Article in my local paper about sports collectibles.

RedHeart54

The author fails to mention anything about the graded market- something I e-mailed him about. (I also mentioned something about Rosen's less-than-stellar reputation among the hobby faithful.) I have known Joe Ruocco since I was about 11 years old. He is Wichita's resident collectible expert but is still a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to graded cards- which is to say he is not a proponent of them.

One hobby, two paths for sports businesses

ctsoxfan

Thanks for the link - you can tell that the article was written by someone without much insight into today's hobby, as you mention.

royalbrett

I remember going to Rock's dugout when I was a kid (early to mid 80s). It was where I bought my first George Brett rookie.


Since I still have family in Wichita, I visit often, and I stopped by a few years ago to see he's still in business

bengineno9

Suprised this got posted on the boards since im from Wichita. Rock and his wife are really nice people with an incredible store. Beleive he recently retired from being an elementary teacher. He is all about the kids.
One could literally spend hours looking around in his small shop. Also puts on some decent card shows. Remember when i was kid he brought in Phil Rizzuto, Lou Boudreau, Gary Sheffield (when he was in minors), and a lot more that i can't think of at the moment. A few years ago he got Ozzie Smith in. Was outta town that day and still can't beleive i missed it.
Ben

POKERBOT

I have traveled to Wichita once a year for business the last 3 years and always stop by his shop. The guy has tons of vintage, but not much that would grade high. I picked up a 62 Tarkenton RC there that I thought looked better than my 7, unfortunately it came back a 6. The guy is a nice guy, but he doesn't want anything to do with graded cards.

The day I bought the Tarkenton, he pulled out a stack of 57 Alan Ameche cards and just gave me one. ( sent to psa and came back a 6 )
He said @ one time he had a stack of 57 Unitas RC , (the stack of Ameche cards were a hundred cards or better) like this and sold all of them raw.

If anyone gets a chance to stop by his shop it would be worth the stop. Its awesome to get a first hand look @ all of the vintage.

TheCARDKid

Newspaper articles about the hobby all tend to focus on the same thing, for better or for worst.

They want the widest possible audience...so they have to report on the big overview picture. The little niches are always missed...graded cards, record auction business, vintage photos, bats, PSA/DNA, etc.