Innholdsfortegnelse for October 1, 2023 i Sports Collectors Digest

LEADING OFF I love the National Sports Collectors Convention. It is one massive, super-charged circus, with all the bells and whistles of a carnival surrounded by an art gallery of amazing cards and collectibles. But, for me, the best part of the show is meeting other hobbyists, industry insiders who sell cards, memorabilia or other products and services and know the hobby inside and out, dealers who hawk those colorful cardboard gems, and the avid collectors who passionately chase them. The most rewarding part is meeting readers and subscribers who follow the hobby through Sports Collectors Digest. As we celebrate our 50th anniversary with this special issue, I went to Chicago this year on a mission — meet as many readers and subscribers as I could and maybe gather a…

SHOP TALK LETTERS EDITOR’S NOTE SCD encourages a diversity of voices and views. Please limit letters to 200-400 words and include your name, city and state. SCD reserves the right to edit all letters for length and clarity. Please email letters to jowens@aimmedia.com. I started collecting football cards in 1968 and now have every major card set from the 1935 National Chicle set to the 1991 sets, including inserts and wrappers. Back in the beginning, I still remember getting my SCD in 1973 and ordering my card needs from Larry Fritsch and the anticipation of our mailman delivering the prized possession and completing my 1968 and 1969 sets. To this day, getting the 1969 Vince Promuto card to finish the set is still so vivid in my memory and I…

John Stommen (1931-2001) was an athlete, collector, writer, publisher, entrepreneur and family man. In 1973, he was publishing two weekly newspapers in Milan, Mich. when he came up with the idea of publishing a sports collectibles paper called Sports Collectors Digest. In honor of SCD’s 50th anniversary, we reached out to the Stommen family to get their memories about the early years of SCD. Two of John and Barbara Stommen’s sons, Jeff and Phil, were happy to share their experiences of working with their dad in publishing SCD between 1973 and 1981. Jeff Stommen, the oldest of the Stommen children, was in college in 1973. He remembers his dad’s reasoning that he was already in the publishing business full time, and he saw an opportunity for a new niche publication…

One of baseball’s biggest on-field changes in recent memory sprung from the starting blocks in 2023: the implementation of the pitch clock. The reviews thus far are mixed, but time will tell if this particular clock still ticks years from now. Fifty years ago another seismic experiment unfolded to add more action and offense with the introduction of the American League designated hitter. The DH has been around the junior circuit ever since and the National League finally adopted it in 2022. Talk about a wait-and-see approach. With the DH just being implemented in 1973, Topps produced its last mainstream baseball set of the era distributed by series. At 660 cards, the offering comprised the card maker’s smallest baseball issue in a few years. “I think the ’73 set hits…

THE HOBBY IS THE PEOPLE In May I shared some of the hobby mantras I try to follow. However, I didn't share them all. This month I return to finish the job and share the rest. NEVER UNDER-INSURE YOUR PACKAGES Whether you sell or trade sometimes you have to ship your cards to the intended destination. Remember you are responsible for the safe arrival of those cards. Don't under-insure those packages. It can cost you if something goes wrong. If you are shipping or receiving high-end cards, collectibles insurance is something you should look into. There are numerous companies that offer insurance and it is something that I utilize as a buyer and seller. PROPER PACKAGING Treat cards as if they are being sent to you. Whenever you are shipping…

Sports treasures that soar to crazy prices on eBay always attract our attention. But what about bargains that are just as insane? We’ve got one for you right now: a Rod Carew Topps rookie that sold for $1. You read that right: a single U.S. dollar. You’re probably figuring the card was in miserable shape. Creased? Torn? Maybe missing a corner? Nope. It was actually slabbed by SGC with a respectable 5 grade. Looking at the listing’s photograph, you might even make the case that 5 is a conservative grade — not bad for a card printed in 1967. Either way, it’s a gem. And at $1, we feel confident saying that any of us — if we had seen the auction in time — would have gladly bid twice…

When the phenomenon of jaw-dropping prices for tiny pieces of cardboard started to take hold in the hobby in the 1970s, adults were pretty uniformly startled to learn that those Topps and Bowman cards from their childhood years were being frantically sought by collectors. This was the period when ardent collectors were supposedly “coming out of the closet,” an unironic nod to the idea that you could continue to accumulate baseball cards beyond your adolescence because now they were worth real money and thus an acceptable pastime for adults. For most serious collectors at the time, this was sort of like buying Playboy Magazine for the articles: really, we continued collecting because we simply liked the cards. The money thing was just a handy cover story. This grand cultural shift…

NOTE: If you have a show listing, follow the style below and send to jowens@aimmedia.com. ALABAMA Sept 29-30 AL, Gardendale (North Birmingham). The Flip Sports Card & Collectibles Trade Show, Gardendale Civic Center, 857 Main Street Gardendale, AL 35071. SH: Fri 12-6pm Friday; Sat 10am-5pm. T: 100+ ($80-140). A: $6 Contact: Daniel TheFlipTradeShow@Gmail.com Oct 7 AL, Scottsboro. Scottsboro Sports Card & Memorabilia Show, Goose Pond Civic Center, 1165 Ed Hembree Dr., Scottsboro, AL 35769. SH: 9am-2pm. T: 150. A: Free. Contact: Stephen Moore 256-599-0989, Stephen@jacksonssportscards.com – www.jacksonssportscards.com Oct 21 Al, Sheffield. Muscle Shoals Sportscards and Memorabilia Show, Clarion Inn, 4900 Hatch Blvd., Sheffield, Al. 35660, SH: 8am-2pm. T: 30. A: Free. Contact: Leroy Willis 256-412-2184, popandhoney@yahoo.com Oct 28-29 AL, Trussville (East Birmingham). The Flip Sports Card & Collectibles Trade Show,…

I started collecting baseball cards back in 1981. It was the year when major league players went on strike. Along with baseball cards, I remember collecting the stickers of major league players and putting them in the sticker albums that were introduced and sold during the strike. This eventually led me to start collecting football cards. The card collecting hobby had gotten me. I was hooked. When I was in high school I would attend a few sports card shows, but I stayed up on the hobby by reading Baseball Cards Magazine. Even though I was part of the sports card collecting world, I didn’t become familiar with Sports Collectors Digest until my sophomore year of college. I lived in an apartment on campus at the University of Wisconsin –…

When Dale Anderson was a kid growing up in the late 1980s, his dad bought him his first copy of Sports Collectors Digest. To a young baseball card collector, it was like getting a Christmas gift in the summer. “I opened it up and there were cards in there. There was a panel of cards and I remember carefully taking them out and putting them in sleeves and holders and taking them to school and trading them like regular baseball cards,” said Anderson, who grew up in Minneapolis/St. Paul. For young collectors in the 1970s and ’80s, SCD was a godsend because it not only covered the sports collectibles hobby, but was full of ads from dealers selling the one thing they craved most — sports cards. Anderson remembers reading…