Growing up in the Bay Area of the 1970's, I always felt it was a great place to be a younger collector. We had numerous advanced guys that treated the kids (me ) fairly and taught us a lot on collecting and trading. From Jim Horne, who was the first serious collector I met to Dick Dobbins, John Spalding, Bill Weiss Don McPherson, Don Hazelwood, Lou CHericoni, Doug McWilliams, George Callahan, Barry Colla, and many others. We had at least four local shows per year. and all were one day shows. The emphasis was material released in our region or featuring local teams / leagues. The PCL was dominant at that time, though there were enough major league issues to keep collectors busy. At Dick Dobbins' Acalanes show (1973-1982) a souvenir would be issued most of the time (Including this 1976 unissued card of Dolph Camilli). Ironically I had coffee earlier today with legendary, though retired, collector Dwight Chapin & we talked about a lot of great names we both interacted with in the past.The few bad apples were identified quickly and surprising for old-school technology, word spread quicker about them than in today's internet world. The shows from that era will always remain among my favorite, not just for the material acquired, but for the decades long friendships that formed then.
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