Shop at Home then vs. now

maddux69

During the boom in the late eighties and early 90's many found themselves watching Don West and his wild antics on Shop at Home late at night. While most of the offerings seemed ridiculous and overpriced at the time, I am sure there are a few things we wish we picked up at the time. I stumbled across this screengrab and could only imagine what it would go for now.

So what did you guys buy from Shop at Home back then? I recall buying a Beam Team set and a 3200 count box mixed with Classic sealed Minor League cards mixed with a few small sets along with a Willie Mays autographed baseball. I found that box and ran across a Classic 4 Sport Jeter, but couldn't locate the Mays ball.

MantleFan23

I never bought anything but Don West was the best entertainment during late night TV. My fondest memories were:

1) One time he did a set deal and he had stacked all the sets on a table...all the sets had about tipped over, and he claimed "this is just a wall of cards!"
2) The phone lines were always jammed and there were never enough customer service people to handle the calls..."if you can't get in...keep calling!!" he would exclaim numerous times.
3) Usually, Ken Goldin would call in and he made every deal seem like the sale of the century.
4) The one time, a whole monster box full of cards fell on the floor, and he got down on the ground to show everyone, "you could literally swim in cards"
5) He always complimented people that got in on deals...especially in quantity.

It was the best late night TV in college.

Jeremy

secretstash

There are tons of youtube videos of him with shop at home and then his retired own deals show. The 86 fleer one is on youtube also.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-FQKcqIGas

jsanz

WOW, that's amazing. I wonder what that sheet would go for these days?

That Don West liked to yell

sushihotwings

That is Ken Golden of Golden auctions on the phone!? He forgot to mention PSA that doesn't grade sheet cut cards

LarkinCollector

@jsanz said:
I wonder what that sheet would go for these days?

A lot of BGS slabs would be my guess

craig44

Used to love watching don west i remember waking up early on Saturday mornings, before anyone else, and drooling over the amazing deals. Sometimes I will watch on YouTube when I feel nostalgic

MULLINS5

My dad bought me a signed Howe puck from TV for $30...I don't remember there being much hockey, but I loved watching the shows.

My only other purchase was a couple sets of copper chef pans a few months ago.

DrBuster

SNL did parodies 2x of the man, the legend...

http://www.mindspring.com/~cligon/dw/snl_tribute.html

Glad to see in chrome my flash nav is still working on that site from 17 years ago.

Estil

Kenny on the phone getting shot in the head

Don West: Oh my God! They killed Kenny! You bastards!! Folks you better be dialing in right now...

Estil

I remember in college (early 2000s) there was a "BuyTV Network"...also entertaining (not loudmouth though) and their stuff was more reasonably priced.

totallyradd

We used to watch Don West while drunk late at night during college. We even started a band called Don West and the Gem Mint 10's, where we were gonna play songs about cards, and car shows, and autographs, etc, but it fizzled out before we could play a show.

Somewhere I have a cd full of sound clips that we recorded that we planned on sampling throughout songs. Ahhhh, gimmick bands.

steel75

They went crazy for a while opening 85 Topps looking for McGwire rc's...........pure entertainment at it's best.

Stone193

Never bought anything but found the show totally entertaining.

Didn't care for when they brought "Kenny" in - his flare for overstating the value of his stuff was monumental.

I remember the night he (Don) spilled cards all over the place:

https://youtu.be/IZ5NRPrGEv4

HighGradeLegends

@totallyradd said:
We even started a band called Don West and the Gem Mint 10's, where we were gonna play songs about cards, and car shows, and autographs, etc, but it fizzled out before we could play

What were some potential song names?

georgebailey2

Never watched Don West. With my eyes closed, i expect him to tell us that he lives in a van down by the river. La-de friggin-da.

BLUEJAYWAY

If he doesn't somewhere already,he should have a trading card "honoring" him. Perhaps "Mouschi can work on one. Or at least a "Broder.

ugaskidawg

Here is one of the SNL parodies...

https://hulu.com/watch/65921

totallyradd

@HighGradeLegends said:

@totallyradd said:
We even started a band called Don West and the Gem Mint 10's, where we were gonna play songs about cards, and car shows, and autographs, etc, but it fizzled out before we could play

What were some potential song names?

Oh man, I can't remember cuz it was so long ago, but it was all riffs on cards flying off the shelves, being gem mint 10, being super limited, and then also riffing on Don West's Manurisms, like too much much coffee, excited heart attacks, etc. Somebody in the band might have the lyric notebook somewhere, I doubt it, but I'll put the word out, and if it pops up, I'll definitely post all the song titles and lyrics, cuz they were funny AF. We were productive drunk college kids to say the least, haha

Estil

@Stone193 said:
Didn't care for when they brought "Kenny" in - his flare for overstating the value of his stuff was monumental.

gunshot to Kenny's head

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

tonylags

I remember buying a Jordan College box; I may still have it.

divecchia

Don West was great entertainment at night. He could make any deal sound unbelievable.

I did not buy much, but I remember purchasing a set of 1993 Finest Promo cards of Nolan Ryan, Don Mattingly and Roberto Alomar.

Brings back some great memories.

Donato

robert67

.

Tomi

I remember him saying what a great investment the college North Carolina Michael Jordan cards were.