Don West (1963-2022) -- The screaming Shop At Home guy

Estil

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_West_(wrestling)

https://youtu.be/IZ5NRPrGEv4?t=141

At 2:21 -- Most...famous...Don West...moment...ever.

82FootballWaxMemorys

still young!

Cooptown

When I was in college I would come home on breaks to my parents house and go out drinking with my high school buddies. Id roll in around 2:15am, make myself a sandwich and chips (my parents always had cold cuts in the house), crack open a beer and watch Don until I passed out

BLUEJAYWAY

For sure, he provided the hobby many entertaining moments.

addicted2ebay

many entertaining memories of mr west’s late night sales lol rip king

galaxy27

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIn0GchsGo8

steel75

I used to record his stuff and watch it later. Looking back at it, did he ever sell anything that ended up being worth money?

brad31

Never bought anything but also never changed the channel when he was hawking cards. He did it in an entertaining way and am sure brought a lot of people into the hobby when they bought their first “ROOOOOKIEEEE CARDDDD”.

RIP

grote15

Ooooh, a Tony Gwynn!

nam812

RIP.

Estil

JORDAN COLLEGE ROOKIES!!!

(that came out in 1989...a full five years after his college days!!)

You guys remember how irritated I was that there are billions of those North Carolina sets out there but finding the Kentucky set (1989 and especially the 1988!) was nearly impossible.

secretstash

@steel75 said:
I used to record his stuff and watch it later. Looking back at it, did he ever sell anything that ended up being worth money?

There was a video I saw where he sold 1986 fleer uncut sheets, so I am sure someone made some money. Edward Scissor-hands likely made out in the trimming scandal that got swept under the rug...

2dueces

There’s a special place in cardboard hell for the guy that ruined a lot of parents dreams of putting their kids through college with bricks of Kevin Mass and Hemsley Mullins rookies

erikthredd

I'd be curious to know how many people actually forked over the 5K for one of the Michael Jordan 1985 Nike Pro 10's that they used to hawk on Shop At Home.

edit: Had those buyers actually held onto them until the Last Dance Bulls bubble in recent years they probably could have sold for a profit.

Estil

@erikthredd said:
I'd be curious to know how many people actually forked over the 5K for one of the Michael Jordan 1985 Nike Pro 10's that they used to hawk on Shop At Home.

edit: Had those buyers actually held onto them until the Last Dance Bulls bubble in recent years they probably could have sold for a profit.

I can't believe they made such a big deal over that Tiger Woods card...I mean seriously, who collects golf cards?

Estil

@2dueces said:
There’s a special place in cardboard hell for the guy that ruined a lot of parents dreams of putting their kids through college with bricks of Kevin Mass and Hemsley Mullins rookies

I don't reckon bricks of 1988 Tom Glavine rookies turned out much better...and he's in the HOF!!

CardCollector11

He sold me fake 91 topps desert shield cards.

DrBuster

Back in the day I had the 'Unofficial Don West Fan Site' out there in the interwebs before Earthlink wiped out users personal website spaces ~2 years or so ago. Once the shop at home show ended I had posted an article/page and said he'd be a good wrestling announcer for the next career...and he did just that. RIP

craig44

did he die?

MantleFan23

@Cooptown said:
When I was in college I would come home on breaks to my parents house and go out drinking with my high school buddies. Id roll in around 2:15am, make myself a sandwich and chips (my parents always had cold cuts in the house), crack open a beer and watch Don until I passed out

Ha ha...I did almost the exact same thing when I was in college. While my friends were hooking up with girls they met that night, I was back at my apartment watching Don West and drinking more....ahhhh memories.

DeutscherGeist

The sense here is that Don West was entertaining, but the the Shop At Home part was an injustice to collectors, especially the novice, to put it mildly.

West being a wrestling announcer is fine. Professional wrestling was entertainment and people paid to be entertained.

Selling cards and making all those claims that he did during his Shop At Home stint is really shameful to say the least.

Estil

@DeutscherGeist said:
The sense here is that Don West was entertaining, but the the Shop At Home part was an injustice to collectors, especially the novice, to put it mildly.

West being a wrestling announcer is fine. Professional wrestling was entertainment and people paid to be entertained.

Selling cards and making all those claims that he did during his Shop At Home stint is really shameful to say the least.

Especially those so called JORDAN COLLEGE ROOKIES!!! Dude, it doesn't count unless the cards were made while Jordan was at UNC! At least the McGwire minor league cards they had once upon a time were in fact made during his minor league days.

Say, I remember a shopping channel sort of deal called "BuyTV Network" during the early 2000s (my college days)...anyone remember it?

DeutscherGeist

Estil,

I remember those McGwire minor league cards. At least they were real. Very overpriced, but they were what they were.

Thanks for explaining the Jordan College rookies. I was not sure what they were referring to. That is just plain misleading. A late 1980s card for Jordan is not a real college card no matter what is printed on there.

Estil

@DeutscherGeist said:
Estil,

I remember those McGwire minor league cards. At least they were real. Very overpriced, but they were what they were.

Thanks for explaining the Jordan College rookies. I was not sure what they were referring to. That is just plain misleading. A late 1980s card for Jordan is not a real college card no matter what is printed on there.

Yeah these were meant to be a "History of" sort of card set. Did I forget to mention how irritating it was that there were billions of those North Carolina sets (all because of one guy!) but the Kentucky sets were next to impossible to find and it took me several years just to find even one! 1989 was bad enough but the 1988 set even more so!

Estil

@craig44 said:
did he die?

Yes...hence the birth and death years on the topic. I mean that's how news broadcasts typically report someone's passing.

markmac33

I hated when they would give PSA 10 prices for values for cards in PRO and other inferior grading companies. They ripped off so many people. And guess who was the ring leading snake oil salesman. Not Don West..

Estil

@markmac33 said:
I hated when they would give PSA 10 prices for values for cards in PRO and other inferior grading companies. They ripped off so many people. And guess who was the ring leading snake oil salesman. Not Don West..

Then maybe it was that other guy who was always on the phone with them?

Don: OH MY GOD!! They killed Kenny!! You ahem!! Folks you better be dialing in right now...

brad31

I must have stopped watching him in his later years. PSA didn’t exist or barely existed back when I was watching Don West. Didn’t see the PRO PSA 10 stuff. When I was watching stuff was just about 25% more than it should be so never bought anything. PRO is bad but to me the worst to prey on the uninformed is/was (do they still exist) BCCG. Having the Beckett name added credence to a slab meant to confuse people.

Estil

@brad31 said:
I must have stopped watching him in his later years. PSA didn’t exist or barely existed back when I was watching Don West. Didn’t see the PRO PSA 10 stuff. When I was watching stuff was just about 25% more than it should be so never bought anything. PRO is bad but to me the worst to prey on the uninformed is/was (do they still exist) BCCG. Having the Beckett name added credence to a slab meant to confuse people.

Yeah why did they bother with that BCCG crap anyway? If you're gonna get it graded do it right (the regular Beckett grading) or else don't do it at all!

Stone193

This takes me back to my early collecting days.

Saw Don on SAH while we were on vacation.

The show I loved to hate every Saturday nite till it went off.

Crooked? You bet. Entertaining tho? You bet.

DeutscherGeist

Imagine, living your life in the public eye and the legacy you leave is one like this that we are discussing. I wonder if he knew what people thought of him. Perhaps he did not care.

When Mr Mint passed away, similar sentiments were shared.

The novice is better off on this message board or ones like it. There is tons of wisdom on here and people share. It is very bad for the hobby when new collectors or ones that are still learning get ripped off. I understand everyone had made a bad deal at least once in their life, which is chalked up to tuition in the hobby. But that is mainly due to limited knowledge and experience and trying to spread our wings when we make over anxious purchases that have not been well informed. Being outright mislead and scammed is something else.

Tabe

@DeutscherGeist said:
Estil,

I remember those McGwire minor league cards. At least they were real. Very overpriced, but they were what they were.

You sure about that? I swear that I've read they were printed in 1989. The idea they were actually printed in 1982 makes no sense - no other players have turned up and roughly a billion copies of the McGwire are out there. McGwire was an 8th round draft pick pitcher nobody in 1982 - why would he get a billion cards printed?

DeutscherGeist

Tabe,

The minor league card I am referring to is this one:

I have never seen this card up close, so I cannot say anymore. If this card was actually printed in 1989 and not 1982 and the information on the card clearly states a 1982 printing date, well that's fraud. At the time when I saw this on SAH, I just thought it was rather overpriced. If it has been confirmed fake, well that is a whole other level. I am not here to defend SAH or Don West.

markmac33

I just watched Wrestling personality Jim Cornette comment on what a nice guy Don West was. He has/had a go fund me page set up when his cancer came back. I hope that other guy on the line who has a 9 figure bank account donates something to this. He owes much of his success to the hype man salesman West was.

threeofsix

I followed every minute of his Shop At Home carnival ride!!!

He was certainly a "cardboard" character of the 1990's...