Going to card shows in the 1970s

TCMA · #1 12-21-2019, 01:09 PM

BTW, the Wagner card shown in that video is the Dover reprint, which was based on my dad's card.

perezfan · #2 12-21-2019, 02:12 PM

What a great thread...

Wish I could contribute, but the earliest show I can recall is the late '80s monthly card show held at the Scottish Rite Center in Mission Valley (Hotel Circle, San Diego). It was rather small in comparison to a National, but was such an exciting time to be a collector. Got to meet Tony Gwynn (RIP) a few times, and he was as friendly, nice and humble a celebrity as you'll ever meet.

On a separate note... It's so refreshing to read through a thread with true long-time collectors contributing. No images of bar codes or phony contrived slabs holding trimmed/colored cards. Gotta love the early days before TPGs came along and corrupted/tainted our hobby.

oaks1912 · #3 12-21-2019, 06:15 PM

Growing up in the Bay Area of the 1970's, I always felt it was a great place to be a younger collector. We had numerous advanced guys that treated the kids (me ) fairly and taught us a lot on collecting and trading. From Jim Horne, who was the first serious collector I met to Dick Dobbins, John Spalding, Bill Weiss Don McPherson, Don Hazelwood, Lou CHericoni, Doug McWilliams, George Callahan, Barry Colla, and many others. We had at least four local shows per year. and all were one day shows. The emphasis was material released in our region or featuring local teams / leagues. The PCL was dominant at that time, though there were enough major league issues to keep collectors busy. At Dick Dobbins' Acalanes show (1973-1982) a souvenir would be issued most of the time (Including this 1976 unissued card of Dolph Camilli). Ironically I had coffee earlier today with legendary, though retired, collector Dwight Chapin & we talked about a lot of great names we both interacted with in the past.The few bad apples were identified quickly and surprising for old-school technology, word spread quicker about them than in today's internet world. The shows from that era will always remain among my favorite, not just for the material acquired, but for the decades long friendships that formed then.

mr2686 · #4 12-21-2019, 10:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by perezfan

What a great thread...

Wish I could contribute, but the earliest show I can recall is the late '80s monthly card show held at the Scottish Rite Center in Mission Valley (Hotel Circle, San Diego). It was rather small in comparison to a National, but was such an exciting time to be a collector. Got to meet Tony Gwynn (RIP) a few times, and he was as friendly, nice and humble a celebrity as you'll ever meet.

On a separate note... It's so refreshing to read through a thread with true long-time collectors contributing. No images of bar codes or phony contrived slabs holding trimmed/colored cards. Gotta love the early days before TPGs came along and corrupted/tainted our hobby.

I went to a few of those shows, also got my first Tony Gwynn there as well. Fun times...simpler times.

cardsagain74 · #5 12-23-2019, 12:53 AM

The "what if I bought all those for $5 each in the past" scenario happened in just a few years for me. I was an 80s kid and starting getting into the business in '88 (after somehow bumping into how much my "old" early-mid 80s cards had really started to go up.) It was during that very short period of time when the junk boom had just begun, but people didn't care about any sport but baseball quite yet.

Three or four years later those Michael Jordan rookies (that just gathered dust in the cases at that first show with $4 price tags) were selling for 400. Similar explosions with Montana ,Gretzky, Lemieux, and so on.

Not what I expected to already have a "what if" story like that by just age 18

geosluggo · #6 12-23-2019, 07:37 AM

I started collecting as an elementary schooler in the 1970s in the Washington, D.C., area. There were only a few shows a year that my other collector friends and I knew of. The Internet didn't exist and no one I knew subscribed to any hobby publications, so we must have heard about them from the one or two brick-and-mortar card shops in the area. The first show I went to was an hour's drive away at a Quality Inn or Best Western near Baltimore in 1975. After weeks of anticipation and begging of parents, someone's dad agreed to drive four of us. No cards were in sleeves or top loaders back then. One friend bought a 1954 Aaron for $5 or so, which seemed ridiculously high to me. I remember buying a 1959 Clemente and a 1960 Clemente and Aaron for less than $1 apiece because as a 5th grader the thought of spending $1 or more on a single card was incomprehensible.

MooseDog · #7 12-23-2019, 08:24 AM

This might be a weird perspective but my best memories of those shows from my teenage self was the way I was treated with kindness and respect by men such as Dick Dobbins, Steve Brunner, Will Davis, Doug McWilliams, Nick Peters, Richard Masson, Stan Marks, and dozens of others.

I can honestly say that my interactions with them helped me greatly in learning how to treat others.

On the other hand there were guys like Goodie Goldfadden...

Tony Gordon · #8 12-23-2019, 11:00 AM

In 1978 I was 12 years old and a card-carrying member of the Chicagoland Sports Collectors Association which put on three shows a year at the Hillside Holiday Inn. For reference, Hillside is southeast of Rosemont. Those Hillside shows were a frenzy. It was jam-packed with people and very difficult to get to the dealer tables. I never made it to each table because of the crowds. The majority of dealers had their cards in binders. There were no display cases, no top loaders or card savers.

Cards were CHEAP! I was initially fascinated with 1956 Topps and was able to purchase each star, except Mantle, for around $20 each. In March of 1979, I got my first job with the sole purpose to raise funds to buy sports cards. I bought a lot of stuff through SCD. There were also more shows in 1979 and me and my friends would take the train from the suburbs to Downtown Chicago for shows. As the 1980's hit, card shops started to open. The ones located up north where I lived were very expensive and I continued to buy out of SCD and go to shows. By the end of the 1980's there were five or six shows on each Saturday and Sunday in the Chicago area. Now you'll find just two or three a month in the Chicago area with the show in south suburban Orland Park coming the closest to those old Hillside shows.

oaks1912 · #9 12-23-2019, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MooseDog

This might be a weird perspective but my best memories of those shows from my teenage self was the way I was treated with kindness and respect by men such as Dick Dobbins, Steve Brunner, Will Davis, Doug McWilliams, Nick Peters, Richard Masson, Stan Marks, and dozens of others.

I can honestly say that my interactions with them helped me greatly in learning how to treat others.

On the other hand there were guys like Goodie Goldfadden...

To be fair on Goodie Goldfaden, he disliked ALL kids. HIs first wife, Esther, was a SAINT, in many ways. I would often wait for Goodie to leave the table and Esther would always knock off a little for me and she had a million dollar smile. In later years Goodie and I would talk at length over the phone. I suppose that I was no longer that nuisance of a kid from four decades earlier

Exhibitman · #10 05-22-2020, 08:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MooseDog

This might be a weird perspective but my best memories of those shows from my teenage self was the way I was treated with kindness and respect by men such as Dick Dobbins, Steve Brunner, Will Davis, Doug McWilliams, Nick Peters, Richard Masson, Stan Marks, and dozens of others.

I can honestly say that my interactions with them helped me greatly in learning how to treat others.

On the other hand there were guys like Goodie Goldfadden...

Me too! it was my first experience of being taken seriously by adults.

Arsenal83 · #11 12-25-2019, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TCMA

BTW, the Wagner card shown in that video is the Dover reprint, which was based on my dad's card.

Does your dad still own the Wagner or was it sold?

TCMA · #12 12-25-2019, 11:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arsenal83

Does your dad still own the Wagner or was it sold?

He had that on for a few years but it was sold in the 70�s when he picked up another Wagner.

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