Elwood Scharf, who did a ton of groundbreaking research on Exhibit cards, was the old-time collector whose recollections Lipset used. Here is a thread where I posted the November 1970 article by Scharf with his memories of collecting 1933 Goudeys as a kid. Versions of this article appeared in several other places, but I think this was the first.
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=219310