Vintage Sports Cards – Baseball – Basketball – Football – Hockey
The following advertisement for the 1982 New York City Superstar Baseball card show is one of the best I’ve ever seen.
It was published in Trader Speaks’ March 1982 issue, and the handwritten style stood out among many mechanical-looking ads. Plus, Monte Irvin and Pee Wee Reese were signees!
I’ll also mention that dealer tables were $85, which is more than many regional shows charge today.
Happy collecting!
Here’s another morsel of card show history, this one from the April 1983 edition of Trader Speaks. It’s an advertisement for the St. Lous Cards Sports Collectors Club and their 8th annual spring sports collectors convention, held May 20-22, 1983, at the Cervantes Convention Center, four blocks from Busch Stadium.
I’d love to see that Lou Brock painting in color; if anyone knows what it is, please leave a comment. I’d also love to time travel back to some of these early ’80s card shows, meet some legends of the game, check out cards before grading, and see what was popular at the time.
Bill Heitman wrote this light-hearted review of the Second National Sports Collectors Convention, held at the Plymouth Hilton in Michigan in 1981. It appeared in the September 1981 issue of Trader Speaks.
A couple of notes: I hadn’t realized the second National was a conversion of an already successful show. Second, it’s cool how tight-nit many “hobby influencers” seemed to be in 1981. Next, I wish today’s National conventions had more seminars like this one. It tracks that Mr. Tiger, Al Kaline, would be a popular signer at a Michigan card show. Bill’s closing quote is PERFECT, “If the spirit of the National Convention survives, we will all still have fun in this hobby.”
PS: The magazine was too big for my scanner, so I did my best to “glue” two scans of separate pages together; this was the “centerfold.”
Have you been to any great card shows lately? I’ll bet the Sports Memorabilia Show #4 in Whippany, New Jersey, was a good one!
This ad comes from the July 1982 issue of Trader Speaks and highlights Whitey Ford’s attendance during Sunday’s show, where he had agreed to sign 1000 autographs on a first-come, first-served basis.
Given that the ad features Ford’s 1951 Bowman baseball card, I thought it would be fun to take a look at a few sales of them:
REA has sold a handful, including the following PSA VG 3 Auto 10 copy with an HOF ’74 inscription for $780 in 2018, a PSA authentic copy for $510 in 2021, and a fairly beat-up card with an authentic signature for $450 in 2022.
Interestingly, REA re-sold the PSA VG 3 Auto 10 copy in 2023 for $3600, quite an increase! That’s probably because Ford died in 2020.
Now, some cards change hands quite often, so guess what? Probstein sold the same PSA VG 3 Auto 10 Ford on eBay on May 29, 2024, for $2200.
What’s more, the beat-up version above with cert 17605781 is also on eBay, with an asking price of $1699. There’s another PSA authentic copy on eBay as well, with an asking price of $1299.99 (cert 43601626). Given these prices, someone possibly got quite a steal when they picked up this blue-label version in April 2024 for $500.
The hobby changes quickly, but the National Sports Collectors Convention and the popularity of the 1909 T206 Honus Wagner card are two steadfast consistencies. And in 2004, something amazing happened involving them both.
At the 2004 National Sports Collectors Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, which ran from July 22 to 25, MastroNet Auctions brought together nine 1909 T206 Honus Wagner cards for an incredible display and promotion. Seeing just one or two on any show floor is a big deal today!
I learned about this incredible reunion from the first edition of Old Cardboard Magazine.
In their synopsis of the show, Old Cardboard wrote that the cards came from various collections and were brought together by MastroNet specifically to display at the National.
In researching the Wagner Reunion, one promotion leading up to the show said 12 of the approximately 50 known Wagners would be there; presumably, some collectors decided not to participate.
Mastro gave out an awesome “The Wagner Reunion” poster at the show. The T206 Museum shared this example. If you have one for sale, please get in touch with me.
At the time, the nine Wagners that MastroNet brought together were graded SGC Authentic, GAI 1.5, PSA 1, PSA 2, PSA 3, PSA 5, PSA 1, PSA 1, and PSA Authentic (trimmed).
What’s more, I’ve read that PSA had the ‘PSA 8’ T206 Wagner displayed at the 2004 show, too. So all together, 10 of the ~47ish known T206 Wagners were in a single room, with a value well over $20M today.
It would be cool if a major auction house would do something similar, like trying to bring together the most extensive collection of 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle or 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth cards. Until then, we can look back at the T206 Wagner Reunion as a hobby event that likely won’t be duplicated again; happy collecting!
The 1982 Omaha Sports Collectors Show, co-sponsored by Coors and held in parallel with the College World Series, featured Bob Feller and Warren Spahn, who signed autos for $1!
A destination card show with a relevant sponsor featuring some incredible sets on exhibit from William McAvoy (N28, T205, T-3 Cabines, and 1933 Goudey) and two incredible signers. Sign me up.
On card autos weren’t as big a thing back in ’82, but in concert with the advertisement, here are signed copies of each of their 1953 Topps baseball cards that I found on eBay.
PS, this ad was in the May 1982 edition of Trader Speaks; how incredible is the cover?
I ran across this advertisement for “The Largest Show Ever Held in New York” in the December 1981 issue of Trader Speaks.
Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider were probably decent draws to a show offering free admission! And they appeared on both days of the show.
I’m curious about which items made up the display of the hobby’s ten most valuable cards. If you know, drop a comment. By the way, many collectors used to order from Gelman’s catalogs. Unfortunately, I don’t have any of them in the Hobby Library to share yet.