Whatever happened to your card dealer of the past?

[theseeker]

I first discovered there was such a thing as a full-time card dealer by noticing a tiny ad in the back of a Street and Smith's Baseball annual. The ad was placed by none other than Kit Young out of San Diego, CA. It opened up a whole new world as before then I, along witrh all my friends, only knew of grocery and variety/candy stores as suppliers.
Is Kit Young still around? I know the shop still is doing business but, like Larry Fritsch Cards, it's a shell of it's former self. Also wonder about the Card Collectors Company. I know it went under not long after new ownership but, what about the original owners? I know Joseph Pasternack is selling whats left of the old CCC Reprint sets on Ebay. He had his own internet site, Champions of Sports, but no longer maitains it.
And that brings me to one more question.....While we all know what happened to whats left of the old dealers-- they reduced overhead by selling on the internet. But why are most of them now choosing Ebay as there main source of sales rather than their own website?
One of the last holdouts was Dean's Cards. For the first time he has a ton of listings on Ebay. Going out of business? Not that I'd miss him, just curious.

[Jerry G]

I remember receiving his mimeographed auction sheets in the early 1970's. There were no pictures and scans were unheard of. I mailed in lots of bids, but only had two wins. The wins were my first two 1933 Goudey Babe Ruths. I stretched my budget and got 'em for 25 bucks each.

At some point the auctions quit coming and I never heard of him again.

[Jayworld]

I began ordering from Richard Gelman's Card Collector's Company about 1977 when I was 10. I remember ordering T206 cards in poor condition for 50 cents each, and also filling out my 1977 Topps sets (he offered all singles at different price points), as well as buying lots of cards (he would offer lots of 25, 50 and 100 different from various years). That's how I started my 1976 Topps set.

I also ordered from Donn Jennings out of Alabama, as I received his catalog about once every other month in the late 1970s.

Others that come to mind were the Mid-Atlantic Coin Exchange (dealt in lots of Bowman cards), Hal's Nostalgia, and of course, Renata Galasso.

I never ordered from Larry Fritsch cards, even when he advertised (full page ads) in Baseball Cards magazine and SCD back in the early 1980s. I always thought he was too high, and he sold his sets for at least $3-5 over other dealers at the time.

Best deal I ever got from a catalog dealer; $9.99 postpaid 1979 Topps mint set from Leon Rock. Still have the set. Also paid $3.50 for the Wonderbread Battlestar Galactica set from Leon. Have no idea what happened to him or the others, although I did read somewhere that Larry Fritsch bought out the Card Collector's Company stock....

[Digital Man]

Realize this is an old thread but thought I would post anyways. I also used Jim Elder back in the early 70's as well as Gar Miller from N.J. and the The Trading Card Co. out of Dearborn, Michigan.

What's really sickening is I kept many of their pricelists and when I'm in the mood to cry I'll pull them out and pine for the days when a 52 Mantle could be ordered through the mail and delivered for $5.00. My budget for cards back in the late 60's early 70's was (4-5) cents each and although any Bowman or Topps from the 50's was readily available, their prohibitive pricing of 25 cents per card was simply too much for me. I was looking at an order form I filled out but never submitted from the early 70's listing 1966 Mays, Frank, Brooks and Yaz .... 9 cents each.

Fortunately I bought my entire collection at these prices and have never sold or traded any of them. Like all of us ........ I just wish I had bought more.

[Hot Springs Bathers]

I believe that Jim Elder or part of his family is still operating on eBay under jimelder01 and jimelder02? Florida address and all their listings were for vintage programs. I contacted them before an auction last year and received a very nice response.

As of last check you can google Gar Miler and he operates a website that resembles some of the old price lists dealers mailed out.

I bought a ton of cards from Gar back in the 1980's with a great system. I would mail him what I could afford, usually $25-30 and he would fill my T205 and T206 needs. It was exciting because I never knew what I was getting every 2-3 weeks. We then moved on to Bowmans. He always gave me great bargains and was/is just a super nice fellow.