So What’s Your Story?

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Posted By: John

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Posted By: Pcelli60

This guy is what collecting is all about..I would love to buy you a drink and talk about the set and the era they played in...

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Posted By: warshawlaw

I've recently realized that if it was not for the fine folks I've met here and elsewhere in collecting, I would probably have sold off my cards or gone inactive. I had such a blast at the National and at local shows that I now spend as much time shooting the breeze as buying cards at shows.

I have been collecting since I was 5 years old. Every Friday night, after dinner, my parents would take me for ice cream at the local ice cream place at the mall in Mahopac, NY where I'd get a conical scoop of ice cream (odd looking scoops) and more important a pack or two of cards. 1971 was my first big year; I probably had most of the set by the end of the summer. I saw my first really old cards a year or two later when my grandmother moved out of her big apartment and across town to be closer to my family. Along with my uncle's old toys (including a first year of issue Star Trek Enterprise model with flashing lights--wish I still had that) and penny collection, I got several 1960 leaf cards.

Since my parents were into antiques, I'd often get dragged along to the stores throughout the Hudson River valley, where I'd make a general pest of myself asking for old cards. My first one, a 1952 Topps Walt Dropo, was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen (and I still have it). I soon found an antique store in Mahopac that had a big box of old cards in the back and a nice dealer who would let my parents drop me off while they shopped so I could go through the box and buy 14 cards for a buck (Ah, the old days when parents in small towns trusted their neighbors weren't filthy pervs who'd assault their youngsters the moment they were left alone). I spent countless hours going through the box of cards and pulling 14 for a buck. During the week back in NYC, I'd sell the cards to my classmates for 25 cents each, then plow the proceeds into packs of new cards and into the 14 for a buck bin. Pure arbitrage. To paraphrase the book, everything I learned about business I learned from baseball cards.

By the time my parents exiled me to SOCAL, I had discovered the Card Collectors Company, attended an ASCCA show in NYC and had devoured everything I could learn about old cards. Once I got here, I started with the West Coast Card Club, attending monthly meetings and soon started holding a table each month, plus arbing cards at school during the week. I also pestered everyone I knew with older kids for old cards and received several great collections of 1950's and 1960's cards. I even got my relatives into the act, sending me cards they'd found in stores and from friends. I'll never forget opening a shoebox-sized package from my aunt with hundreds of 1972 Topps high and semi high numbered cards in it that she'd found in a local antique store.

About the only time I wasn't collecting was from 16-21, when I was interested in cars and girls. I was so adept at pursuing those hobbies that I ended up collecting again by the time I was 21 . Oh, I got the girl in the end, but she had to adapt to the card thing...

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Posted By: Chris B.

Great topic by the way John!

I began collecting cards back in the summer of 1984, mainly because my best friend at the time did. After a few packs, however, I was hooked. I spent every bit of money I could get my hands on on 35 cent packs of Topps cards. I remember still trying for at least 2 months to get the elusive Reds Team Leaders card (featuring the immortal Mario Soto and Ron Oester) in order to complete the set.

As I began to read anything I could on the history of the hobby, I became fascinated as I learned about cards made at the turn of the century, and some even in the 1800's! I never dreamed I would be able to get one -- I assumed they were impossible to find and, for a 12 yr old, to purchase. I soon went to my first card show where I walked to a nondescript table that had a book full of T206s. I could barely believe my eyes. Having spent my allowance on a set of 1985 Donruss cards I was broke. Fortunately my dad took pity on me and told me to pick out one. I got a 206 Marquard portrait for $8, and never looked back. It is in fair condition at best, but I would not trade it or sell it for anything!

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Posted By: John

Great stories I’m glad to here one of you got the girl, and misses the days of any more than one card for a buck. Also glad to hear that I wasn’t the only one whose dad was giving out the much needed card pity. And to the gentleman who posted about buying me a drink I just might take you up on it after collecting cards for so long I’m broke. This stuff is great lets keep it rolling I know there are a bunch of lurkers out there with stories to share. Thanks for joining in guys.

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Posted By: John/z28jd

I got my first vintage card from Larry Fritsch's old store in Cooperstown,it was a t206 Bresnahan portrait.Got it about 13 years ago and im finally nearing the end of the set.I was always into cards as a kid and still have them from when i was 5.Dont know how i got into vintage cards but judging from pictures i have from the hall of fame when i was 7 i already knew alot about the older players.

I went from collecting new cards up until i was old enough to buy cards from the 70s and when i got a job i collected high grade 50's-60's of just the star players until i found a good source of vintage cards and since then ive been spending 99 percent of my card allowance on the pre-ww1 stuff.

My most amazing find just happened this sunday when i found 30 bucks in my wallet after leaving a show.First time i went to a show and didnt spend all the money i had on me,lets hope i never make a find like that again

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Posted By: Julie

the year after I started collecting baseball cards, with only my 9-year-old son, Chris, for company. Lentil soup was the cheapest thing to make for dinner, and I wanted as much money as possible for cards. Chris was a little bewildered, right from the start--I plunged in so completely and quickly. Those wonderful rectangles of history! So beautful! So revealing! Bob told me to read "The Boys of Summer," after seeing my first serious purchase:
(he loves baseball, but has no interest in cards). I guess it was my search for a great Campanella that led me to the '53 Bowman set, the first (and nearly the last!) set I completed. When Chris quit, in '83, telling his dad to tell me, because he was afraid I'd die or something, I was pretty much all alone. Much later, when he was in high school or college and had a job, he asked what I wanted for my birthday, saying he had $35 to spend. I said there was a '59 Killebrew at Dave's Dougout I wanted. he groused and complained, but finally bought me the card.

Nobody has ever willingly given me a baseball card. Nobody has ever encouraged me in collecting. I have met one woman in my whole life who had at least a passing interest in baseball cards (we were both looking through the wares of the baseball card dealer at the As Coluseum, and agreed that he could use a few more Eckersleys, Bonds and McGwires). I didn't even get her name...

Until I came here, I was all alone , except for the dealers who have always helped me: Mark Macrae, Barry Sloate, Lew Lipset, Bill Mastro (before the auction days), Kit Young (at the beginning) and finally, BMW Sportscards (with the hockey), and Terry Knouse.
The fun it has been participating in this Forum is some of the greatest I've ever had, and so are the things I've gotten from you.

Giving cards away has always been my greatest thrill, and what I remember best: dropping an Old Judge Dummy Hoy in an envelope to a deaf guy who was expecting a xerox; not too many years ago, when I was rich, giving a guy his very favorite card of all time when I was upgrading mine, and not long ago, a high school friend of Chris' called--hey, me, and said, "You know, I still have the rookie Koufax you gave me for my Bar Mitzvah." "Really? It was a little o/c..." "Yeah, some rich relative gave me a perfect one, but I kept yours.' "Why?" "Sentimental value--so what's Chris doing?"

Because of my relationship with the U.S. Govermnment, I have to sell all my cards--I can't wait and let my kids do it after I die. Hope you guys will give me some decent prices...

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Posted By: Dave

My introduction to baseball cards is one that has all the stereotypes of the scam seller on ebay. Mine doesn't have a grandfather, but instead a great uncle. And a trunk in the attic. RUN.

However, I've NEVER actually sold a card, and none are for sale, at least now. The first card I parted with was a free T210 here when Ben started the "take a penny, leave a penny" thread.

My wife's father died about 5 years ago, and as my mother-in-law got older she moved into a smaller condo than the large house in the country that was getting to be too much. This was in Virginia. A few years later, she was less able to cope, and decided to move into an assisted living apartment near me and her daughter, in Spokane, WA. As we helped her upack, she grabbed a notebook and told me she wanted me to have it. It was about 500 T206's, almost 50 T205's, and about 15 T210 Red borders from Virginia - the most common series in the set. There were about 100 duplicates in the T206's, which is about the number missing as well. No rare cards.

The original idea was that I would find the best way to liquidate these and share the proceeds with my brother-in-law. I didn't have them 10 minutes before I knew I would never part with the set. You should never sell art that you really like. I've bought about 40 T206's on ebay since, mostly commons. I did get get a Matty dark cap, which was #3 in price on my missing list, behind Cobb bat off and Matty portrait. Not counting the missing rarity and error cards. I guess every dream has a limit.

I have cleared ownership and $ with my brother-in-law, so I am free to do what I want to do with these.

My father-in-law got the entire set from his uncle (the generation of my grandfather for those fake story purists), from a trunk in the attic (true), as his uncle aged. It was for no money, but with the consent of the uncle, who actually smoked the cigarettes. They were never pasted in any album, so the backs are in good shape, almost 100% Piedmont. I'd grade the cards as mostly 3 or 4, some 2's and 5's.

If I ever start selling the duplicates or when upgrading, I won't tell the story because it triggers too many alarms. But it's true.

Reading the posts here make me realize that I will never come close to the passion of any of the collectors here. I don't really like baseball, as a sport. Ichiro has been great, but Seattle really tests team loyalty. Besides, college football has started.

I can't imagine where I'd be, how many fakes I might have bought, if I hadn't found this forum. Thanks to all.

Dave

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

Lentil Soup = Ewwwww.

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Posted By: Bryan

I still remember opening my first pack of cards back in 1986. As a young buck in thr group I started collecting the stars of the day like Dwight Gooden and Don Mattingly. A good friend of mine began his collection at the same time as I did and together we were able to form the neighborhoods greastest collection. I can remember being very young and having older guys in the town come to us to try and buy cards. To this day I still don't know how we came across some of the cards that we had - all newer cards mind you. My first "old" card was a 1952 topps Mickey Vernon. From that point on I was hooked with older cards. While my friends were buying the new stuff I was looking through the penny boxes at the local card shop to try and find that beat up 1955 topps card. Growing up in Fredericktown, Ohio we did not have a ton shops to go to, actually we had none so most of my cards came from dad driving me to shows in Mansfield, Ohio so that I could drool over the 59 topps Mantle cards. I started to study up on the older players at a young age. Reading up on Cobb, and the Tinker to Evers to Chance combo, the great "three-finger" brown and most of all Christy Mathewson and how he was so admired by the entire world. As newer cards came the more I hated the gloss and special inserts and gold plated super secret 1 of 1 collections that started to creep up. Then I found ebay and auctions houses on the internet. I started to collect T and E cards and with the people that I have met I have grown my collection to more than what I could ever imagine. I am like most people that read this board I think. If it were not for the people that I have through the internet I would sold my cards and picked up the dining room set that my wife wanted:)

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Posted By: Hal Lewis

I have vague memories of getting some cards from 1973 thru 1976 when my dad would bring packs home for me every once in a while as a treat...

but it REALLY started for me in the summer of 1977 when I turned 10 and was finally old enough to ride my bike to the park every day and play baseball from sun up to sun down!!!

On the way to the park, my friends and I would ride by every construction site we could find ... picking up soft drink bottles that we could take to the convenience store and return for CASH!!!

Every day we would buy a Coke (big quart bottle because you could get more when you returned it!) and some Super Bubble ... and spend whatever we had left on CARDS!!!

Sure, none of them ever made it home in anything better than PSA 4 condition ... but who cared!!! I think I sorted those bad boys EVERY NIGHT!!

One night I would wrap them in rubber bands by teams ... the next night it would be by the first letters in their last names ... and the next night it would be by the numbers on the back of the cards!!!

Oh the JOY on Christmas morning in 1977 when Mom and Dad gave me the FULL SET in MINT CONDITION!!! Yes, there is a Santa Claus ... and her name was Renatta Galasso!!!

I also got a subscription to baseball digest, and watched This Week In Baseball every week!! "Hello baseball fans, this is Mel Allen!"

Honestly, I never even KNEW that there were baseball cards before Topps in 1952 ... until just a few years ago when I became fascinated with this wonderful VINTAGE World that you folks have created!!!

Thanks for letting me be a part of it ... and hopefully some kid out there will visit my website and become hooked like I did!!

www.LewisBaseballCards.com

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Posted By: FatBoy

had a paper route when i was 10 or so. never had any money to spend on anything other then candy up to that point (thank goodness this was before i needed any green for entertaining the fairer sex). anyway..since saving for college didn't need to start till i was 16 or so , i spent all my spare money on baseball cards and candy (i was a big orioles fan back then, brooks and frank robinson, boog powell, paul blair, davey johnson, mark belanger sp?, dave mcnally, tom phoebus etc etc. i remember listening to a particular game on radio back then in my bedroom (maybe the 66 championship season?) where frank hit grand slams in consecutive at bats. my brother (1 year younger then me) and i used to sit around with the neighbor kids trading cards...i used to trade my mantles and aarons away for orioles...didn't care if i had em already or not, wanted as many as i could get.

lets fast forward to 12 years old. this was my first year of hunting. grew up around hunting and guns (father, and both grandfathers...we had a mountain cabin in central pa). that fall, my dad, me, an elder friend of his and his dog buster went to the cabin for the first day of the squirrel season. all i talked about back then was baseball.

every opportunity we had to get a neighborhood baseball game together, we did. didn't care if it was 4 against 4. if we didn't have quite enough to field 2 teams, we used to play stick ball against a barn wall. broom stick and tennis balls, used tape on the barn wall to create a square strike zone...we threw as hard as we could and it was up to the pitcher to call the balls and strikes.

ok..back to the story. this elderly gentleman quickly found out i was an avid baseball fan during this weekend. he told me he had something for me that was his father's and he would bring it along when we came up for deer season to give me. well....those 2 months felt like an eternity. when i was presented the cigar box (yes it was ) and opened it up, i told myself i had never seen cards like these and asked what they were. he told me his father collected them back in the early 1900s and they came in packs of cigarettes then. well....they piqued my interest like you couldn't believe, they were so much different then any baseball card i was used to (although i recognized a couple of the names being familiar with the HOF). got 49 t206s in that bunch...among them 2 cobbs, a johnson and a young.

spent the next 20 or so years scouring flea markets etc for more of the same kinds of cards, kept a manual checklist. can't tell you how many n172s i passed up during those hunts for peanuts because i thought they were ugly cards (no color), geesh (and i used to run into a lot of em, actresses too LOL, i always asked for tobacco cards, lord knows what else i passed up, but those n172s i remember cause i thought they were so drab looking.

i got up to 477 cards in that set before giving up on it around 15 years ago to concentrate on smaller sets i thought i had a realistic chance of completing, but thess 49 cards are what got me started on the vintage stuff. i had always kept those original 49 cards separated from the others and for a while i even had them in a frame hanging in my office (used corner holders even back then, didn't wanna damage them in any way...i mean they survived this long intact, right?) till i realized the office lighting was fading them. i really saw the damage light could do after i took them out of those corner holders btw.

i'm 49 now.

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

In my beginning with cards (1952, NYC) I didn't much care for baseball cards because I didn't yet know any of the players, but offsetting that - I did not care for the non-sports cards either (they were Look and See: historical persons - yuk). It would have ended there and then if it wasn't for the Topps transportation series. Wings and Wheels primarilly. I spent lots of time looking at and playing with those planes and car cards.

As my awareness of baseball increased, so did my purchasing of those cards. I must have gotten the deposit on a lot of soda bottles, because I wound up with hundreds of cards, and I certainly don't remember an allowance - maybe it was unofficial. Not too many from the '52 or '53 sets survived, but my mother managed to hold on to plenty from '54-'57, and some later.

We used to flip cards until enough guys assembled to play ball. And then again as some had to go home for dinner, and then after dinner, unless we played stickball or stoop ball. I remember trading by thumbing through a pack to the chant got 'em, got 'em, got 'em, Need Him!

Who wanted a rookie card? Who was Kaline, Clemente, Aaron, etc?

In part because my father talked about them, but also because their accomplishments seemed bigger than life, I began to study (study is not always a bad word) old time ballplayers, during this period.

Far too quickly girls came and put an end to this fun (in exchange for other fun). That was 1960. I was 15. I never even saw a 1961 baseball card until I was over 50 years old. Sheesh - I am over 50.

It wasn't until the early '70s that I looked at the cards which survived my youth - thanks mom. I remember thinking that Id willingly trade all of the baseball for a set of Wings and Wheels. Glad there was no eBay (nor even computers) then. I continued studying baseball with a renewed vigor at that time. I was designing in my mind what I would collect. It turned out to be a combination of cards which commemorate record performances and other historical baseball stuff. I went to a small local card show. Someone showed me a magazine which included a sale by Lew Lipsett - who was offering an OJ (Grasshopper Maines) which I wanted. I bought it. My first direct purchase. Recently, thanks to board members, I purchased my fourth (of five poses) of Grasshopper Maines.

And here I am. It has been great, and it continues to be so.

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Posted By: Matt Goebel

In many ways my story echoes many of the others I’ve heard. I bought my first pack of baseball cards at age 8 in 1972 and found Wilbur Wood of the White Sox staring up at me – I was hooked. I was going full force in 1973, the last year Topps cards were issued in series, and had nearly put together a complete set, but my favorites were the Tigers and A’s (I used to carry Norm Cash and Bert Campaneris around in my back pocket). We moved from Michigan to Colorado that Fall and it was a difficult transition for me. I missed my old friends and became somewhat shy, which seemingly made making new friends take forever – probably a whole month or two. Resultingly, I spent many hours in my room sorting, studying and absorbing my baseball card collection, and I realized that this was heaven. Soon I had inherited some neighborhood collections as the older boys lost interest in cards, I also continued to buy all the packs I could afford, and over the next several years I amassed an impressive quantity of cards. I remember walking (running) to Walgreens every spring when the new cards finally came out, then repeatedly sorting and classifying my collection in many different ways, and watching the NBC game of the week with my cards arranged in front of me mirroring what was actually going on in the game (the voices of Joe Garagiola and Tony Kubek still make me feel nostalgic). I had also developed the debilitating lifelong affliction of being a Red Sox fan at this point and I worshipped the ground Jim Rice walked on. My first mail order complete Topps set came from the aforementioned Renata Galasso in 1979 and was amazing, although I did miss opening packs. Within a couple years I started to lose interest and then went off to college, but my collecting hiatus was short lived as I resumed in the mid-1980’s, fortunately never disposing of my collection in the mean time. My last year in college I put an ad in the local paper offering to buy any old baseball cards and managed to acquire a couple collections of 1960’s cards, but ashamedly got caught up in the Topps/Fleer/Donruss rookie craze and blew most of my money on that crap. Soon I saw the light and changed my focus to 1950’s and 1960’s Topps and Bowman cards. Through several Denver area dealers and numerous SCD mail order transactions I built a nice mid-grade collection of star cards and started to move back in time. First it was the 1941 Playballs (which coincided with my first National in Chicago in 1990 or 1991), then it was Goudeys, Cracker Jacks, T-cards and ended with a couple Allen & Ginters. I was ostensibly a HOF type collector, but my collection lacked any real focus. My collecting world changed forever in 1995 when I read a VCBC article on Cuban cards, in particular the Billikens. I had always been interested in the old Negro Leagues, probably originally playing off my dad’s involvement with the civil rights movement and then feeding from my penchant for the underdog and/or tragic stories. My senior thesis in high school was on the Negro Leagues and the only resource material at the time was Robert Peterson’s “Only the Ball was White”. When I found out that there existed cards of Oscar Charleston and Pop Lloyd that was all I could think about. Through a fortuitous series of chance meetings, phone calls, and letters over the next few years coupled with a ravenous hunger to learn more about the subject I managed to worm my into the clandestine world of Cuban baseball cards and soon I was the proud owner of my first actual Billiken cigarette card – Habana outfielder and Negro League star Clint Thomas - it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen! I have been fortunate to meet up with others who share this obsession and it has created some great friendships. I have also been lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time and had the money (at the expense of most of my American collection) to participate in several large deals. This particular niche of the hobby is constantly unfolding before my eyes as new info keeps popping up, and interest continues to build. That’s my story so far, hopefully there will be many more chapters to write.

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Posted By: FatBoy

Just LOVE it!

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Posted By: John

These stories just keep getting better and better! From notebooks filled with T-cards, penny boxes of cards from the 50’s, early entrepreneurs collecting bottles to feed addictions, hunting trips that turn into Cobb’s, obscure Cuban issues right down to Grasshopper Maines.

Even more amazing is that some of us(Julie)are truly addicts willing to endure lentil soup to stretch funds for collecting. Right down to the most unbelievable story(don't buy it for a second)of them all John actually leaving a card show with left over money.

One-observation women seem to have put a serious jam on some critical card collecting years for many of us. Glad I wasn’t the only one. Damn you puberty!

Thanks for sharing I hope everyone is enjoying these as much as me.

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Posted By: andy becker

i love it too.
matt...wilbur wood just struck me as too close to home. the very first topps card i ever purchased (top of a 1975 pack) was gary gentry...and the sight of a '75 gentry still excites me the same as it did 29 years ago.

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Posted By: Pcelli60

My brother gave me his stash of 67's and I was hooked. So 68' was my first year ripping open waxpacks. I still vividly remember the 68' Mantle I pulled in front of a small local Drug store in Queens NY...

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Posted By: Julie

(like the ones we see in all the early cigarette ads) would know that Smoking Is Not Good For Your Lungs..because only athletes (and opera stars) use them much...it was the late '50s before doctors started piping up. My dad and step-mom quit in '52, because she had to clean out all the ashtrays, and figured--"if that's the way an ashtray looks after a bunch of cigarettes, what do my lungs look like?"

O,K, Athletes, opera stars, and smart people...

You mean, I'm the only one who ever did WITHOUT something (to eat, to wear. to ride in, to listen to, to see) to get baseball cards? I don't believe it!

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Posted By: Sean Coe

Like most kids I collected cards with my friends. Unlike most I never really stopped. My parents gave me the "Sports Collectors Bible " and once I found out there were cards of Cobb and Ruth I was hooked. At first my mother wasn't too thrilled to be toting me around to various shows, watching me spend my hard earned allowance on pieces of cardboard. Gradually she started to enjoy herself. Soon she was advising me on what to buy(T205, T206) and what condition. She would fuss if she thought I was settling for a card in lesser condition, while I would patiently explain that most 75 year old cards wouldn't be in mint shape. To this day she still wants to know about my collecting.

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Posted By: Aaron M.

GREAT thread! I've always believed this site was at its best when its particpants were writing about their knowledge AND experiences in the hobby.

I haven't had the time to contribute to the thread yet, but I just wanted to say how much I appreciate reading other people's stories.

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Posted By: James Feagin

John,

I remember you bringing in your t206 set to Burton's Coins and Cards in Frederick, Maryland when I worked there. I remember you recounting that wonderful story and showing us an additional 100+ Old Judge cards to boot. I also remember you giving 1 of your t206 cards to one of the young kids in the store-class act. I left that night feeling my meager 30 t206 cards in F-G condition were pretty small. Great post.

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Posted By: John

James;

I remember you how have you been that sure has been awhile I moved from MD several yrs ago back to PA. Unfortunately my cards stayed behind in “prison” the bank in MD. Burton’s was one of the first places I bought cards as a kid a lot of memories around that place. I hope he’s still in business I’ll have to pop in sometime when I go home to visit my folks. Hope your doing well, drop me a line sometime I would love to catch up and see how your collection is coming along.

Now were sharing and having baseball card reunions.

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

I remember my son, in '79-'80, playing the "Got it! Need it!" thing, and I have twice left a show with money, once to protest the quality of the show (I didn't buy ANYTHING, though I could have found some little thing I wanted), and once when I realzed I hadn't paid my credit cards yet (Tri Star, a month ago--I left with $180!)

I remember walking into the San Francisco National in the late '80s
with a guy who had a thick wad of bills..within FIVE MINUTES. he was writing checks...

To those of you whose wives are sympathetic, or even helpful, in collecting, I say Boy, are you lucky! and to those moms who didn't throw them all away---BRAVO, women of sense!

I have the first three cards I bought, but they are replacements: The mini-Brock, '75, the '54 Snider (with a hole in the center) and the beautiful '55 Robinson--I must really have been hard up to sell that one once.

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Posted By: Joe P.

Hey Gilbert Maines -- NYC 1952
I started picking up 1941 Playballs when I was ten in 1941.
Bought them at a candy store near my school PS 86 at 96th St. and Lex. Ave
Manhattan.
Flipped them with the other kids until we wiped each other out.
Never worried about ruining them on bike spokes, our parents were still
dealing with the depression, and none of us owned bikes.
I also remember the got'em and need'em trades.
In 1952, I was with the Marines in Korea and my mind was on flipping my
way out of there.
Where did you play your stoop ball and stickball?
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Hey Matt Goebel -- Like Gilbert Maines and the others on this thread, your
story is also extremely interesting.
What grabbed me most of all, was your interest in the Negro Leagues, and
the Cuban League, a League that did not draw a line.
My interest for the Cuban League is due to my father, a Cuban that during
the '20's and '30's worked at a place called "Simone's" located on Lenox Ave
between 115th and 116th St.
Cuban athletes, both ballplayers and boxers would congregate there.
I have a beautiful cabinet personalized to my father by Kid Chocolate, the
former boxing champ.
Legend has it, and I can't call my mother and father liars.
Each of them have given me their version of the truth of the event.
As I understand it, I must have been about one and one half, or two years old.
Adolfo Luque and some other ballplayers were present at Simone's and I was presented to him.
Like any ballplayer worth his salt, he picked me up.
He picked me up by holding me under each armpit so that I could face him.

According to my father, he raised me just a little bit higher, and being that
he was a pitcher, he tossed me up and caught me.

My assumptive side of the story is that it was probably the first whoopie thrill
of my life.

Everyone there, as I understand it, had a pretty good belly laugh.
Everyone that is, except my Puerto Rican mother.
Even in her later years she was still PO'd at my father and his friends.
I on the other hand, don't remember a damn thing, I guess they didn't leave
much of an impression.
Why didn't they have digitals in 1932-33?
May they all RIP.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey Pcelli60,
Where in Queens was that Drug store located?
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Hey James Feagin,
Are you still located in Frederick MD?
I take in a few of the Potomac Cannons games when they play the Key's.
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After living a little life, I restarted collecting from scratch back in 1982, but
that's another story.

Right now I gotta find my meds.
I feel a T207 attack comin on.

Joe P.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

I had a Wilbur Wood model glove. I remember breaking in that sucker with neat's foot oil all winter in NYC with a ball in the pocket and string around it tucked under the foot of my mattress. Fit like a glove, too. My folks gave it away sometime when I was a teenager. At least they left my cards alone, although I did take them with me to law school for safekeeping when they started eyeing my room for a den...

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Posted By: rick hastings

John-
I am going to start this story and hope it doesn't take too long, but it really is a good story.
fantastic subject. The best ever. I really enjoy reading stories of "favorite cards", "reasons for collecting".etc.
Until recently I was biginning to think that I was one of very few who really just collected for the fun of it, not the profit of it.I have since changed my belief on that due mainly to this forum. I have actually just recently sold my very first card from my collection, but it was only after some serious apprehension. It is not easy to say goodbye to a Thorpe card you have had for twenty something years. But I only sold it because I really felt that the card actually made someone very happy to own it, not just to move it for profit. This is the kind of stuff that hobbies were intended for. Whether it is collecting small flat pieces of cardboard with pictures on them, or round pieces of cardboard that used to have toilet paper on them. It only takes one collector of anything to start a hobbie, but it takes two or many more to continue it. I think this subject of how peple got started collecting would make an enjoyable book to read someday.
My story really starts with my dad and the love for baseball that he had bred in me. I'm from St.Louis and have been fortunate to learn the history of the game first hand from stories told by my dad and grandfather of the Browns and Cardinals. They were both huge fans of the game. At 80 years old, my dad is in heaven when he can watch three or four games a day on TV. My first piece of memorabilia given to me was by my grandfather via my dad. 1930 Cardinal Team ball. Gro. Alexander, Pop Hayes, Chick Hafey, Pepper Martin, etc. Dad handed it over to me when I was 9 years old in 1963.I was his second son, and I now know that he skipped my older brother on this because he had a feeling that the ball would wind up being chewed up by a dog in James Earl Jones's backyard or worse. But he showed a faith in me that I will never forget.
In 1938 a couple years before my dad went off to the Pacific in WWII my dad who lived by Fairgrounds park in St.Louis (which was blocks away from old Sportsman's Park) would spend his afternoons following ballplayers from the hotel to the park. Hounding them for autographs. I often wonder how many days of school he just skipped to collect autographs and use his "knot Hole" pass to go to games. This is where the second priceless piece he gave me comes from.
I have a 1938 Who's Who in Baseball that has hundreds and hundreds of signatures across the faces of the players.
It is in order of how they finished in '37. The first page is Joe Dimaggio, Bill Dickey, etc.( as a matter of fact, this is the year that Lou Gehrig was diagnosed with ALS and he is one of the few Yankees unsigned. This book is loaded with HOF's. Hell, Honus Wagner was a coach with the Pirates, he signed it. It is truly an unbelievable piece of history.With a national and american league team in town there are signatures from a few players on every team. Ted Williams, Casey Stengle, Lefty Grove,etc etc
Did you know that Babe Ruth was a coach with the Dodgers that year? I have his autograph on a index card from that he personally gave to my dad. I'll spare you the story of how he got that for another time, if anyone cares to listen.
Fastforward to 1983 and after years of accumulating interesting little pieces of Baseball History, I am offered by an acquaintance a box of baseball cards smaller than any I had ever seen before.This person had gotten them from his uncle when he died. The only problem I had was I had just gotten married, and coming home with a box of cards and then having her find out I spent a few hundred dollars on them was not a smart way to start off a marraige. "Oh hell with it" she'll get over it one of these days. As a matter of fact, a couple of years later she followed me to a card show and helped me pickout and I quote her a "Higgins" (Huggins) and a "Stinker" (Tinker.
God love her, she tryed. In that box were T205, T206, T207's several misc E series,hundreds of them about 20 M101-5's(in alphabetical order)starting one card behind Ruth (damn the luck) and ending with Vaughn, T200 team cards Only missing 2, and a pile of T202's that had been seperated into end panels and black and whites. Of course none of these are mint mind you, but some very nice cards.
I have a few Cobb,s Young, Johnson, many HOF's from that era, plus (had) the recently departed Thorpe. I was hooked.
As far as leaving a card show with money. I remember forgetting it was going to cost me $5 to leave the parking garage and having to go back in a show and give a card back, just to get home.
If this little story gives one person the enjoyment that I have recieved from some of the other stories I have read then I am glad to have written it. If it is too long and boring I am sorry., but that is "my story"

rick

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Posted By: James Feagin

Hello all. Burton's Coins and Cards is still alive and well in Frederick, MD and go there weekly to buy, trade, and talk baseball cards. Even though I stopped working there 4+ years ago, it is by far my favorite card shop, as they treat their customer's completely like family. Fair prices, amazing customer service, I have 2 shops within 5 miles of where I live but skip them to travel 45 miles to Frederick. That was my plug for Burton's.
I consider myself a good writer, but terrible story teller. I will always remember the awe when I was 9 years old and had a chance to buy a heavily creased t206 Red Ames in 1985 for $10. I remember thinking, "Where has this card been all these years? In an attic? Shoebox? Where?!" An the prospect of owning a piece of that history amazed me. At age 10, I would spend hours in the library reading baseball encylopedia's. I memorized who was in the HOF, every WS winner, 19th century baseball, it fascinated me to no end! I also loved modern baseball as well. I remember scrimping and saving for a box of 1986 Topps for 1 month. When I saved that $12 for a wax box and finally bought it, it was complete nirvana to me. Writing this reminds me of why I grew to love this hobby so much.
I especially remember saving my allowances for 6 months to go to the Columbia Maryland Hilton show. Once I save up $100 and was so excited I could not sleep the night before. I had been dreaming of that show and plotted 1,000 scenario's of how I could spend my money. Usually it resulted in tons of grab bags, a box of 1987 Topps. But it also resulted in a t206 Chesbro, Bresnahan, and LaJoie (which I sold when I was 17 to spend money on dating and girls, a sin I hope one day to atone for).
Now I'm still at a grand total of 30 t206 cards (all of which I bought back after my monumental blunder) and 1 Old Judge card. That's all my wife or budget will permit. But I hope to one day improve this and re-live what was an awesome part of my childhood.

James

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

Well Joe P. thank you for spending the early '50s over there so that we could grow up and have the peaceful enjoyable experiences described in these posts.

That "NYC 1952" was selected to portray to non-NYers a geographical point of reference. Not everyone knows that NYC = Manhattan. My youth was spent in Queens (actually Middle Village, Queens). There was a vacant lot owned by the phone co. one block from my house, which served as our ballfield. I remember once, one of us got a ball with the cover still on it (no tape at all!) I remember further "Don't drop it on the sidewalk!" And flipping, stoop ball, slap ball, etc. was there.

The first kid up (awake) would scour the immediate neighborhood to get all the deposit bottles and cash them in for cards. I caught a friend just coming out of the candy store, still opening packs. We flipped. I cleaned him out. The take included a '57 Mantle. I liked that card so much that I kept it in the front pocket of my dungarees, seperate from the flipping cards which were in my back pocket. That card now appears to have (barely) survived multiple washes, but I have it !

Share some more if you care to.

Gil

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Posted By: ErikV

Fantastic topic. Some great reading on this post. I figured it was about time for me to chime in too.

It was in 1975 at the age of 7 that my dad bought me my first pack of baseball cards. As the story goes, I would lay all of the cards on the floor and leave them out. My parents grew so tired of seeing them scattered all over the house that every last card got thrown out. (Thanks Mom!)

In 1979 my parents moved us into a neighborhood where many more kids my age lived. Most of them collected cards and I was soon hooked on those little pieces of cardboard. This was also the same time that I really started following baseball. At night, I'd lay all my Dodgers cards out and listen to Vin Scully announce the starting lineups for that nights game. At bedtime, I would leave the radio on and lay in bed listening to the end of the game. With each passing year, I amassed more and more of the Topps sets, until I completed my first set in 1983.

When I got my first job in 1985, my collection really took off. I'd spend darn near my whole paycheck on baseball cards. The mid-80's was also about the time that my brother and I would mail many baseball Hall of Famers self addressed stamped envelopes and a baseball card seeking autographs. Most, if not all, were cordial and honored our request.

By the late 80's I was done collecting the new stuff as I couldn't keep up! I'd had seen the movie Eight Men Out and was now hooked on obtaining a card of each of the 1919 Black Sox. This goal took 10 years to complete and in 1998, I was the winning bidder for the elusive 1915 Zeenuts Fred McMullin card.

It was in the mid to late 90's that I obtained several big cards from my collection: '54 Topps Aaron rookie, 1915 Famous Barr Jim Thorpe and Buck Weaver cards from the Barry Halper collection, 1922 American Caramel Walter Johnson and my 1956 Topps set to name a few. Today I'm working on obtaining the 1940 Play Ball set (only 50 cards to go for the set).

Just like my dad, I've already given my 4 year old son his first pack of baseball cards and taken him to his first game and card show. Wouldn't you know, HIS cards are laying all over the place too! I'll give him a few more years to show off some of my treasures to him!

Thanks for reading my story. Whose next?

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Posted By: runscott

A man, no plan, t206 Dan McGann, here I am.

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Posted By: ockday

This is really a fascinating topic..so much so that I had to write rather than "lurk" as usual.
I grew up in Brooklyn, NY and from the beginning (till now of course) was a BIG Yankee fan. My earliest baseball recollection is watching on our old b&w tv the Mazeroski homer to win the 1960 World Series when I was but 8 years old .
I remember buying cello packs in the early 60's from a store near my home called Joes Variety store. Joe, bless his soul, would dump many boxes of cellos into a big bin and I would sift through them looking for my hero, Mickey Mantle with Joe keeping an eye on me so I wouldn't stick a few packs in my pockets. Occasionally I would get lucky and find a Mantle on top or bottom and would buy the pack so I could flip cards with my friends . BUT I nver flipped my Mantles. If I won any Mantles I would always put them aside. I accumulated literally dozens of Mantles over the years but unfortunately this part of the story does not have a happy ending. My family bought a home in 1969 and somewhere in the move my cherished Mantles vanished. But I was 17 and the '70s were upon us so it was soon an afterthought as I pursued the "joys" of that era.
Fast forward to about 1986 and remember reading one of the hobby peridicals ..maybe SCD or Baseball Hobby News and thought it would be fun to start collecting. I started with some of the new stuff (very bad idea) but also bought some cards from the 50's and '60s ..mostly Yankees and of course an occasional Mantle. After a couple of years I also began putting together a Yankee "type set" with a few cards from each set from as far back as T205, T206 T207. So for the next 15 years or so, I collected mostly '50's BaseBall but also football, basketball and hockey as they were relatively inexpensive back in the early 90's. Well, time passed and I had to sell alot of my cards as my kids were growing up and I needed the $$ but I always kept the vintage part of the Yankee "type set" and a couple of Mantle cards from the '60's. I really missed the hobby until about 4-5 years ago I remember looking at the few T205's and T206's that I had like Hal Chase and that triggered my vintage card collecting. And for the last few years I've been very active in the hobby.
Hopefully this wasn't too boring.
Thanks for reading..Alan

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Posted By: Darren J. Duet

Origin
1976 -- My father went into my grandmother's attic, brought down a paper bag, dumped its contents on the floor and said to my brothers and me, "PICK". From oldest (Jason-7 at the time)to youngest (Kevin-4), my two brothers and I spent the better part of a fall afternoon clearing the pile of topps cards from 1954 to 1962. I was a Hammerin Hank fan so I picked his cards first, Jason was a Yankee fan so he got all the Mantles, and Kevin decided he liked Ernie Banks so that's who he picked.
Kevin later told me he picked the Banks cards because he was either smiling or lauging in all his cards. The other cards were basically picked at random until the pile was cleared.

1977 -- Dad would bring home a box of Topps cards and we would split it up between us. I remember the feeling of getting a superstar in a pack-Rose, Jackson, Seaver - what a rush. My brother's and I would trade amonst ourselves and friends for our favorites. I was a Pirates fan back then, Jason was a Yankee diehard, and Kevin liked the Braves.

1978 - 1980 -- All my earnings from mowing grass and shrimping with my grandfather went to cards. In 1980 I finished my first Topps set when I pulled an Odell Jones from a pack. I got my first Beckett and would spend hours with it and any other bb card reference. We'd buy our cards from a local grocery store.


1981 -- I attended my first card show in Houma, Louisiana. Bought a handfull of T cards (Coupon) which included a good conditioned Ty Cobb, bat off shoulder. My love grew deeper. I figured out - the older the better. I paid $100 for the lot.

1981 - 1990 -- Every penny I had went towards cards. I bought tons of the new stuff. Occasionally I put out $$$ for older stuff but only when I got a good deal.

1990 - 1995 -- College years, poor. All that "new" stuff I bought, I traded for vintage. I grew up in Galliano, LA. The closest card shop was in New Orleans, a 2 hour drive. I went to college in Monroe, Louisiana and had a card shop in Pecanland Mall - 10 minute walk from my apartment. I made many deals (like Eric Dickerson rookies for T cards of Marquard, Wheat, Jennings, and an occasional Mathewson). My vintage collection grew through my sacrificing the heroes of the time.

1995 - 1999 -- Med School, long hours. My collection was safe at home. I made few additions during this period other than purchasing from classmates who took their Dad's collections when they found out I would pay $$$ for cardboard. I picked up a 1953 Mantle this way.

2000 to present -- Real jobs, residency and private practice. Still spend most of my money on cards with an emphasis on T & E cards. I buy some of the new stuff just for the joy of opening packs, but it isn't the same. I love and appreciate the history of the game,and enjoy the way the evolution of the game is paralleled by the evolution of baseball cards.

The fever has never left and likely never will, If the antique card market crashed tomorrow I'd be a happy camper because I'd be able to afford many more cards.

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Posted By: Kevin Meares

I just joined today and what a thread to start! My first cards were from my friend's doubles, 1976 Topps. He was generous, but the one card he wouldn't give me was the Fred Lynn. How's that? He gave me the Aaron, but no Fred Lynn. That'll tell you when that was--and we lived in California!

But the cards I liked the most were the All-Time All Stars. Seems like I had a new favorite player every other week. First it was Cobb, then Wagner. I settled on Rogers Hornsby. He had his glove in his back pocket. I've still got the Ted Williams with the crease in it from having it under my pillow. Some of them got stolen. I was going to trade during recess and my cards were spread out on the kickball field and before the bell Brett Schiller pretended to be clumsy and dumped a bunch of his cards on top of mine and scooped up some of the "old" ones. I was crushed. I knew what he was doing and I didn't confront him. The next day Scottie Whicher presented me with a stack of cards that must have been ten packs high. He said that some of the kids learned what happened and they had pooled their cards so I wouldn't feel so bad. They didn't have any of the old ones but, there were some good cards, and, well, here they were. I think you know how that made me feel. And there were lots of good cards, some of my favorites, and a Ron LeFlore All-Star on top.

Thanks for the memories.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

reminds me of a few my father told me.

I was going on about Babe Ruth and he casually mentioned seeing him once in NYC, walking down Park Avenue. The Babe smiled and nodded at my gape-jawed young father. No autograph, though.

Fast-forward to the 1980s and the Rolling Stones are in LA for a concert. Everyone is going nuts on Saturday because the Stones are not playing that night and everyone is sure that they are going to show up unannounced for an impromptu club gig. People are actually driving all over town looking for the Stones. My parents go to dinner with some friends at a divey Thai place in Hollywood and end up sharing the tiny restaurant with one other party: Mick, Keith, Ron Wood and their ladies. No autograph there, either.

He kind of made up for those lapses in judgment a few years later, however, by getting me backstage at an Academy Awards rehearsal and letting me fill my autograph book...

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Posted By: Paul

I thought I'd try to revive this thread with my story.

I started collecting when I was 4 1/2, opening first series 1970 Topps cello packs. I thought they were the coolest things. Every year, I looked forward to the new cards coming out (but even at my age, I knew the 1972s were just garish). By the time I was 7 or 8, I knew exactly when the local drug store would be getting its first boxes of cards (the first Wednesday in February).

For my first several years of collecting, I had no idea that cards existed before I started collecting them, although I had seen one "old" card from 1969. It's kind of silly, but that's the way kids think, or at least that's the way I thought.

That all changed in about 1975 when I got my hands on the catalog of the Card Collectors Company, then owned by Richard Gelman. I couldn't believe that I could actually buy cards of guys like Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Yogi Berra, Warren Spahn, Sandy Koufax, and Whitey Ford -- guys I had only read about. And I couldn't believe that could get early cards -- sometimes even rookie cards -- of my favorite players like Mays, Aaron, Brooks, and Yaz.

My first vintage cards were 1951 Topps cards of Berra and Rizzuto. The catalog didn't list the names of players in 1951 (I don't know why, names were listed for all other years). Only the numbers were listed, so I picked 1 and 5. I was satisfied with my picks.

My greatest regret came with a Card Collectors Company catalog that I received probably a year or so later. It listed "white border" and "gold border" cards of Ty Cobb, Cy Young and others. They were $5.00 each. I couldn't believe there really were baseball cards in 1910 and was afraid that it was a scam, or that I just didn't understand what they were trying to sell. I asked my father if there were cards back then. He didn't know. So I didn't buy any.

I soon learned the error of my ways, but it was probably a few more years before I picked up my first tobacco card -- a T206 Young from Paul E. Marchant. He also sold me my first Goudey -- a 1933 Bill Terry. And my first Caramel Card - and E90-1 Keeler. I can't believe I still remember all this.

I've never stopped collecting. I long ago fulfilled my original goal of getting a Topps or Bowman card of every Hall of Famer who has one. (Luke Appling was the last one). Now I am pursuing the elusive Bid McPhee to complete my collection of all Hall of Famers who have a card.

I thought the posts on this thread were long, but now I see why!

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Posted By: MW

I'd just like to say that there are some absolutely fabulous (and fascinating) stories here....I've really enjoyed reading through them.