This article originally appeared in the December 6, 1989 issue of the Carthage (N.Y.) Republican Tribune, a weekly newspaper. This was the very first card show ever held in Carthage, N.Y.
Original caption: CHRIS STUFFLESTREET...sports card dealer at his first show on 17th birthday, discusses merits of a card with a young customer.
Some local sports boosters got together to hold an All Sports Card Show last week to raise money to support the Carthage Central All Sports Booster Club. They were pleasantly surprised how popular the show was, even though the temperature outside was near zero and horrid winds were howling.
Despite the weather, sports card fans traveled from 17 different communities to attend. There were 216 paid admissions.
Thirteen different dealers displayed their wares and bought, sold and traded cards all day long. Some of the dealers reported fine sales totals and they are hoping to have a repeat performance sometime soon.
Twelve of the dealers were adults, "pros," people who have been in the card business for a number of years.
The 13th dealer was Chris Stufflestreet, a Carthage boy who has attended many shows but was on the other side of the table this time around. He was a dealer for the first time on his 17th birthday.
Even though still a senior at Carthage Central School, Chris can qualify as a full-fledged dealer. His collection of sports cards now approximates 35,000. He began collecting baseball and football cards at the age of 6. His collection has grown over the years. But unlike the collections of many kids, Chris had done a good job of filing and storing his cards.
Result: a valuable collection.
Chris' collection includes a 1958 Ted Williams card valued at $400. He also has a 1959 Willie Mays card and a 1973 Roberto Clemente card.
He also has a couple of choice 1966 and 1968 Pete Rose cards.
The oldest card in his collection are for baseball players from 1909. One of the players played for the Brooklyn Dodgers; the other played in the minor leagues at Rochester.
Chris' collection consists of Topps cards mostly. He also has a lot of Bowman Cards from the 1950's, quite a few gum card issues from the 1930's and some "tobacco cards," which were cards given away with purchases of cigarettes and tobacco a number of years back.
Note: I walked away from that show with a 1962 Topps Roger Maris #1 card...which I got in an even trade for my 1984 Donruss Don Mattingly rookie! (I almost didn't trade them because I thought I might lose out; today, I'm glad I did.) I made about $35 that day, because I used most of my profits to buy more cards. I have since added to my collection, which now features Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, and even Babe Ruth. I did sell in about a dozen more card shows, and organized the last one, in 1992.
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