in 1988, i sold my auto finance company and retired. I soon realized, much to my dismay
and surprise, you cant play golf seven days a week. Never having been handy around
Wakfu Kamas the house, or having any other hobby,
I became bored.
One day I accompanied my wife to the local mall and to my great surprise, there was a
memorabilia show in progress and one of my boy-hood idols, Bob Feller was autographing
balls, bats, hats and photos. I couldnt believe
cheap wow gold my good luck when I had my
picture taken with my favorite player and he signed an 8×10 photo with his leg high over
his head and he inscribed it: To Richard, your pal, Bob Feller! (Little did i know at that
time that Bob Feller was visiting practically every mall in the U.S.A. autographing items
for everyone who would pay him $20!).
That day, i became a sports collector for real. Of course, like everyone else, as a kid i
collected baseball cards, traded amongst my friends and put them in my bicycle spokes. i
was cool before i even knew what cool was. Of course, when i went away to college, my mom
cleaned out the garage and donated them to the local dump-ster, making me an ex-
millionaire.
Im a Capricorn. I dont mess around. One year after meeting Bob Feller I had accumulated
over 1,500 signed baseballs. They were displayed in categories: Members of the Hall of
Fame, teams, pitchers, hitters, MVPs, and a collection of Cy Young winners.
From there I started swtor credit
collecting signed footballs, basketballs, and golf balls from Masters Champions. at one
time i owned 26 Super Bowl Rings! I was a Big League collector and my house was known as
the Baseball House and neighborhood kids would bring their dads for a tour.
Having lived in the Los Angeles area, I had season tickets for the Dodgers, Lakers, Kings
and Raiders (back in the day). I took my collecting seriously and found myself a co-host of
a radio show that aired before the Lakers games. The host was Gary Owens of Laugh-In fame
and we called ourselves Sports-Nuts.
As a kid i subscribed to Sport Magazine, and as an adult I found myself the Memorabilia
Editor of that fine publication, working for former L.A. Dodger All-Star first baseman,
Steve Garvey.
That position took me around the country to various autograph shows. I became friends with
the movers and shakers in the in-dustry. It also led me to the Home Shopping Network, where
I would occasionally be their on-air memorabilia authenticity expert. To this day, I am
proud to have been a part of the largest volume show in their history. We sold baseball
bats signed by Joe diMag-gio. The bats were a limited edition series of 1,951 pieces to
com-memorate the year he made batting history by hitting in 56 straight games. We sold them
for $2,995 each.
Ive lived a charmed life but have never been very good at any particular sport. I have,
however, met my heroes in every sport: Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Ted
firefall gold Williams, Wayne Gretzky, Arnold
Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Joe Montana, Magic Johnson, and all the Raider Hall of Famers, just
to mention just a few.
At the beginning of this year, I was pleased and honored to be asked by Mario Jourdan,
publisher of The Affluent Page, to share some of my memories about my life in the sports
memorabilia fast lane. So for now, enjoy what I have shared with you thus far, talk to you
soon.