Whatever happened to these long-time dealers?

[Rich Klein]

Originally Posted by Daveyc

Is Kit Young still active? I know he used to advertise everywhere and had set up a hobby trade show that was in Hawaii, I think. He must be getting up there in age.

Kit is doing fine. His business is still going strong. His house in Hawaii burned down in the Maui fires but thankfully no one was hurt during that event. He did find a new place to stay in Hawaii this past winter.

He is reasonably active on facebook.

Rich

[darkhorse9]

When I was a kid (in the late 70's) the dealer that first exposed me to vintage cards was Jim Elder out of Odessa, Florida. Every month I would get his catalog and dream of owning some of them. I remember saving up enough to be able to by a 1951 Bowman (Johnny Wyrostek) and then later a 1941 Play Ball of Harry "Gunboat" Gumpert.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Hilarious. The 51B Wyrostek was the second vintage card I ever purchased. The first was 57T Jablonski. Third, 57T Ditmar. Fourth, 52B Dropo. The Ditmar disappeared years ago, but still have the others. Dropo signed his for me about 30 years ago.

Funnier still is that these cards were all newer when I purchased them than the junk wax that came out at the same time is today.

[jingram058]

Harvey Brandwein, who used to run The National Pastime and also organized card shows, is retired but still living.

[akleinb611]

As I've noted in other postings, my closest hobby friend was Bob Bostoff of Empire State Collectibles. He advertised in SCD and was a HUGE presence in NY-area card shows. His table always featured a little bit of everything, from cards, yearbooks, autographs and whatever. He passed away about fifteen years ago, and anyone who ever did business with him misses him.

One old time dealer I'm curious about is Ted Elmo, an autograph dealer active back in the Sixties(!). He advertised in Baseball Digest and would sell common Hall of Famers on 3x5 index cards for fifty cents. You know, common HOF players like Frisch, Dean, Crawford and Cochrane. He seems to have disappeared by the mid Seventies and I can't find any information about him at all, except form some indirect references to "something" that may have clouded his reputation?

[Steve_NY]

Alan,

I had hundreds of deals with Bob Bostoff -- he bought from me and vice versa -- but like you said, we all miss him in New York. He and I once bought 110 1952's together at a La Guardia Airport show -- they were all high numbers and we split them up at his house, and we sold the Mantle quickly.

Have you seen Bob Ragoneese lately? He disappeared from the National a few years ago. He had similar displays to Bostoff and me. I hope he is okay.

See you at this year's National? Booth 800, 8 booths in the door.

Steve

[sb1]

Bob, was a great guy. Bought lots of cards from him back in the day. Collectors would certainly be perplexed walking up to his cases in this day and time, with all of his cards, stacked raw and string tied or rubber banded.

[DHogan]

Is Dolloff Sports Cards in New Hampshire still around ? I called to request a catalog last fall and never received one.

[lumberjack]

When the Jim Chapman Deadball photography book was being put together, I made an attempt to contact Lew Lipset, who never responded.

Okay, I respect that.

My question being, Lew if you are out there, lemme know. You were in the middle of the action from the 1970s and own a ton of history. There are a lot of questions for which we don't have answers. Once us old guys are gone, some cool history goes with us.

Earth to Lew Lipset, Earth to Lew Lipset, contact Mike Mumby. It ain't too late.

[mannequin1]

What about Greg Bussineau (Superior Sportscards)? I know he later went into auctions but haven't heard whether he's still active in years.

Philip Tremont was a well known Texas dealer of vintage cards in the 80's-90s. Whatever happened to him?

[JimStinson]

Originally Posted by akleinb611

As I've noted in other postings, my closest hobby friend was Bob Bostoff of Empire State Collectibles. He advertised in SCD and was a HUGE presence in NY-area card shows. His table always featured a little bit of everything, from cards, yearbooks, autographs and whatever. He passed away about fifteen years ago, and anyone who ever did business with him misses him.

One old time dealer I'm curious about is Ted Elmo, an autograph dealer active back in the Sixties(!). He advertised in Baseball Digest and would sell common Hall of Famers on 3x5 index cards for fifty cents. You know, common HOF players like Frisch, Dean, Crawford and Cochrane. He seems to have disappeared by the mid Seventies and I can't find any information about him at all, except form some indirect references to "something" that may have clouded his reputation?

Ted Elmo was a great guy, mostly autographs. He advertised in SCD all of the time. He passed (I'm guessing) at least 15 years ago. I think he had an asthma condition. The cloud on his reputation came out of Ted being too trusting. When the autographed Black and White HOF plaque debacle hit the hobby about 30 years ago Ted bought in and got burned when it turned out they were forgeries. I don't think he ever recovered from that financial hit.
_________________________
Always BUYING Vintage autographs
jim@stinsonsports.com

[akleinb611]

Originally Posted by JimStinson

Ted Elmo was a great guy, mostly autographs. He advertised in SCD all of the time. He passed (I'm guessing) at least 15 years ago. I think he had an asthma condition. The cloud on his reputation came out of Ted being too trusting. When the autographed Black and White HOF plaque debacle hit the hobby about 30 years ago Ted bought in and got burned when it turned out they were forgeries. I don't think he ever recovered from that financial hit.
_________________________
Always BUYING Vintage autographs
jim@stinsonsports.com

Thanks for the information, Jim. I'll never forget how patient Ted was with me - I must have been all of ten years old when I first corresponded with him. I remember that when I sent him fifty cents for a Frankie Frisch index card, I taped two quarters to a card and just dropped it into an envelope. Simpler times. At one point, he offered me a Babe Ruth signed bank deposit slip for forty dollars. Unfortunately, to a twelve year old in 1967, it may as well have been $40,000. I think about that a lot more often than I should...

[whitehse]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

Kit is doing fine. His business is still going strong. His house in Hawaii burned down in the Maui fires but thankfully no one was hurt during that event. He did find a new place to stay in Hawaii this past winter.

He is reasonably active on facebook.

Rich

Wow I have not thought of Kit Young in years.

I remember seeing him at one of the very early National conventions in Chicago when I was probably 20 years old. I stopped to see if he had any interest is four early to mid-60's Topps complete sets I brought with me and told him I felt they were in VG + condition. He looked through the cards and said to a friend sitting next to him "this kid knows how to grade". I felt so honored to have a guy in the hobby like Kit Young pay me that compliment.

We agreed on a price and he grabbed his checks that were laying on the table (it wasnt a check book...it was like he grabbed the next stack of checks out of the box the bank sends you) and wrote me out the biggest check I had ever seen in my life. I shook his hand, said our goodbyes and saw my dad standing there with his eyes wide and mouth hanging open. And all he said was..."you took a check from that guy"? LOL