Barry Halper . . .
NewJerseyMeatHook
Posts: 1,441
Anyone see the special on George Michael's Sports Machine tonight?
Collection valued at $60 million.
Does anyone know what Halper did for a living?
Collection valued at $60 million.
Does anyone know what Halper did for a living?
0
Comments
<< <i>Does anyone know what Halper did for a living? >>
Wasnt he a chef and his claim to fame was that he made this first dish of Hamburger Halper
Matt
1994 Pro Line Live
TheDallasCowboyBackfieldProject
<< <i>Barry took over the family paper business (Halper Paper) in Newark, NJ after starting work there for his father and grandfather in 1959.......... >>
That Halper company is a $12mil company. I would have a real hard time believing he was able to make $60 mil to spend on sportscard running a company that size.
My Auctions
That Sothebys catalog is a must own. Makes Mastro look like kids stuff.
Always looking for Topps Salesman Samples, pre '51 unopened packs, E90-2, E91a, N690 Kalamazoo Bats, and T204 Square Frame Ramly's
BTW, didn't Halper die a few years ago?
>
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CA Halper article
Halper's haul also contains elements of the dark side. There's the shotgun that Ty Cobb's mother used to kill his father after finding him with another woman.
Collector of Pittsburgh Pirates cards for a slightly less stupid reason.
My Pirates Collection
I think there was a point where Halper became well known in the baseball community through collecting and his association with the Yankees that he obtained many items for free. There was a time when all you needed to do was buy Joe DiMaggio dinner and he would sign whatever you wanted.
<< <i>Turns out it was Dec '05 when Barry passed. Funny quote...when he visited Mickey Mantle in the hospital in '95 after The Mick's liver transplant, Mick looks up at him and says,"So, did they give you my liver?" lol![/q
LOL!!!!
~ms
I believe the Sports Machine is on Saturday night.
George is still a sportscaster in DC.
FOX affiliate, I believe.
GO MARLINS! Home of the best fans in baseball!!
Sounds like the making of a really nice thread. Would love to hear the story.
I've read many articles and interviews done by Halper. He stated in one article that he used to go to many Newark Bears games as a kid and used to pester the players for autographs and their old equipment. He became a fixture after the games and the players just started saving and giving him stuff. He would also save and collect all the yearbooks, schedules, basically anything associated with the Bears. He claimed he used this collection of memoribilia as trading fodder to begin his accumulation of baseball historia. Once he became a minority owner of the Yankess he was able to parlay his collecting notoriety into being in a position to acquire and trade for many of the choice items in his collection.
His collection was probably better than what was at Cooperstown. We as collectors were fortunate that much of his collection was available to the open market rather than just sold to the HOF.
<< <i>Halper was a very nice guy. I had a great opportunity to spend a day with him. >>
Anyone else with you Marc? Got any pictures?
Always looking for Topps Salesman Samples, pre '51 unopened packs, E90-2, E91a, N690 Kalamazoo Bats, and T204 Square Frame Ramly's
Mike
That being said - I really thought posting the pics would tell the story best - much better than I can spin. These stories are from a 16-year old, and I was at a much different place in those days - so it's not really the current me speaking. And, as a point of reference, I was at Halper's house for maybe 4 hours - and only about 2 to 2.5 of those hours were in his basement. The rest was mingling in his backyard. For comparison - when Lifson coordinated the sale of Halper's collection with Sotheby's - he literally spent a year, or about 2,000 man hours, give or take, in cataloging the collection. So I can present a few swatches and memories here and there - but to this day, the experience was so overwhelming to be absolutely mind-boggling.
First, to dispel any rumours of privlege, clout or anything of the sort - I'm just a simple good ole' Pennsylvania boy who started working in the family supermarket when I was 5 years old. My 'inside connections' culminated in an annual outing to the Tastykake superbox at Veteran's Stadium. Cool, yes, connected, no. Put simply - this experience was a contest winning - nothing more.
My mom is a hobbyist of her own. Besides being a terrible pack rat - her two main hobbies are a) needlepointing and b) entering contests. She has been entering contests/sweepstakes for at least 30-35 years. She subscribes to a Contest newsletter, has all kinds of strategies and thoughts - and even has a special, proprietary way of folding entries in the stick-it-in-the-box style of contests. Whether it is skill, forethought, or just plain luck - she's won a lot of cool stuff over the years. Now - there has been a ton of crap, too - I can't tell you how many cereal-logo waterbottles she has won of the years. But she has won a beautiful fur coat, a Rolex watch, a trip-for-two with lodging, expenses to France, and this trip to Halper's. Most of you know that Barry was a minority owner of the New York Yankees. I can't imagine a possible smaller minority in any shareholder arrangement than one in which Steinbrenner is the majority shareholder. At any rate - Halper was also a part-owner of the Score baseball card company. There was a contest in 1991/1992. I don't recall specifically whether it was in the actual cards/packs [I'm thinking not...?], or whether it was a contest that was sponsored in conjunction with Toys R'Us. For some reason, I think it had something to do with Toys R' Us. I don't know. At any rate - my mom won. Often times, contests would have limits as to how many entries per person or household. My mom knew lots of tricks around such rules - but the end result was that for every contest, she would enter everyone a few times if she could. The downside of her winning this contest is that it was for her + one guest. The obvious thing to do would have been for my Dad and I to go - but since my Mom won the contest, she had to go. I'm sure she was smitten enough to have met and hung out with Joe DiMaggio - but that being said, I think she knew my dad would have appreciated going much more than she.
So the contest prize was as follows: There were either five or seven winners, I forget which. Each was allowed to bring a guest. The prize was a night in New York, a Yankees game, seeing a baseball museum with Joe DiMaggio [they did not specifically promote it as being Halper's], and flights to and from home. Since we lived in PA - we argued against the flight, and were able to negotiate a limo drive instead - which would have been just as long as the flight.
At any rate - I do not remember the sequence of events so much - I don't know if the game was before Halper's - or the other way around. I remember the hotel was kind of crappy - and the hopes of attending a Yankees game with Joe D. were shot. That would have been really cool, I think - but oh well.
Barry was an exceptionally nice man. He was very polite with each person, was personable, and was so willing to share his passion and hobby with others. I think it was great to see the love and passion in his eyes and speech as he talked about his collection and pieces. It was really inspiring. He collected because he loved. What more can one ask? Love of the hobby - and downright dedication to what he enjoyed most [e.g. memorabilia and Yankees]. Before Joe D. arrived, Barry did call us all together and basically said two things 1) Joe was a shy, reserved guy - so let him settle in before approaching him. He was a private man, was happy to come, but didn't want to be overwhelmed. The only rule was crucial "Do not ever ever in any way ever even mention the name of Marilyn Monroe. Never ever never. If you do - he will leave right then and there, and it is all over". Simple enough rule. I guess the more you learn about the situation - you can at least understand why it must have been hard for him even so many years later. Anyway.
So there were maybe 15-20 people there including Barry and his wife, and there were one or two SCD reporters covering the event. When Joe finally arrived - he saw how many people were there and basically promptly left the basement. He did come back with Barry 20-25 minutes later, but Joe felt he was tricked, and had thought that there were only going to be 5-6 people there, and, instead, there were 25 people there. He eventually calmed down - but seeing all those people in the crowded basement really threw him out of sorts.
The coolest single thing that I could say about Barry's collection was that it was accessible. There uniforms were on a dry-cleaning-type motorized closet rack. The autographed balls were sitting there in little holders, and if you wanted to pick one up, you probably could. [a 16-year old knows better than to touch a baseball with Joe Jackson's signature on it]. But it was just all right there. Nothing was locked up, behind glass, in holders, etc. Sure - some of his key stuff was not there: a mention of the Wagner card indicated that his copy was in his bank vault or wherever. But it was just all there. Some stuff was behind plastic - but those were displays - organizations of material of an event - press, pictures, the game-used stuff, and notes from the ballplayers talking about the event.
Which brings up Black Betsy. I looked through lots of things - but didn't want to touch/move too much. At one point, Barry took down Black Betsy from the ceiling and asked us if we wanted to hold it. Man - what an experience that was! To have Black Betsy on my shoulder, feel its weight on my hands, think where the bat was before - the history is overwhelming. Couldn't really swing per se in the crowded basement - but just to hold it and feel its rhythm. I felt like a god at that moment. [middle bat with the yellow dot on the third picture down]
Of all the memorabilia that was there - the one theme of things that stuck out the most to me were the panoramas. I'd seen old cards before. I had autographed baseballs - and was not surprised that he had game-used bats, uniforms, gloves, etc. But the one thing I had never seen before were the pre-war team panoramas. Huge, beautiful pictures of vintage teams - Yankees, Cubs, A's. Tons of them. And the kicker? Most of them were completely autographed. Completely autographed panoramas of teams from 60-70 years ago! How is such a thing possible? To this day - I still don't know.
Some of the displays were really neat, too. The Pine Tar Incident materials were phenomenal. The Mookie Wilson - Bill Buckner stuff was great. A display of that is essentially the history of all the great stuff of the game. It is those incidents, so memorable, that make baseball such a wonderful sport. How cool! And the emotions were right there in the little notes that the ballplayers left with the materials from the game. I vividly recall the note that Gossage left with his materials from the pine tar game started off with a frank "Barry - F_CK YOU..."
The full-size Ruth wax statue. A wall of binders with the backs affixed against the wall so that you could essentially flip through his entire runs of pre-war sets. The advertising pieces and the hundreds, if not thousands, of displayed signatures of Ruth, Mantle and DiMaggio. He must have had 100-200 Ruth signatures on display. He even had one baseball that he picked up by happenstance that was inscribed "To Barry". How cool is that? I seem to remember seeing some of the 'fun' stuff he collected, too. He had a signature sheet that included the signatures of every single 500-home run player on the same sheet. He had a baseball that was personally autographed by every player ever nicknamed "Moose". He had another ball signed by a whole bunch of the perfect game pitchers. Such neat stuff. He had a baseball that was 3-feet in diameter that was signed by Billy Martin that said "Hey Barry - this is how big the ball looked to Mickey...."
DiMaggio did settle down, and he was rather pleasant. I don't remember what the heck I talked to him about - I really have no clue. As a sad aside - DiMaggio was at some show in Atlantic City 2-3 years later. I ponied up the $150 for a signature [no autographs were to be had at Barry's either - I guess that was another rule, although I forget the specifics behind it] - and I had him autograph an 8x10 I had of him and Bob Feller that Feller had signed for me earlier. I had brought along a blown up 8x10 of the picture of Joe and I by the pool in Barry's backyard and I said "Hey Joe - I met you at Barry Halper's house two years ago, and had a great time. I just wanted to give you this picture as a means of thanks for spending so much time with us that day". Joe looked over to one of his handlers that day - and the idiot shook his head; I think Joe wanted to sign it for me and give it back. Instead it ended up somewhere under the table. Oh well.
Another story/aside with DiMaggio. I was literally the only kid-type there. A bunch of adults and lucky ole' me. SCD had this idea at the beginning that it would be cool to get a press shot of me and DiMaggio together - with me wearing his '39 Seals jersey - the one that is in the photos that Barry took out of his closet. Joe was still angry at that time, since it was close to the beginning of his being there. I never did get a chance to put that jersey on - but I sure know in my head what that picture would have looked like had it happened.
It was such a great opportunity. I got really lucky - and it was a day of dreams. I wish I had other great stories to tell - but it is hard to convey how incomprehensible his collection was, and how overwhelming it was to my small collecting mind. I think of how much more I know about the hobby today than I did 13 years ago - and I am still sure that I wouldn't appreciate the vast majority of stuff he had. It was just everywhere - it was just so much. It was a beautiful, wonderful day.
I could probably keep blathering on forever about that day - but most of the snippets in my mind have come out. Just a lucky guy - and I can't say as I've ever really shared those pictures with anyone. Sure, my parents. And my wife has seen them, but she doesn't 'get' the significance other than the sparkle in my eye if I talk about it. So I thank you for asking me about that day and for letting me share my pictures and my silly story. Just a lucky kid - 'tis all
Bowman Baseball -1948-1955
Fleer Baseball-1923, 1959-2007
Al
He did indicate in the book he was pissed about the number of people at the house. He was kind of funny, he always
thought people were out to take advantage of him. I'll have to book out and reread it.
Peace
Doug
45% complete.
Wel i am going to 2nd and 3rd the motion----POST OF THE YEAR!!!!!
Bet you never give your mom a hard time for entering contests (if you ever did.) Mine's the same way!
Shannon
shambo2000
My Steve Carlton Basic Registry Set
great stories & pix... thank you so much for sharing this event with us...
not only am envious & awe-struck, i find it most interesting that you were considerably taller at the age of sixteen than joe as an adult!
we need more stuff like this on our message boards!
I just spent about 15 minutes looking at all the cool stuff in the pics and noticed I was looking past that bench made of bats at the panorama on the wall.
I know it's not even close to the most valuable item in the pics but how cool is that bench? Probably one of the most unique items I ever recall seeing.
Please don't tell me it's made from Ruth gamers!
Thanks again for sharing. Bob C.
61 Topps (100%) 7.96
62 Parkhurst (100%) 8.70
63 Topps (100%) 7.96
63 York WB's (50%) 8.52
68 Topps (39%) 8.54
69 Topps (3%) 9.00
69 OPC (83%) 8.21
71 Topps (100%) 9.21 #1 A.T.F.
72 Topps (100%) 9.39
73 Topps (13%) 9.35
74 OPC WHA (95%) 8.57
75 Topps (50%) 9.23
77 OPC WHA (86%) 8.62 #1 A.T.F.
88 Topps (5%) 10.00
GO MARLINS! Home of the best fans in baseball!!