[brian1961]

As far as Penny Marshall goes, the chapter featuring her collection from that book about the great collectors published several years ago was quite interesting. She had an amazing collection of unusual baseball items that would each make for a good conversation piece. There was a DO NOT DISTURB tag from Ty Cobb's stay at a German hotel. Sure would not want to rile Ty up at 7 AM to ask him for an autograph, which was part of the intrigue brought out in this item.


Now during the 1980s, there was a woman who was an absolute fanatic about collecting New York Yankees material. Her name was Barbara Grossman, known as The Yankee Lady. She is featured in Alan Rosen's book, TRUE MINT. She was something else, and her taste was impeccable.

When Mr. Rosen bought Barbara's collection in the late 1980s he took out a full-page ad in SCD. At the top were black and white pictures of several of the cards--1969 Topps Super Mantle, 1960 Post Cereal Mantle, 1961 Topps Dice Game Bobby Richardson, 1962 JELL-O unfolded box with Mantle, 1941 Playball DiMag, Goudey Ruth, and a few others.

On Mr. Mint's website, he lists his top 20 finds. Barbara Grossman's collection was one of them. He comments that he wishes he had those cards back today. Rarely does he say that, but from the above cards and some others, he would have a fortune today. But, his modus operandi has always been flip, flip, flip. I wonder if Ms. Grossman regrets parting with that fabulous Yankee collection.

Back in the 70s, there was a husband-wife who both collected--Dr. Joe and Karen Michelwicz. They were from the East Coast. Excuse me if my spelling is off. Memory escapes me what Dr. Joe collected, but Karen was enraptured by the T-3s. She was working on completing that set.

Women collectors are scarce. It seems that when they do collect, their taste is remarkable.

Salute. --Brian Powell