RIP Lionel Carter
hotmush
Posts: 657
Do You Collect 
Baseball 1937,1965-94,2008-09?
Or Regional Canadian Baseball Issues?
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Baseball 1937,1965-94,2008-09?Or Regional Canadian Baseball Issues?
Come be a contributor to the OPC Baseball Wiki. It's free and easy!
OPeeChee.Wikispaces.Com
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<< <i>Lionel Carter Dies at 90. >>
A collector that shall never be equaled!! RIP!!
Raw: Tony Gonzalez (low #'d cards, and especially 1/1's) and Steve Young.
Here's another article that I thought some of you might enjoy reading:
"You may not know the name but the hobby mourns the passing of a gentleman who was busting packs when guys named Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were still playing and President Roosevelt declared gold illegal to privately own.
Lionel Carter passed away on August 28th at the age of 90.
From that first pack in 1933, Mr. Carter was hooked for life. He began trading cards with the likes of hobby pioneer Jefferson Burdick and Charles Bray and acquiring cards through ads placed in early hobby publications. According to an article by Mastro Auctions, Jefferson Burdick sent Lionel a copy of the 1933 Goudey Nap LaJoie card #106. One of 10 copies Burdick received from Goudey after writing a letter to complain about not finding this short print in packs.
For Carter, it was never about the money. He collected because he was a collector. He loved the cards and according to many he loved the finest condition card he could find. Carter spent Sunday nights carefully mounting cards in his numerous albums.
Lionel served his country in WWII but never forgot the hobby he loved. He picked right back up with the trading and letter writing when he returned from fighting in the Pacific.
According to one account in the Daily Northwestern, on Nov. 2006, Carter’s home was burglarized. While the small amount of cards taken were recovered, his wife’s jewelry was not. Carter knew that the monetary value of his cards made it unsafe to keep the cards in his home. He could no longer invite people over and share his collection without the fear of someone seeing only dollar signs. The Carters decided it was time to sell the approximately 50,000 vintage card collection.
Carter was quoted in the article as saying “I sold every one of the cards because I didn’t want anything to remind me of them,” Carter said. “They meant so much to me (after) so many years of collecting. They were just a big part of my life.
“But you can’t put 50,000 baseball cards in albums in a vault, so I had no choice but to sell them.”
Carter had lost touch with the hobby he loved, or maybe the hobby he loved lost touch with him. remaining a true collector by heart, the hobby grew and expanded and left members of the old school of collecting behind. The value of a card became more important than the joy of collecting and that is not what collectors like Lionel Carter cared about.
If, one day, a trading card hall of fame is established, Mr. Carter surely deserves a spot along side other hobby legends."
RIP Mr. Carter (1918-2008)
PoppaJ
He'll be missed.
It's too bad we can't take it with us.
mike
RIP Lionel a true hobby pioneer.
Steve
he'll be missed
collecting RAW Topps baseball cards 1952 Highs to 1972. looking for collector grade (somewhere between psa 4-7 condition). let me know what you have, I'll take it, I want to finish sets, I must have something you can use for trade.
looking for Topps 71-72 hi's-62-53-54-55-59, I have these sets started
You will never be forgotton
I was lucky enough to get a few of his 51 Bowmans for my set.
<< <i>What fun it would have been to hang out with Lionel Carter and his friends back in the days when it was just about the cards. Sad, too, that his card collection didn't wind up in a museum somewhere, but I'm sure those who have acquired some of his incredible pieces appreciate them now more than ever. >>
June 19, 1934...
"I got those LaJoie cards from Goudey. They sent me ten."
"Ten? Wow."
"Do you want one?"
"Oh, yes! Who do you want for it?"
"Don't worry about it."
"Thanks."
"Do you think we're being too meticulous with our cards?"
"What do you mean?"
"Keeping the corners sharp and being adamant on the centering. Do you think anybody cares?"
"Maybe they don't care now, but if we don't preserve the best specimens of these cards then nobody will. One day I think our grandchildren will appreciate them."
"You're only fifteen. You won't have grandchildren until 1960!"
"Yes, but I'm going to collect until I'm 90, so that's fine with me."
"Can you imagine how many cards we'll have by then?"
"It'll be amazing."