I'm Balticfox and here's my story!

[Balticfox]

When it comes to trading cards I’m a completist, a set builder of the sharpest, whitest, brightest cards I can find. I’m tough on corners and toning but I’m easy on centering. I’ll accept cards that are well off center so long as they are not miscut.

I collect them raw and unslabbed for three reasons. The first is that I’ve always collected cards raw ever since I was a little kid. Secondly, they’re too bulky to store or even handle when slabbed. Thirdly, my grading priorities are not the same as those of the grading companies. I’m very tough on toning which they seem to ignore, but I’m easy on centering while they penalize off-center cards heavily.

My collection of non-sports cards ranges from the late 1940’s to the mid 1970’s - but the sets I most treasure are typically from the 1957-1965 period which coincides with those cards I remember accumulating as a kid.

The first cards to which I was exposed were the 1957 Hit Stars:



My older sister had brought a few home. She was looking for Yul Brynner, a search doomed to frustration since there was no Yul Brynner card in the set.

I started first grade in September 1958 and remember admiring Topps Flags of the World, TV Westerns and Zorro cards in the schoolyard.

The first cards I ever owned though were four 1958-59 Topps Hockey cards which I gathered off the street one late February or early March day in 1959. The first three were Detroit Red Wings, but the last was a Chicago Blackhawk. When I saw that big Indian head on the red jersey, I knew that was my favourite team - even though I might have had trouble reading the team name at the time!



I then admired the 1959 Baseball cards in the schoolyard:



But the first cards I ever bought and collected were the 1959 CFL cards:



These first few cards to which I was exposed left a lifelong imprint upon me. I ended up collecting the CFL, Hockey and Baseball cards almost every year thereafter until I graduated from grade eight in 1965.

I was also well aware of the various non-sport sets such as You’ll Die Laughing, Funny Valentines, Wacky Plaks, Sports Cars, etc. that O-Pee-Chee was marketing in my corner of London, Ontario at the time but the first non-sport cards I collected in a big way were the 1962 Leaf Spook Stories:



The 1962 Topps Civil War News cards came next:



The summer of 1963 was when I went big time, however. One of my buddies Anthony proposed that we pool our efforts and collections and just collect any card we could get our hands on. This was initially to his benefit because the 1963 Baseball cards I had lying around dwarfed his meager stock. Nonetheless, over the ensuing two years Anthony and I amassed close to 4500 different cards. Needless to say, sheer numbers as opposed to condition was our defining priority.

We succeeded in gathering up most of the sports cards issued in our neck of the woods back to the 1960-61 Hockey cards. But any cards older than these were very tough to find and we only had a very few specimens from even sets as large as the 1960 Baseball. In fact, coming across any pre-1961 cards in the schoolyard was such an uncommon occurrence that it seemed to be an almost magical event. And even today I feel the same sense of wonder, the same sense of magic, perusing the pre-1961 cards that I have even if they number in the hundreds and fill a binder!

Among the cards we managed to acquire was a wild but very curious one called “Hairy Fiend” which we got in a generic pack while trick or treating on Halloween. We’d never encountered any of this set before and without the wrapper didn’t even know it was from a set called Mars Attacks. Nonetheless, it became our favourite card.

After I went off to boarding school in Kennebunkport, Maine for grade nine in 1965, I just turned my half interest in the cards we’d accumulated over to Anthony who was a grade behind me. Bad mistake. By the late spring of 1966 he too lost interest in the cards which were approaching 6500 in number by then and gave them to Billy, the snot-nosed kid across the street. Anthony’s thinking was that Billy would carry the torch so to speak and continue to build on the collection. To Anthony’s horror and dismay though, Billy went and scrambled the cards in front of his eyes! That’s right, he tossed the contents of the whole box up into the air just to watch every other little kid on the street scramble to get as many as he could! Anthony still grouses about that to this very day some 58 years later.

I also collected the premium coins that were issued in jelly desserts and potato chips up until I graduated from grade school. The plastic Shirriff/Salada Hockey coins, the plastic Shirriff Baseball coins, the Jell-O/Hostess Aircraft Wheels, the Krun-Chee Fightin’ Warships and the 1963 Humpty Dumpty/Krun-Chee CFL coins were the ones that drew my most avid interest - and dimes.

But you know the memory of these cards never left me. I’d often think back to my collecting days and wish I still had my CFL and other cards even when I was in my late teens but I thought that there was no way I could ever reassemble what I’d had as a kid. I thought they were all lost forever and could only live on in my dreams. Then came an article in the Canadian Magazine supplement to the Saturday London Free Press in 1969 or so. It featured Angelo Savelli of Hamilton, who was described as the world’s biggest card collector with every card ever produced (much exaggerated of course). Angelo had evidently started buying sports cards in 1948 and never stopped. The article filled me with an incredible longing for the cards I’d once had, cards that I thought were now lost in the mists of time. Nostalgia/curiosity prompted me to buy a few packs of the 1971 CFL, 1971-72 NHL and 1972 CFL cards over the next couple of years or so. (I actually felt a bit sheepish and embarrassed buying little kids’ cards at the time!)

Flash forward a few years to 1979. I had finished university and had been working in Toronto for a couple of years. I'd discovered that the big city had four comic shops. Two of them carried old gum cards as well! The first sets I bought at the comic shops were the first two Funny Valentine ones, Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. (I was a super confident young man by then and I didn't give a tinker's damn what anybody else thought of me.) Shortly thereafter I discovered that the main comic shop in Hamilton also carried cards. When the proprietor pulled out NM (or so I thought at the time) sets of the 1959, 1960, 1963 and 1964 CFL cards, I could not reach for my wallet quickly enough! Prizes beyond belief! As was the Civil War News set he had and the You’ll Die Laughing set I picked up a few weeks later at a comic show.

When I bought the first edition of Christopher Benjamin’s Non-Sport Price Guide in the mid-1980’s, I realized that the “Hairy Fiend” card we’d had twenty years before belonged to the notorious Mars Attacks set.

I’ve steadily added to my card collections since that time. I now have a fabulous collection of non-sports, CFL and Hockey cards and I’ve even made decent inroads into Baseball cards from the 1954-1965 period as well. I’ve also amassed one of the best collections anywhere of those premium coins to which I referred earlier e.g. Shirriff Hockey and Baseball, Humpty Dumpty CFL, Fightin’ Warships, Space Orbit, Rocky & Bullwinkle, etc.

I file my cards these days in binders by subject category. Here are a few of these binders:























I used to feel an incredible sense of longing whenever I saw the type of old variety store at which I used to buy my cards and comics as a kid. No more though. My collection now of most cards is so far beyond what I dreamed of having as a kid that I’ve shed that sense of loss.

I also eventually met Angelo Savelli in the mid-1980’s at a small card show in Toronto where he had set up to sell cards and he became a friend of mine. It was at the big semi-annual Toronto Sport Card and Memorabilia Expo in 2005 or so where I saved one of his binders full of expensive hockey cards from the 1920’s and 1930’s from a thief. I noticed that a tall young fellow at the other end of Angie’s table had scooped up what appeared to be one of Angie’s binders and walked off briskly down the aisle. Angie himself was on the other side of the table and was in no position to give chase so I set off after the fellow myself. I caught him before he got to the door of the hall and said “Excuse me, but is that your binder?” Much to my surprise, the fellow just said no and shoved the binder into my hands. While I stood there gawking for a second or two, he swiftly made his exit through the door. Oh well. I’m not in the business of apprehending thieves anyway, but I’d managed the most important detail which was getting Angie’s binder back for him.

Since Angie sold almost all his cards other than the Hockey and CFL around the turn of the century and I’ve accumulated so many cards myself in the last 45 years, I no longer envy Angie for his cards. How the circle turns! (Sadly Angie himself passed away in March this year.)

But you know I still don’t have a NM “Hairy Fiend” card.

[bnorth]

Great cards, welcome to the site it is awesome with a lot of great info/people.

[Casey2296]

Great story and fun collection, thanks for posting and welcome to the asylum.

[jingram058]

Best introduction I have seen since I have been on this forum, and that is saying something. Welcome, sir!

[whitehse]

I am not one for non-sport cards but that Hit Stars set really hit me hard. I have attempted to put that set together a few times and gave up to focus on baseball. I keep thinking about that set and someday I am going to make a run at it.

Welcome tot he boards.

[Gorditadogg]

Great post, Balticfox. Welcome to the board!

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

[JollyElm]

I slightly edited the Murray Head song, One Night in Bangkok, to fit your early life:

"In a SHOW CARD SET with everything but Yul Brenner..."


Welcome aboard!

[oldjudge]

Welcome, Balticfox! What a great story.

[LEHR]

That was a great post.
I don't currently collect sets of cards in binders, but your post made me want to start.

[ALBB]

yes, very cool story !

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by LEHR

I don't currently collect sets of cards in binders, but your post made me want to start.

How then do you store/keep your cards? In card boxes?

[4815162342]

Originally Posted by LEHR

That was a great post.
I don't currently collect sets of cards in binders, but your post made me want to start.

+1

Reminds me of collecting Ryne Sandberg in binder sheets as a kid. There was nothing more fun than getting dropped off at the mall on a Saturday with a few bucks in my pocket to spend at the card shop. I’d flip through boxes looking for Rynos I didn’t have, and rearrange my binder to fit them when I got home.

[Brent G.]

Originally Posted by 4815162342

+1

Reminds me of collecting Ryne Sandberg in binder sheets as a kid. There was nothing more fun than getting dropped off at the mall on a Saturday with a few bucks in my pocket to spend at the card shop. I’d flip through boxes looking for Rynos I didn’t have, and rearrange my binder to fit them when I got home.

I fondly recall constantly shuffling the contents of my rookie card binder based on new additions and the month's Beckett prices.

[Balticfox]

Meanwhile I've acquired an ever greater appreciation and interest in knuckleball pitchers and base stealers over the last ten years or so. Since my baseball card collection is limited to the 1954, 1955, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963 and 1965 years, I may well need to expand it to include a sheet or two of some of the great knuckleball pitchers and base stealers who played mainly outside those years - Phil Niekro, Joe Niekro, Charlie Hough, Tom Candiotti, Tim Wakefield, R.A. Dickie, Lou Brock, Joe Morgan, Willie Wilson, Bert Campaneris, Tim Raines, Ricky Henderson, Otis Nixon, Vince Coleman, Kenny Lofton, Marquis Grissom, José Reyes, etc.

Legendary knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm and base stealers Maury Wills and Luis Aparicio have of course many cards from that 1954-65 period that's been my focus.

[Balticfox]

Card collecting and bubble gum have to me always been closely intertwined. And while I was a regular buyer of both Bazooka and Dubble Bubble penny briquettes as a kid, gumball vending machines also drew my pennies. The 1958 CFL wrapper actually had a side ad for Bozo gumballs:



I've now had this Bozo machine in my collection for nearly twenty years:





Just over a year ago I added this new old stock variant of the Bozo machine to my collection:





It can be seen from this sticker on the bottom that O-Pee-Chee lent these Bozo machines free of charge to retailers so long as they were refilled with none other than Bozo gumballs:



Ken's Variety on Wharncliffe Road near Elmwood Avenue in London had a Bozo machine on the counter for many years throughout at least the 1960's. Ken's was a treasure trove of kids' stuff including cards, comics, model kits, Pez dispensers, bobble-head dolls of CFL players, Silverwood's ice cream cones (two scoops for a dime!), Krun-Chee Potato Chips (a less common brand than Hostess or Shirriff in London at the time), Black Cat Bubble Gum and of course the obligatory Beaver gumball vending machines. I have two of the Beaver machines in my present day collection which I fill with the requisite gold and silver charms as well as gumballs:



It was Beaver that dominated the gumball machine market in Canada just as Acorn dominated the one in the States.



I remember that the lucky recipient of a special silver ball from the Beaver machine outside Ken's Variety won a pair of wild cool Skeleton Hands like these:

(Not mine.)

Sadly I never succeeded in scoring the Skeleton Hands. There's been a void in my life ever since.

And I still dream of adding a classic card vending machine to my collection some day:

(Not mine.)

Collecting to me is all about the memories and keeping those memories alive. I cherish the memories as a part of my very being which is why I don't want to let them go.

[jingram058]

"Collecting to me is all about the memories and keeping those memories alive. I cherish the memories as a part of my very being which is why I don't want to let them go."

^^^ This! ^^^

[Balticfox]

There was a classic New York style candy store on Richmond Street in downtown London directly across the street from St. Peter's School where I was obligated by my parents to attend extracurricular Lithuanian language classes between 4:00 and 5:30 Saturday afternoons. Davis Variety was its name. It had the obligatory lunch counter which the fellow worked himself. I was never drawn to get anything at the lunch counter though (not that I would have had the money anyway of course). Unlike the lunch counters at the downtown Metropolitan, Kresge and Woolworth stores, it was pretty spartan and dingy and just didn't appeal to me. Mr. Davis himself was almost a comic book caricature of the old guy working a hot grill and his lunch counter never seemed to have any customers on Saturday afternoons. He probably got the bulk of his business frying up breakfast and lunch for the teachers at St. Peter's. And of course everybody smoked and read newspapers in those days including the teachers and the respective bishops, priests and staff at the adjacent St. Peter's Basilica and St. Paul's Anglican Cathedral.

The Davis Variety had most everything else to tempt a young boy with a quarter or two in his pocket though. It was one of the very few stores I knew that stocked Black Cat Bubble Gum which was licorice flavoured and was somehow chewier than Bazooka or even Dubble Bubble. I remember happily chewing on Black Cat and blowing black bubbles for hours!



I also very clearly remember buying Topps Civil War News cards at Davis Variety:





Plus of course Baseball cards such as these from 1963:







And these from 1965:



The wooden magazine rack was located on the other side of the store from the lunch counter and was thus well situated to sneak a peak at the titty mags:

(Sadly not mine.)

There would of course have been something wrong with any young boy who wouldn't peruse pictures of bare naked women given a chance. In fact, I'm sure that the priests from St. Peter's and St. Paul's, if not the bishops themselves, would have been taking the occasional peak as well.

It was at the Davis Variety's magazine rack though where I first encountered Green Lantern #26, 28 and 29 and the excitement I felt seeing those issues for the first time is still seared in my mind to this very day. In fact, I'm sure those comics are the reason why I still remember Davis' so vividly.







While St. Peter's and St. Paul's cathedrals are still there, 1979 was the last year for St. Peter's School and the Davis Variety has also been gone for decades. I did get a chocolate milkshake that really wasn't very good at Davis' one time but sadly I never got to sample a cheeseburger. Like they say, you never know what you've got till it's gone.

[Balticfox]

It was back in 1979 that I set out to re-acquire the treasures of my formative years. I was aware of only two comic shops in Toronto that carried cards in 1979-81. One was Comics Unlimited on Keewatin Avenue just east of Yonge Street at which I purchased my first Non-Sport sets - Funny Valentines and Funny Valentines A:









The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Drag Nationals and Official Drag Champs quickly followed. The other store with cards was Queen’s Comics & Collectibles on Queen Street just east of Woodbine Avenue. Cards were also available at Dreamland Comics in Hamilton on James Street North. When I saw NM sets of the 1959, 1960, 1963 and 1964 Topps CFL cards one day in 1981 I couldn’t reach for my wallet quickly enough!

1959



1960



1963



I later learned that there was also a stamp/coin shop in Hamilton just north of Dreamland that dealt in cards so perhaps there might have been a couple of other such shops in Toronto of which I wasn’t aware.

Dedicated card shows didn’t make an appearance in Toronto (and perhaps anywhere in Canada) until about 1986 and they were then really low budget affairs held in less than first class halls/meeting rooms. I also remember being actually excited to learn that another (my second) card show was going to take place in far away Niagara Falls in 1987(?).

Here's a picture of legendary Canadian card collector Angelo Savelli of Hamilton set up at a card show in Scarborough(eastern Toronto) circa 1986:



I might have missed that particular show because I was out of town. I'd made Angie's acquaintance at an earlier show though and had followed that up by visiting him at his home in Hamilton where I bought a set of the first series of the 1969 Topps Football cards from him. (This was back when I thought I could have every card Topps had ever issued!)

Just a few years thereafter in the late 1980's newspapers and other media sources started running stories about the prices fetched by the T206 Honus Wagner and 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle cards and card collecting absolutely exploded in popularity with the general public. By about 1992 or so Angie himself opened a "King of Cards" store on Barton Street in Hamilton which I'd visit on occasion. His store was actually on the way (maybe a two mile walk) to Ivor Wynn Stadium from the GO train stop in the magnificent old Hamilton Harbour CN station. After any Hamilton Tiger-Cats game I could then walk briskly to the old Greyhound station on Cannon Street and catch the last Lakeshore GO bus which would let me off after 45 minutes or so right in front of my house in SW Mississauga.

On one of my visits to Angie's store circa 2000, I learned that he was keeping his T206 Honus Wagner card in his safety deposit box at the bank. When I asked whether he ever thought of selling it since he couldn't exactly derive any delight from owning it when it was locked away at the bank, he replied "Every day, Vay, every day." Within six months to a year, he had done exactly that with a sale of all his Sports cards but Hockey and CFL to a big California dealer.

Those days were certainly different, albeit not necessarily better. The internet has certainly done wonders to put collectibles and collectors together.

[Balticfox]

Post repeated the spring Baseball card promotion in Canada with CFL cards in the late summer of 1962. Here are scans of all five of the unbroken panels of the 1962 Post Cereal CFL cards that were included inside boxes of Sugar Crisp:











I’ve been pecking away at the set since 1980 but I'm not quite done since there are a number of short prints that were available only on the backs of Grape Nuts (which no self respecting kid ever wanted) and I’m very picky when it comes to whiteness as well as cut. Here are some scans of cards from my collection:









Post repeated the CFL card promotion again in 1963 although by then Sugar Crisp boxes were no longer wrapped in foil. Here are some scans of my factory cut 1963 Post CFL cards:











Here are a couple of pictures of the Album in which the 1963 cards could be pasted:



The 1962 and 1963 CFL sets are loaded with literally dozens of players whose names are magical to me to this very day.

[SyrNy1960]

You have some fun, cool and amazing stuff. Thanks for sharing it all.

[Balticfox]

Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner and Rogers Hornsby in order would be my favourite pre-War players. Fortunately I've not seen any cards of these fellows that are attractive to my eyes.

[MikeGarcia]

Originally Posted by Balticfox

Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner and Rogers Hornsby in order would be my favourite pre-War players. Fortunately I've not seen any cards of these fellows that are attractive to my eyes.

There's a lot , a lot , of examples of those three giants out there. Some must surely look good to you ???

[Balticfox]

You're right! Now that I've searched, I've found several of each including Cracker Jack and Big League Chewing Gum vintage cards plus of course more recent tribute cards.

[bcbgcbrcb]

This guy certainly gets the award for most pics uploaded in a single thread on here. Not sure that I’ve seen a single pre-war baseball card though, supposedly the primary focus of this forum. Of course, I could have easily missed it among the hundreds of other colorful beauties here.

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

This guy certainly gets the award for most pics uploaded in a single thread on here.

And I'm far from done!

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

Not sure that I’ve seen a single pre-war baseball card though, supposedly the primary focus of this forum.

I've not posted any pre-War cards. But I was under the impression that the focus of this forum was on vintage Baseball cards meaning that the Baseball (and other) cards from my primary focus period of the 1950's and 1960's fit right in very nicely.

Originally Posted by Leon

These forums are devoted to both Pre- and Post- war baseball cards and vintage memorabilia, as well as other sports.

[Lorewalker]

Originally Posted by Balticfox

And I'm far from done!



I've not posted any pre-War cards. But I was under the impression that the focus of this forum was on vintage Baseball cards meaning that the Baseball (and other) cards from my primary focus period of the 1950's and 1960's fit right in very nicely.

The quote from Leon is referring to the entire site which consists of different sections. The one you posted on is for pre war. There is a section for post war and non sports but since Leon has no issue with the thread being here, it stays.

[ValKehl]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

This guy certainly gets the award for most pics uploaded in a single thread on here. Not sure that I’ve seen a single pre-war baseball card though, supposedly the primary focus of this forum. Of course, I could have easily missed it among the hundreds of other colorful beauties here.

Phil, FWIW (probably not much), I too am tired of the all-too-frequent pics and commentary re post-War cards on this forum, which as its title indicates, is intended to be for pre-War cards (and new member introductions). I have absolutely nothing against post-War cards and commentary, and I read the posts in the post-War forum just as frequently as I read posts in the pre-War forum. As the old saying goes, "everything has a place and everything in its place."

[Balticfox]

I've continued this "My Story" thread in the Hockey, Auto Racing and All Other Cards sub-forum:

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=355497