What Was The Hobby Like Back In The Day?

[Tere1071]

Originally Posted by Seven

I've read many stories of Mr. Mint, but that one is pretty funny. I would love to hear more of the history behind that Association.

Beginning in the early 70s there was a collectors club organized in Orange County, California. One of its inceptors was a gentleman named John Parks who taught at a middle school in Garden Grove. I attended my first show there in 1973, no charge for a table. That day I remember getting a 63 Fleer Cepeda, 51 Bowman Garver and a 52 Topps Willard Marshall. It was during that time I responded to a Fritsch ad and purchased a vending box of 1973 fourth series Topps baseball for the princely sum of 5.00.

I didn't get to return to the Garden Grove location until late 1975. It was a club where you got a membership card and there was a monthly meeting held on the first Thursday. After a few changes in location, it finally settled in Fountain Valley at Mile Square Park where it became a fixture for more than a decade.

Most people who sold at these meetings were primarily collectors. The corner retail store was still the main source for us to buy packs of cards, Paul's Liquor of South Gate, CA was the major contributor to my early collecting (1969-75). We would bring our cards to school to show, much like kids later brought their Pokemon cards to play with. Collecting seemed to be a fairly normal thing to do IF you purchased from a store. I purchased some older cards responding to ads and my peers thought I was crazy spending money that way, I wonder if they would still think the same today.

Sports collectors stores weren't common until the late 70s-early 80s. In 1981 with the inception of Donruss and Fleer it became much easier to purchase cases and many of you who collected as youngsters at that time already know how things turned out. By the mid-90s many of the stores were out of business. Local shows also began to disappear as collectors left the hobby angry that the cards they purchased suddenly weren't worth much.

Collecting in the 1970s seemed magical. It wasn't about investment for most, just having cards took you into another realm. It's easy to wax nostalgic and in 40+ years from now, those actively breaking cases and following collecting investment advice may look back and consider this era special. What stood out for me and perhaps for others was the fun and innocence.