I have an embarrassed confession of sorts to make. You know a few weeks ago, when I wrote about how I was painstakingly, card by card, putting together the 1986 Fritsch Negro League set? I even said something along the lines of how "you can buy the entire 119-card set for $21.95 right now. Go ahead and do it if you want, but me - I'm getting into building this set individually, and I have 40-some-odd cards from it so far....".Best I can gather, this set was something you probably got handed to you at the end of a tour, and/or could order from Fritsch himself. It features some of the world's most famous really old cards - basically the stuff that collectors were drooling over, circa 1988. Anyone out there ever go to the museum? Did it truly exist as a physical place you paid an admission fee to get into, or...?
Anyway, here's what the rest of the cards look like. Pardon my not-so-good scanning abilities.
Here's an article from 1992 about the Baseball Card Museum. Enjoy!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1992-08-09-1992222124-story.html
I've been to Cooperstown twice, in 1991 and 1999 (planned on going again this year, but corona had other ideas) I don't recall seeing a baseball card museum. If it was there I definitely would have remembered, as I still remember the card shops and the card exhibit within the Baseball Hall of Fame. Perhaps the cards I saw were donated by Fritsch? If there was a museum at 10 Chestnut Street it's long gone now.
ReplyDeleteThey rotate the baseball card part in and out. Everyone once in a while they will have a new display in the HOF. They opened a new exhibit last year: https://www.mlb.com/cut4/hall-of-fame-to-open-brand-new-baseball-card-exhibit
DeleteI went to Cooperstown and the Larry Fritsch Baseball Card Museum while on my honeymoon in September 1988. I went to Cooperstown again in September 1991, but I didn't have time to go to the Museum. Larry Fritsch was there when we went - which was awesome because he was one of the really big names in collecting at the time. The Fritsch Museum had a great display of cards and I enjoyed the visit. The HOF now has a really good display on cards, although I'm not sure it's open right now because of the pandemic.
ReplyDeleteI have one of the cards from this set (Magee/Magie) but I never even thought to look into the Baseball Card Museum listed on the front. (I may also have to pull the trigger on one of those Negro League sets as well!)
ReplyDeleteNice way to add some classic cards to your collection. I've ordered some Packers Police sets from Fritsch and received freebies too. Don't remember having a choice of what I wanted, but they've hooked up some pretty cool sample packs (where they show off some of the sets they've produced and sell).
ReplyDeleteThat Jim Thorpe is a weird example of the Colgan's Chips discs. Usually, the quality of the photography is really good on those. I have two of them, which I won in Ebay auctions, only to realize that they are paper thin. They're still cool!
ReplyDeleteWow, you have a couple of those? That's awesome, Tim. You'll have to include them in our next trade. ;)
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