Dealers (or fellow collectors) who lit the fire

[sox1903wschamp]

For me it was my childhood friend from Waltham, MA. From age 8-15, we collected every year of Topps cards from 68-75 . When I was 15, my family moved from Boston to Kansas City and I said goodbye to my friend.

It was tough to stay in touch those days from 1500 miles apart but I went back and visited 3 years later and he had been busy collecting all of the "old" sets from the 40's and 50's in that time and had bought out every collection in the town it seems because he had an organized unreal collection that just left me in awe. I was hooked.

From there, I found the back of the Sporting News for my first "old" cards which I think were 62 Topps and then on to subscriptions to SCD and the Trader Speaks in 78 or 79 and my first card show in St.Louis in 79 at the Holiday Inn.

I have lost touch with my childhood friend a long time ago but he was my inspiration for becoming a collector.