Jerry Spillman Passing

[sb1]

Longtime hobby collector, researcher and writer Jerry Spillman passed away Nov. 28, 2020 in Sun City, FL.

Many will remember Jerry for his research on Rose Postcards, W600's, Baseball Currency and many other issues. Jerry had a passion for collecting, and pursued many genre's besides sports, coins were another area where he was an avid researcher and collector.

Many people on this board have gotten portions of their collections from Jerry either directly or indirectly as he had sold off portions over the last decade.

He will be missed at the National and the many other shows he frequented, as well as his informative posts on this site.

[Casey2296]

Although I didn't know Jerry I can appreciate all he's done for our hobby. Thoughts and prayers to the Spillman family.

[Baseball Rarities]

Such horrible news. I just saw him in person this last March. I believe that he was 91 or 92. He was hurting a bit physically due to a couple of falls that he had, but was still smart as a whip.

Those who knew Jerry will remember him for his stubbornness when it came to making card deals and his extreme generosity when it came to sharing his hobby knowledge. He was definitely a unique character.

The articles that he wrote in the different hobby publications were always extremely well researched and are considered the go to source for those subjects.

RIP Jerry

[oaks1912]

Definitely a rough week for the hobby. A very knowledgeable collector and willing to share that knowledge. We had not communicated in over a year, but a big loss to many. My condolences to his family

[bdecsports]

When I hear W600's, I immediately think of Jerry, Scott & Kevin. Jerry was a wealth of hobby knowledge, and Kevin summed up Jerry’s personality perfectly! In the last few years, I would see Jerry at some of the FL gulf-coast shows, and he would tell me how the show was horrible because he didn’t find a single W600, Rose Company Postcard, Scrapp, Kalamazoo Bat or any Baseball Currency! Thoughts & Prayers to the Spillman family – RIP Jerry

[h2oya311]

Hobby legend. He will be missed. RIP Jerry.

[Robert_Lifson]

Terrible news to hear of Jerry’s passing. He was truly a “gentleman and a scholar”. His knowledge about our shared interests such as W600 and Rose Postcards and Baseball Currency was unparalleled and not just helpful but amazing to me. I always learned from him about the sets in his focus, and he was always thrilled to help with information for auction writeups.

Jerry was very amusing about his approach to dealings at times. I remember when the “make-your-own” Rose Postcards of the Springfield Ponies Team of the Connecticut State League surfaced. Some were auctioned by me and they wound up on checklists not noted as being different from traditional Rose Postcards (Rose also sold the cards with photos and identification plates “blank” so non-Major League teams could order kits to make their own cards.) The checklisting confusion was like a dagger in Jerry’s heart! He wanted this noted, corrected, emphasized...if he could have had a plane flying with banners over the National Convention about this he would have...he was on a mission to fix this checklisting injustice! (as the “make-your-own” style cards truly were made totally differently and deserved to be distinguished from traditional Rose postcards featuring Major Leaguers as printed by the company). No one - and I mean no one! - cared about this in quite the same way as Jerry! As usual, he was right. It was part of his charm and (for me) part of the fun in communicating with him that he expected everyone else to be as outraged.


Another classic Jerry Spillman story I will always remember: Once, years ago (2013), we were reviewing items he was thinking of auctioning. One group he had at that time he was thinking of selling was a “set” of baseball currencies: One each of the eight different basic known styles. Included were a couple REALLY rare ones (1888 St. Louis and the 1893 All Stars currency).

Jerry wanted them all to be auctioned individually but I said “No, Jerry! This is incredible! No one has EVER auctioned a set of these before. They’ll go wild!” The common styles were not a hot commodity - currencies were just not on the radar of most collectors because they are not “cards”. And the rare ones - who had ‘em? No one! My thinking was that collectors who never gave this set any thought would realize the “error of their ways” and trip over themselves to bid. “We’ll give it a two page spread, Jerry. No one will miss it! And we’ll put a minimum bid of $5000 on them.” A $5000 minimum, I explained, would show great respect for them in terms of value but be low enough that anyone with even a passing interest - even just for resale - could bid away with reckless abandon. WITH GREAT RESERVATION Jerry went along with me on this. Kicking and screaming but he was on board.

I don’t have to tell you what happened...the lot practically died. The collecting world at this particular time wasn’t ready for a set of nineteenth century baseball currencies. I was stunned. I remember trying to point these out to serious collectors and this particular week all anyone wanted was cards. Normal cards! Cards yes. Currencies no.

Here’s the lot listing. The set sold for $7110. And that included the buyers premium.

https://robertedwardauctions.com/auc...ncy-collection

After the auction I wasn’t really looking forward to talking to Jerry about this result.

Usually auction results are great. But not this time, not this lot! When Jerry got me on the phone you could have heard a pin drop. Now, Jerry was a “big boy” and this was minor in the context of his many more significant successes in our many other dealings. But every time I talked to him for the next year, the currencies and their poor auction performance came up..and had to be discussed. Every time! Finally one day he asks me if now I think it was a mistake to auction the currencies as a set. I told him “Yes, I wish I had known they would do so poorly offered as a set. I was wrong on that one, Jerry. I meant well but I’d have to call my approach to the currencies, in retrospect, a mistake.” He then said “OK, that’s what I wanted to hear. I appreciate you saying that.” And he never mentioned them again!

RIP Jerry. Deepest condolences to Jerry’s friends and family.

[Vintagecatcher]

Very sad news regarding Jerry's passing. Although I never had the pleasure of meeting Jerry, I always looked forward to his posts on Rose Company Postcards and W600 Sporting Life Cabinets. Another great loss to the board.

Patrick

[sb1]

Rob is spot on with his memories of Jerry.

Once he got his mind set one on something, he NEVER let it go. He would cover the same ground over and over on his latest peeve(which might well be 5 years past), every time we would talk. Or he would email me and want me to speak up on the issue as well.

I had so many dealings with him, several of which were standoff's, as Jerry would really dig his heals in most of the time on a deal. He knew what he had, he knew what you needed and he leveraged it for all it was worth. But after every deal we were as friendly as before. Just part of the art of the deal and the hobby.

He was one of the old school collectors where sets were meant to be collected, studied and appreciated.

He will be missed by many!

[1880nonsports]

although I have some. I met Jerry around 30 years ago (?) when he was still teaching as was I. I was just getting into 19th century baseball cards after getting my first - an N43 large Ginter Champions card from Rich Galasso that had appeared in an auction in SCD :-) We were to meet to talk about Goodwin, Kimball, Ginter issues and I think we did so at a library (his idea) followed by a visit to his house. He brought down xerox copies of his N43's to look at! We bonded as an odd couple - he could be unrelenting and I can be a pain in the ass - we both loved the art and content of the "N" cards and we were always willing to discuss the nuances including the packs even when Jerry was wrong . We'd meet for an occasional breakfast or for something at one of the National's - when he bought that recording camera and went around taking pictures and interviews - he never lost his focus despite his failing hearing :-0
I have on my wall a triangular Old Judge banner with flying cherubs I first saw on Jerry's wall on that very first day we met. He said he wanted to sell it but guess it was a pricing thing (CRS) and I didn't buy it. Few years later while thumbing through an Oser auction catalog I spy a lot with a tiny pic (old style flimsy magazine auction catalog-each lot picture was like 1" square) - it's the banner! You could not tell what it was if you didn't know in advance. I "won" it - might have been only bidder. Oh boy. I didn't tell him right away - held off a bit - he went on a rant about auctions and devil's incarnate but of course it wasn't my fault.
He was stubborn with a big heart. RIP Jerry......

[oldjudge]

I remember Jerry going around the National with his camera taking videos of the event. He was an interesting guy and he will certainly be missed.

[Joe_G.]

Very sorry to hear this news. I've been gathering some details, with Jerry in mind, on a cigarette pack history post. I've been able to recently answer several open questions we've shared over the last couple years. I hadn't heard from him in awhile, but can share he was as lively as ever the last couple times we did correspond.

Thoughts and Prayers to Family & Loved Ones.

[bobbvc]

Got some great W600's from him as well as some free advice. Really wish I had met him in person.

[terjung]

I'm very sorry to hear of Jerry's passing. I always enjoyed our interactions. The hobby is just a little bit less bright today. Rest in peace, Jerry.

[Kevin Savage]

I think I met Jerry at the 1981 National in Plymouth, Michigan- and I remember him as being a wealth of hobby information- especially for a 20 year old with a skull full of mush- like myself. He was always the perfect
gentleman and would stop by for a visit- every time I saw him at a show from there on out. (Though in later years I rarely had any cards he needed)

I have always appreciated the guys that were in this hobby way before me- and were welcoming to me. My late father once said "We all drink from wells we didn't dig"- and I feel that way about guys like Jerry.

I will miss seeing him at the National - and I hope he knew how much guys like me appreciated him. RIP Jerry.

[autograf]

Don't know when I really "met" Jerry but my first recollection of him was in 1996 at the National in Anaheim. I bought my first W600 from Ron Vitro at an East Coast National show while working in NJ for UPS. It was Bobby Wallace with a glassine sleeve. My second came from Everything Baseball in Oakland, NJ and was Van Haltren--also with a sleeve. Those were probably in 1995 or early 1996. I then bought 8-10 from Rand Bailey at a Pittsburgh show. Then I met Jerry in Anaheim and he had some in his case. They were then, like they always were, above what would be considered 'reasonable and customary' pricing. But since there likely weren't many more in the room, I think I bought 3-4 of them from him. And we talked from then to now, every time we saw each other at Nationals primarily and via email occasionally.

As everyone has noted Jerry was generous with his signifiant research on W600's. I remember getting my first cut of his checklist on a 3.5" diskette mailed to me sometime after that 1996 national. I used that checklist while I collected W600's with making just a few updates to it from things I found or cabinets I found that he had not checklisted. He was always gracious when I confirmed a cabinet he had surmised but had not seen and I always tried to get him a photocopy or later a .jpg of the cabinet.

When I sold my 130+ W600's in 2002 or 2003, Jerry gave me some advice that I didn't take then which parallels Rob's story of the baseball currency--sell the W600's individually or in team groups. I also took advice of keeping them together which proved to be not the best direction. But que sera sera! We all have many stories like that of 'what could have been'.

Jerry was always an affable guy and when I started my nonsports auction he emailed me quite a few times about his nonsports collection. I know he also collected coins and currency and was instrumental in some local clubs in Florida there and also research on those collectibles.

I'll miss Jerry's face and interesting (and sometimes difficult) conversations. Prayers to his family through this difficult time. 2020 has been particularly difficult for many of us. We can only hope 2021 will be a little more forgiving.

[BeanTown]

RIP Jerry. Used to chat with him at TIKs table every year at the National. Glad to have a couple of his items in my collection and will always remember teaming up with him for the last article he wrote on baseball currencies which was published in the Vintage Beckett. He was always very direct and blunt but always willing to share knowledge which isn’t always easy to get in the hobby. He will be missed but not forgotten.