I can't take them with me!