The Amazing History Behind the Sports Card Collectors Convention

The Amazing History Behind The

Sports Card Collectors Convention

Cael McClanahan | July 11, 2021 | History Through Cards

“Nearly a hundred years after the first baseball cards appeared, fifty years after the first hobby publications, twelve years after the first hobby convention, and on the heels of a decade of unprecedented hobby growth and exposure, we now arrive at the most ambitious event ever staged”

- 1980 National Program

In 2003 I had an opportunity to go to the National in Atlantic City. For any collector or dealer whose been in the Hobby for any length of time, going to the National could be seen as the equivalent of the World Series or Super Bowl. The 2003 National was an incredible experience from top to bottom, inside the show and…uh, certainly outside the show (was a show in itself), but this was where I met Bill Mastro and Doug Allen….I saw things I never knew even existed including a 1958 Topps No. 30 Hank Aaron blue background variation, a 1927 Lou Gehrig game used jersey and a 1916 Boston Store Charlie Deal.

I had dreamt of attending the National for a long time, and really didn’t know what to expect. In all honesty I was overwhelmed when I first walked in the room by the sheer amount of memorabilia and cards that were there. It was like a museum dedicated to sports cards and sport. My jaw dropped for the second time that day…Earlier on I was having a drink of the alcoholic kind at one of the casinos when I overheard a guy telling his wife he had just lost $40 grand. That was the first time my jaw dropped; and the last time I ever saw that guy again, figuring he’d soon be on the back of a milk carton…In a in a week filled with all the weird and strange things that Atlantic City had to offer including French fry killing sea gulls, people who turned into sea gulls, and New Jersey’s version of Montezuma’s Revenge which has haunted me every time I step foot in the Garden State…I made two promises to myself after that, and one of them was finding out how the National came to be? The Beginning of Card Conventions

In the history of the Hobby, card shows, conventions, and the now rare card stores are relatively recent. During the 1930’s and 1940’s, collector’s really only had two ways to acquire the cards they were looking for: either place an ad in a hobby magazine such as Jefferson Burdick’s Card Collector’s Bulletin, or Sport

Fan and arrange a deal between the two collectors; or they could purchase a card through a mail-order catalog such as Gordon B. Taylor’s Ball Card Collector and Sam Rosen’s The Card Collector’s Company.

Since card collectors bought, sold or traded through the mail (which I’ll get to in another article), it wasn’t unheard of for collectors of all ages to interact with one another completely oblivious of any disparity in age and in fact, a teenage Lionel Carter, Bill Mastro or Rob Lifson did do business with older collectors on a regular basis. Now the 1950’s Hobby was still in its infancy in the United States (and as I always say, the British were like the Jetsons in terms of card collecting when American collectors were still the Flintstones in their collecting caves. Since then, the Hobby has become more tech savvy overall) when a small, but dedicated group of collectors attempted to start a convention. The earliest mention I could find of an organized card show came from Jefferson Burdick in October, 1952 when he said –

“Chicago turned on its nicest weather for the convention of the all states Hobby Club and everyone enjoyed the three day session with the exhibits, dealers booth, and meeting collectors from every corner of the country. The Club sponsors hobbies of all kinds, one of the most popular of which is post card collecting. The Windy City Post Card Club was host to the convention and I attended their regular meeting In May 1952, Woody Gelman, Jefferson Burdick, Charles Bray and the evening before the big show Gene DeNardo discuss the upcoming 1953 American Card Catalog. opened, and also visited the Later in that year, Burdick attends one of the earliest known card unique post card room of Mrs. shows in the country, albeit, a post card convention, where he met Jean Reider, Chicago’s famous Lionel Carter for the first time after over a decade of post card collector. This was all correspondence. very welcome since post cards are one of the biggest problems to be dealt with in the coming new card catalog. I especially enjoyed meeting fellows like Lionel Carter, Larry Brandt and Ralph Decker with whom I have long corresponded. Like all real baseball fans they proves top rate. I really we Lionel a considerable debt for taxi service. He must have driven a hundred miles, more or less, on my account and still insisted the debt was his and not mine”. 1

Lionel Carter mentions his meeting Burdick for the first time in 1952 and as impressions go, our Hobby founder seemed to be a complete rock star when he arrived. There weren’t many details about this show and I don’t believe it was a sports card convention in the traditional sense, but it seemingly remains one of the very earliest accounts that we have on record. It is a vast departure form how card collectors would trade cards and meet in person since the majority was done through the mail – and I can remember in the late 1990’s before eBay and the internet really took off, using the Through-the-Mail catalog services of Mike Wheat Cards, Battersbox and the late, great Wayne Varner of Shoebox Cards as an alternative to card shows if I couldn’t bum a ride off a card-collecting friend or want to risk having my picture on the back of a milk carton thumbing a stranger for a ride (after seeing Dan Aykroyd turn into a monster and eat someone in their car in Twilight Zone: The Movie, I swore never to hitch a ride in a stranger’s car).

In 1954 Hobby Pioneer Bob Jaspersen (1920-1982), publisher of Sport Fan was interested in arranging a first-ever national card convention with the aid of Lionel Carter and John Sullivan. In it, he said –

“In the October issue of SPORT FAN we discussed the possibility of a national convention for sports collectors. Since voicing our proposal the reaction of many of you readers has been very favorable. Why should we have a convention? If any of you have ever attended one of any kind of answer is simple -to keep informed on the latest developments in your particular profession, business or hobby. Secondly, to transact business, swap ideas, elect officers, etc. A hobby fan’s convention would follow much the same patterns. A gathering f this kind would bring together pen pals who might not have net before. Also, fans, by getting together, could get first-hand information on each others hobbies. Small exhibit booths could be set up where collectors could display their collections and also display their items that they may wish to sell or swap. Very often a sports guide or anther item has more appeal when a perspective buyer can get – usually see it. And from viewing other collections, fans can pick up helpful hints to improve their own collections. [Th]e’ll wa[g]er that much business would be transacted at such a convention and recreate much good will among all of us. And by viewing all the various collections all of us would be in a better position to know what type of material our friends are interested in. Let us hear more from you readers on this subject”.2

Carter related decades later about Jaspersen’s grand plan and what ultimately happened:

“Putting out Sport Fan would have been enough for one person to tackle, but Bob was not satisfied. He wanted to make the hobby bigger and better. The headline in the November\December, 1955 issue of Sport Fan heralded: JULY 7-8 SET AS TENATIVE DATES FOR A NATIONAL COLLECTORS HOBBY CONVENTION IN CHICAGO. Not just a convention, mind you, but a national convention! On a subsequent trip to Chicago in April, 1956 bob enlisted the help of John Sullivan (of program-collecting fame) and this writer to complete plans for the big event. Largely through the efforts of Sullivan, space was reserved at the Larrabee Street YMCA, and we sat back to await the response. With exhibitor’s tables at $4.50 and rooms as low as $2.50 for singles, it was surprising that only seven Lionel Carter (left) and Chicago card collector collectors responded. No convention. It was one of the John Sullivan, attempted to put together a saddest days in Bobs life, but it was a big relief to me. I National Sports Card Convention in 1956 was torn between offending Bob by refusing to put my with Sport Fan publisher Bob Jaspersen. cards on display or watching the public bend my cards Unfortunately this never came to fruition, and tear up my albums. And this was 13 years before Jim but many of it’s aspects were carried on to Nowell held the first convention at Brea, California”.3 future card shows and conventions.

There’s always been some confusion or debate as to who actually started the first card show – either Jim Nowell, Mike Aronstein or Crawford Foxwell. It actually appears that Jim Nowell’s home became the site of the very first sports card convention in Brea, California on August 23, 1969, coined – The 1st Annual West Coast Sports Collector’s Convention. At this time about a dozen or so Hobby journals and magazines

started popping up in which one of them, Ed Broder’s Sports Collector’s News started plugging for Nowell’s show saying -

“The newest “In” thing among collectors it seems is meeting and getting together for “conventions.” This trend has developed just within the last year or so, and already many, many successful stories of conventions have been reported. So many collectors have been sending in stories to SCN about conventions that have either been held or are going to be held that we have a hard time keeping up with them. I have heard of others that have been staged but not widely published.

Sports collectors conventions are unique. They are very informal, unrehearsed get togethers The collectors that assemble are using from a state-wide or regional area, although in some of the major conventions (ones attended by a dozen or more collectors) some of the participants have traveled upwards of 1000 miles and more.

The conventions are a great place to just sit around and talk about the hobby without having to worry about long distance phone call prices, or writing too much on paper. A big highlight of every sports collecting convention is the inevitable buying and selling and trading of duplicate items. The meeting also gives collectors a chance to show off their collections to persons that are really interested. It also is a great way to make lasting friends. SCN heartedly endorses this worthwhile practice, and congratulates all those that have been forming and attending conventions. And, we all ask those collectors that get the opportunity to attend a convention if at all possible. I’m sure that anyone that does will be a better collector for it. SCN will provide free publicity for any collectors having information on up-coming conventions or proposed conventions”.4

Nowell’s show was a major success even though there were less than twenty attendees but it just encouraged more and more collectors to hold conventions throughout the late 1960’s and 1970’s. Soon after, another Hobby pioneer Mike Aronstein - the “A” in TCMA – hosted a convention at his home on March 15, 1970, and this was quite a storied event as some of the day’s greatest hobbyists were at the show, which included: Dennis Graye, Bill Klink, Ed Broder, John England, Jim McConnell and Ray Medeiros (all of these collectors I believe ran their own publications).

From L to R: Dennis Graye covers Jim Nowell’s 1st Annual West Coast Convention in October 1969 (Nowell is center with wife Marjie. Bob Jaspersen shares a program with Frank Nagy at the 1973 Mid-West Convention. Crawford Foxwell at the second annual Mid-Atlantic convention in June 1970. Fed McKie, Mike Aronstein and Frank Nagy at the 1972 Detroit Convention.

Nowell’s show had great press, a program of events, speakers and later said about it - “During my seven teen years of card collecting, I have often felt that there was a need to promote and publicize the hobby. Human nature being what it is, nearby collectors often fail to make the effort to visit one another. Ed Broder, of Whittier California, and I decided to put on a program for any interested collectors. With this in mind, I bought our first home, knock out a wall to give us a large family room (card room), put up wood paneling, had carpet laid, and bought a new desk and two new card cabinets. This was all completed on the Wednesday before Saturday, August 23, 1969 – the date of the get-together”. 5

Now with the arrival of sports conventions solidified, the Hobby started attracting more and more collectors and bore more of a resemblance to what we take for granted today as collectors and dealers. Some of these early card shows have gone on to legendary status as the years and decades have passed such as Mike Aronstein’s 1970 show, Crawford Foxwell’s convention in 1971 and many of the mid-‘70’s Mid-West, or “Detroit Shows” and “New York Shows” of the mid to late 1970’s where Al “Mr. Mint” Rosen first appeared on the scene and that’s where we start seeing a change in the hobby from pure collector to pure dealer. There were a few early shows that were not held in a collector’s home such as the 2nd Annual Mid-West Collectors Convention at the Statler-Hilton Hotel on August 20-22, 1971. After a while it soon became clear with the proliferation of card clubs and more collectors getting into the Hobby that these shows couldn’t be held in collector’s homes and new digs needed to be had. And one of the biggest factors of this change was the Baby Boomer generation who now were either getting out of college, starting families or had young children and wanted to experience a piece of their childhood again by getting back into the Hobby – and now they had more disposable income to do that. This new generation of collectors, like Bill Mastro, Dr. Jim Beckett, Rob Lifson and Keith Obermann saw things very different than their predecessors did when it came to the value of sports cards, how they were acquired and it’s change is reflected in many early articles in Bob Lemke’s Baseball Cards: The Complete Sports Collector’s Magazine. That’s not so unusual for one generation to see and do things differently than the previous one, but when it came to sports cards, they collected differently and it was represented through the emergence of card shows and conventions which led to… The 1980 National

One such collector was Gavin Reily wrote an open letter in November 1979 which in most of the major publications at the time such as Sports Collector’s Digest, one of the leading Hobby papers at the time. I decided to add is his letter in full because honestly, I don’t think there’s a better example describing the conditions at the time which lead to the 1980 National -

“With all the national attention our hobby has received recently through exposure in beer commercials, LIFE Magazine and the Wall Street Journal, to say nothing of the numerous hobby publications, local newspapers, clubs and large gatherings around the country, it is almost redundant to say we are a force to be recognized in the hobby field. We have come so far, particularly in the last ten years, that only one element is missing – a national convention! By this, I don’t mean another buy, sell and auction “show” of which there already are too many, but a “convention” in its classic sense. Personally having attended a dozen shows in the last couple of

years and worked on the West Coast Convention committee for the last eight, I’ve noticed that they all have pretty much evolved, or degenerated, if you will, into hobby swap meets.

When the very first hobby convention was held here in Los Angeles eleven years ago, the agenda included discussions of hobby issues, exhibits, a meal, souvenir program, and a group outing to a major league game. Today, virtually all of those activities have been scrapped in favor of carbon copy events distinguished only by locale. Shows have grown bigger, but I doubt if anyone can say better. It has even been said that some of the older shows have been doing the same things for so long that apathy is setting in.

A national convention therefore, is an idea whose time has come, not at some future date, but in 1980, and more specifically at the Airport Marriott Hotel in Los Angeles, beginning the Wednesday before the Labor Day weekend.

I have engaged in preliminary discussions with the convention manager of the Marriott and he would be more than happy to make as much of the 1,100 room hotel, with 35,000 square feet of convention space, available to us as we can use. To get the ball rolling he would only need to know the number of hotel rooms that would be occupied with an expectation of three to five hundred.

The convention would include an opening evening informal reception, seminars on such sample topics as regionals, uniforms, autograph collecting, etc.; round table discussion on a national organization, reprints and/or hobby dishonesty; exhibits; workshops on such things as mounting, condition guide, and organizing a club or show; contests; a large banquet meal to also honor special hobby achievements during the year; special section at an Angel or Dodger game; convention program; chartered bus trips to Los Angeles attractions such as Disneyland; Universal Studios or the Queen Mary for family members wishing to get away from the convention for a while; hospitality suite; and, of course, the usual three-day show over the Labor Day weekend with the potential of 300 tables. The cost of all these activities would be born by a single fee in the $150 range which would be less if the person did not wish a table.

The planning, coordination, and successful execution of such an enormous project would be staggering the first year but Mike Berkus, Steve Brunner and I will bite the bullet” to get the program off the ground. I have the added advantage as a teacher to have summer unemployment to spend working on the event.

The only element still to be heard from is the collecting community. If you are planning to stay in this hobby and your knowledge of card history consists of the smoking habits of Honus Wagner, or the depth of your ideas about values are whatever a price guide says, and/or the only time you associate with fellow hobbyists is a cross a table of sports collectibles, then for you the time is ripe.

All I need is a postcard or letter stating that if planned you will be at the national convention in 1980 and what particular activities you would like included in the agenda. If I can present hundreds of letters and postcards to the Marriott people, we can gear up with nearly a year to plan. Don’t let someone else do it; everyone take the five minutes or so to get a card or letter in the mail to me and we can launch our hobby into the decade of the 1980s with style.” 6 Reily’s open letter sent shockwaves throughout the Hobby and he pretty much put the Hobby on notice that the status quo had to change, and as we now can clearly see, it did just that to the benefit of the Hobby. Here’s the response to the 1980 National from Gavin Reily four years later -

“The Inspiration for the National Sports Card Convention was not so much a single brainstorm as the evolution over time of something our hobby desperately needed back in 1980.

Since the first organized hobby-get-together was staged in Los Angeles in 1969 and the first hotel event in Detroit in 1970, hobby shows had multiplied like rabbits . Unfortunately, the greater numbers have led to more and more simplification, particularly of convention activities that were not revenue producers. Without banquets , programs, displays, round-table discussions and general opportunities for hobbyists to interact, the shows became carbon copy swapmeets distinguished by location.

It was after the 1979 West Coast Convention that Mike Berkus, Steve Brunner and I came to the conclusion that as hobbyists first, these shows, although financially rewarding, were lacking in overall satisfaction.

When I detected virtually the same sentiment in talking to Frank Barning, the editor of Baseball Hobby News, who had come out from New York for that show and had an even wider feel for the hobby, I thought the time might right for a special hobby event where the show, although still important, was designed to be just one activity in a large agenda.

What we envisioned was a single event staged in a different part of the country each year that would truly be a convention, providing news, information the opportunity to add to collections and time to meet and converse with fellow collectors. Since few hobbyists had the money or time to travel to shows all over the country we wanted to start one that everyone would see as very special”…

One of the biggest problems facing these early conventions was that collectors started to complain that they were too far away for many to drive (in the 1950’s and 60’s and possibly even early 1970’s, air travel was considered a luxury and carried with it a hefty ticket price which was anywhere between $100 and $250 in the late ‘60’s which was the equivalent of $740.32 to $1,850.79 today and even counting the cheapest “Indiana L to R: Mike Berkus, Gavin Riley and Steve Brunner count votes Jones and the Temple of Doom” for the location of the Second National.

flights with the chickens and potential for crashing into an ice-covered mountain and all were $25, or the equivalent of $185, so my point is that most collectors were traveling by either train or mostly by car to get to shows. Future Nationals were indeed held in other locals, and some were quite surprising to me: Detroit (1981), St. Louis (1982), Parsippany, New Jersey (1984), which was where Dr. Jim Beckett devised his plan for a monthly magazine), Dallas-Fort Worth, TX (1986, 1990), Anaheim, CA (1985, 1991, 1996, 2000, 2006), Atlantic City, Baltimore, Cleveland and no Boston…just to name Mike Berkus (left) and Jim Beckett, co- a few. Reily went on to say… founder of Sport Americana with Denny Eckes. In 1984 Beckett would publish his “Such an event was a radical change from what most monthly magazine following the 1984 had grown accustomed to at card shows, so it was first National. necessary to gauge the general hobby reaction to such an enterprise. Thus, we wrote an open letter to the hobby in November 1979 which was in all the hobby papers. The letter explained our idea of a National Convention and went on to say that, more than just talk about such an event, we intended to follow through with promoting the first such convention if the hobby reaction was positive.

The response turned out to be virtually unanimously supportive with many people offering to help in any way we could use them. Even negative responses, which we anticipated from some major show promoters who might have felt threatened, or people wanting a more central location for the event than California, were minimal. This kind of mandate made the actual work on the event very satisfying. The Los Angeles Marriott Hotel at the airport was an ideal location with easy access from all areas of sprawling Los Angeles and convenient to out of state attendees, who wound up being 25 percent of the tableholders. The hotel also had a 12,000 square foot ball room for our 160 tables and ample meeting and socializing areas. The Los Aneles Dodgers enhanced our kick-off banquet by sending Joe Moeller form their Clay Pasternack (background) speakers bureau to keep everyone roaring with his baseball stories. and Joel Hall taking a break reading a copy of Baseball Irv Learner, Bill Heitman and Stan Marks were among those who Hobby News during the 1980 conducted well-attended and informative seminars and the National. Hall is best known hospitality room was packed, particularly the first night of the event for nationally known Hall’s when Barry Halper led a round table discussion of the need for a round Nostalgia Auction house in table organization. At the show part of the National, the 160 tables Massachusetts along with his were occupied by dealers and collectors from 29 states plus Canada brother David and father and the attendance well in excess of 6,000 dwarfed any show before Walter, who several years and several years after. Five different Los Angeles television shows prior, made history by caried the event on their nightly news as well as three of the major purchasing a 1952 Topps metropolitan newspapers which did stories. Mantle for $100,000 in 1978.

Maybe the highlight event of that weekend took place on September 1, 1980 when many dedicated collectors took time out from the show to sit down and hear from cities hoping to sponsor the second National. The fact that Detroit won that vote is not nearly as significant as the satisfaction Mike, Steve and I have in knowing the event you are attending this week has been embraced by the hobby so overwhelmingly”.7 Extra Innings

Some things have changed since the first National especially the card prices, though everything else has gone up too through inflation. One of the more interesting aspects about the 1980 National program was their tip section for dealers and I’ll throw my 2 cents in for good measure –

Tips for an enjoyable Convention

“No matter how enjoyable this convention or others you may attend may be, nothing destroys the pleasant memories faster, or leaves a more lasting impression than a bad incident such as theft or loss through carelessness. Stealing in particular is a rapidly increasing problem at shows everywhere. And the hobby has generally been remiss in developing a preventative strategy. The following simple tips hopefully help you avoid being bitten and leaving you that 1980 in Los Angeles at the National was your greatest hobby experience.

1. Don’t overload your table with merchandise than you can keep track of. If concerned that customers might not see everything, put up a sign listing other items in your inventory.

Today many dealers and show promoters use banners and signage and the more striking the advertising, with a clear message of what your business is and what your selling is very helpful. A lot of money is put into signage and advertising can go a long way. Many dealers that I know do in fact keep an inventory of their cards and how much they either paid or sold them for and this is twofold: one for tax reporting, and two, in case an item does become stolen or lost, it can be easier to report it. I would also photograph all your expensive and important cards no matter if they’re graded or raw, because each card has unique traits only to it, therefore, it might make it easier to retrieve or even prosecute any individual trying to sell a stolen item (think the Bill Mastro case). Another thing you might want to look into is insuring your cards and collection. One thing that dealers may not have had in the early days was a locking display case, which today is an absolute a must-have for anyone setting up at a show.

2. Keep your table area neat. A missing item for a table or clutter is more likely to go unnoticed than one of a well organized and set up display.

Many times the cleaner your display looks the easier it is to sell your cards. Many dealers I know will have other items off the table and tucked away which they can add to their case or show to specific customers.

3. Keep items of $30 or more under glass or a covering rather than in books or laying in plain sight

At first glance I had a good laugh at this one, because the last thing I would tell anyone to do is put their cards in books (hopefully they mean an album?), but if you ever look at what the average card or even vintage card was going for in the 1970’s and early to mid-1980’s, you’ll turn a paler shade. In 1980 the average hourly wage in the United States was $3.10 and that same thirty dollars was the equivalent to $100 in 2021. For example, around this time, The Sport Americana listed the 1955 Topps Sandy Koufax at $30, 1953 Topps Jackie Robinson at $45 in mint and your average 1952 Topps Hi-Numbers at a max $40. It was actually around the mid 1970’s when cards starting going up in price and collectors were starting to complain and hobby writers took notice in their articles. In fact this wan not new to the 1980’s collecting boom as Buck Barker wrote about the surge in price of 1909-11 T206 in 1962 to a whopping 20 cents or so. As Herbert Morrison would have said watching the Hindenburg crash in 1937…”Oh the humanity!”

4. Organize your table with the bigger, more bulky items at the ends of the table and the smaller, more desirable items in the middle where they where they are in the normal line of sight.

Many dealers may have more than one table just for bulky or larger items and some of them have display racks or backboards as well. I would say, how you display your cards is pretty important. I say this because for a collector, floor time is valuable time, minutes mean money and as anyone whose been at a show knows, a collector might not have the time to sift through stacks of cards or even bypass a card which may be partially obscured.

5. Don’t leave small stacks of rubber banded or cellophane wrapped cards at the ends or front edge of the table.

I once saw my grandmother put rubber bands around my 1986 Donruss and I almost stroked out in front of the cat. At the time, individual holders, penny sleeves and the sort were as about as common as a 1948 Tucker Torpedo, but under no circumstances should you ever put a rubber band around a raw card unless its in a hard top loader with a penny sleeve for extra protection. Ultra Pro, BCW and Pro Safe are excellent and you should look for acid-free, non pvc card holders.

6. If you have more than one table try to use at least one helper for each addition table.

Four eyes are better than two and the more eyes you have on your table the better it is because having extra help can be essential at a show and even more so if a show - or National gets slammed. Also having a few extra hands at the table can mean that you can be on the show floor to purchase card and talk to other dealers and collectors. On the flipside, you don’t want to bring someone who doesn’t want to be there or cannot negotiate a deal if your not there. This can be tricky if your with your significant other and haven’t cued them in on the finances of your inventory or what you plan on paying, or selling at your table or show. This can obviously lead to anything from boredom for the uninterested individual to living in a dog house or a nearby flying vase your way at some point.

7. Mark everything you have for sale clearly so your time is not wasted on distracting one to one conversation.

This can be one of the biggest pet peeves in the Hobby, because by not having your cards marked on the front, it could cause collectors not even bother to ask for a price, or simply walk away. As I said in No. 4, floor time is valuable, especially the larger the venue is. Many dealers do put their prices on the backs of their cards and many do put signage up with a percentage off or some other sort of deal, but for dealers who don’t do any of this, and resort to flipping through a guide, it could mean a lost opportunity for a sale. With growing technology in online data tools, both collectors and dealers can minimize this with a simple app on their phone.

8. Set up an internal security system with the table holders on either side of you where each of you watch each other’s table as well as your own.

This is a really important aspect to setting up at a card show and it helps minimize loss of items. I would say that it’s a good idea to get to know other dealers and be aware of your surroundings, including exit signs and any unusual activity.

9. Be suspicious of people (especially teenagers) who seem to be aimlessly hanging around your table without any real purpose. As them if help or assistance is needed and if that doesn’t generate some movement politely ask them to move on.

I agree that you should be vigilant to your surroundings and people around it, but teenagers make up a large portion of the Hobby and this is where you as dealers can greatly influence a young collector by teaching them the ropes of the Hobby, not dissuade or alienate them by automatically assuming they’ll steal your cards because their young people. I started out in the vintage Hobby when I was 14 and had a great group of older collectors and dealers teach me virtually all aspects of the Hobby so I was pretty fortunate. We were all young once and we all understand how some generations can react towards another generation, but the Hobby is, and should be inclusive to all. In what has to be one of my all- time favorite inspiring Hobby photos, we see 7th Grader Timothy Roche looking over 1950’s Baseball cards at the March 1984 5th Annual Polish- American Community Center Baseball Card Show. Young collectors make up a large portion of the Hobby and should be encouraged to collect and learn everything that the Hobby has to teach. The more inclusive the Hobby is, the healthier it will be in the long run.

10. Visualize your table set up in your own mind and scan the table frequently. An item that was just taken and a face that was just there make recovery far more likely than discovering something missing an hour later.

The easiest way to prevent a missing item is by putting your cards in a case with a lock which the top has to be lifted up to open. Some dealers have these cases open when their stacks of cards are either too tall, or for easy access to the collector. That can also mean easy access for thieves as well so an extra person keeping an extra eye is very helpful. Personally, I always ask the dealer if I can open the case or have them do it for me. In reality the chances of recovering a stolen card is about as slim as recovering stolen art with few exceptions. Even one of a kind items like a one of one card may never be recoverable. If you think about it, the paintings from the 1990 Isabella Stuart Gardiner Museum Heist have never been recovered and it took the Baseball Hall of Fame five years to even notice that items on loan were missing from the museum.

In 1972, several Opening Day Baseballs that Walter Johnson had kept and had been signed by Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge and Hoover including the first ball thrown out by a President - William Howard Taft. Prior to the 1980’s, Cooperstown didn't yet have a good security system because no one ever thought that the items housed in the museum had much intrinsic value. The FBI began investigating the cold case when a number of them were spotted by an eagle-eyed collector in a 1998 MastroNet Auction. In actuality, the theft wasn't even noticed until several years after in 1977 when Walter Johnson’s grandson, Hank Thomas asked to see the treasured family heirlooms once donated to the hollowed grounds almost a decade earlier. “They had no answer why. They were embarrassed. There was no investigation of any kind. None, zero. Their handling of the whole mess left a bad taste in my mouth”, Thomas said after seeing the empty display case. The Hall of Fame was embarrassed too. So much so that they kept it quiet until Johnson’s family members showed up. Then in 1999, Thomas found the Harding signed ball in a Ron Oser Enterprises catalogue. Unfortunately this isn’t unique as I’ll be covering it in another article in greater detail.

11. Don’t allow people to put personal belongings such as checklist books, binders and previously purchased items, on your table while they are looking.

This blocks the visibility of other collectors from seeing the cards in the case and prevents the dealer from opening the case for another deal and a potential sale. If your items or cards are on the case and it opens, your cards may get damaged in the fall. This also leaves the potential for items to be forgotten or stolen as well.

12. If customer are purchasing a large number of cards, make sure they are being stacked on the table and in front of you as they are pulled.

This is very good advice, and so what I do is build a rapore with the dealer and once I make a purchase, those cards are off the table and go directly on to my person, and then another deal can be made and my cards are safe.

I don’t think anyone at the time could have foreseen the success of the National and it was only through great effort and planning to make this happen with the dedication of Gavin Reily, Steve Brunner and Mike Berkus. Unfortunately Mike Berkus passed away in 2015, put his legacy is secure and as a testament to his dedication in the Hobby, the National has been, with the exception of 2020, a yearly event ever since.

Source Material

Special thanks goes out to Net54 member David Kathman for his considerable effort and time in researching and writing about the early days of the Hobby, its shows and conventions. In my mind, Mr. Kathman truly exemplifies Frank Nagy’s immortal words – “The hobby of card collecting tomorrow will only be as good as we all make it today”

1. The Card Collectors Bulletin, Vol. 12, No. 80 - “Notes by J.R. Burdick”, October 1, 1952 2. Sport Fan – “National Convention would bolster hobby” – Bob Jaspersen, Winter Issue 1956 (St. Paul, MN) 3. Fourth Annual National Sports Collectors' Convention Program (1983) – “The Hobby Loses Buck Barker and Bob Jaspersen” - Lionel Carter, pg. 21 4. “This is the Era of the Convention” – Fred Taylor, Sports Collectors News, pg. 5, September- October, 1969 5. The BallCard Collector – “Sports Collectors Convention” -Jim Nowell, November, 1969 6. Gavin Riley’s open letter to Hobby publications could be found in several sources such as Sports Collector’s Digest and Baseball Hobby News. 7. “First National Collectors Convention: August 28, - September 1, 1980” – Gavin Riley. This was the introduction in many early National programs including the 1984 Parsippany, NJ (Aspen Hotel) and 1990 Dallas-Fort Worth, TX (Arlington Convention Center) programs.

Cael McClanahan | July 11, 2021 | History Through Cards