More on 1969 and the dawn of card conventions
 

In a post two months ago called "1969: The dawn of card conventions" (here: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=218969), I posted three articles from Sports Collectors' News in 1968-69 about the earliest attempts to get sports collectors together for conventions, including the first annual West Coast Sports Collectors Convention held at the home of Jim Nowell on August 23, 1969, generally acknowledged as the first such convention. Then last week I posted (here: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=221671) a lengthy account of that 1969 gathering that Nowell wrote for the November 1969 Ballcard Collector.

Here are some more articles from 1969 hobby publications that provide important background for that first-ever convention. The first one is from the front page of the February 1969 Sports Trader, a "News Release" in which Art Oullette and Peter Bogert ask collectors from New England, New York, and New Jersey to contact them in order to gauge interest in their "pipe dream" of a sports collectors' convention. As far as I know, this convention of theirs never happened, but Oullette did attend the first New England mini-convention at the home of Mike Anderson in December 1969, as Anderson wrote about in the January 1970 Trader Speaks (here: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=219732).

Next, in the April 1969 Ballcard Collector (which actually reached subscribers in March), Edward Broder wrote an article on "Card Collecting on the West Coast" in which he described a "convention" that had been held at Jim Nowell's house in Fullerton, California. It seems like a stretch to call it a convention, since there were only five collectors there (Nowell, Broder, Don Ortolani, Ray Medeiros, and Don Roberts), but Broder considered it a "historical" event at which everybody had a great time, and he suggested that more such events should take place.

Then, in the March 1969 Sports Trader (actually published in April), editor-publisher Richard Burns printed a letter from Broder, in which Broder said that he and Jim Nowell were planning a sports collectors' convention on the West Coast for late summer after his article in The Ballcard Collector had drawn a positive response. He said they were hoping to attract 15 to 25 people, and planned to contact Art Oullette and Pete Bogert to see what they did right and wrong. Burns agreed to send Nowell the names and addresses of past and present Sports Trader subscribers on the West Coast, and suggested that they should aim for 100 to 150 attendees, rather than a measly 15-25.

In the April 1969 Sports Trader (which reached Ray Medeiros on May 20), there is a half-page announcement by Broder and Nowell announcing their convention and asking interested parties to contact them. At the bottom of the page, Burns added mentions of the planned Oullette-Bogert New England convention (which never happened, as noted above), and a Southeastern convention being planned by Irving Becker (which did happen, but not until August 1970: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=219073; I have more on that convention, and may post it later).

Finally, the August 1969 Sports Trader (which reached Medeiros on August 1) had a press release giving the details of the Broder-Nowell convention. This is the same press release that also appeared in the July 1969 Sports Collectors' News, which I posted in the earlier thread. (That issue of SCN did not reach Medeiros until August 26, after the convention had already happened.)

I realize that not everyone here is interested in all this minutiae, but I find it interesting, and think that this stuff deserves to be put on the record as part of the history of our hobby.

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...60504_0001.jpg
The Ballcard Collector, April 1969:
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...60504_0004.jpg
The Sports Trader, March 1969:
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...60504_0002.jpg
The Sports Trader, April 1969:
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...60504_0003.jpg
The Sports Trader, August 1969:
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...504_0005_1.jpg

I was doing some searching and found this nugget to read for the last several minutes. Very interesting on early conventions.

It's almost comical that the conventions were held at people's homes.

So you are saying the next one isn't at your place?

I have room for four tables, and no more than six customers at a time. Refreshments will be in the fridge...help yourself! :)

By the way, my avatar is a picture of Irv Lerner, Ray Hess, Ray Medeiros, and Lionel Carter, taken at the second (1970) West Coast convention at Jim Nowell's house. Last year I sent it to Ray Medeiros, who said he had never seen the picture before but that everybody was taking a lot of pictures that day. I posted about that 1970 convention here:

http://net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=221637

The first one I attended was the '74 convention in Anaheim. At that point there was probably 75 tables and several hundred people, so it had definitely outgrown Jim's house considerably.

When I first started buying complete sets (1975) I used to deal with a guy named Walter Abe from Foster City, CA. Seemed like a great guy. Guessing he may have been at some of these. His name ring a bell with anyone?

Hobby History
 

If you want to meet one of those fella's in that article(Bob Thing) take a ride up to the Shriner's show in the Fall, he is one of the nicest gentlemen you'll ever want to meet.Talk about history, you'll learn a lot from him.

John

Doesn't sound familar to me. The main ones back then for complete sets were Larry Fritsch and Stan Martucci. A year or so later Renata Galasso started aggressively marketing, and was a bit cheaper. Merv Willams was a local LA dealer that occasionally had complete sets, but didn't do nearly the volume of the ones mentioned above.

The first three West Coast conventions (1969, 1970, 1971) were in Nowell's house, so you weren't that far removed from those days. The early to mid 1970s were a time of exponential growth in shows.

Walter Abe
 

Walter Abe is still around, in fact owns three stores in the San Francisco Bay Area. He attends the National most years and occasionally will make cameo appearances at the Bay Area shows. Another major asset to the Bay Area's collecting community.... and beyond.

48 years ago...
 

Read with interest the stores and comments about the first get together in
Fullerton back in 1969.

I am still alive and well in Las Vegas.

Edward A. Broder
pclbaseball@gmail.com

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...0Bitch%202.jpg

Then again, my first show was this one:

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...20Show%201.jpg

Nice to see you here! Here is another post I wrote about that first convention at Jim Nowell's house, including detailed accounts by Nowell and Dennis Graye:

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=221671

And here's Lionel Carter's account of the second convention at Nowell's house, in 1970:

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=221637

And Nowell's account of the 1971 convention:

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=218371

Good read; Do you have any info on the history of the Philly Show; the earliest I recall was at the George Washington Motor Lodge; where I met "Mr. Mint" as a 10/11 year old and thought man that guy talks fast and he has a lot of cards.

Here’s the program from the first Philly show in 1975:

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=241369

Nice to see you here....

My first was a show at The Galleria in Marietta, Ga about 1988. I took my younger son, 13 at the time. I remember seeing a 52 Mantle, that looked great, selling for about $5000. I told my son that we should but that card. Needless to say we didn't buy it.:rolleyes: