More on 1969 and the dawn of card conventions

[trdcrdkid]

In a post two months ago called "1969: The dawn of card conventions" (here: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=218969), I posted three articles from Sports Collectors' News in 1968-69 about the earliest attempts to get sports collectors together for conventions, including the first annual West Coast Sports Collectors Convention held at the home of Jim Nowell on August 23, 1969, generally acknowledged as the first such convention. Then last week I posted (here: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=221671) a lengthy account of that 1969 gathering that Nowell wrote for the November 1969 Ballcard Collector.

Here are some more articles from 1969 hobby publications that provide important background for that first-ever convention. The first one is from the front page of the February 1969 Sports Trader, a "News Release" in which Art Oullette and Peter Bogert ask collectors from New England, New York, and New Jersey to contact them in order to gauge interest in their "pipe dream" of a sports collectors' convention. As far as I know, this convention of theirs never happened, but Oullette did attend the first New England mini-convention at the home of Mike Anderson in December 1969, as Anderson wrote about in the January 1970 Trader Speaks (here: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=219732).

Next, in the April 1969 Ballcard Collector (which actually reached subscribers in March), Edward Broder wrote an article on "Card Collecting on the West Coast" in which he described a "convention" that had been held at Jim Nowell's house in Fullerton, California. It seems like a stretch to call it a convention, since there were only five collectors there (Nowell, Broder, Don Ortolani, Ray Medeiros, and Don Roberts), but Broder considered it a "historical" event at which everybody had a great time, and he suggested that more such events should take place.

Then, in the March 1969 Sports Trader (actually published in April), editor-publisher Richard Burns printed a letter from Broder, in which Broder said that he and Jim Nowell were planning a sports collectors' convention on the West Coast for late summer after his article in The Ballcard Collector had drawn a positive response. He said they were hoping to attract 15 to 25 people, and planned to contact Art Oullette and Pete Bogert to see what they did right and wrong. Burns agreed to send Nowell the names and addresses of past and present Sports Trader subscribers on the West Coast, and suggested that they should aim for 100 to 150 attendees, rather than a measly 15-25.

In the April 1969 Sports Trader (which reached Ray Medeiros on May 20), there is a half-page announcement by Broder and Nowell announcing their convention and asking interested parties to contact them. At the bottom of the page, Burns added mentions of the planned Oullette-Bogert New England convention (which never happened, as noted above), and a Southeastern convention being planned by Irving Becker (which did happen, but not until August 1970: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=219073; I have more on that convention, and may post it later).

Finally, the August 1969 Sports Trader (which reached Medeiros on August 1) had a press release giving the details of the Broder-Nowell convention. This is the same press release that also appeared in the July 1969 Sports Collectors' News, which I posted in the earlier thread. (That issue of SCN did not reach Medeiros until August 26, after the convention had already happened.)

I realize that not everyone here is interested in all this minutiae, but I find it interesting, and think that this stuff deserves to be put on the record as part of the history of our hobby.


The Ballcard Collector, April 1969:

The Sports Trader, March 1969:

The Sports Trader, April 1969:

The Sports Trader, August 1969:

[Leon]

I was doing some searching and found this nugget to read for the last several minutes. Very interesting on early conventions.

[barrysloate]

It's almost comical that the conventions were held at people's homes.

[Leon]

So you are saying the next one isn't at your place?

Originally Posted by barrysloate

It's almost comical that the conventions were held at people's homes.

[barrysloate]

I have room for four tables, and no more than six customers at a time. Refreshments will be in the fridge...help yourself!

[trdcrdkid]

By the way, my avatar is a picture of Irv Lerner, Ray Hess, Ray Medeiros, and Lionel Carter, taken at the second (1970) West Coast convention at Jim Nowell's house. Last year I sent it to Ray Medeiros, who said he had never seen the picture before but that everybody was taking a lot of pictures that day. I posted about that 1970 convention here:

http://net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=221637