Goodwin Goldfaden, Hobby Pioneer

[vrechek]

I just learned from Goodie Goldfaden's great nephew that Goodie passed away Sunday night January 1, 2012, after battling illness for several weeks. The funeral is on Wednesday in the LA area. I haven't seen the obituary yet which should be in the LA Times. To the best of my knowledge, Goodie is survived by his wife Frieda, of Sherman Oaks.

Goodie was born in Cleveland on the same date as Joe DiMaggio (11/24/14) and started selling sports publications in 1925! I met Goodie a few years ago and wrote about him in Sports Collectors Digest. Goodie opened a store for sports publications in LA, considered himself the first dealer in strictly sports collectibles, sold baseball cards as well, attended the first card and memorabilia conventions, sold a half-million sports publications to Notre Dame University, and then started over again accumulating tons of publications. He sold his entire inventory more times than he could remember - and Goodie had a very good memory. He was still advertising to buy sports publications within the past few years, and still very sharp, driving through LA traffic to get things out of his warehouse. I was fortunate to have met Goodie and thank Jim McConnell for introducing me. Before I met Goodie I talked to Bill Mastro about him, who described him as a little bulldog. I would add that he was a very likeable bulldog. Thinking of Goodie brings a smile to my face today.

Please share any thoughts you may have about Goodwin Goldfaden. I will be doing a story for Sports Collectors Digest.

[Rob D.]

Really sad news. The title of your post says it well: a hobby pioneer.

I have a few publications in my collection that have a sales receipt from him tucked within the pages. I always thought that was a nice bonus.

[slidekellyslide]

97 years old...that's a good long life if you can still manage to get around at that age. Never met the man, but have always enjoyed the stories from California collectors who crossed paths with him over the years.

[barrysloate]

Over my years in the hobby buying books and publications, it was not unusual to find one stamped "Goodwin Goldfadden" inside the front cover. I came across many like that.

[Chris Counts]

Like so many collectors, Goodwin was my introduction to the business of vintage cards. In the early 70s, when i was 11 or 12, my dad drove me and my brother to his pint-sized shop for the first time. Two things were clear to me from the start — first, we were walking into the greatest collection of baseball memorabilia on earth; and second, Goodwin was one cranky son-of-a-gun. To this day, I cringe when I picture him sorting through a stack of cards. He had this maddening habit of shuffling them like a poker dealer, occasionally tapping the deck nervously against some flat surface and smashing countless corners of perfectly nice cards in the process. Later, he warmed up to me at shows. Perhaps he simply had no patience with kids. I recall making deals with him and it was never easy. His wife back then (was it Esther?) was the perfect compliment to Goodwin's grumpy demeanor, always friendly and gracious. Rest in peace, Goodwin ...

[Chris Counts]

This thread might be worth moving over the the main board ...

[baseballart]

I had a few phone calls and letters with Goodwin in the early '90s. If I recall, his letterhead had 3 or 4 different images- ii'll try and dig it out

One regret I have is that I didn't interact more and get more knowledge from him in the book area. And certainly inspirational to all of us for continuing to work at something he loved well past retirement age

Max

[ocjack]

RIP Goodie.

Used to visit his shop in the 60's. Place looked like a small tornado had hit it. But ask him for a 1905 Joe Schlotnik and he would go into the back and come out with a handful of them in about 30 seconds. He did have a bad habit of fanning a group of cards in his hand and flipping through them to find the number you needed. Even then, I used to cringe when he did that.

Another part of our history gone.

[CarltonHendricks]

Wow..I never had the pleasure of meeting him but I think I called him once or twice looking for broadsides or something many years ago. I think I recall seeing his ads in antique journals when I first got in the hobby in the mid 80's. I had a friend who is or probably 66 years old now...told me stories of going to his store when he was a yongster in Los Angeles...said his mom would drive him there if I recall....From what I gather he was a national treasure...it was sad to see this thread. Reading the posts are very interesting though.

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by vrechek

I just learned from Goodie Goldfaden's great nephew that Goodie passed away Sunday night January 1, 2012, after battling illness for several weeks. The funeral is on Wednesday in the LA area. I haven't seen the obituary yet which should be in the LA Times. To the best of my knowledge, Goodie is survived by his wife Frieda, of Sherman Oaks.

Goodie was born in Cleveland on the same date as Joe DiMaggio (11/24/14) and started selling sports publications in 1925! I met Goodie a few years ago and wrote about him in Sports Collectors Digest. Goodie opened a store for sports publications in LA, considered himself the first dealer in strictly sports collectibles, sold baseball cards as well, attended the first card and memorabilia conventions, sold a half-million sports publications to Notre Dame University, and then started over again accumulating tons of publications. He sold his entire inventory more times than he could remember - and Goodie had a very good memory. He was still advertising to buy sports publications within the past few years, and still very sharp, driving through LA traffic to get things out of his warehouse. I was fortunate to have met Goodie and thank Jim McConnell for introducing me. Before I met Goodie I talked to Bill Mastro about him, who described him as a little bulldog. I would add that he was a very likeable bulldog. Thinking of Goodie brings a smile to my face today.

Please share any thoughts you may have about Goodwin Goldfaden. I will be doing a story for Sports Collectors Digest.

Hi,
Thanks for posting this and I look forward to reading your upcoming article. I did read your earlier article on early pioneer Goodie Goldfaden.

I actually cut and pasted the above coments and sent them to my close friend and fellow baseball ticket collecter Dan Busby. I personally have been collecting baseball tickets since 1972, but Dan precedes me by many years. He is a true pioneer in this niche collectible hobby. He has amassed an unbelievable collection of Post Season baseball, Opening Day and archive of baseball tickets tracing all years of virtually every baseball team.

Since he is not on net54 he asked that I post these comments on his behalf:

Scott,

Please feel free to pass my comments along to the right person.


"Goodie believed in advertising so his ads were commonly in the early hobby papers. I connected with him in the late 50's. I was collecting baseball scorecards and programs at the time, he was the best source I could find. When I would buy World Series programs from him, the ticket from the game was often stapled to the front cover--Goodie hadn't even mentioned the ticket was coming. I guess tickets to the games didn't seem to have much value or Goodie would definitely have wanted some money for them. I knew of no baseball ticket collectors. Baseball cards were the only baseball memorabilia being actively collected.


As the World Series programs arrived, I would carefully remove the tickets from the programs and separately store each. Even though I reallly didn't collect tickets, I put them in a box and eventually had a reasonable accumulation of World Series tickets. Several years later, I decided to begin collecting All-Star Game and World Series tickets. But my ticket collecting days began with the ducats that Goodie sent me.


I only met Goodie one time--it was in the summer of 1966, I believe. I made an appointment to meet him at the store. It was the middle of the day on a weekday, but an appointment was important. Goodie only let one person in the store at a time and I was the customer of the morning. While he was all business, he was guininely kind. I enjoyed a relationship with Goodie for several decades. He provided a very positive service to collectors of sports memorabilia. The likes of Goodie will not come our way again."



Dan Busby