Tell your stories Of dealings with legends of the hobby

[vintagechris]

After readong Bruce and Old Mill's stories, would love to hear some more stories that people have of dealings they had with some of the legnds of the hobby.

[bbcard1]

The two people I dealt with who were really pretty significant in the hobby were Paul Pollard who had a great collection...a lot of the reprint sets that are popularly available were made from Paul's collection...Paul lived in Lynchburg, VA...and the Lambert brothers who had a dandy little shop in Ironton Ohio long before baseball cards became any big deal. I have a low grade Ruth I got for $100 from them that will probably always live in my collection. Paul died a year or so back...long since lost touch with the Lamberts.

[Chris Counts]

I'm going to start with the first hobby legend I met, which was Goodwin Goldfadden, in about 1973. I found an ad somewhere with the address of his Adco Sports Book Exchange in Hollywood, and I convinced my father to drive my brother and I there one Saturday. When we arrived, we discovered the shop was so small that all three of us could barely fit inside. Cards and memorabilia were literally oozing out of every nook and cranny of the musty joint. Goodwin, meanwhile, appeared to have little patience with a pair of pre-teens filled with endless questions about cards. It soon became clear that we had better make a quick purchase before he threw us out. So I asked if we could see some 1957 Topps cards, which I had recently discovered and were just about the oldest cards I had ever seen. No doubt his store was filled with tobacco and early gum cards, but there was no way we were going to see them. We were thrilled, though, that he let us sort through a box of 57s.

It was like digging for gold. My brother and I each grabbed a small stack at about a dime a card. I remember grabbing all the Dodgers I could afford because I was simply amazed to see a card of a BROOKLYN Dodger. My brother and I each handed our stacks to Goodwin so he could tell us how much we owed him. I'll never forget the image of him thumbing through those cards with a look of disgust on his face. As he rifled through the cards, he would from time to time slam each stack against the nearest flat surface, like it was some kind of nervous habit, and in the process, he would ding a bunch of corners (I observed this habit in later transactions as well). Even as a clueless 12-year-old, I was horrified by the way he treated his cards with what seemed like contempt. My dad took the whole thing in stride and handed over a couple dollars for the cards. We thanked him and left, and on the way home my dad stopped nearby and bought us each an Orange Julius. Looking back on it, I realized that the trip to Goody's was my introduction to the business of vintage cards ...

[sox1903wschamp]

Great idea for a thread. I do not really have a story but I did meet Buck Barker when I was teenager back in the late 70's at a card show in St Louis.

I know I would appreciate the meeting more now after reading more of his history but I still remember thinking he was cool old time collector at the time. Even bought a few items from him and he had some great stuff.

[BobbyVCP]

Starting in 1973 I took the bus every Saturday during the summers to Goody's place on Santa Monica Blvd near Fairfax with my $50 I earned from working for my dad. Like a previous poster said it was wall to wall stuff. You would knock on the door he would let you in. I would tell him a few players I would want like Cobb, Mathewson, Johnson, etc and he would go in the back and a few minutes later come back with stacks of cards usually in rubber bands for you to go through and choose. The mentioned names where all $6 each and lower tier HOF's all $4. I only collected HOF players at the time so would usually end up leaving the store with about 10-15 cards each time. The most expensive card I ever bought from him was a T206 Plank for $50. Ruth cards where in the $25-35 range and Gehrig a little lower. I only had interest in Pre-war cards at the time and he had mostly T206, Goudey and Playball. As well for some reason it seemed that every one of his 39 PB's had the sample stamped backs.

[BobbyVCP]

BTW last I heard Goody is still alive and Matt from Beverly Hills Baseball Cards talks to him and visits.

[camlov2]

I remember collecting when I was younger and Jim Horne was always around to share info regarding cards. He even allowed me to look thorugh his collection and help sort out topps sets. Even today we discuss some random set each time we get together. The guy was great growing up, he even helped coach some of my baseball teams...

[Chris Counts]

I met Tom Reid at a Southern California show back in the 1970s when I was just a kid. I remember he was a really nice guy. Just before I left, he handed me his "card," which in this case turned out to be a 1950 American Nut pennant of Tommy Holmes. I still have it ...

[mrmopar]

My only dealings have been during through the mail or later, on ebay. Some of the names I recognized from publications or articles on cards or the annual price guides as contributors. My only ventures outside of small local card shops/shows and mail order/ebay would be to pop into a card shop during my travels (family vacations, US Navy). I have never been to what most would consider a large show, like a National, and the Pacific NW doesn't really seem to be a major hub for sports cards compared to many other places, although there is a long standing card club...WSSCA, of which I am not a member.

http://www.wssca.net/

Not sure who might really be considered hobby legends though. To me, these were people selling cards. I remember buying quite frequently from TCMA and Renata Galasso through the mail in the early/mid 80s. Hall's Nostalgia and The Collector's Den stand out too, as does Card Collectors Co. I somehow got on tmany of their mailing lists for a time, maybe through Baseball Digest ads or some other means. I lived in the Seattle area, so I got catalogs from Michael Cramer's shop and visited it occasionally, before he grew into Pacific Trading Cards. Paul Marchent, BA Murray, Wayne's Shoebox, Kit Young, Bill Henderson, Stan Martucci, etc. are all names I know I bought cards from through the mail too from ads they placed.

I bought a few neat items from Ted Taylor on ebay, who was at one time a Fleet Executive. Got some neat Fleer proof/prototype items and some tougher Brooklyn Dodger autos.

[Exhibitman]

The lesson to take away from these stories is that true collectors are generous with their time, treat other collectors kindly, and encourage the hobby.

[ls7plus]

John Stommen, one of the original founders of Sports Collectors' Digest, was kind enough to pull a 1937 R314 Wide Pens Bob Feller rookie he hadn't originally intended to offer for sale from his personal collection and sell it to me in the early '90's, when I was just getting started in my quest for HOF'er rookie cards. A true gentleman, with a generous character for helping fellow collectors!

Larry