Hey guys,
I just signed up to Net54 earlier this week. Looking forward to reading and contributing to the forums. I thought I'd throw a few lines out to introduce myself.
Although born in Detroit, I now happen to live in Glasgow, Scotland and being an overseas collector of vintage items certainly has its challenges - although its not nearly as tough as it was 20 years ago!!
Since 1997, I’ve been fortunate enough to be a member of a group of vintage baseball card enthusiasts called OBC (Old Baseball Cards). Thanks to OBC, my collection has grown, but more importantly I’ve made many friends with whom I share a common interest.
I was 13 when I moved to Scotland in 1973, but those 13 years were long enough for me to develop a lifelong love affair with the Detroit Tigers. For me, Ernie Harwell was the true sound of summer, and watching guys like Norm Cash, Al Kaline, Willie Horton and Mickey Stanley strut their stuff at Tiger Stadium was always fun. I'm really looking forward to the one-two punch of Miggy Cabrera and Prince Fielder in this year's lineup.
I started collecting cards in 1969 and thanks to an older cousin who passed a lot of his stuff along to me, I had mostly complete sets from 1960-1964 and 1968-1973 by the time we moved overseas. The bad news is that 95% of my collection didn't come to Scotland with me.
I didn't return to the States again until 1988, a vacation which rekindled my interest in card collecting. Another visit in 1990 saw me starting to buy cards again, at that point mainly Tigers from the 1960s. Through the first half of the 1990s, I did most of my buying online form dealers such as Bill Henderson and Solomon Cramer. My collecting really took off in 1997 when I discovered and joined the OBC online group, of which I remain a proud member to this day.
When I stated collecting again, my goals were to pick up Tigers, and to reconstruct the sets that started me off - 1969 to 1973 Topps. Things have expanded somewhat since then! Here's a list of what I work on these days:
- Detroit Tigers cards of all eras
- Tigers related items and memorabilia - books, mags, autographs, bats, gloves, balls.....anything Tigers related.
- Bobby Thomson items - cards and memorabilia associated with the most famous ballplayer to be born here in Glasgow, Scotland.
- Detroit Red Wings cards of all eras
- Detroit Lions cards of all eras
- Topps Baseball 1957-1959, 1962, 1963, 1966, 1967
- Topps and OPC Hockey 1968-1973
- Topps Football 1969-1972
- Topps Heritage Baseball (the only UV product I routinely buy)
My wantlist in full can be accessed via the link at the bottom of this message.
I hope that gives you a bit of a flavor of who I am. See you round the boards!!
Glenn