Time for a Thank You
 

An outsider reading the chat board for the first time might come away with the impression that all is bad in the hobby. While it certainly has more than its’ share of grifters, many people have made great contributions to the hobby and yet are largely forgotten by many today. I thought it might be nice to take a moment and say thanks to several such people. I would like to say thank you to Lew Lipset. When I started my second tour of collecting in 1990 it was Lew’s encyclopedia that was one of the few sources of information about vintage sets. I can’t imagine how much work it took to compile in the pre-search engine era. Lew was also free with insights that were invaluable to new collectors. Yet, for all his pioneering work, I rarely ever hear Lew mentioned today. Shout out and thank you to Lew Lipset for all he did.

One of the many Superman Villains (Initials LL) who make the hobby great.

thanks to leon for creating a great chat board and for leading the fight against fraud in the hobby

I'm telling you guys, super villains, all of them :)

Thank you to Denny Eckes who through Dens collectors den produced plastic sheets that held everything from T cards to goudey premiums. And when he partnered with Jim Beckett to launch a series of price guides opened our hobby to the masses. Maybe there should be hall of fame for our hobby. Lew and Denny and Jim all belong.

Lots of great people in the hobby. Many more good eggs than bad apples.

I’d like to thank my dads friends whose sons had gone off to college...who saw fit to generously give me their card collections and ignite the fire that still burns today.

Yeah, my shout out is to Leon for running this circus on a daily basis. A great place to learn despite the occasional stupid comment from me and others. Thanks for continuing to keep the hobby afloat with this vital resource. If there were no checks and balances on the powers that be and sharing of knowledge we would all be up the proverbial creek. Thanks Leon.

Love to focus on the positivity! First thanks goes to a board member and eBay seller Pete Gust@fson for taking time to teach me some things as my collecting focus was shifting back in 2010/2011, and for pointing me towards the board.

Thanks also to the many on the board who have posted their research, or just been willing to just chat cards, including but not limited to- Ted Z, M@rk McRae (PCL), Shaun (Bond Bread), Lee (T202), Phil (rookies), Rhett (E121, etc), MattyC, Bill Gr€gory, Mike C@ve, Fr@nk Burkett, much of this public information and/or PM conversation has greatly influenced my collection... thanks also to the many folks I’ve completed successfull transactions with including but not limited to- Dan (GoBucs), Br@d Pencil, Sean B@ssick, Ed D, Ted Sherm@n, etc.

And finally, thanks to anyone and everyone who has regularly posted their eye candy, includes- Paul (T206 collector), Sean (Milkit, signed goudeys), HOF Auto Rookies, Leon, Dean H@ckett, Ed Sk€lton, Jason M@y, etc, as these have also often influenced my collecting goals.

This board has definitely enabled a lot of spending, however it’s net effect is positive and it has been really fun to find a community of people who appreciate similar things, as opposed to my continuing to collect in a total vacuum.

Yes, thank you, Lew Lipset. A man of true integrity. I loved reading his Old Judge newsletter back in the 1980s. No puff, like SCD. Solid info, solid research. Not afraid to tell the truth in writing. His passion shines on.

Agreed

thanks!
 

Special thanks to:
- Frank Wakefield helped me a lot early on years ago when I first started collecting vintage.
- Mark Peavey has probably been my longest hobby friend.
- Jobu (Bryan) is a standup guy.
- LL for his fight on fraud (has personally helped me very much).

I've probably done a deal with half the board at some point in the last 11 years, so thanks to all of you!

Additionally thanks to: Renatta Galasso, Harold Rosenthal, The card stores at GS Plaza, Bergen Mall, Washington Ave in Bergenfield, Mel Solomon, House of cards, Spring St Armory Sportscard Auctions, Mike Wheat, James Maxwell and Virginia Caputto, Old Cardboard, VCBC, Sports Collectors Bible, Sport Americana Guide, Ebay, Net54, Lew Lipset...and all the friends I've made in this place!

Thank you to:
 

Larry Dileo original owner of the Incredible Pulp in Baldwin NY who always had the time to talk about his passion for vintage and current comic books ( and later baseball cards - still remember vividly an incredible collection of 1950's cards he got in) to an 11-14 year old kid. His passion and enthusiasm for sure helped ignite mine.
Mike from Columbia City collectibles, Jim from 707, so many from the old ft Washington and Robert Morris shows
So many of you, my fellow net 54ers who take the time to share their knowledge, opinions, discoveries ( good and bad) in such an articulate, enjoyable and sometimes colorful way.

Thank you Bob Lemke for the SCD. Always looked forward to it's arrival, even though I got it a couple days later than most others because I was on the west coast. Lot's of guys have passed that we'd like to thank.

Thanks to the Pioneers like Buck Barker whose research was done with pencil, paper, envelopes and stamps.

And to the early dealers like Larry Fritsch who was a huge help to me.

Pete!
 

I want to hear - no I MUST hear - James Maxwell and Virginia Caputto…….

I’d also like to thank Lew Lipset for everything he’s done for the hobb over the last 40 years. His Encyclopedia was valuable when I was getting seriously back into the hobby in the 1990s. I still have some of his sale catalogues from that period, though I couldn’t afford to buy much from them at the time. Then a few years ago, he really helped my hobby publication collection by selling me a ton of great stuff, including decades worth of publications originally owned by Ray Medeiros. I know that Lew is a member of this board and sometimes lurks, so if you’re reading this, Lew, thanks.

Somebody above mentioned that there should be a Hall of Fame for this hobby. There actually was a Hall of Fame of card collecting back in 1970-71, maintained by Irv Lerner in his Who’s Who In Sports Collecting. Here are some articles about that Hall of Fame that I posted a couple of years ago:

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=218788

oh to go back in time!!!!

Always looked forward to their auctions. I must have gotten several dozen cards from them over the years including a very nice e95 Plank.

They are still around doing good stuff.

well
 

Virginia did write a nice article about me in the Newtown Bee or something like that. My thoughts Of James go something like this:
Do you see that print dot there!!?? This is the ultra-rare version with the two dot no dot blank back. Common may be worth 5. but you'd be getting a spectacular deal on this one for 125.00.

Ian, thank you for including me, I didn't know too many people really paid that much attention to the cards I post, let alone that my collecting had much influence on anyone else. I would say right back at you, and too many others here to list. So many people here have so much knowledge they are willing to share, and have shared through the years. I think the whole of collecting is somewhere in the archives of this board.

As someone who benefited from Lew's incredible knowledge about vintage cards and the players depicted on them, I owe a real debt of gratitude to him, especially the encouragement he gave me in the early days of Full Count. His literary output on all things vintage was prodigious and I only wish he had managed to go on to tackle M and 30's cards. Understandably perhaps, he ran out of steam. My God, Old Judges alone would have consumed most authors. His auctions, in which I was both a buyer and consignor over many years, were the gold standard for the day. Moreover, fees, commissions, vigorish or whatever were lower by far than those charged by todays AH's.

Spare about a thought for Jeff Burdick, the man who invented the vintage card classification system we use today despite suffering terribly from arthritis.

Has anyone ever seen any video footage of Burdick? Realize it's probably a long shot as he was pretty reclusive. Wonder if anyone ever interviewed him when he gave his collection away. Guessing no.

I'm pretty sure no video footage of Burdick exists, and I know of only a few photographs. I don't think anybody interviewed Burdick when he decided to donate his collection to the Met, but he announced the decision in 1947 in Card Collector's Bulletin, and wrote pretty extensively over the next 15 years about the process of getting the cards to the museum, cataloguing them, and mounting them. I posted the first couple of years of those articles, from 1947-49, in this thread:

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=240887

Cool. Thanks.


QUOTE=trdcrdkid;1777026]I'm pretty sure no video footage of Burdick exists, and I know of only a few photographs. I don't think anybody interviewed Burdick when he decided to donate his collection to the Met, but he announced the decision in 1947 in Card Collector's Bulletin, and wrote pretty extensively over the next 15 years about the process of getting the cards to the museum, cataloguing them, and mounting them. I posted the first couple of years of those articles, from 1947-49, in this thread:

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=240887[/QUOTE]

+1. Lemke was always a wonderful guy. I aspire to someday achieve about half of his type card knowledge. These are two cards I picked up from Bob. (The D304 was used as the photo model in the SCD.)

Thank you to Doug Miller, Robert Rutledge, Jobu (Bryan), Brian McQueen, Scott Gross, and many, many others for some tremendous conversations in the last year or two. Thank you to Leon for running this board, and thank you to the Net54 community for being sane and civil enough to not cause Leon to shut the site down. Haha.

Wasn't sure if this was a general thank you thread, if so: Thanks to who ever exposed the real battlefield, aka, candiman, and the host of other names they go by. They have truly helped me & probably others in avoiding this unscrupulous seller.

PS. I used to love SCD in my younger days, I'm pretty sure it would be a complete blur to my eyes today. I think that was the first hobby magazine I ever subscribed to. I remember many times walking around the old Willow Grove/ Fort Washington show looking for someone who sold it.

Leon
 

There are plenty of people who I would like to thank, but I would truly like to thank Leon for this board. I love the free BST, the opportunity to provide a link to my eBay store in my signature, and the variety of the posts on the main board. I would not be able to run this board with the patience and understanding that Leon provides. Thanks, Leon, for keeping the board pointed in the right direction.

Rick