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 1 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). 2 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.