Larry Fritsch died Saturday

zippy

A sad day for our hobby

RipublicaninMass

really? Very sad indeed, on a lighter note, maybe some of that wax will come out for sale?

zippy

If they sold all the wax stuff they have on hand the market would crash or at least come down a ton

bedellsonics

This name sound very, very familiar. Could someone help me refresh my memory? Thanks! Jim

Rocuan

Pm sent. Please check.
Roland

Fuzz

Fritsch was the first full time dealer (per his own press but probably true) starting in 1970. Getting cards from Larry was a rite of passage. He had everything. He maintained massive inventories of unopened material to draw from. I believe some of his later material advertised over 50 million cards. A lot of the Mastro unopened material came from him. I suspect that his family will carry on the business as I believe his son Jeff has been very involved for a long time. I suspect that most of the high end cards from 68 through the mid-70's lived in his warehouse at one time or another. He was a true hobby pioneer.

markj111

Olbermann mentioned Fritsch on his show last night.

toppsfootball

Very sad indeed. I am looking at some of his early 80's catalogs that I kept for some unknown reason. What great memories!! You will be missed Larry!

bigtec9

There was a company out of the bronx back in the early 60's that was a full time dealer b4 fritsch,i think it was richard gelman, dont know if he is still in biz though.

packernut

It's a shame that Larry is gone. If his family decides to sell the business, the market will crash. When I was in college I went to see him. I saw first hand that he had a ton of nice vintage wax. It's hard to say what they will do. If they were smart, they'd only sell a little at a time (to keep the market high).

His wax not only spanned the 70's, but also earlier. I bought some 1959 Football that he ripped from wax. I didn't grade mine, but a fellow collector did. He got quite a few 9's out of the bunch.

miami3

Very sad indeed.

Larry was a true pioneer of the hobby and always treated me like I was his only customer although he had thousands.

I know that Larry always stated that he was the first full time dealer in the hobby but I really think that title goes to Woody Gelman and Richard Gelman of New York City with their "Card Collectors Company".

Another full time dealer from the early 1960's was a guy named Bruce Yeko from Georgetown,CT. that used to run ad's in the Sporting News for full series or sets of cards going back to 1952 Topps and his company was called "Wholesale Card Company".

In any event Larry will be missed by all.

My thoughts and prayers go out to Jeff and the rest of his family.

bigtec9

I wish i could find the pricelist i have for gelman from 1965,anyways i was a mantle collector back then and i remember the price of a 52 topps was .25,and being the avid collector back then,it was 1 of the few mantles i didnt orderfrom him.Just a little bit of my stupidity or lack of money at the time.

dave