Apologies! Several free cards for kids requests were missed. they will be going out immediately!

9/16/2025

I am not an expert at how this website works. I thought I had an organized system. Somehow I missed several free cards for kids requests. They are months old and I am just seeing them. Human error. I just discovered this tonight. Literally about ten minutes ago.

If you are from Highland Park, IL, or Millngton, Tennessee, or East Troy, Wisconsin, I’m terribly sorry for the oversight and delay! I will be assembling an extra special package of old cards for each of you and they will go out this week!

UPDATE:
The missed requests went out within a day upon discovering!

1 Comment

Mike Zaidlin

1/6/2026 11:31:52 pm

Rob — I just discovered your blog and I’m only slowly catching up on what you’ve written so far. Awesome that you've been sending cards to kids.

I don’t know if you’ve mentioned an early-’70s dealer in your blog named James T. Elder, who used to run small ads in The Sporting News. I "discovered" him in 1971. I was 14 and completely obsessed with old baseball cards -which to me was anything from before 1967. I pestered my friends, especially if they had older brothers, pretty much anyone who might still have an old box of cards they’d outgrown but (by some miracle) hadn’t tossed.

Nearly all the kids I knew dumped their cards once they hit 13 or 14 and moved on to “more serious” stuff, and most parents thought cards were worthless junk, and just took up valuable space in the small homes so many kids lived in in the 60s and early 70's in Northern California. So in 1971, finding anything from the early ’60s felt like a major score. I don’t think I’d even ever even seen a card from the ’50s before I saw Elder's ad, despite years of looking around my neighborhood.

Then I saw Elder’s ad. I sent away for one of his “catalogs,” which consisted of about 5 pages of two-sided mimeographed sheets. It was mostly ’50s stuff, and it absolutely blew my mind that someone really had cards from 1952, ’53, and so on. He even had some T206s.

Commons from the ’52–’55 sets were something like 35 to 40 cents each, and I don’t remember any star cards ever being more than $2.50. I vividly remember a 1955 Mays listed around $1.75. I bought a rookie Koufax for (I think) about $1.50.

Having $10 or $20 r cards back then felt like a fortune — most of us 13-14 year olds were making a few dollars a delivering papers or mowing lawns, if we had a job at all. As my family ran a cafe and I worked there every day, I had what was a small fortune to spend on cards, at least by local 13-year old kid standards.

I looked at that mimeographed catalog for days -not quite believing it was actually possible to buy these cards… I carefully made my list: a few stars, a lot of commons, nearly everything from the 1952-1959 sets, What’s funny is the commons listings didn’t even include player names — just card numbers. I didn’t have a master checklist, so I had no idea what players I would actually receive, beyond the few stars and semi-stars I had ordered. At 1$ or more, stars and semi-stars were a true luxury, and I could only afford a few.

I mailed Mr.Ellder the enormous sum of $16, and braced myself to never hear back from him. It was almost like mailing a check to Santa Claus -too good to be true.No phone number, no way to follow up. His address didn't exactly inspire confidence either -the address included something like "Rural Route 3", which was not exactly a confidence builder - maybe the mail got delivered once a month to "Rural Route 3", or wherever it was. If the cards came at all, I thought, it could take months.

Then one day my mom picked me up from school, and like I’d been doing for two weeks straight, I asked, “Did a package come?” And she said yes — and pulled this little package out of her purse.

It may have been the happiest moment of my whole life to that point.

So carefully packaged and wrapped - my faith in humanity fully restored!. I went home, closed the door to my bedroom, and just stared at the package for a few minutes before opening it. I’d never seen cards from the 52-54 sets before this, so everything about them felt different: the artwork, the look, the feel, and of course they were bigger and thicker than the late-’60s/1970 cards I was familiar with,

I don’t remember condition ever being mentioned in his catalogues. Whatever he sent was “good enough". . By today’s standards most of them probably would’ve graded , 5s, maybe 6s — but back then I didn’t even think about it. If it wasn’t trashed, it was perfect in my eyes. And no card I ever received from him was remotely trashed.

I kept ordering from Mr. Elder for another year or two, and then eventually I drifted away — only to rediscover the hobby years later.

I also recall seeing an ad in The Sporting News for The Trader Speaks. I think I subscribed for a year and got a few issues, thrilled to find that there were other collectors out there. I thought I was the only person in the world -other than James T. Elder - with any interest in old baseball cards.

Reading your blog brings all of that back — I’m guessing you and many others crossed paths with him too. He surely must have been one of the few "national" dealers at that time. Thanks Rob -Mike Zaidlin

ABOUT

Robert Edward Lifson is a nationally recognized baseball card expert, dealer, and auctioneer (founder of Robert Edward Auctions). He is a life-long collector and researcher who for the past 50 years has been on the front lines of promoting progress in the hobby and has had a great positive impact on increasing the collective knowledge of the field for the benefit of all. Over the years he has bought, sold, or represented the buyers and sellers in the transactions of over 20 T206 Wagners, 8 1914 Baltimore Ruth Rookie Cards (only 10 in existence), and virtually every rare and valuable baseball card in existence. He has personally handled the sale of literally hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cards and memorabilia and helped to assemble some of the greatest collections in the world. Of all his hobby-related activities, Robert Lifson is most proud of his longstanding role as an activist who has worked extensively as an expert consultant, formally and informally, with numerous law enforcement agencies including the FBI, The Justice Department (including testifying for the Federal Government as an expert witness regarding the value and authenticity of baseball cards), The Secret Service, and The U.S. Postal Service, spanning four decades and counting. Perhaps most important, in addition to a wonderful family who is constantly asking him to do things, he has a very cute Miniature Schnauzer named Sugar Plum who follows him everywhere.

Apologies! Several free cards for kids requests were missed. they will be going out immediately!

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