Wagner T206 Auctioned in 1981

[toppcat]

The irony is that in the 70's Lew used to rail against hobby dishonesty in his monthly TTS column and elsewhere. I met him once, at a big show on Long Island (Nassau Coliseum) decades ago where he had a table and I bought all three Encyclopedias from him. Tried to talk to him as the cash was forked over and he just kinda growled and turned away. I remember thinking this guy should be on top of the world, what's he so grouchy about?

[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by toppcat

The irony is that in the 70's Lew used to rail against hobby dishonesty in his monthly TTS column and elsewhere. I met him once, at a big show on Long Island (Nassau Coliseum) decades ago where he had a table and I bought all three Encyclopedias from him. Tried to talk to him as the cash was forked over and he just kinda growled and turned away. I remember thinking this guy should be on top of the world, what's he so grouchy about?

Same experience here. The one time that I met him, at a show, I checked out the cards on his table, and decided to purchase a T3 in low condition that was in a plastic sheet. His interaction with me was a bunch of grunts...I don't think he ever looked at me, he was busy with something, his head down low. As I was walking away from his table, I noticed that the sheet he handed me also had another, much nicer, T3 on the back side. I went back to the table and pointed out the mistake. Once again, not a word, and no expression of surprise or gratitude, he just yanked the other T3 from the sheet and went back to ignoring the world.

brianp(arker)-beme

[Ricky]

I bought a few vintage cards from him back in the late '80s and when they arrived, always found that they had been overgraded... cards that were VG had been listed as EX. But while Lew may not have been the most accurate grader or the most congenial, there's no question about his contributions towards the understanding of vintage cards.

[sportscardpete]

if the winner of the auction would like to make a tiny profit please pm me.

In all seriousness, thanks for sharing!!

[chriskim]

Come on guys!... pls don't flop this thread to against Mr. Lew Lipset. Lew is one of the legend!

[riggs336]

Originally Posted by chriskim

Come on guys!... pls don't flop this thread to against Mr. Lew Lipset. Lew is one of the legend!

While I never dealt with him in person, I had many interactions with Mr. Lipset

through mail, telephone and email. He was always courteous and helpful.

[brianp-beme]

In all fairness, I was probably in my early to mid 20's when the 'T3 at the card show' incident occurred that I described earlier. He may have just been one of those 'get off my lawn' dealer types when it came to young'uns.

I definitely recognize his contribution to the hobby, and on here I have probably mentioned his Encyclopedia of Baseball Cards books in my posts more often than anyone else. But really, not even to thank me for instantly returning a card he accidentally handed to me for free...?

Brian

[egbeachley]

Originally Posted by chriskim

Come on guys!... pls don't flop this thread to against Mr. Lew Lipset. Lew is one of the legend!

Clearly you weren’t on the wrong end of one of his blatant misrepresentations, to put it nicely.

Great hobby books when there were none but that doesn’t give an excuse.

[68Hawk]

Originally Posted by egbeachley

Clearly you weren’t on the wrong end of one of his blatant misrepresentations, to put it nicely.

Great hobby books when there were none but that doesn’t give an excuse.

That's a pretty harsh take for mine.

Back in the day dealers were all over the place in their descriptions of condition.....some were on the super generous side and a vg-ex card could arrive looking ex+ or better, others called a vg card ex+. Others were what we might call more orthodox in their estimations.

As long as you knew the dealer and their tendencies you had no problem, it wasn't as if their grading assignations changed card to card or week to week.
You knew quickly that they were consistently accurate to your estimations, undergraders or overgraders and you could then decide if the price matched your valuation.

This was waaaaay pre grading companies and people had their own preferences for what made a card attractive.
Back damage wasn't as vital if the paper loss was small, and great centering/registration/color could be considered more important than vg ish corners when assigning a grading opinion.

Think it's pretty poor calling out someone from that time and generation for their take on grading, or whether they were brusk in their social interactions.
Not everyone has to want to break bread and be a hobby friend to not get the name muddied on a collector forum, especially when taking in their contributions to said hobby.

[Fred]

Originally Posted by chriskim

Come on guys!... pls don't flop this thread to against Mr. Lew Lipset. Lew is one of the legend!

Chris,

I'm going to guess that most people making comments about Lew's grading and auction lot description accuracy are not trying to "dis" Lew. Most of us have the utmost respect for him. I continued to bid on items in his auctions even though I've won lots in the past that were "generously" graded and in one case a complete set that was missing 6 cards (out of a set with less than 200 cards - none of the missing cards were key cards).

Lew has contributed so much to the hobby that a lot of us just let it go. Besides, if we really were that aghast of his lot descriptions, we could easily just not bid on things. As for being grumpy, I can see it, but he always seemed willing to spend a little time on the phone (as long it wasn't in the middle of the last day of an auction) to go over questions people would have.

It'd be interesting to know when hobbyists believe the hobby just turned to crap and was more about the Benjamins.

That auction description was such a cool start of a thread - brought back some fun memories.