Video of Lionel Carter

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Posted By: martindl

Here's another article on Lionel and his cards - some duplication from the linked story but some more depth as to some of his purchases, together with his thoughts on the money aspect of the hobby.

Lionel Carter: A world before baseball cards were investments

Lionel Carter remembers it like it was yesterday. The year was 1933 in the rural town of Kolfax, Ill. He was 15 years old.

"I had a nickel in my pocket, and I went to this little drugstore, which doubled as an ice cream store," he recalls. "Something caught my eye – these shiny wrappers and I asked the man, ’what are these?’ He said, ’they’re baseball cards.’ They were one cent apiece, and I said I’ll take five of them."

From that initial purchase of five 1932 DeLong baseball cards, grew one of the most esteemed collections in the world.

"We just bought the bubble gum for the cards that were in the pack," he says. "We’d chew it long enough just to get the sugar out of it and then throw it in the street. We had so much gum out in the street, that we’d used to joke about the cars getting stuck out in it."

During the ensuing years, as Carter moved on from Kolfax with his life – through several jobs, combat service in the Pacific theatre of World War II and finally at the bank where he met his wife and worked for more than 35 years – baseball cards were always a large part of his life.

Sunday night at the Carter home was "card mounting night," when he and his wife, Irma, meticulous placed the cards collected during the week into scrapbooks.

By the 1950s, Carter – and his collection – was known throughout the United States. He corresponded with the country’s most serious collectors, and became a respected contributor to many of the hobby’s early trade publications.

One of the more amazing aspects of the collection is that cards from the early years, roughly 1933 through the 1940s, were purchased by Carter directly from retail establishments. In itself, this is rare in that most collections have been assembled through purchases made at card shows, auctions and other collectible venues, according to fellow collector, Doug Allen, president of Mastro Auctions.

Solely from the standpoint of condition, the Carter collection maintains a distinctive niche in card collecting history.

"Lionel Carter is one of the original baseball card collecting pioneers," Allen said. "His collection is like nothing that I have ever seen. It is as though the cards he collected have been transported in time. They look as good as they did the day they came out of the packs.

"He was a very prolific collector, but he cared about condition. He wasn’t like most guys who – if they had a hole in their collection – they just plugged it in with any old card. From early on, he cared about condition."

A few months ago, Carter’s house was broken into, ransacked and several cards were stolen. Although the cards were ultimately recovered, the Carters decided it was no longer safe to keep the cards in their home. They contacted Mastro Auctions and decided to sell the collection.

"It’s kind of sad – I really don’t want to sell them," the 89-year-old Carter now says. "I always said I’d have them until I die. But, it’s too dangerous, we’ve been told. It’s gotten to the point where we no longer felt safe with them here, and there’s not a big enough bank vault to hold them all."

As a result, the renowned Carter collection will be sold by Mastro Auctions throughout 2007, with the first installment set for phone/Internet auction beginning April 9 and concluding on the 27th of the month.

In the 1950s, his collection was estimated to be worth the "astounding" value of $1,000, Allen said. Today, he sets estimates of the sale "easily at the seven-figure" level. "It will easily sell at $1 million, but it could come into the $2 million range," he says. "There are tens of thousands of cards. We’re going to be grading each and every card

Some of the premiere offerings of the sale include:

• A 1951 Bowman no. 253 Mickey Mantle rookie card. According to Dave Forman, president of Sports Card Guaranty, the company grading the Carter collection, the card is the finest example of its kind. His company said it is a spectacular mint condition card. The opening bid for the card is $5,000.

• The 1938 Goudey "Heads Up" complete set, assembled out of packs purchased by Carter in 1938. Mastro Auctions is offering the cards as either a set or individually, depending on which commands a higher selling price. All of the cards have a consistent look, according to the auction company, and it is obvious the set has been together for nearly 70 years. The set is referred by collectors as the "Heads Up" set, as the format depicts a player’s photographic head shot superimposed on a small cartoon-like drawing of the player’s body. One of the cards includes Hank Greenberg, no. 253, graded SGC 98 GEM 10, the only 1938 Goudey Head’s Up card to be graded so high. Bids for the individual cards will begin at $2,500, with bidding on the set as a whole starting at $10,000.

• Leaf’s 1948 Babe Ruth, no. 3, again graded SGC 96 Mint 9 – one of only two graded cards at this level with none graded higher. Bidding on the card will begin at $5,000.

Ironically, it was never Carter’s intention to begin collecting cards for economic gain. Even today, he disparages the "commercialism" rampant in baseball card circles.

"When I started, I had no idea people would pay these prices for cards," he says. "It’s all about money now. I hate it. Back then, we were all card collectors, we all knew each other, it was just a lot of fun … it wasn’t about the money.

"I just did it for the love of it. But, these people will buy the cards for the investment. We went to all these little shows, and we made a lot of friends. But all these collectors are gone now, I was just a youngster among them … I have the greatest memories – that’s something money can’t buy."