The World According to Mr. Mint

[Econteachert205]

I've seen him set up at the west valley in in west warwick since I was 7. My impression is this, he is a very good business man who does at times rub people the wrong way but also can be very engaging. For all his wealth and success, I feel bad for him. I've watched him thumb through beautiful cards with very little joy whatsoever. It must take a lot to get him charged. I can still rummage through low grade commons for miscuts and registry errors and be thrilled at a 2 dollar purchase. There is a price to pay for turning a hobby into a career.

[jcmtiger]

I set up at many shows where he was a table holder in Michigan. Very aggressive, but he was successful. Not a favorite of mine but had lots of cash and always carried a gun with him. He did buy and sell a bunch of cards.

Joe

[batsballsbases]

Back in my hay day when I was doing shows Alan was always set up at the Rothstein shows.(until a big blow out but thats a story for another day!) Alan was always a pain in the A$$ but we had alot of respect for each other. We would talk he would come to my table, with 100 dollar bills in tow. I did a few very big deals with Alan and one thing I can say when it came to getting paid for something, he really wanted there was no one faster than Alan. If you had something he wanted he usually paid very fair. I found one of the deals in my archives , I had to block out my personal info but let me tell you that was a big deal we did! 10% down I loved it! Wow almost 20 years ago!!

[Rollingstone206]

...

[ooo-ribay]

SCD is still around?

[skelly]

I never met the man, but have to give him credit in that it seems he was ahead of the curve aggressively seeking out collections and putting himself out there in a way that wasn't seen to much in the 80's / when cards took off.
With all due respect, is he still relevant? I feel like the day's of people selling shoeboxes of vintage cards at yard sales, etc are over. Today he has to compete with so many people willing to pay big bucks for good collections. People looking to get rid of cards can now consign to auction houses, sell themselves on ebay and so forth. On top of all that, when he first started out, people didn't realize what they had / that baseball cards could be worth real $. Today, it seems like 10% of the American population has a collection of 1967 vg Mays, 1969 vg Rose type cards, and the genuinely feel these cards are a great deal for you if they sell them at half the beckett value.

[tjv815]

I had two exchanges with him here in Chicago, both positive. The first one was about a dozen years ago. Bobby Thomson was signing autographs. I knew he had played briefly for the Red Sox, but didn't know if he ever had a card of him on the Red Sox. So, I went and asked Mr. Mint. Told me it was the 1960 Topps card. I asked him if he had one, but he didn't.
During a different Chicago show, he was walking the room and I asked him a question about one of the lots for sale in his auction. I think it was a 68 Topps set. He talked to me for a bout 5 minutes. Very nice.

[parkerj33]

I saw him at a show here in Syracuse about 2 years ago. I had heard he was there looking to buy vintage trains, or robots, or something like that. Anyhow, as I walked by he was just sitting there alone doing nothing. I said "Hi Mr. Mint, got anything good today?". He just looked at me and ignored me.... didn't say a word - so i just kept on walking and noted to myself the stories i had heard and the video i had seen probably summed him up accurately.

[Collectorsince62]

He used to do shows in St. Louis a long, long time ago. I remember him lurking outside in the hallway approaching people carrying boxes, hoping to make a buy before they entered the room. I believe he was asked not to come back after that. At a May 1984 show prior to the banishment, he was set up at a dealer table. I walked by and he asked if I had anything to sell. I said no I was just looking for items on my want list. He asked me what I was looking for and one of the cards on my list back then was a NM 1962 7th series checklist. To my astonishment, he turns around and pulls out a box of 1962 NM 7th series checklists. It was like a magic act. What he was doing with them, I have no idea, but I bought five of them for the whopping price of 50 cents each. I'll bet no one else ever bought anything from him for less than a dollar!

[Wite3]

I like Mr. Mint for one reason...he is a draw for people who sell...Back in my early days of collecting there used to be a big show once a year at the L.A. Convention Center. He would set up his table close to the door and people would come to sell to him. I figured out pretty quick that he was not interested in off-grade cards (especially small collections)...as people walked away from his table, I often asked what they had. I picked up some great off-grade cards like '53 Reese, '52 Robinson, '53 Mantle, e-101 Magee, etc. just by hanging around for an hour or so.

Of course, he thought I was poaching his sales and asked me to leave in a not so nice way but the promoter sided with me saying that competition is healthy.

At the National a few years later, I saw him set up again but he was buying everything and was turning the off-grade over to other dealers on the cheap (I think Bill Henderson was set up next to him and he got a bunch of stuff).

Joshua

[slidekellyslide]

I remember when he tried to take over the vintage Star Wars toys hobby....He and Josh Velinsky of Plastic Dreams in New Jersey even started an action figure grading company. I not only had to see his mug in the SCD, but also Toy Shop magazine.

[T206.org]

So that's where all the T206 Titus cards are going.

[rhettyeakley]

IMO there is not a bigger jerk in the hobby than Alan Rosen.

For a few years my brother and I would do the Pittsburgh (Robert Morris) show while I was going through Dental School and before the show would open the regular dealer traffic would stop at our table and make fairly sizable purchases. Alan was always there to make purchases and paid promptly (which was great) but if he wasn't the first one there you could see him getting seriously annoyed, and one year as I was just arriving he was at our table making himself at home going through the stuff we had just brought in and had not yet unpacked making a stack of stuff he wanted to purchase which was a bit annoying but he did buy stuff so no major problem.

Anyways, the last year I did the show Alan was not the first to our table but Terry Knouse Sr. was and I was consummating a deal with Terry when Alan began getting really annoyed and asked for his total and when I replied that I would be with him in just a second he threw my stuff on the table (pretty hard) and started yelling at me that I was an idiot and that that was a "hell of way to do business" with someone of his stature, never mind that I have done more business in my life with Terry. I told him he better leave or there would was going to be a problem.

While he may be nice at times and may increase traffic at a show I have never understood why the other dealers put up with his poaching of all walk-ins and his entitled attitude is not a good thing for the hobby. A complete waste of space that has seen his time as a dominating force in the hobby completely disappear.

[h2oya311]

Originally Posted by Econteachert205

For all his wealth and success, I feel bad for him. I've watched him thumb through beautiful cards with very little joy whatsoever. It must take a lot to get him charged. I can still rummage through low grade commons for miscuts and registry errors and be thrilled at a 2 dollar purchase. There is a price to pay for turning a hobby into a career.

Well said. I hope I never get to that point. I still get giddy over the small purchases. I'd hate to lose my passion for the hobby in exchange for greed/desire to make money. Trust me, I ain't making anything when I sell stuff.

[JohnP0621]

Well said. I hope I never get to that point. I still get giddy over the small purchases. I'd hate to lose my passion for the hobby in exchange for greed/desire to make money. Trust me, I ain't making anything when I sell stuff.
__________________


There is a Big difference between The Dealers and Collectors. We Collectors get Giddy over the items we collect. The Dealers get Giddy from the Money they get from us Collectors.

JP

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by JohnP0621

There is a Big difference between The Dealers and Collectors. We Collectors get Giddy over the items we collect. The Dealers get Giddy from the Money they get from us Collectors.

JP

Where did you learn all this?

There is a big difference between good people and assholes - it doesn't matter what they do for a living, or for fun.

[Duluth Eskimo]

Originally Posted by Runscott

Where did you learn all this?

There is a big difference between good people and assholes - it doesn't matter what they do for a living, or for fun.

This is one of the exact reasons why I don't do shows anymore. Most collectors look at dealers as people who are only in it for the money and want every item for the lowest price they see something on eBay for within the last year. We were all collectors at one time too and continue to be. Dealers just choose to try to turn part of their hobby in to some business.

These same people assume dealers are makings tons of cash and just don't appreciate people or small sales. Exactly like they described assuming Rosen made made millions off of his 52 topps deal and that is why he can say he spent 5 million per year. If I remember correctly Mantles were only selling for around 3,000.

Like I said earlier, the guy is an asshole and it has nothing to do with the fact that he is a dealer. Also, as earlier mentioned by others he would cry like a little baby if he didn't get his front row table and extra attention. He also used to make promoters pay for his table and plane ticket if they wanted to have the Mr Mint draw at their show thus bringing in all the sheep that he loved to deal with. He probably carried a gun so people wouldn't kick his ass when he started running his mouth about how important he is or how much money he spends.

[aaroncc]

The last time I saw him at a show he was buying and selling beanie babies...

[whitehse]

Originally Posted by aaroncc

The last time I saw him at a show he was buying and selling beanie babies...

Ouch! LOL

[Stonepony]

In the late 90s he spent a weekend in KC buying from my dad and I. He stayed at a hotel but ate with us. He didn't complain about my mother's cooking, and for that alone I'll give him a pass

[the 'stache]

I get giddy over the small purchase I make, and the small purchases that other members of the forum make. I'm not kidding. If somebody gets their first pre-war card, for example, even if the thing's in pretty rough shape, and isn't worth more than $10, that person is experiencing the same joy that we've all felt, for the first time. In that moment, they've gleaned what makes our hobby so special. When they have other members of the forum showing interest in their purchase, it reinforces for them that not only are they taking the first step of what could be a magnificent lifelong journey, but they are doing so among friends.

Originally Posted by h2oya311

Well said. I hope I never get to that point. I still get giddy over the small purchases. I'd hate to lose my passion for the hobby in exchange for greed/desire to make money. Trust me, I ain't making anything when I sell stuff.