The joy of collecting serves as the focal point of our discussion in this podcast episode. We delve into the world of football card collecting, exploring not only the sheer delight it brings but also the rich history intertwined with each card. Joining us is Bob Swick, a distinguished expert whose extensive experience in this field offers invaluable insights and practical advice for both novice and seasoned collectors alike. Throughout our conversation, we reflect on the nostalgia associated with collecting and the community that forms around this beloved pastime. Ultimately, we aim to inspire listeners to engage with this hobby, emphasizing the importance of collecting what resonates with them personally.
You can find more of Bob's work on the hobby and preservation of football history at Gridiron Greats Magazine or look for the Gridiron Greats Magazine podcast on SportsHistoryNetwork.com or your favorite podcast provider.
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Transcript
Well, we have a gentleman with us today that is no stranger to the Pig Pen. He's been on here talking about football history with us quite a bit and he is probably. I don't know anybody that's collected football cards longer.
That's Bob Swick of Great Iron Greats magazine. Bob, welcome back to the Pig Pen.
Bob Swick:Thanks for having me back on, Darin. Good to be back.
Darin Hayes:Yeah, Bob, like I. I alluded to, you know, you are probably the foremost expert from experience because you've probably had more cards go through your hand than most people have. Take took him breaths, you know, I'm sure.
So we'd love to hear some of your wisdom, you know, some of your points of enjoyment of collecting cards, you know, and some other tips that you can give a new collector.
Bob Swick:d. I've collected cards since:I was 7 years old and at that time, packs of cards were a whopping 5 cents each.
So I would shoe around for a nickel or a dime from my parents or my aunt and uncle and I would go when we were out, we lived in a relatively small town. The town next to us had two stores that actually sold actually three stores that sold baseball football cards.
One was a candy store, one was a little soda shop which had magazines and so on and so forth. And then there was a store named McCrory's which was a five and dime store which had cards there also. So I bought my first cards.
andy Shop. I bought a pack of:And I bought a pack each. I got home and I opened the packs. I didn't know what was in them other than whatever these cards were.
And I was just amazed to see, see that there were football players I had watched on TV in color, meaning that they had color uniforms that were printed in color, so on and so forth. And I just caught the bug there and I.
And I started collecting and as the years progressed, I got into becoming a very advanced football card collector. I collected many, many different sets over the years.
s, meaning complete sets from:I have the:Darin Hayes:Hey, let's go back to what you said. You know, your first pack, you went down to the local candy shop, you bought that pack.
Now, I have heard people describe it and I, I tend to agree with them. When you buy those packs of cards, it's almost comparative to Christmas morning, your birthday, where a present is wrapped up.
You don't know exactly what's in there. You know, you have an idea that there's cards in there, but you don't know what's in there.
And people, despite what some of the companies might think, they're not buying those packs for the gum that's in it. You know, Exactly. So. So maybe you could share your experience with.
Bob Swick:Well, it was just, it was, to me was just so fascinating to buy a pack and not know what was inside of it. So when you opened it up and again, I had no, I had no real perception of what I was going to get other than a card.
And I really saw, I was, this was, wow, I really want these cards because again, you know, I grew up, you grew up to a certain degree in a black and white world. So our television was black and white, newspapers were black and white. The only thing that was color was in magazines and the actual.
Your everyday life. So if you actually went to a football game in person, you saw the color uniforms, the color of the game.
So I think I was so fascinated with the color of the cards and seeing the players in their uniforms. And at the same time, it was fascinating on the back of the cards because I would read everything in the back of the card.
They had a little one or two sentence write up about the player. They had statistics, which I learned very quickly.
The different statistics that were available on the back of the cards, that really helped me with math, and I think it provided an avenue for me to enjoy math my entire lifetime and numbers and so on and so forth. But the one thing, just to get a little off script, I. The one thing I didn't ever understood, that you could actually complete a set of these cards.
didn't realize that until the:We're talking about baseball cards at the time. Do you have a set of them? I said, well, what's the set? And then he explained.
My buddy explains me, well, there was, whatever it was, 598 cards in the set. I said I had no idea that there was a complete set.
So I started going back to my football cards and I said, boy, I need a lot of cards for these sets. So I made in a little notebook, I made my own checklist, what numbers I was missing from, from it, and then try to try to put the sets together.
But that, that came years later as I had more disposable income, so on and so forth. But it was, yeah, I would say it would be like a Christmas present you're opening up, you don't know what you get in it. And it was fun.
It was just so, so fun. And I know I drove my, my parents and my aunt and uncle crazy asking for change. And they understood what I was doing.
So I, I had an uncle, he would always open up his wallet, so I knew I was going to get a dollar bill. And I said, boy, I can buy a lot of packs with this, this type of thing. And, you know, it just stayed with me my entire life.
It was great hobby, to say the least.
Darin Hayes:Yeah, my experience, I lived the sort of same kind of neighborhood that you did.
We had, you know, three stores right within walking distance when you're 10, 11 years old that at least your parents trusted you to go to and without getting kidnapped or whatever, bad things could happen. And we, I would get an allowance one of my jobs was doing because I had a brother too.
I would have to take the bags of garbage out on Mondays or whenever our garbage day was in that neighborhood. Forget what it was. But you get a quarter for every bag of garbage that would go out. So I couldn't wait till, you know, Monday morning.
I'd take those out because the, when I, you know, in the 70s, when I grew up, a pack of cards was a quarter.
Bob Swick:Quarter, yeah.
Darin Hayes:So I might take three bags of garbage out and okay, I got three quarters.
I'm going to go buy three packs of football cards and, you know, we wait and buy a bunch of my friends in the neighborhood you know, especially in the summertime, we did this when we were off from school. We would all wait and bring our packs and sit on somebody's front porch and open them up and then, you know, have some fun, chew the.
The stale gum and, you know, then start trading them. And I ended up buying a case because there was 28 teams in the NFL at that time.
So I had this case that opened up, which you're probably familiar with, and it had 28 slots in it. And, you know, I took out the. The old label maker and put, you know, name of each team. And that was when I. That's when we had fun.
Is when you completed a team, hey, I just completed the Eagles or hey, but that was. And you traded with your buddies and just had a great time. And you use the checklist to know how many, you know, cards when you had a full.
Bob Swick:Right.
Darin Hayes:And I think we got. Some of us got the full set in those years. But that was all the fun of it, though. You know, it was the.
The brass ring that you're always reaching for.
Bob Swick:Exactly. And then again, the other thing I used to re. I used to love sports magazines like Sport Magazine, Sports Illustrated, the Sporting News.
And I didn't realize until I opened a couple. I don't know what year it was, Sport Magazine.
you can buy a complete set of:And I. I was just fascinated for probably two, three years about trying to own a set because I. I didn't really own a set because I was all missing a few cards here and there, so on and so forth. So again, as the. As the 70s and the late 70s and early 80s, then I became super active in trying to, you know, complete a lot of these sets.
to:Darin Hayes:Yeah, that is totally amazing that you'd have that longevity of doing that. You know, that's my thing.
Bob Swick:I mean, it was a fun thing for me to go buy wack. Buy a wax box of cards and go home that night. And my little table there. I would open up the packs and I would.
At that time, I knew what I was doing, so I would start sorting pre. Sorting them, so on and so forth.
I was also fortunate. Between:I helped the gentleman who owned the business but he couldn't pay me so he paid me in cards, believe it or not. So I ended up with a lot of inventory of cards of all sports working for him.
actually helped me finish my:Darin Hayes:Yeah, that, that's, I mean that's a great point because that's a really good resource for a collector is your local card shops. You know, we've, we've got a handful of them here in the small town that I live in and you know, I know the, the gentleman of a few of them.
They're always willing to help you out. Hey, what are you looking for? You know, and hey, I don't have that here, but let me, you know, take a look around.
Uh, you know, you, you've been a great resource to me when I'm looking for something. You've been able to help me out on, on a bunch of things, you know, help me with some sets and get towards some, some of my goals.
And so there's always some, some people that are in the know that there's always somebody that knows more than you know, you know, or has a better connection to you and that's, you know, a great thing. So what do you, what do you like about the, you know, the, like the local card dealers?
Bob Swick:Well, the, you know, develop a relationship with your local car dealer. Introduce yourself. The I'm, I, I'm 99.9. Sure they would love to help you out.
Tell them what you're interested and say, you know, I collect Pittsburgh Steeler cards. Can you give me a, you know, a hand with them? So on and so forth.
He'll probably come back and ask you, okay, what years are you going back, how many, you know, what are you looking for? Just stars. You want all the, all the, all the players in the year, so on and so forth and he could probably give you some guidance.
But with regards to where do you want to begin? Because I think it's overwhelming for somebody starting to collect today. There's so many different brands.
so many cards produced since:And let's use the example of being a team set collector.
ealer, well, I, I was born in:There's a lot of different types of brands out there that you can collect, and for the most part, they'll be reasonably priced.
And again, if, if you're interested in hitting the lottery and you think the card cards are the way to hit the lottery, they're not, you know, buy the lottery, don't buy, you know, but buy the cards for fun and buy the cards for the appreciation of what you're looking at. And that's the history of the game and the history of the player that you're buying.
You know, I, it, to me, it's an incredible honor for any professional player or college player to have a card produced of them.
And, you know, I think that that's the coolest thing about collecting cards is you're collecting all these different guys who played and all these people who know some are stars, some will never be stars, some are one season, some, you know, lasted 20 seasons, so on and so forth.
So there's a, There's a lot you can do with the hobby, if you, in my opinion, narrow your focus a little and be reasonable on your expectations as far as what and how you're going to collect. And the hobby shop, to me, is one of the best, best areas to get into and go into.
I, I could spend hours in a card shop just going through 5,000 count boxes and looking at the cards in there and picking out 10 cards. And they're probably going to be 10 cents each or a quarter each or whatever.
And I know the, the card shop owner is not going to make the rent off of me, but at least he realizes he's helped me and I've helped him move some inventory and he's helped me with my collection.
Darin Hayes:Yeah, I have one of the local card shops.
I, I go down and I, I usually go to a seminar or a meeting, whether it's PFRA or something to do with football history or maybe there's a, a former player that's going to be at an event. And what I try to do is I try to, trying to get the cards of them.
Like, for instance, we have a PFRA meeting coming up here in April, and I just found out that Mark Kelso is going to be there. Former Buffalo Bill and I. I met him last summer, but it was at the Pottsville celebration, so I couldn't really get him. He's from Pottsville.
That's why he was there. But I'm going to go down to my card shop and tell Mike down there, hey, Mike, I need to get a Kelso card or two and get them.
I did this a few years ago when I met John Cole, but left tackle for the steelers in the 70s. And I'll tell you what, John was so ecstatic that I. I handed a picture of him, you know, on this card. He's like, wow.
I go, I haven't seen one of these things in years. He.
He even read the back of his own statistics and everything, and he enjoyed the card for a few minutes before he signed it and, you know, had some great chitchat. So they're. They're really honored when they have, you know, it's a little monument of them and.
Bob Swick:Exactly.
Darin Hayes:They sign it. They're. Most of them are more than happy to do it.
Bob Swick:Yeah, exactly. And especially the older players love being remembered by their fans and by the fans of the team.
And again, it brings back a lot of memories because a lot of those guys, you know, they.
They had cards, they really didn't put it in perspective, you know, when they were playing and they say, gee, I gotta hoard all the cards I got, because I know 20 years from now I'm gonna, you know, sign them off or whatever. So it is. It's very respectful of the player and of the hobby when.
When guys like you and other people do that to a former player and the player appreciates it, believe me, I know that for a fact.
Darin Hayes:Yeah. And it doesn't even have to be like, mainstream player. You know, John Cole was pretty well known. Kelso is pretty well known.
They're playing Super Bowls. But we have a gentleman that comes.
I've been looking for him the last couple years because I bought his card and he hasn't been at this Western PA meeting last couple years. But Lupicone, who played for the Bills, and I, you know, he. He's a. He's hilarious.
But I keep bringing the card because I want him to sign it and, and I know he would get a kick out of it because there's a guy that not many people remember or heard of, but this. This guy was An NFL player and played a few years on the Bills.
Bob Swick:sically had one card from the:gest football wantless filled:And I looked and he signed his name, it's Dan Goitch. And he said, I'll buy as many as you have. So I think I had like two or three. And I put them in an envelope. I mailed it to him.
I said, if you are Dan Goitsch, I said, you know, I'm curious, are you looking for, are you signing them or whatever, so on and so forth. And he wrote back to me, very nice letter. He says, I will buy any that you can find for me.
And he said, I'm basically trying to corner the market on my car also autograph them and send them out. I said, okay, I get it. And he was on my hunt list.
at a card show, I go into the:For one year, actually two years, I sent cards to the Atlanta Falcons, their players, so that they could use them to send out for autographs. And they would pay me for that. And then I would ask if I could get a few players signed autograph cards. But I have all my cards signed to Bob.
I have them personalized so they realize I'm not going to resell them. And you know, they appreciated that. But I, I, I shipped the Falcons a lot of cards for two years when I was back in Connecticut.
I mean, I, I really, I really pumped out a lot of cards for them and they appreciate it and they, they used them. And I think they had a lot of charity events there that they would give out the cards.
More personal than printing a photo out for the event or whatever.
Darin Hayes:There's, there's probably some young person out there that has some Falcons cards and now they can listening to, say, hey, this came from Bob, you know, who's talking on there, to go through, you know, whoever my favorite Falcon player was, I gave it to me. That's pretty cool. That's real cool.
Bob Swick:That popped in my head when I When I was thinking about Dan Goy and Dan actually became a legend in the hobby because his card, which was one time considered a common, became a very valuable card because he basically owned most of them. And sadly he passed a year or two ago. So the market is freed up for his cards. Again for the 74 cent. But.
Darin Hayes:Okay, so there we've talked about local card shops, we talk about buying brand new cards, you know, that you can go whether your card shop, you can, you know, online is, is big now.
Big box stores have, you know, a different set than what you get at the card shop, you know, but there's, there's also, I mean I know a lot of towns in my town has a local card shows like every couple months we'll have a card show here. And I'm sure it's all around the country. What can people do at card shows to get enjoyment out of card collecting?
Bob Swick:Well, go to a card show with a plan. I always tell a collector, you know, bring your want list.
There's engage the dealer that you, you know, ask immediately, do you have any football cards? Some dealers may say, I'm sorry, I only deal in baseball or another sport.
But I'm sure the, the dealers there will say to, yeah, I have, I have some football cards. What are you looking for?
Tell them exactly what you're looking for and tell them I would like to look at them, so on and so forth and you'd be surprised what you might find.
You might find a couple older cards or you might find some cards I never even knew existed and you'll pick them up and you have a great addition to your collection. If you do, go to the National Sports Collectors Convention and I tell this to anyone who has never been to a big show.
Be prepared to be completely overwhelmed with the amount of tables, the amount of people. And it's just an incredible experience to go to a national and try to shop there and pick up cards, so on and so forth.
It's mind boggling to go there.
I've been to many, many nationals over the years and I'm at the point now it's, it's a big, a big deal for me to walk around for six, seven hours to try to find cards type of thing. And, and it's, it's getting tougher as far as I'm concerned to try to do a show, you know, go to a show like that and being very active with it.
So I tend to just go to the dealers I know and talk to people I know, so on and so Forth. But for beginning collectors, you get an opportunity to go to a national. Just go, you'll never, you'll never regret it.
You'll, you'll say this is an incredible show. I've never seen anything in my life like it in my life.
And you'll, you'll, you'll be sold on going to shows, even if it's a small show or a big show, depending on what it is.
Darin Hayes:Yeah, I'm sure.
I mean I know our, our local show is one of our card shop sponsors and I think he has like every two months and yeah, it's a combination, it's all cards, all sports cards. Yeah, I don't think they have like the Pokemon and stuff in there, but it's like, you know, the hockey, baseball, football, basketball.
But I, I find that I have problems. And he started off a couple years ago, he was only having like 20 tables and there's a, it's a fairly decent sized venue.
He, he's totally sold out because I went down last fall to, I said I'd like got a table. I said maybe I'll just put some books out and meet people and you know, just talk to people that people like sports history.
That's what I like, you know, and just get a chance to talk with people. I couldn't even get a table and he's got a waiting list.
Does that seem to be the trend around the country, that the sports card shows are becoming more and more popular?
Bob Swick:Yeah, they're, they're, they're more popular. And as an aside, a lot of sports dealers mix them with the Pokemon, with the Funko Pop types of, of dealers and that is good and bad in my opinion.
I'm not, I'm not big on it anymore for the simple reason there are more Pokemon dealers and it takes away from the sports card dealers and a lot of sports card collectors say, well, that's going to be mostly a Pokemon show. There's only going to be ten sports car dealers. I'm not going to go to the show. I'm not going to find what I, what I want.
So if your local show is still a true sports type of collectible show, I, I urge everyone to support them and go there and buy from those dealers because that's what we need, more of the sports only shows rather than the mixture of the, the phenomenon of Pokeman, which reminds me of the phenomenon of Beanie Babies years ago, pogs of every other type of trend that was there. Pokemon seems to be sticking longer than before.
set, late:I set up as a dealer in the early 80s that there's so many different things you can look at. There's so many different dealers, so many different, you know, different types of product that are there. And it's just amazing.
You can get everybody in one hall and you could walk from one table to another table to another table.
You could buy something from each table and you leave and you say, wow, it was Christmas in July here that I got all this stuff and all stuff that I needed for my collection type of thing.
Darin Hayes:So, yeah, it's great at these shows.
I mean, one thing I love your piece of advice of having going in with a list in your hand and do it because I know me, I'm like that, you know, dog that sees a squirrel and I'm. I'm off on a. Another beaten path. You know, I see something shiny and hey, I gotta, I gotta have that, you know, what's that? That card.
So how to stay focused. And you can. You can spend a lot of money if you really get yourself going. And I've done that a few times, so. But I like the list thing.
Bob Swick:looking for? I'm looking for:Darin Hayes:Yeah, that's a great idea. But the other thing I like to say about shows, if you go in there with that plan, you're looking for a specific card or cards from a set.
And I'll go to the first dealer and ask him. He may have some, but he may say, you know what? I don't have any of those with me. But I think, you know, Joe, that's three. Three tables down.
You know, I'm pretty sure he brought some, you know, whatever, these, you know, 77 tops or whatever. And they, they refer each other because they, they know each other. They go to shows together.
They're probably trading and wheeling and dealing, you know, when they're in their own.
Bob Swick:hobby that I knew back in the:I, you know, depending on the show, that's still there. But I think in some shows now, it's not as prevalent as it used to be.
So I, I know I've done a couple big shows over the past few years down here, and there wasn't. The camaraderie was questionable, if you ask me.
So again, though, I would never, if I knew somebody else had something and I didn't have it, I would say to the person, walk over there, see so and so, and they'll help you out with them. That's what it's all about. That's, that's why we are a hobby. We're not a business. I think that's, that's the way you got to look at it. We're a hobby.
And for the hobby to survive, hobbyists have to help hobbyists. That's the key.
Darin Hayes:Yeah, another. I mean, there's other avenues to.
Especially if you're collecting older cards, you know, somebody's having a rummage sale or, you know, a swap meets, you know, we'll have them or, you know, like I've told folks, you know, I have a local consignment shop just down the street that has a lot of hobby stuff, you know, from model trains to plastic models you glue together. But comic books, but they also have section with trading cards or sports cards.
And, you know, you can go in there and buy them very affordably to do that.
What should people be looking for when they're going into these, you know, places where they're not, maybe not organized by dates and there's not an expert on site. What should they be looking for?
Bob Swick:Well, I think what they should be looking for, if they see a big box of cards and the box of cards say, you know, a quarter each or whatever, take a chance and talk to the proprietor or the person working there, can I get a better deal if I buy the entire box of cards? And they may say, oh, sure, we want to get rid of them. You know, give us, you know, $10 or $20 for the box type of thing, and we'll sell it to you.
And then you get home and you sort it and say, wow, I got this, I got this. I got trading material, I got cards from my collection, so on and so forth.
And it helps them out because they free up space to put something else out in their store. And it helps you out because you're getting cards at a discounted rate. And, you know, you can find some, you know, a hidden gem, let's say, or.
Or many cards for your collection type of thing, or a lot of trading material with people you trade with. So that's, you know, that's my advice with that. I've done that many, many times.
The running joke is back in the 80s, when football cards weren't really that popular, I would go to a show and I would ask dealers if they had any football cards, and to them, they didn't want to advertise that they would go in the back of the table and was the infamous cheese box that would come out full football cards. So I said, well, how much would you like for the box? And the tradition back then was it was a $5 cheese box that was the running joke.
So the guy would. The dealer would say, well, what do you want to give me for? I said, would you take $5? He said, so give me the. Give me the $5 and have my cheese box.
And I'd be walking around, and inevitably, back in the 80s, I would pick up at least one cheese box every show, and it was a running joke. I had like, 15, 20 cheese boxes packed with cards all the time. And there was stuff that I would be going from the shows.
Sometimes I. I hit some gems, and sometimes it was just a box of commons, which was fine with me. I had the material, I had the inventory.
Darin Hayes:So, yeah, because like you alluded to earlier, not only do you get an image of a player, which gives you a little bit of a connection to them, because it's usually an image that, you know, it's not popular. It's not like it was on Sports Illustrated or anything like that.
, you know, I know I like the:But in the 70s, Tops used to have, like, those little cartoons they would draw, like somebody would draw. You know, they're pretty talented artists. And then they'd have, like, a fun fact about the player. And those were always a good time to look at.
And sometimes you get a chuckle out of them. Sometimes you like, oh, my gosh, this guy did that. You know, so there's other value to the cards of just education and to enjoy Right, exactly.
Bob Swick:And, and again, I always, you know, tell collectors, read the back of the card. Don't be just, you know, meas by the, the front picture. Read the back of the card, see what, what information you can get.
Or you might learn more about the player itself. I mean, today we're in a, we're in an info age where, you know, we just were on the Internet looking up information all the time.
But, you know, take a step back, take an older card, look at the back of it, study it, see what it says, read what, what they're talking about with the player. You'll be very surprised with what you read and what you see in a lot of those players. It's great history. It's the history of the game right?
Darin Hayes:Now, we talked a little bit before we came on and you had some tips on maybe display and storage of your, your treasures once you bring them home. So maybe you could show some of that.
Bob Swick:Yeah, the one thing I like to show is if you put a set together, you can buy nine pocket sheets for the set and put all your cards of the set into the sheets and display it single card. So you can see the back of the card and then the front of the card at the same time. And the nine pocket sheets are not that expensive.
You can get them at, you can find them at shows, you can find it in retail outlets, you can find it at card shops, have them at the same time. And what I did is I enjoyed these football only where it says football collecting.
se were prevalent back in the:Your set and read both the front and the back of the card and does preserve the cards very well. I won't lie. I used to, back in the 60s, paste the card in a scrapbook. One side of the card up, and then I would have a double of the card.
not around until roughly the:And we would put them in photo albums where we'd have the little corner pieces we could stick in and then we could pull it out and try to look in the back. But I did, I did paste a bunch of Philadelphia football cards in an album years ago to scrapbook album.
And then I finally got some box shoe boxes and I started put them in the shoe boxes. And then I saw it was easier for me just take them out and look at them, so on and so forth.
Darin Hayes:Yeah, I, I know probably, you know, some of the things that I did when I was a kid, you know, that probably are not good for card preservation. We would stick a rubber band around, you know, that's, that's probably not a good idea for.
Bob Swick:It's not. You don't want to do that. And back then probably you and I, I know I did.
I'm sure you might have done it too, taking the checklist for the cards and you would check them to find out which cards you had. And that, that's forbidden today. If you have a checklist, you keep it pristine. You don't, you know, you just, you know, it's just a checklist.
You don't want to use it as a checklist and actually market type of thing.
Darin Hayes:But yeah, probably not a good idea to write on unless it's a former NFL player or coach. It's his signature on it, right?
Bob Swick:Exactly. Exactly. And I got plenty of cards, they got pen marks on them. I got plenty of cards that have people's names on them, so on and so forth.
But to me that they, they represent even more history of the, of the game.
Because here is somebody who was a collector at the time, decided to initial or to personalize their collection to know that it was their, their card before their collection.
Darin Hayes:have the top super cards from:And I think 17 of those players are now in the, the Pro Football hall of Fame. And one of them's Joe Namath. My Joe Namath one, he was very popular player when he played has a pinhole from somebody sticking a pin.
It's like right in his forehead. I stuck it on there. But I, that's the card I got because Namus are hard to get in that set. And that's what I, I have right now.
But you know, somebody enjoyed that card.
Bob Swick:Yeah. And, and it was popular in the day too. You would tape the card on your wall so you could look at it that way.
So, you know, a lot of cards have tape marks. Why do they have tape marks as they were taped on the wall and you're in the kid's room to see it type of thing. So.
Darin Hayes:Funny story. I told you about Lou Picone and he's, he's quite the character. I was joking with him. We were talking about his trading cards and everything.
And I told him, I said, I said, you know what you said, you know how I. I had your card, Lou? And he's like, where was. I was probably like a place on or. I said, that was the one. I put my bike spokes to make my. Make it sound like.
And he, he called. I goes, I hope you busted every spoke on there and went flying over the handlebars.
Bob Swick:And that was very popular. That's why, you know, have a flip through your bicycle wheel. So.
Darin Hayes:Yeah, absolutely. All right, well, we're getting low on time here, but what would you have any passing last tips for that new collector of how to enjoy your sets?
Bob Swick:The biggest thing I could tell a new collector, collect what you like. If it's a team, if it's a player, if it's a birth year set or you want to try to make a run of sets, just stick with that to start off with.
You could always branch out to a lot of different things, but you'll get so much more fulfillment in the hobby. Just focus on something and move forward with that and it's a great sense of accomplishment once you complete it.
Darin Hayes:All right, and before we let you go, you have some great assets yourself.
You have a magazine, you have a podcast that's really dedicated to this hobby, and maybe you could share with folks what that is and what they could expect from your products.
Bob Swick:Gridiron Grates magazine is a quarterly publication on the history of memorability of football. Check out our website, gridirongreatsmagazine.com and my co host, Joe Squires and I have a podcast. We show. We have two shows every month.
We try to interview collectors and their collections, and there's so many great collections out there. It's unbelievable. I've been so honored over the years to see some of the. The greatest football card and memorabilia collections in the country.
It's just. It's great. All right, well, sister network also like you are, so.
Darin Hayes:All right, well, Bob, we really appreciate you taking some time and do that. We're going to tap into here as we again, as we go through this series to help collectors.
And you know, we're going to get into more advanced collecting things here too, but we're really trying to help that. That new collector get into the hobby and enjoy the sport we love and the preservation of history. And we thank you for helping us.
Bob Swick:And thanks for starting this, Darren. It's a great move for our hobby and I hope where our hobby becomes re energized with a lot of new collectors enjoying the game.
Thanks for having me on.
Darin Hayes:We're taking a peek over at the chains and the down marker. It's fourth and long. We're gonna have to punt the ball and get on out of here.
But we'll have another series tomorrow for your football history headlines, so be sure to tune in.
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