How Broders Got His Start

[gracecollector]

I love when I buy something for one of my collections, and it ends up teaching me something about the hobby.

I bought this "Americans in Japan" booklet (1976) for my Don Zimmer collection. The page picturing Zimmer as a Toei Flyer in 1966 was autographed, and there's not much out their collectible-wise for his year in Japan. So I bought it.

I noticed on the cover that it stated "Edited and Compiled by... Edward A. Broder." And that made me wonder - any connection to the Broder Cards of the 80's?

Yes indeed. Ed Broder got his start in baseball cards by putting out sets of Japanese players while he was stationed in Japan from 1971 to 1977 with the US Air Force. I found a great article on japanesebaseballcards.blogspot.com that explains Ed's time in Japan. https://japanesebaseballcards.blogspot.com/2016/12/ed-broder-sets.html

The booklet I bought uses the photos Ed took for his card sets. And FYI, Ed's son Rob was the one who produced the 1980's MLB unlicensed cards.

Just found it all interesting and thought I'd share.

 

[finestkind]

That's very cool. Thanks for sharing.

 

[banjar]

Killer find! And I love the stories behind these things. Thanks for the post.

 

[fordman]

Great item with a history!

Fordman


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[Shaggy]

That's awesome.

 

[mrmopar]

I have that book myself, or one similar to it that came in a larger lot of baseball hobby books/magazines. It doesn't exactly look familiar, so I may have a different year issue with different images on the cover. I'll have to try to dig it up and see.

 

[smapdi]

That's pretty good. I own no Broders and when I got back into the hobby in 1991 I was turned off to them. Maybe you just had to be there in the 80s, but seeing tables at shows full of them and people eagerly buying them instead of "real" cards just felt like the biggest scam. But in the past couple years I've come to think of them as a sort of modern folk art. Maybe not art, but there's something organic about them even if they were intended to capitalize on the card craze and not out of any sort of expression of emotion or ideas. The more I am disgusted by the way licensors manipulate the market, the more I appreciate people just making their own 2.5x3.5 pieces of cardboard with picutres of ballplayers on them and selling them for a couple bucks.

 

[gracecollector]

I found it interesting that there was no licensing in Japan when Ed Broders started making his sets. I think this influenced his business model.

That's pretty good. I own no Broders and when I got back into the hobby in 1991 I was turned off to them. Maybe you just had to be there in the 80s, but seeing tables at shows full of them and people eagerly buying them instead of "real" cards just felt like the biggest scam. But in the past couple years I've come to think of them as a sort of modern folk art. Maybe not art, but there's something organic about them even if they were intended to capitalize on the card craze and not out of any sort of expression of emotion or ideas. The more I am disgusted by the way licensors manipulate the market, the more I appreciate people just making their own 2.5x3.5 pieces of cardboard with picutres of ballplayers on them and selling them for a couple bucks.

 

[tpeichel]

I found it interesting that there was no licensing in Japan when Ed Broders started making his sets. I think this influenced his business model.

Rob Broder actually made a Japanese set called 1987 Play Ball Japan. About 15 of the 42 are former MLB players, the rest are Japanese.