Hobby history: Collector directories, 1937-38 and 1940

[oldjudge]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

Burdick distinguishes dealers from collectors in his address lists. Do you mean to say there were actually baseball card dealers in 1937? Could they make a living? And how many customers could they have had? I assume all of them had day jobs, and cards were a second income/hobby.

Only those who also ran chat boards

[Leon]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Only those who also ran chat boards

I had a day job forever. I like this one better. It's fun.

[oldjudge]

Just kidding. I would bet that the dealers were also collectors and that they used their selling to finance the additions to their collections, like so many board members do today.

[chalupacollects]

Would love to go knock on some of those doors and ask politely to poke around those attics!

[BleedinBlue]

Originally Posted by chalupacollects

Would love to go knock on some of those doors and ask politely to poke around those attics!

+1

First thing I did was scan the list for addresses in New England. Found one.
Tempting. The home at this address is old enough to have an attic full of treasures.