Thursday, December 2, 2010

An Anniversary

Just a short post today, to commemorate an anniversary.

No, it's not the anniversary of this blog (that's in April). Nor is it the anniversary my wife expects me to remember (that's in July). No, it's the anniversary of when this photo was taken:


I've shown this picture on the blog before. It was taken on December 2, 1989 and shows me behind the table at my very first weekend show. It was a Saturday show in the basement cafeteria of the Catholic school in my home town of Carthage, New York. It was a cold, snowy day -- December 2nd always seemed to be when I was living there -- and the show was the first one ever held in the village.

That was 21 years ago, which is a couple of lifetimes hobby-wise. It was during the halcyon days of the hobby, where a large collection could seem like a license to print money. Well, almost. I made back the money I spent to rent the table, but most of the rest of my profits there were spent buying other cards for my collection. I also did quite a bit of trading with other sellers and attendees. It was a great show, the first of several I managed to do through 1992 or so.

It's hard to believe that a child born that day is now legally old enough to drink. It doesn't seem like it could have been all that long ago.

Oh yeah, if I look really young in the picture, I was. That day was also my 17th birthday. Which makes today a little more reason to reflect upon.

6 comments:

  1. Happy birthday, Chris, and many happy returns!

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  2. Happy birthday! Do you know what cards are on display in that binder pictured in the photo?

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  3. I can make out a couple of late-80s Tony Gwynn cards including an '85 Diamond Stars card. That was one of three binders and all the players were in alphabetic order.

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  4. Were you featured in a small Sports Illustrated or baseball Digest article several years ago? I'd swear I saw that same picture in an article once.

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  5. Jim, no...no feature in SI or Baseball Digest. I have tossed this photo out on this blog a few times, and it's been part of my Vintage Baseball Cards site (along with the text of the small town newspaper article written to go with it) for the last 10 years.

    It's possible you came across that article at some point.

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  6. Happy belated Birthday and anniversary!

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