A Troubling Hobby Developement

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Posted By: William Heitman

Barry Halper incorporated a company named the National Association of Sports Collectors (it's been quite a few years, so I may have the name a little wrong). It was in 1976. He asked me to sit on the original board of directors and asked for suggestions on what the organization could do. I wrote Barry a letter in which I suggested several things--provide a means to arbitrate disputes between collectors, push for grading guidelines and a National Sports Collectors Convention(where the free flow and exchange of information would be foremost). These were the things I wanted to see as a condition of my sitting on the board. Well, we did some free advertising through George Lyons' and my articles in the Trader Speaks. I did one arbitration--and it remains the only one that was ever done. A few years later, Gavin Riley got hold of Barry's and my correspondence when he was interested in such a group. He read my letter about the National Convention and took it from there. And wow, when I went to the National this year (my first in 14 years), I could hardly believe what it had become.