Hobby Quick Hits Ep.167 "LOTH" Sy Berger

SPEAKER 1: Hobby Quick hit, delivering that breaking hobby news directly to your in laws.

SPEAKER 1: I know those had dropped from the car shaft. We've got you covered with your host, John, a new man.

SPEAKER 1: Hello, everyone. Welcome to episode 1, 67 of Hobby Quick Hits. I'm John Newman. Today we go back to a legends of the past series. I haven't done one in a while. It's time, frankly, the gentleman that highlighted on this episode should have been done very early and when we started doing these and, I don't know why I didn't, I don't have a good excuse.

SPEAKER 1: So shame on me, but here he is today. C Berger. And if you know anything about the history of Tops, the survival of Tops, this man should get a lot of credit for him.

SPEAKER 1: And, you know, when I think of guys, I sort of look up to, in the hobby, this man, pit that and, obviously no longer with us but, very important, even in recent years I worked with Tops for a long, long time. So many of you might know some of his history but, I'll try to fill in some of the blanks and, and do him justice, on this episode.

SPEAKER 2: Ok. Now a quick word from our great sponsor followed by the new product release schedule. Then we'll go around the hobby verse to tell you all the latest hobby happenings in news. Then we'll tackle today's topic of discussion.

SPEAKER 3: Hi, this is Pat Hughes Cubs announcer. Coming to you from the Sports Card shop in beautiful New Buffalo. Michigan. The Goer family has built an incredible place here for, to buy, sell and trade cards and memorabilia. Be sure to stop by and let them show you around the Sports Card shop.com connecting sports athletes, the hobby and collectors around the world.

SPEAKER 4: Hi, this is Allen Pinkett and I'm here to tell you the Goer family has done it again. They've just opened up the sport card shop in downtown Valparaiso, Indiana. And it is awesome. If you're a collector, you need to check this place out. Tell them Alan sent you and get a free gift on your first visit.

SPEAKER 5: Let's check out this week's hobby. Wax releases. Take it away. Owen.

SPEAKER 6: Hey, guys, it's home from the sports car shops for the week releases. On the sixth we have Panin one on one basketball, Toss, deceptions, baseball. And moving to the 12th, we have Bowman Draft baseball.

SPEAKER 6: Panini immaculate basketball, Tops heritage high number. Baseball.

SPEAKER 6: And on the 15th we have clean Donna's football factory set, Tops chrome black baseball and that would be it. Guys. See you guys later.

SPEAKER 1: Let's go round the hobby verse and catch up on this week's hobby news and find out.

SPEAKER 1: All right, not a crazy big news story week. Ebay and Com C which al already have a relationship, announced that, Ebay is going to put more money into Com C, in a partnership agreement that funds are going to be used to upgrade Com C's website and their innerst inner inters structure can't talk today.

SPEAKER 1: So that's been announced between Ebay and CC upper deck has announced a basketball exclusive memorabilia deal with the Aaron Fox of the Sacramento key Kings for autographs and memorabilia. And they also inked the number one women's tennis player in the world.

SPEAKER 1: I got Swatek and that's a cards in autos deal. Both deals are not ex explicit years but multiyear. So it's not a one year deal will be multiyear deal. This is not breaking breaking brand news, but I don't think we reported it cause we do these every other week but collect collectible X which is Brandon Steiner show alumni company has purchased Star Stock.

SPEAKER 1: We all know stars stock was kind of hurting and Brandon Steiner's company purchased them and will integrate them into their existing platform sellers, rejoice.

SPEAKER 1: The IRS has announced a delay on the 1099 K reporting by selling platforms at the $600 level.

SPEAKER 1: The earliest you're gonna probably see that is 2025. But in 2024 the level will be five K. So if you sell more than $5000 worth of cards on a platform, those platforms are required to submit a 1099 K on your behalf saying that that was a form of income for you.

SPEAKER 1: So that $600 lower level, you've gotten a reprieve on, at the time of this recording, there's exactly three days left at Robert Edward auctions for the 1914 Baltimore News. Babe Ruth. Let's check in and see what the bid is up to. Maybe you'd like to hear some drums, hold it, do it.

SPEAKER 1: Our creed 5 million $750,000 with three days left to go. That's the news, our feature.

SPEAKER 7: Presentation today, we're going to talk about somebody who would be on my Mount Rushmore of the hobby. He was born on July 12th, 1923. He passed away at the age of 91 on December 14th, 2014. He's nicknamed the father of modern day baseball cards. And, he, much of what he's done is still important today. I'm talking none other than Cy Berger of Tops Fame.

SPEAKER 7: He worked for Topps for over 50 years. He started in 1947 and retired, in 1997. He's known as the cosigner of the 1952 top set. We know, you know how iconic that set is in some cards in the set was. You know, that set is, is called Advanced for its time. A little bit about Cy himself. He was born in Manhattan.

SPEAKER 7: He collected gouty cards as a kid played stickball in the street and frequented as a kid, Yankee stadium and, and polo grounds for Yankees and New York Giants Games. He served in the army air forces in World War Two. He graduated from Bucknell University where he met Joel Sharon. Joel Sharon is the son of cops founder Philip Sharon. And soon he started taps as a temp employee.

SPEAKER 7: He was working at various jobs including, you know, retail and then through Joel Topps hired him as a temp employee. His first day at Toss was the first day they produced gum Bazooka to be exact in autumn of 1951 along with Woody Gelman, he started to design the 1952 top set. That design took place on a kitchen table on Alabama Ave in Brooklyn, New York.

SPEAKER 7: In 1960 Tops. Warehouse space was getting tight. They needed to free up some space. They loaded three barge trucks, three garbage trucks worth of 1952 Tops, cars and cases onto a barge, a freighter ship and went out a few months, a few miles into the Atlantic and dumped overboard, all those cases and cards. It's like the Boston Tea Party.

SPEAKER 7: But I like to call it the New York City, Tops Party. You know, never to be seen again. It became the face of Tops and negotiated deals with players, especially, key in the battle with Bowman when Bowman and Tops were going at it, it was a race to sign all those star players.

SPEAKER 7: But through his previous relationships that gave Cy Berger an advantage and most people will tell you that Tops won that, you know, card wars, bubblegum card wars because of Cy Berger's experience and him being with Tops, other than that Tops would have probably been in trouble and he maintain those relationships for years to, to come.

SPEAKER 7: He even negotiated the Tops Beetle deal in 1964 and closed the deal by talking Yiddish to Beatles manager Brian Epstein, who obviously was Jewish. So he helped land the, the Tops Beatles deal in 1964 and he was, he became an expert dealmaker and negotiated deals with the NFL NHL NBA Michael Jackson, the Beatles, like I said, and others and he traveled, you know, around to, to make deals happen.

SPEAKER 7: He was always at spring training, had a, a media pass and was always on the field, talking to players and became a very likable person, many players invited him to private events and became more like family than a business, associate players did love him and became very close in particular to Willie Mays.

SPEAKER 7: He came to the locker room with cards and gum for all the players. Probably another reason he was very popular. Many of the contracts in the early days for players were $5 to sign and 100 $25 if they made the major league level a little bit different than today, obviously. And, he, you know, people wanted him to do a, a book, you know, a tell all book, you know, because he got to know the player so well, he wouldn't do it.

SPEAKER 7: He refused, didn't wanna, you know, burn that trust. And another reason why many of the players appreciate him that, he didn't, you know, report or, or write a book about everything he saw, behind the scenes, protected their privacy and went about his business and lived a long life passing away. In December 14th, 2014, was very active still in the hobby even, you know, until his, his final days.

SPEAKER 7: And some other accolades I'd like to mention he was a member of Saber since 1978. So very early on in 1988 he was honored by the baseball Hall Of Fame in Cooperstown. And in 2012, he was inducted into the Jewish Hall Of Fame. There'll never be another side burger. He was one of a kind and, very, very important if you know, in my opinion, to the hobby then and even to the hobby today.

SPEAKER 1: All right. Thank you for listening to another episode of Hobby Quick. Its wanna give out our Social Media starting with our website, which is www dot Sportss Carnation, podcast.com, Facebook. You can follow us at www.Facebook.com forward slash Sports Card Nation podcast, forward slash Twitter.

SPEAKER 1: We are at Sports Card nat T one. So it's Sports Card. Nat I one Instagram at Sports Car Nation Podcast. Or you can email the show Hobby Quick hits at gmail.com again. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.