Jack of all Trades (2018) - full transcript
An investigative look on the baseball card scandal during the 1990's.
The following
presentation is rated 14A.
This presentation deals
with mature subject matter
and contains scenes
with coarse language.
Viewer discretion is advised.
♪♪♪
My generation
was the last to grow up
without the internet.
We didn't have smartphones,
laptops,
or reality TV.
We had baseball cards.
Baseball cards were everything.
As a kid,
there was nothing better.
Opening packs, never knowing
what we would find.
Trading valuable rookie cards
with our friends,
eating as much stale bubble gum
as we could.
These cardboard collectibles
were schoolyard currency,
and trying to keep them in mint
condition consumed our world,
until one day we grew up.
Well, most of us did.
Looking back,
I often wondered,
whatever happened
to baseball cards?
Finding out the answer
to that question
would change my life forever.
This is my story.
And in order to tell it right,
we have to go back...
all the way back,
to my bar mitzvah.
♪♪♪
♪ Havah Nagilah Havah
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
My name is Stuart Eisenstein,
and um,
since I was 2-years-old,
people have called me
Stuart Stone,
because my parents
put me into acting,
and I was a child actor
and as a 2-year-old,
Eisenstein was a mouthful,
so they just changed it
to Stuart Stone.
And um, as I got older,
I started calling myself
Stu Stone because um...
well, 'cause it's shorter.
How are ya?
- Good, how are you?
- Good to see ya, man.
Is it cold?
- It's cold here, yeah.
- It's cold? Damn it.
As a child actor,
I played the role of the kid.
I was the kid in a lot
of things.
My first movie was called
"Heavenly Bodies",
which was like the Canadian
version of "Flashdance",
and it had a little less dance
and a little more flash.
I was in movies,
and TV commercials,
and you know, "Donnie Darko",
and "Rapping with Jamie
Kennedy",
but I was also the voice of
a tonne of cartoon characters
back in the day.
I was Ralphie on
"The Magic School Bus",
"Prostar", "Babar", "The Tick",
"Beetlejuice",
"X-Men", "Care Bears",
"Wish Kid", the McCauley Culkin
cartoon,
"Bill & Ted's Excellent
Adventure", "Swamp Thing",
Clifford the Big Red Dog,
"Tales from the Crypt",
"The Raccoons",
"My Pet Monster", "ALF",
"Rugrats" -
that was a big one.
No, I wasn't in "Adventures
of Moby Dick". I was?
- Yeah.
- I didn't even know that.
- Hello?
- Hello?
- Hi!
- Hey, I'm here.
- Oh, okay I'm at number 42,
but I'll be at the front.
- That's gotta be her.
How are ya?
- Welcome back.
- Thank you.
Thanks for picking me up.
- You're welcome. Let's go.
- I brought some uh,
friends here.
- Like I don't...
- You look fine.
- Thank you. Are you hungry?
- I'm starving.
- Okay, I have brisket for you.
- Oh, you do?
- Yeah, I made us supper.
- Great!
- So how does this work?
You just... talk?
- Yeah, don't worry about,
don't worry about the camera,
just be... be you.
- You're actually really gonna
get into your room
and get rid of the shit?
Now that you brought
a film crew?
- It's perfect that you should
say that,
because I've been in her car
for not even a minute,
and the first thing
she's bringing up is...
- What do I bring up every time
you come in?
- These boxes. Can we, like,
get out of the airport?
- Yeah.
- And then you can bother me about that?
- Okay.
- When my grandfather, Sam,
passed away,
uh, in his basement,
they found all these boxes
that had my name written on them
from like the 80's and 90's
that I had put away as a kid,
and somehow they ended up
in my mom's condominium,
and she's been bugging me for
years, and years, and years,
to like, go through these boxes
and get rid of them.
- You know what?
- What?
- Those boxes were never touched
when they were in Zayda's house.
- I know, so I'm just excited
to crack 'em open
and see what's in there.
You want cream in your
coffee?
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
- We're gonna go through the
boxes, okay, just be happy.
- I'm happy, 'cause I still
can't believe
that you're actually gonna
get rid of shit.
Yup, well we'll see what
happens.
You know, I remember stories
of my dad
going through his stuff
and finding like,
million dollar treasures.
Maybe that will happen to me.
- Do you need garbage bags?
- I mean, are you planning on
throwing things away?
- I've known Stu since he
was probably 8-years-old.
Stu's family lived on the same
street as mine.
We have been as thick
as thieves
for as long as I can remember.
I didn't expect him to have
the Ark of the Covenant
in that room,
but I also know that Stu
had a lot of cool stuff
growing up,
because Jack was always
trading stuff for cards.
- How are you gonna put
all of this into that?
- Well, if not, I'll buy
a couple more bins.
- I would like to just keep
this here.
- No. Okay, we've gotta do this
in piles.
You dressed up as your
twin and you won first prize.
Cabbage Patch Kid,
still in the box.
That is so awesome.
"Magic School Bus",
Miss Frizzle autograph.
- Oh.
- Signed by Lily Tomlin.
There's like, too much stuff!
So far we have a pile of keep,
and nothing going out.
- Aw man, this is great!
- What is it?
- Jose Canseco rookie card.
- Yeah.
- Billy Ripkin card.
- So whadda we do with them?
- You know this card?
- I remember that one.
- What do you know about it?
- It says fuck on it.
- It does. Save these.
Jose Canseco.
- You liked him.
- Save that.
- Doesn't he have a twin?
Stuart's dad came home one day,
and he said,
"we're going into the baseball
card and comic business."
And I go, "pardon?"
And he was friends with
this guy
who was strictly
in the comic book business,
Jack said can I put some cards
in here
and see what would happen?
And that's how it all started.
This has been a long time and
look they're in mint condition!
- He was Jack the Pack Man and
he would set up at trade shows,
which back then, probably were
just like general hobby shows,
because I don't think there
like,
there was real card shows
back then,
but he was Jack the Pack Man,
and he sold packs.
At that point, baseball cards
were the biggest thing ever.
More Jose Canseco's.
- I guess he was your favorite.
- One of them.
We've got more baseball cards!
1989 Bowman. Ken Griffey Jr.
On the front of this Topps box.
I opened up these boxes
and it's like,
boom all over again, it's like
an explosion of felling.
Just even touching and holding
and looking at these cards
take me back to these times
that were the greatest times
of my life, as a kid.
And my dad was like, my hero,
you know, life was just
so good back then.
Oh my God.
This was so...
I can't even believe this.
- What is it?
A Ken Griffey Jr?
- Yeah.
- Wow.
- More baseball cards,
more baseball cards.
1987 Topps set.
I loved this set.
This is like the classic Topps
set of my generation,
right here.
Cards that like,
it's like a baseball bat.
- Great.
- Packs and packs,
and boxes and sets.
This is like, we're...
I, I... should sell this stuff.
It's probably worth a fortune.
I will take a box of these
cards,
- Yeah.
- And I will go to like a card show,
and I'll sell them. I think
Karie would go to a card show.
- Hello?
- Hello.
- Hey.
- You should see what I found.
Your mother's literally sitting
here cracking packs.
Stop opening them!
I can sell it!
- And the Mattingly?
- And the Mattingly is literally
I have both Mattingly's
in my hand, right now.
- The Donruss one too?
- Yes!
- Well, there you go, that will
get rid of some of this.
- Some of it?
How 'bout all of it?
The first kind of heyday
of baseball cards
were during the 1880's,
and they originated as a
tobacco marketing gimmick.
So, some tobacco honchos
had the brilliant idea
to start inserting picture
cards
into these boxes of baseball,
which was, at that point,
already very popular,
a very popular pastime
in the U.S.
The 50's is when...
when baseball cards really
exploded.
- Hey, Johnnie, I have free
baseball trading cards!
- Free baseball cards?
- Yeah, front of the packaging.
It was a confluence
of a few things.
It was competitiveness among
these, these candy makers,
like Topps and Bowman.
And also just the growing
popularity of baseball.
You had these great Yankees
and Dodgers teams of that era.
There's Roger Maris and
Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle.
The birth of the modern
baseball card
was, came from Topps.
- How many stars can we get?
- 200.
- 1951 Topps, which was a game,
um, that also served
as a trading card set,
was their first full-on
baseball release.
And these were all conceived
by Sy Berger,
who, if you know anything
about trading cards,
is, kind of like, the
grandfather of the industry.
The famous story goes is
he designed the early sets,
like 1951, 1952
on his kitchen table.
Because the Mickey Mantle card
was in the last series,
football season had already
rolled around,
so kids weren't focused on
baseball anymore.
They couldn't get rid
of the cards.
And then he's also famous
for dumping all the 1952 cards
into the Atlantic Ocean,
which is where the
Mickey Mantle rookie card was,
and another reason why
that card was so valuable.
- Well kids, baseball season's
here again,
and with baseball trading cards,
you can get a rundown on
all your favorite players.
- The '52 Topps card
is the prototype
for the modern baseball card,
and the Mantle rookie
is really the shining one
of the bunch.
Baby Boomers who grew up then,
who loved Mantle,
later in life they gravitated
back towards cards.
- Hey!
- Hey, whadda ya think?
- Auntie Sandy, how are ya?
- Boy oh boy, what a show this
is gonna be.
- Yeah. Where is everybody?
- Who knows?
- See what I got here?
- Oy, yoi, yoi.
- What is it?
- All the card stuff.
- Yeah.
Hello?
- Hey! Come in.
- You guys ready?
- Yeah.
Noah! Sam! Let's go!
As a kid, going to card
shows with my dad
was absolutely some of the most
fond memories I have.
Card shows were the best.
They were just massive,
and they had so many people,
and vendors, and every kind
of card you can imagine,
and packs and boxes, and...
Oh my God, this box
is so heavy.
- When your mother
and I were kids,
we used to go to card shows
all the time.
- Card shows were the best
because Bubbe would give us
a little corner of the table,
and we would sell,
we would have our own little
section with our own cards,
And we would like sell our
own stuff and make money.
Hey, Stu?
- Yeah.
- It was amazing.
- This is like going and
scratching a lottery ticket
that you know you're gonna win,
and it's just a matter of how
much are you gonna win?
How do you get in?
- I don't know.
Not here, keep going around.
You guys excited?
Noah, stop yawning.
- I can't believe what happened
next.
You ran over all the cards!
Yeah, I left them on the side
of the street
because I think that you're
gonna go and... and drive.
These boxes are
salvageable,
and that's what we have
to work with.
My name is Adam Rodness,
and I'm Stu's brother-in-law.
The moment where the cards
were on the ground,
everything was everywhere,
I was trying to remain as
calm as humanly possible,
because I knew Stu was gonna
freak out.
Karie ran over the entire
collection of baseball cards.
- This is not a box.
This is... this is not a box.
I don't understand what...
why she would leave?
This is a joke, right?
- Bye, box.
- I don't understand why
you would leave.
It makes zero sense to me.
- I said to Adam they're
thirsty...
- And like the kids couldn't
wait 5 minutes?
- No, they're kids, Stuart...
- There was drinks inside.
- How would we know that?
- You don't know that
a building that has...
- There wasn't even a bathroom
that we could find in there.
The kids wanted to go eat
something--
- And you don't feel bad at all
about running over the cards?
- No, it was an accident.
- Sorry we don't respond...
- So you guys are walking away.
I'm still trying to film.
- Why would you leave the box
in the middle of the road?
Can you at least bring it in?
♪♪♪
Whoa!
- It's not quite
how I remember it.
- Where is everybody?
Kinda reminds me of that
scene from "The Wrestler".
- Yeah. This is like the scene
from "The Wrestler".
Okay, I've got some, I got
some vintage cards to sell,
1990, 1987.
- I'm a vintage 1957,
and I'm not worth much either,
honestly.
- Okay, you might be lookin'
at 10 bucks a box.
So this whole box of stuff
is worth like 20 bucks?
To you?
- 10, 20, 30,
no it'd be worth
less than that to me,
'cause I'm selling it for 10.
So you got... 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
This whole box is worth
40 bucks.
- What?
- And then I have, I have
to make some money on it
selling it at 10.
- I didn't even tell him that
they were run over by a car.
- Ha.
- What's up, man.
- Hi.
- How are ya?
- Yeah.
- Found out?
- Yeah.
- Oh my God.
- You, I knew you were when you
were like, my height.
I mean I've been to your house.
- I was at your house.
- Really?
- Oh yeah.
I remember boxes and wax boxes,
and all kinds of stuff
in the garage.
Your father I haven't seen
in 20 years either.
- Neither have I.
- It's sad because your father
was like the king of this hobby.
- Yeah, for sure.
- Like literally, I mean
everybody went to Jack.
It brings back memories.
- It's crazy.
It's good to see you.
Stu and Karie were there,
and they walked away,
and when they walked away,
he kind of like,
he said, turn off the camera,
I need to tell you something.
And I turned off the camera,
or I put the camera down.
- Don't put it on tape,
this one. Not good.
- You sure?
- Yeah, it's not good.
- I'm sorry. Give me a hug.
And I'm sorry your cards
aren't worth anything.
- Look, I got a Donruss '91.
It didn't go at all
the way I'd hoped that
it was going to go.
Oh, look at that, Karie,
drinks and snacks.
- Yeah. Well I didn't...
I came there with this box
of stuff,
I left here with this box
of stuff,
and what I found out inside
was that, uh,
whether cards are run over
or not,
they're not worth anything.
I don't understand.
My dad told me, you know,
put these away,
someday they'll be worth
something.
And, I wanna know why this box
that I'm schlepping around
is worth nothing.
No baseball
collection is complete
without this year's hottest
new player.
- Jose Canseco?
- In general, the 80's were
a decade of great excess,
great greed, people were
trying to make as much money
as they could, any way they
possibly could,
and looking for any way
to do it.
And so I think the rarity
of the old cards
kinda spilled into people
thinking,
"all right well, there are
a bazillion cards now,
but if I hold on to this thing
for 30 years,
nobody's gonna have one,
and it's gonna be the only one,
and that didn't happen."
We invite you
to come in and browse
the largest display
of baseball...
In the late 80's,
early 90's,
there were something like
10,000 baseball card shops
in the United States.
It's just kind of incredible.
Within a few years, the vast,
vast majority of those card
shops were gone,
and hardly any of them
are still in existence.
♪♪♪
My dad had opened up
a store called Sluggers,
and that was in 1987.
By 1990, there was already
11 locations of Sluggers,
and I would work there on
the weekends,
I would be there, every chance
I could get, I would go there.
- Sluggers had the premium
cards.
- That was kinda the highlight
of the weekend,
was goin' in there and it
was always action packed.
- I think I actually got
a paper route,
just so I could go once a week
to Sluggers,
and spend it all on cards.
Everyone knew what Sluggers was,
everyone went by Sluggers
to by packs, to look at cards.
- It was like a pretty famous
place.
Like, to the outside world,
we looked like we had the best
life.
You know, we had a nice house,
a nice, everything looked great.
Just on the inside,
it wasn't so great.
- Okay, thank you, goodbye.
I've got a group of about
3 tables that work with me,
work for me, around me,
on top of me,
and I'd like to thank them for
helping me work hard
and make some money.
To all the people who work
with Sluggers,
or buying from us,
or all those guys.
Wow.
Should we get out?
- If I would like, have looked
into the future,
I never would have guessed this.
This is so bizarre, huh?
Yeah, let's go see.
- I actually can remember
specifically
like, maybe a week before the
store opened, we were here,
and we were here just kinda
looking at the store.
This was a few days before
it was gonna open,
and there was like other people
standing right over there
looking in at the store
and they were like looking in,
they were like,
what the hell's this?
- Yeah, they were laughing.
- Baseball cards?
- They were like, Sluggers?
I give it 6 months.
As soon as you round this
corner, it's like...
- It was unbelievable what
a gold mine it was, too.
- Like, boom, like you are
attached to this.
- Yeah.
- So, and Toys R Us was like...
- We used to go and play
in there.
- The greatest store ever,
you know.
It's like the perfect storm.
Toys R Us,
- Oh yeah.
- An ice cream shop.
And a baseball card shop.
- Do you remember sneaking in
through the back
and getting ice cream?
- Yes.
And like, the guy didn't have
an alarm on the ice cream shop.
- So we used to sneak in and
get ice cream.
- When he would close, we would
sneak through the back door,
we would make ourselves
ice cream.
- It was so fun. You know,
it was really, really fun.
- Which is against the law.
- Yeah, well, that wasn't a big
deal for our dad.
I loved collecting cards,
and I loved sports.
My mom called me and said,
"we just hired a girl and she's
also, you know, feminine,
and into fashion,
but she also plays baseball,
and loves sports
and collects cards.
I can't wait for you
to meet her."
So, it was really like amazing,
it was having kind of like
an older sister.
Do you remember that?
- Uh, I do.
- So go from there then.
- I don't know what happens
from there.
You seem to know everything.
- No, I thought you remember--
Why does it make you
so angry to talk about this?
- Because this is like what
are we... why?
This is like, I came here
to see the store, not--
- I understand,
but this is part of what happened in the store.
This is part of the story.
- Is it?
- It is.
- Well, that's why daddy left.
- It's uh, it's...
I don't know what to say.
That's not what I came here
to do. I came here to like,
relive happy memories
of what used to be Sluggers,
not a fucking Jerry Springer
episode.
- Well it's really,
- In the parking lot.
- It's really boring just
to come here
and look at this pharmacy and
not reminisce
about what it really was.
- I know, but I mean...
- Am I right, or am I wrong?
- It wasn't like,
"oh let's come here
and look at the store.
Oh, remember when daddy cheated
on mommy?"
- Well you knew before I knew,
that they were together.
You don't remember that?
- I mean, if I do, I don't I...
- Do you want me to remind you?
- No. That's all he cares
about.
- It's not all I care about,
dude.
You, all you care about is cards
that have no fucking value.
- Harvey's the biggest
instigator
I've ever met in my life.
He knows how to get under
my skin,
and that drives me absolutely
crazy.
- I remember that,
but the rest is boring.
I'd rather talk about like,
your dad fucking his employees.
Um...
- I mean, he just thinks that
he can just like say that,
and he's like so cool
to be able to just like,
take shots like that,
and he thinks he's like,
hurting me by saying that.
- He's not hurting you.
I'm not trying to hurt
you.
- He's trying to make you
deal with it.
- This is a guy that is the
most insecure human being
I've ever met for doing
that to me.
- Because I'm not... like if I
could turn the camera
and ask you about your fucking
problems,
I wouldn't do that to you.
- I wouldn't do that to you.
- But the thing is--
- But you're so happy
to do that to me.
- I didn't decide that we're gonna make a movie about my problems.
- I was making a movie about
baseball cards.
- Baseball cards are part of
your problem.
- What? How do you figure?
- But the solution to your
problem is working through
the bad shit that happened
to you in the past,
so we can get it out,
and finally deal with it.
So you can get married
and have kids,
like your sister.
- And be normal,
and have children,
and have sex with people,
and like relationships and like
and not be so like, closed.
- You think I'm closed?
- Yes.
- I think that your relationship
issues with your dad
venture into other parts
of your life.
- You're a real piece of work,
Harv.
- I'm not a piece of work.
- You are, because you're just
trying to like, get me to like,
have like a fucking...
- I'm not.
- ...like an epiphany or
something.
- I care about like the fact
that you never dealt
with this shit,
and I'm trying to help you
deal with it.
Obviously when we first got
together to do this,
we thought that we were gonna
be making a movie
about me opening up
these boxes of treasure,
and I think that there's really
something interesting here,
and that is the fact that these
cards are not worth anything,
and I'm not really sure
why that is.
- This is not how you
make a movie.
- How do you make a movie?
- You... don't do it this way,
with that board.
- Don't you wanna know why it's
not worth anything?
- I know why it's not worth
anything,
'cause baseball cards
are for giant nerds.
- Okay, well that's one theory.
- You had an interesting story
to begin with,
this is baseball cards.
- Okay well...
I'm telling you right now,
that this could be interesting,
because there's a lot of people
that collected.
It was a multi, multi-million
dollar business,
and my dad's little store,
in Toys R Us plaza
was generating a tonne of money,
so there's a tonne of people
that are probably in the same
boat as me,
that went and found their stuff,
and why isn't it worth anything?
And it's funny
because I actually,
when I went through the boxes,
I-I pinpointed some cards that
I thought might be...
might be important.
And this card, right here,
was '86 Donruss,
- Yeah.
- Jose Canseco rookie card.
I must've opened up a thousand
packs of '86 Donruss,
and I never pulled
a Jose Canseco out. Ever.
Like the mustache that he's like
clearly trying to grow here...
How old is he
in that picture?
Can you get that?
- I used to have the biggest
crush on him, too.
- All right, so Jordan--
- So did Stu.
- Jose Canseco was a maniac,
and it was awesome.
You know, he was this larger
than life everything.
First 40-40 guy,
part of the Bash Brothers,
the whole forearm smash
in the late 1980's
that he and Mark McGwire did
every time they hit a home run.
He dated Madonna.
I mean he was part
of popular culture,
way more than baseball.
- Yeah.
- I wanted to talk to you
about baseball cards.
- Okay.
You all right?
- I think as a player,
your first year in the major
leagues,
and your rookie year is, is one
of the most important years,
because you wanna do well.
- And of course, you wanna
have, and you wanna see,
and you wanna collect that
first rookie card and...
- Yeah, this is it.
- That's it.
- So this is the '86 Donruss
Jose Canseco.
- At that point in time I don't
know what happened to me.
I was actually trying
to look a little older,
and trying to grow a mustache.
And it was very weak attempt
at a mustache,
and if you notice any and every
other card after that,
I'm clean shaven,
- Yeah, no mustache.
- I don't have a mustache, zero.
So I think I realized early on
that I just couldn't grow
a mustache. So, here.
Please, get rid of that card.
Terrible mustache.
When the industry
was at its peak,
that was probably the highest
valued card at one point.
- How many, do you estimate,
of these there are?
- Thousands upon thousands
upon thousands.
It's just impossible to tell
because
I'm sure no one knows how
many were actually produced.
But it's also misleading
because I've seen
how they sell the boxes,
maybe one out of five
might have one.
How misleading is it?
You'd think in that box, you're
gonna get one Canseco card,
or one Mark McGwire card,
or one Ken Griffey Jr. Card.
It's not in there.
You may have to buy
several boxes.
It almost seemed like overnight,
uh, the industry happened.
Take the faces off these cards.
What's it cost to make this
card,
and cost to make this card?
The same?
- Yeah.
- Identical, right?
- Mm hmm.
- But because this card has
a different individual,
this card's worth a 120 bucks,
and this card's worth what,
25 cents?
- Right.
- It's all hype,
and building up,
and, and salesmanship.
I think the whole thing
is a scam.
- No, but it could be, right?
I mean, I've been trying
to think,
like get in my dad's head,
like maybe he saw
that that's what his was,
and he was like,
I gotta get out, like this is...
this is all fucked.
- Well, you know, when you look
at these magazines
that like Beckett,
they have pricings
of what the cards are in there.
For example, if you wanted
to know what a Jose Canseco
Rookie card of a certain year
cost,
you look at the Beckett,
and there was the price.
This would be the Bible
of more or less what um,
I think what all cards would
actually be valued at.
- Is it this thing,
that you called the Bible,
like pricing the cards out?
Like how did they...
did they just like, guess?
- It could be a controlled
industry.
- Yeah.
- And it partially probably was.
- So over the years, have you...
is there any collectors that
you've actually befriended?
- There's one major one here
in Vegas, Foul Ball Paul,
believe it or not,
and I think
he has the Guinness Book
of World Records
for having the most baseball
cards.
I actually went to his house
one time,
and it seems like the whole
entire house has memorabilia.
You want me to call him?
- Yeah!
- Let's see if I can get a hold
of him.
- Hello?
- Hello. Hey.
- Paul!
- Yeah, what's up, Jose?
- I've got some people here
that wanna meet you.
- Okay.
- I heard you got the uh,
craziest collection of...
of baseball cards in the world?
- Yup, over two million.
- Two million.
- Two million. And Jose says
you have the most Jose Canseco
cards of anybody.
Yup, over 2,000 cards
on him.
- Wow.
I never knew there was 2,000
cards of me.
- Hey!
- Hello, Stu.
- How you doin', man?
- Doin' good.
- Geez already.
These are all cards?
- Mm hmm. I have over two
million baseball cards,
and counting.
- Wow.
How did you get the name
Foul Ball Paul?
- Um, I actually got hit by a
ball at a Padres-Cubs game
at Qualcomm Stadium.
- And this is all cards?
- Mm hmm.
- Wow!
You probably have more cards
of the players
than they have of themselves.
- Yes, I do.
- Oh my God, that's...
He's got his own merch.
Oh this is the ball that
he got hit by,
to how he got his name.
- This is the infamous
Foul Ball Paul.
- That's the infamous ball.
You guys like eat, sleep,
live...
- Baseball?
- Everything is baseball.
These are all just Jose Canseco
cards.
And has Jose seen these cards?
- Uh, yes, he has.
- And what does he have to say
about all this?
I'm not signin' 'em.
I am blown away by all this.
This is like, you're a great
father, first of all,
like hats of to you.
- You know, I find it so odd
when people say that to me.
Because I don't think there's
any other choice.
- Look at that. AKA Foul Ball
Paul. Look at that.
This is awesome.
Do you have, is there a Foul
Ball Paul card?
- No, there isn't.
- There needs to be.
- I know, we were thinking
about that.
That's his ultimate goal.
This is actually
what I like to refer
to as Casa de la Paul.
- All right, Paul,
whadda ya got here?
- These are all my jersey cards
that I get,
when I buy boxes of cards.
- And so tell me,
what's a jersey card?
- A jersey card is where they
take a piece of your jersey,
if you're a ball player,
and they put it on the card.
- Oh, that's cool.
- They're worth money, but I
don't...
I don't do it for the money,
I do it for the love
of the game.
- Paulie was a happy-go-lucky
child always,
and um, what it is,
he's missing Gene 16
on the genetic scale.
16, 17, and 18 is how you take
in information and process it.
By missing that one gene,
Paul doesn't necessarily
process everything.
Now certain things,
like baseball,
sports-related type of stuff,
see he really likes so he's...
That's what he's into.
- Yeah, he's real sharp, he's
like a little encyclopedia.
- So you could go on Jeopardy
and win,
if it was like a baseball...
- Quiz, yes.
- If it was a baseball,
or a wrestling quiz, I could...
I could answer it off
the top of my head.
- This Upper Deck right here.
So that's a factory set,
unopened.
- Okay, sealed, right. 1991.
You would think this
is over 25 years old.
- Right.
- It should be worth something.
- Should be worth a lot.
- And it's worth...
- 6 bucks, 7 bucks.
- 6 bucks, so it's worth nothing.
- Right.
- It's good for Paul.
- Yeah, it's great for Paul.
- Bad for everyone else.
- Bad for everyone else.
Yo.
Foul Ball Paul has merch.
The fact that this one guy
has millions of cards that...
that speaks volumes.
Anything goin' on over there?
- No.
- Nothing.
- Zero.
- No.
Stu started getting more
distant
from the vision that I had
or the film.
He kind of became more
insistent on baseball cards,
baseball cards, baseball cards.
There was something going.
He was convinced that something
had happened in the industry,
and that's what caused this...
these cards to be worth nothing.
Um, I got convinced
of something else.
I got convinced that we needed
to talk to Jack,
and we needed to get Jack
and Stu in the same room.
I gotta tell you guys something.
Um...
kinda... um...
- Are you okay?
- I'm fine, yeah, no, no, no.
I'm fine, I'm fine.
It has nothing to do with me,
or ex-wives, or children.
- Oh, thank God.
- Um, your dad's in Toronto.
- Shut up.
♪♪♪
I would say that
my father
is definitely the only man
that's ever broken my heart.
Once he left Toronto,
and he was gone, he was gone.
He wasn't just gone
from the house,
he was basically gone
from my life.
So, I talked to him.
I told him that we were making
a movie about baseball cards,
and we wanted to interview him
about baseball cards.
Does he know?
He doesn't know anything.
- He doesn't know anything.
- I won't say anything.
I think Stuart has never
dealt with it,
and that's why he's... can't have
close relationships.
We don't tell him that
we're going there, obviously.
We put him in the car,
we're going to some...
- Are you fucking crazy?
- Something else, there we go.
- I think it's smart.
I think Adam's right.
He's not gonna go, Harv.
- I'm not doing that.
- Why? We'll take him for like
a Korean barbecue or something.
- No.
- He'll be ecstatic.
- He's not gonna go.
- That... that, like this is...
like he keeps saying I'm trying
to make this Springer,
I'm not gonna make this
Springer.
- Stuart is not gonna talk
to him.
- He's gonna have to do it.
- He's not gonna do it.
- He's gonna do it,
and I'm gonna sit him down,
and I'm gonna tell him
he's gonna do it.
We literally have shelving
in here to hold close
to 80 million cards,
without stacking a box.
Once you cross that threshold,
now you're in Burbank Sports
Cards.
- Ha, are you kidding me?
- What you see here is the
world's largest inventory
of single sports cards.
- This is like the "Indiana
Jones",
the last seen in "Indiana Jones
and Raiders of the Lost Ark".
This aisle we're in represents
the boom period.
- Basically it does,
and the large quantities
that came along with it.
- During that time period,
where you have like people
trying to get rich quick,
is it possible that the
collectors were like,
misinformed by the dealers,
who were pushing this as like,
this is a good investment,
these are rare, these are rare?
- A lot of things were
speculative back then.
People were going to Price Club
and Costco,
buying everything off the rack,
and just taking it home and
putting it in the garage.
- What card are you holding
right there?
- It's an '89 Upper Deck
Ken Griffey Jr. Rookie card.
It changed the game.
It was like, like, burning hot.
It was... it became... it went
from being like a $2 card
to a $200 card, and you just
couldn't get enough of them.
It was just minting money, it
was just that easy back then.
Ken Griffey Jr.,
this guy was the number 1 pick,
in the Major League Baseball
draft,
and he we knew he was going to
be beyond superstar.
And I remember Upper Deck,
for sure,
I remember when they came out,
and again,
that was a huge thing,
because this was a brand new
baseball card,
and it was fancy,
and hologram-y.
Upper Deck, they made
a very splashy entrance
into the world of baseball
cards,
and they took a hot prospect,
made him number 1 in their set,
and it just sparked a frenzy.
- It's almost like the premium
card,
like the Cadillac
of the baseball card,
and you always thought that
Topps was the number 1
and then for some reason
it's like,
Upper Deck started saying like,
"I'm the man,
I'm better than everybody."
I think everyone felt like special because they had this card.
♪♪♪
- Hey, how is it going? Tom?
- Yeah.
- Stu.
- Stu. Yeah, I'm a senior
in high school, 17-years-old,
so after school I would drive
to Anaheim
and work at the card shop.
- And what was the name
of the card shop?
- Uh, Upper Deck Card Shop.
- So it was actually just
a card shop called The Upper
Deck, or Upper Deck?
- Right. Yeah, The Upper Deck
Card Shop.
And Upper Deck was a trading
card company
designed by a trading card
collector.
And in June of '88,
they brought me on
to be the first ever employee
of Upper Deck.
- You're the guy that actually
created
the Ken Griffey Jr. Rookie card.
- Yeah, exactly.
- Like, no one else can claim
that.
- Right, it was just me.
- That's you.
- Basically I created the whole
thing, from scratch.
- I don't know if this
is familiar to you.
- This is your baby.
- Yeah.
- But there it is, right there,
that's the actual Ken Griffey
Jr. Rookie card right there.
- Yeah.
So, I had figured at some
point in the '89 season,
he's gonna make the Major
League team.
- So you made the decision
in '88.
You saw, you saw ahead into the
future, Griffey was your guy.
Because he didn't have any
other cards anywhere else.
- Exactly.
So this is the polaroid picture
of the actual slide,
and so this is the actual
image here,
versus what it was modified to.
- To what it became.
- Versus what it became.
Back in the day, in '89,
they were supposed to make
200 cases a day,
and the machinery was
so abysmal,
and they didn't know what they
were doing,
they were only able to make
sometimes 28, 32 cases.
It was a $400 case cost,
and as soon as somebody got it,
it was worth $1,000,
because it was so scarce.
And that ended up allowing them
to make more product,
because there was an artificial
bubble of value.
- So there's a real rumor
that they printed '89 rookies
of Griffey Jr. In 1990?
- Yes, with a 1990 paper stock.
There's probably at least a
million cards of Griffey.
- A million of them.
- Yeah.
If you want to look up
at this sheet, here,
it's a 100-up sheet,
so the Griffey card
would have been the very top
left one.
Somebody could have run a
100-up sheet of an $18 card,
according to the Beckett book,
right,
and now they have a hundred
$18 cards.
- Right. Which actually went up
to like $50 the next month.
- Yeah
- And $100.
- So it's this big business.
- Yeah, so it's like printing
$20 bills,
$50 bills, $100 bills.
- Literally.
- And if you had 100 $100 bills
running at one time,
you know...
- It's pretty good.
- Legally, they probably could
have still done 'em.
Ethically, they should not
have done any more.
- Hi, Stu?
- No, it's Adam, your...
your son-in-law.
- How you doin'?
- Okay, so, where are you
staying, number one?
- Uh, good question.
Jack, you need to pay
attention right now.
Who is that in the car
with you?
I think we've gotta get
over there.
Jack!
- He hung up.
Well, that looks like
it's promising?
I don't know.
Beckett was started in
1984 by Dr. James Beckett.
It is a price guide for
collectors and dealers,
um, so they can value their
cards in their collections.
It certainly helped the boom
of the 80s and the 90s.
There's a whole bunch
of arrows.
People want to see arrows.
Arrows--
Arrows are kind of like
the hook.
- Yes, arrows sell magazines,
so I think a lot of people,
myself included,
were like, looking for just
the arrows and saying okay,
this is the guy I'm buying,
because it's going up.
Now, it meant it went up.
It might have been $1.50
last month, and now it's $2.
I came here in 1991.
- Oh, so you've been here since
the boom.
- Yeah, I saw the boom through,
and through the other side.
I was here when we were selling
a million magazines a month.
- Wow.
- '89 Griffey was...
that took on a life of its own,
even though it's rumored be,
you know,
have been over-produced,
which I think is probably
the case.
♪♪♪
I spoke to a PR guy
from Upper Deck,
and they are no longer
interested in speaking to us.
- I told you.
- Why?
- I'm not saying that's
a dead-end entirely--
- So wait, they went
from we'll talk to you,
to a week later,
we're not interested.
- Pretty much. Yeah.
So what're you gonna do?
- So my name
is Robert Young Pelton,
I worked with Steve Jobs
on the launch of the Apple,
I worked with a number
of computer companies,
car companies.
And uh, I then started
my own business
called Pelton & Associates,
and we bought a lot of print
materials.
So one of our salesmen
that would come and sell us,
or bid on posters, or brochures,
or any of the sports,
was a guy named Paul Sumner.
One day he came to me
and he said
he had this idea
to do baseball cards,
and um, one of the things
that Paul Sumner was doing,
is that he had focused
on the card aspect
of the baseball card industry.
He wanted to do a very high-end,
Very, you know,
beautifully-printed,
and designed and photographed,
and so I said to him,
well you know,
Topps is in the gum business,
they're not in the card
business,
and that the products that
they sold was this stale gum
that sat there for 5 or 10 years
and they basically used the box
material to print the cards,
because they were free.
The funny thing was that
something that was so,
I won't say naive,
but so simple and honest,
and whatever, had turned into
this sort of very,
once again,
not criminal enterprise,
but it might as well have been.
You know, it might as well have
been the same
as a drug deal or whatever,
because they were gaming
the system so bad,
and these poor kids
walked into a store,
they were being gamed, right.
Like, "Oh look, I found
a Ken Griffey," you know,
and guy's got 5,000 more
in the back of his office.
And that was the first
inkling I got
that there was something maybe
not quite right, you know,
in the magic kingdom
of Upper Deck.
You have got to be
kidding me! Wild West Deals!
Does this look familiar?
I would hope so!
My name is Don West,
and in the 1990's,
I was the show host
on the Shop at Home Network
for the sports memorabilia show
and baseball card shop.
You're watching
Shop at Home,
America's second-oldest
television shopping network.
- The day I really knew we were
on to something huge was,
I'm doing this show and this
box falls off it's stand,
and cards are everywhere
on the floor.
We had to stay on this
3,200 count set of cards,
in fact, you can YouTube this.
It's a Griffey rookie!
There is a Griffey!
Unbelievable!
Folks, you're not gonna
go wrong on this.
Throw that over there.
There's another one!
There's a Griffey rookie!
- We looked up, and the next
thing I know,
we sold about 5,000 sets
of these, in a half hour,
and I... that's when it hit me,
we are on to something really,
really big here.
Whoa! Whoa!
We went from $3 million a year,
to almost $150 million a year,
for 7 straight years.
You know you have your
T206 Honus Wagner,
and then you have your '52
Topps Mantle.
Well, those two cards have always stood above everyone else.
And then I would say the most
important card after that,
I would feel very confident
saying
it's the '89 Upper Deck
Griffey Jr.
I know they just kept comin',
so there's a lot more out
there than...
than I wish there were,
how 'bout that?
♪♪♪
You guys know the best
place to catch movie?
- No, no.
Ha.
That's already so cool.
- Stu? Hey, nice to meet you!
- Yes.
- How are you, man?
- Jon.
- Jon.
- Suse.
- Hey. This is crazy to me.
Just, whoa!
- Welcome to Topps!
- This is,
When we get to do a
tour and you realize this,
- I think it's pretty...
- ...this is pretty cool.
- People want window views of
the city; I just want this.
♪♪♪
The way we do business,
we understand it's collectible.
We know that you can't go
and like,
just keep the presses running.
You can't be irresponsible.
We're, we're very responsible
when it comes to production,
and it's one of the reasons
why we've lasted in this...
in this game so long.
This is essentially
how cards are made.
Um, we typically do them on
100-up forms are called,
so it's you know, this
is Heritage Baseball,
and we print thousands
of these sheets,
and then they get cut up.
This stuff gets destroyed.
It's very important this stuff
gets destroyed
because you know, there's super
high-value stuff in here
that we wanna make sure
doesn't get in the market,
doesn't, you know... someone
who pulls this Griffey,
we don't want other ones
floating out there,
we want the one to be the one.
Integrity's really big
in our industry.
- Nice. '87 Topps.
Green packs,
Spring Fever Baseball,
no purchase necessary.
So see, the back card is
already damaged by the gum.
The great thing about trading
cards
is it's a surprise.
Right? It's a surprise.
Like who doesn't like opening
up presents?
Think I got some other
card show as well.
- Card shows are a waste
of time.
- I think we went to the wrong
card show.
- No, I'm telling you, Adam,
it was like a ghost town there.
- No, there's like another card
show happening at the airport.
Professional ball players,
and the manufacturers.
Upper Deck will be there.
- Upper Deck.
- And...
- Upper Deck is gonna be at
this card show.
- All right so, great, I'm gonna
confirm our attendance.
- Uh, if we actually can get
Upper Deck,
that would be fucking huge.
- We can get Upper Deck if
they're gonna be at that show.
We'll get them saying no to us.
♪♪♪
- Oh there's a few people here.
- Yeah.
♪♪♪
This is a slightly different
than the other show
- Yeah.
- That we went to.
- Oh my God, it's a full
football field.
I can't believe it.
I'm shocked.
Let's go this way.
♪♪♪
You've been saying no
to me for months.
- This is kind of their bread
and butter right here.
- Right, so now I'm... not
I've got a chance
to fucking... to do it.
So where's the guy?
What's his name?
Are you Chris?
- Yeah, how are ya?
- How are you, man?
- Pleased to meet ya.
- I'm Stu, nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- Is there like, a place we can
sit and talk for a minute?
- Sure.
- This is it, the mecca of...
the mecca of card companies -
Upper Deck.
- Yeah.
You know the whole idea was
let's build a better baseball
card, right.
- So how important was this
card to the company Upper Deck?
- It's not was, it still is.
It's uh, big for our company,
it's big for him,
it's big for baseball,
it's big for the industry, so.
- So you said there's like
a lot of these out there?
Like people, like basically
millions of people bought them?
- There wasn't... mass, mass,
mass produced, but it's uh,
there were definitely
more produced than,
you know, we make today.
- How many of, how many of these
do you think there are
in the world?
- I have never, ever seen any
proof of is that Upper Deck
was creating sheets of just
Griffey rookies which I...
I'm 99.9 % sure
is totally untrue.
- That's not true.
And as far as like,
production runs, too,
like, do you think that like,
there was lessons learned
from the 90s that
are now being applied?
- Absolutely. People, people
know that, from the shop level,
on down to collectors,
you know, they chat a lot more.
There's all these collector
message boards,
and they're on Twitter,
and Facebook, and uh,
there's a lot more education
about how much is out there.
And, people know if...
if a company produces too much
product,
and they just don't buy it.
- Right.
I can't believe we
just got that.
Okay, now we've got that table,
I've gotta run...
I know. What?
Okay, here we go!
Hold on!
- Listen, what do you think
of tall blondes?
- Okay, just... this just in.
Okay.
I hear, hold on, let me
interrupt this thing.
This just in,
I just have to ask you,
what do you think
of tall blondes?
- Who are you?
- I'm Batman.
- And why do you have a spot?
- Doesn't matter.
What do you think of Upper Deck
hockey?
- I have no, who are you?
Why are you wearing that suit?
- What do you think of, how
'bout... how 'bout Score hockey?
- Who cut your hair?
- He's trying to change
the subject, obviously,
he's trying to change
the subject.
- Who pinched your ear?
- Doesn't matter.
- There's a spot on you,
spaghetti.
- What I wanna know is, why
would someone like that
hang around with you?
- I'm just kidding,
I'm just kidding.
- Money.
- I don't wanna, I'm not tryin'
to ambush you, here.
- You're not ambushing me,
you're not ambushing me, at all.
How are ya?
- That's good, how are you?
- No, no, this is my last spot.
The final vault, this final.
- That's you?
- Yeah.
- Oh, I didn't know that.
- Wait, this is you?
- I can't believe that
you're at a card show.
- Just remember, I owe all
of this to your father.
- Really?
- So he got me in, in 1990.
He was a pioneer,
there's no doubt.
Remember, he made the first
price glide... price guide.
- Yeah, you didn't know that.
- Really?
- Pre-dated Beckett by 5 years.
The problem with your dad was
that your dad really couldn't
look far-term at anything.
Far-term for him was overnight.
You know what, it's just too
bad he didn't stick around.
All of a sudden, one day,
we just got told that
he was getting out of
the business.
Um, I don't know why.
Right around that time,
my parents got divorced,
and then, it was over.
Apparent-- you know,
the stores, it was over.
Like, the marriage was over,
the card store was over,
and uh... that was pretty much
the day,
that time period,
everything changed.
- 3rd aisle there,
- Yeah.
- It's called BGS 10.
- Yeah.
- The fella that is at that
booth, his name is Karlos.
Karlos was the originator
of all those Sluggers chains.
- Thank you so much.
- Thank you for your time.
He's gonna go tell him.
- You need to like not...
- Not what?
- I was scared to go...
- Go to Karlos?
- Oh yeah. Just talk in
the hall, here.
- Okay.
- I asked this guy,
'cause he said he was in
business for 26 years,
I said, "oh, have you ever heard
of a store called Sluggers?"
He's like, "Yeah, this guy
Karlos, who started Sluggers,
he's booth, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah."
- So who's he?
- Karlos was the guy that my dad-
- That bought Sluggers...
like my dad fucked over.
- So we're gonna talk
to him.
- I don't know.
- Well, we like--
What are you talking
about?
Of course we wanna talk to him.
- This is why we're here.
Yeah.
Uh, I don't know if you
know me, my name's Stuart.
This is my sister, Karie.
Yes, I do.
- You know, you probably
last saw me,
- Stuart Eisenstein.
- Yeah, you probably last saw
me when I was a kid.
- I did. And Karie. Yes.
- Hi, how are you?
- Your dad, actually, he helped
me along big time in life.
- He did?
- Your father helped me a lot.
If it wasn't for Sluggers, um,
and your father's generosity,
I probably wouldn't be in the
financial position I am today.
- Really?
- Really?
- Yeah.
- Wow,
that's the opposite of what
I thought you would say.
- Nope.
- I thought that there was like,
a big, bad falling out between
you guys?
- Never. Your father...
your father left,
some time ago in the 90s,
but I've always tried to track
him down.
Everything, everything your
father gave me turned to gold.
I don't think you know the
whole story about the store.
- I don't. I don't.
- We don't.
- So the whole story about
the store is that
he wanted 30 grand
for the store,
I didn't have that kind
of money, uh,
'cause I was 20.
I lucked in and bought 3 cases
of High French hockey cards,
and I bought 'em for 700
bucks a case,
they appreciated to $10,000
a case.
Holy shit.
- I traded the cases
for the store.
- Wow, that's a crazy story.
- Right?
- That's insanity.
- So basically the money
changed,
so the 30 grand that I needed,
went and paid that.
And from there,
it was just a free roll.
- Do you feel emotional?
- I was like,
So nervous to come up to
you because I thought
there was like, a bad--
- Me too.
- Even if I've had bad things,
time heals everything.
- Mm hmm.
- And you don't forget what
people did for you,
and regardless of what happened
to them,
you know, later on in life,
I never forgot your father.
Ever.
- Wow.
- Thank you so much.
They sat us down,
with me and my sisters,
a week after my bar mitzvah,
and explained that my dad
was gonna be leaving.
And he said he just needs
to figure some shit out,
and he would probably come back
in a couple weeks.
But he didn't come back.
♪♪♪
- You don't have to roll now.
- Oh yeah, roll. Why,
'cause you're smoking?
- Yeah.
- Dude, you don't think people
know you smoke?
- No, they don't,
and they're not going to.
- Your mom knows.
- Well, that's the only person.
- Everyone knows you smoke.
If you don't think that smoking
in the baseball card
collecting community is like
the coolest thing
you can fucking do,
it's like literally,
one step away from having
both ears pierced.
Um, something happened,
I think it's good news.
Um... I think it's gonna help
our movie,
but it's gonna come as a little
bit of a shock to you.
Your dad's in Toronto.
Right now.
And me and Adam talked to him.
- You spoke to my father
on the phone?
- Yeah.
- And you already told him that
we're gonna talk to him?
- I... told him that me
and you were making a movie
about baseball cards, and that
we wanted to interview him
because he would know the most
about baseball cards
out of anyone we know.
So... if...
this is your chance
to talk to your dad, man.
- Ah. I just don't understand
why you didn't tell me.
- I didn't know what you were
gonna say.
I didn't know if you'd actually
want to
make that phone call yourself.
- I mean, I have never said
that I was gonna do this,
so I don't understand what...
I just feel like you're kind
of ambushing me here.
I-I knew that when you said
to come for coffee
that... I just...
- Dude, we found your dad,
and in 2 days you're gonna
have the opportunity
to sit down and talk to him.
♪♪♪
♪ I love, I love, I love,
♪ I love my Kraft Dinner
with... ♪
- Hot dogs.
In 1980... I think 1983,
1982,
I was in the Kraft Dinner
commercial.
It was the one, "I love,
I love my Kraft Dinner
with my dad," which is ironic,
because I never actually ate
Kraft Dinner with my own dad.
♪ I love, I love, I love,
♪ I love my Kraft Dinner with
- My dad!
Being a dad at the time,
was very important up
until the time he left.
And after that, I don't know
why he was not a good dad.
- Mom, what were you thinking
when you were Dirty Dancing
out there?
- I was thinking that I hope my
kids wouldn't be watching this.
- I was watching, ma,
and all of our viewers
out there were watching.
Anything you'd like to say
to the viewers at home?
- I'd like to say that I'm so
proud of Stuart today,
and I wish you Mazel Tov,
Mazel Tov.
Thank you.
Why does everyone have to kiss?
I never really thought of
what my mom had to sacrifice,
because we always had food,
we always had the bills paid,
and now that I'm thinking
about it,
she... she worked a lot of weird
jobs back then,
and she really stepped it up.
And she always made sure
that everybody was okay,
and everything's cool.
She had her hands full.
She got fucked over.
Stuart's bar mitzvah
was the last time that we...
that we actually were
together as a unit,
yes, as a family unit.
He left a long time ago
and he disappeared.
No one could find him,
nobody knew where he went,
and he was a person
that probably just didn't
wanna be found.
This guy is responsible for
holding all of my presents.
Can I just ask you something?
Where did you put them?
- They're in my safety deposit
box,
and I'll be going on a long
trip. Thank you, Stuart.
- So how much ransom
do you ant for these?
- Nothing, nothing.
- You're just gonna keep it
for yourself.
- Yeah, wait 'til you grow up,
and you can look for me.
- Hey. How are you?
- Hi. Glad you could make it.
- I made it.
- Yeah, yeah. Come on in.
- I found this picture
that I want to show you,
and uh, you might recognize
this picture.
- Oh yeah, this was the picture
at the... at his wedding.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, to your mother.
I was there to keep a close
eye on your father.
And uh... I remember that day.
My sister wanted to get married,
so, they got married,
and here you are.
- I don't know much about him
other than the fun times
that I had with him.
- Right. And I'm sure they
were fun times.
- They were great.
I mean, we had a blast.
- But again, when it involved
money or business,
- No good.
- ...uh, it was no good.
You'd have to keep your
hands in your pocket,
otherwise his hands would
be in your pocket.
- So you think I shouldn't find
him, or I should?
- I think you should stay as
far away as possible from him.
- Mazel Tov to my wonderful
nephew, Stuart!
- I think when he left,
it affected all of you.
- But do you think I should
uh...
I should try to talk
to him about it?
- You can talk to him because
you've been estranged
from your dad a long time.
- Like 20 years.
- It's been 20...
more than 20 years.
- Yeah. Time flies.
That's crazy.
- Life goes on, kid.
- Yeah.
- He's lost, and that's what
happens,
we all get lost at the end.
- Yeah. Well, you didn't get
lost.
- Oh no, I can't get lost,
they won't let me get lost.
- Your dad was uh...
he was any only child,
and I guess being from
the Holocaust, et cetera,
they were more than generous
with him.
They gave him everything
he wants.
He was a smart guy,
like I said.
The problem is,
he wanted it very quickly.
Always the angle,
always the angle, you know.
- Even without him
in the picture,
I want to thank you
for what you did for me.
- Well, that's okay.
- My sisters and my mom.
- I know. You have to do what
you have to do,
and I care about you know,
your mother,
and your grandparents,
may they rest in peace,
they were really special people.
When I was 15,
my mother passed away
and I lived with my father,
and my father who was not
a nice guy, asked me to leave.
So on 15 or 16,
I was living on my own.
25 years later,
my father contacts me,
and we all got together.
So we're sitting there talking,
whatever,
and I said to him like,
"I don't understand,
25 years I haven't seen you,
like I don't get it."
And his answer was
"it's water under the bridge,"
which basically is
I don't wanna discuss it.
People just don't leave
their kids.
I mean, they leave their
spouses,
but they don't leave their kids.
I guess every child
would like the love
and approval of their parent,
no matter what their parent did.
- This is one of the pretty
women
that we were talking
about earlier.
Uh, she's my sister
and we don't always get along,
but I guess I have to get along
with you right now so,
what do you want to say?
It really sounds like
the people he really hurt
were his family,
and his parents.
- Yeah, I just uh...
I don't even know if it's even
worth talking to him about it.
I'd almost maybe not,
rather not know.
- You have to know. You have to
talk to him on so many levels.
First of all, just by meeting
those people in the show,
we saw like, he was the
pioneer, he was the expert.
He got me in the business.
Just the fact of who he was
in the business,
we should interview him.
- I disagree with, with one thing.
- What?
- People who disappear, there's
a reason why they disappear.
I don't feel comfortable,
putting myself in that situation
or putting him in that
situation.
- Well then, I'll do it,
if you don't wanna do it.
- Well, maybe that's how it
should be.
- Okay. It's not your job
to protect him.
- I mean, it's your job
to protect me,
so if I'm telling you I don't
want to do something,
I would appreciate it if you
would have my back and be like,
you don't have to do something.
- Okay, but off the record,
I'm telling you that
I don't agree with you.
- I mean, this is...
there's no off the record.
- No, but I'm saying...
- Everyone just heard you
say that.
Well, I think Stuart
needs to find him.
He needs a lot of questions
answered.
He also needs to find him
as a dad, to get...
just to see if there's anything
there in a relationship.
Because I know that the...
they haven't seen each other
for a very long time.
This guy is shy of cameras.
I don't know if he's gonna
talk to us.
He's the owner of Sluggers
Collectibles,
very, very popular
in baseball cards.
Multi-millionaire, this guy,
Jack Eisenstein.
And for once we're gonna
catch him in the act.
He's got food all over his face;
let's see if we can get
a close-up.
Hi, Jack.
- Hi, dad.
- Anything you'd like to say
to the viewers at home?
Yeah, come to Sluggers
real quick,
buy all your cards here,
and buy everything real quick.
Thank you.
- Okay
- He's staying, like literally,
right there.
One of those is his hotel.
Which is crazy, he's like,
that close.
Hello?
- Hi.
- Hey, Karie.
- Are you... are you going
to meet him?
- Yup. I'm leaving right now.
- How do you feel?
- I feel... I don't know
how I feel. How do you feel?
- I feel sick for you,
obviously.
I mean just,
I'm nervous for you.
- Um, I'll see you after.
I'll let you know what happens.
- If he says anything bad about
Mom, you punch him in the face.
- All right, well, if you see
me with uh, a broken hand,
then you'll know
that he said some shit.
Just over there is Le Parc,
we're passing.
That's where I had
my bar mitzvah.
And that's like the last time
my family was altogether
as that like, version of my
family was at that bar mitzvah.
This is just crazy how that
worked... how this works out.
♪♪♪
Here we go.
My dad's name is Jack.
He was born in 1950,
in Toronto.
His parents were
Holocaust survivors
that came over to Canada
after the War,
and they opened up
a fish market in Kensington
that was called, uh,
Baldwin Fish.
And that was their business.
And my dad came along, and uh,
that's uh... that's him.
That's my dad.
That's the last...
that's all I know about him.
- You wanna go ahead of me?
- Yeah.
He was our hero.
He was everybody's hero.
He was like the coolest dad in
the neighborhood type of guy.
All the kids loved him.
He always gave cards
to everybody,
whenever our friends
would come over.
He was the greatest.
We had really, really great
time during that period,
the 80s, in the early 90s
were awesome.
How are you feeling?
- I mean, my heart's pounding.
- You gonna be okay?
- I dunno.
One day, he just like left,
he completely left.
He like, disappeared and we
didn't know where he went,
we didn't know where he lived,
we didn't know how
to get a hold of him.
I never went to a psychiatrist
or a shrink
to talk about these problems.
I've like, kept these very
inside for a long time.
This is... crazy.
I can't think of like,
if I had a kid,
like, could I leave them?
I don't think I could.
It's easy for you to sit
and ask me,
that there must be questions
for me to ask him,
but what questions could
you possibly ask someone
that doesn't exist?
You know, at some point
you kinda give up on,
well, I wish I could ask
him this.
You just stop thinking
about it.
That was a quick ride.
- You thought it was gonna go
longer.
- Yeah, I was praying.
I was hoping.
I kind of was numb to it.
I kind of just buried it,
and I moved to L.A.,
I lived in L.A. for 20 years.
I didn't have to deal with it.
And... even my family,
I didn't have to really
deal with them.
So I didn't... you know,
I didn't have to go through
what they went through.
I know my dad for about
13 or 14 years of my life.
I know that guy.
That's 25 years ago.
- Stu. Stu the Jew was moxin'.
- How ya doin'?
- What's goin' on?
Nice jacket.
- Thank you. How are ya?
- I'm okay.
- Nice uh... nice room.
- Nice pad, eh?
- Yeah. You got the suite.
Like the old days.
- Yeah. Two rooms.
- Uh, we're gonna get set up.
- What's that?
- We're gonna set up
and we'll find a nice place
to sit and talk.
- What's wrong with here?
Let's sit here.
Why does that guy look
like Harvey?
That is Harvey.
- When's the last time you
saw him? Long time ago.
- Long time ago.
- Wow. How ya doin'?
Well, hello.
- Hello.
- How ya doin'?
- Okay.
- You just happened to be
comin' to Toronto?
- Yeah, visiting my family.
- So how old are you now?
- 29.
- Plus a few.
- 65.
- 65. Do you know how old I am?
- 38.
- Yup.
How did this whole thing
get started for you?
- Well, it actually started
with comic books.
I had a comic book in 1977
when we were moving,
you happened to be born
that year.
Some guy's gonna come over
and help me move,
he says to me, "Jack, what do
you want for this comic book?"
I says, "you're gonna give me
money for a comic book?"
He says, "Yeah, I'll give you
25 bucks for it."
As soon as somebody puts a
monetary value on a comic book,
that I think is worthless,
I'm not gonna give it to him.
- What comic was it?
- Action Comic Book Number 1.
- The first Superman comic ever.
- Yeah, Action Comic Book,
not Superman,
but he was in there.
- The one when he's holding
the car over his head.
- Yes, yes.
I gave him the comic,
he sent it to uh, Vancouver.
The guy offered us $7,500
for it.
I gave him $1,000 bucks
commission,
I took the $6,500
and bought a TR7.
- Hm, you bought a car.
- Yeah. And...
- So that sparked your interest
in going back
and finding all your
other cards.
- When I went to look for
everything else then um,
I read this story in 1981,
which was 3 years later,
how they have these big shows
in the United States.
So I phoned and asked
if I could get a table,
and the guy says,
"where ya from?"
I says, "I'm from Canada."
"Oh for sure,
we have nobody from Canada
here."
- So you were the first guy
from Canada to set up.
- I was the first guy from
Canada ever set up at a...
- With what cards? With the
cards from Bubbe's closet?
- No, and then no,
plus then I went...
I phoned the candy wholesalers
and wanted to bring hockey
cards to America.
So I used to, I just got cases,
loaded up the truck with cases,
and went to Plymouth, Michigan,
and set up,
and nobody had ever seen
this stuff before.
You go to Detroit show,
they're dumping boxes there
for 2 bucks,
you could take those boxes
and take 'em to Philadelphia,
get 10 bucks.
Then you buy cases off these
guys who were dumpin' 'em,
and take 'em back to Detroit,
or take 'em to New York City,
or take 'em to anywhere else.
They've never seen 'em.
- So this is like a flip game.
- Yeah, just keep going back
and forth,
and it just bigger,
and bigger, and bigger.
- And there was nobody in
Canada doing it.
- Not at that time.
I remember when I opened up
the Sluggers store,
there was a guy with a kid
looking in the window,
did not know I was the owner,
and he says,
"these people are not gonna
last long."
- I was there for that;
I remember that.
- Yeah, the guy says
"they're not gonna last long."
And that's when the market
just went completely nuts.
- Look at the lineup here.
They're going crazy,
just to get in to buy cards.
- It was over... we did uh,
about $35,000 in sales,
or $40,000 in sales that day.
- Just that day.
- Yeah.
- So did you feel guilty
that you're peddling bullshit
to people?
Did you know it was bullshit?
Be honest.
- I... thought something strange.
You can't take it to the bank.
You could take the money
to the bank,
but you can't take the cards
to the bank.
They really dug deep.
Obviously a lot of it's fraud,
because they lied.
Because the boom,
because they kept printing.
There was never a shortage.
- And did you know that then?
- I knew it, I knew because I
had friends on the inside, so.
- So what did you know?
- The major players were all
just... printing.
I mean, Upper Deck,
unbelievable, Upper Deck.
- I wanna show you some stuff.
What's this?
- Upper Deck.
The first set they ever made.
Ken Griffey rookie.
The trading was always
my forte; I loved trading.
That was the best way
to make money.
Cash - people remember
when they gave you cash,
then they remember, "oh I
remember what I paid for that."
In 1990, I did a show
in Dallas, Texas,
and I met the ex-President
of Upper Deck.
So I says, "what's the deal?"
He says, "well give me
as many sets."
I can't remember how many
sets I traded him,
but he had a box like,
5,000 of 'em, just that card.
They just printed that one card.
- Right. Okay, so like the rest.
- This, any other card here is
hard toilet paper.
- Hard toilet paper.
- Yeah. When it became out
in the open,
those closet collectors were
not closet collectors anymore.
- They came out.
- They came out.
You know, you've got dentists
would come to your store,
they didn't care.
They'd spend like $1,000,
and I remember this lady, she
looks at me, "this is crazy.
My husband's spending
$2,000 on that stuff."
I says, "would you rather him
spend it on a blonde?"
She goes, "you're right."
- And then you said that you
got too... too early.
- Look, I got sick. I didn't
know how long I'm gonna live.
I took the money and ran.
- Literally.
- Yeah.
- Um... we'll talk about that
in a minute.
- Your father's not a bad guy.
I heard you get rewarded
sometimes
for being nice to people, so...
- So you feel like you gave
and gave and gave and gave,
and never... and when it came
time for you, no one gave back?
- Well, I don't think they
would return the favor.
Let's go back to those shows.
The fam!
Why're you showing me this?
- I mean, that's 1990.
- That's your bar mitzvah.
- Yeah.
- Still was okay, the business
was still pretty strong.
- So what happened after that?
- What happened to what?
- Like, all of a sudden,
a few weeks after that,
Like everything kinda went...
no good anymore.
That's like the last picture
of our family,
from that era,
ever together as a family.
- Wow.
Interesting picture.
What happened with what, Stuart?
- Like, everything kind of went
south from there.
- The market, or us?
- The market, us, everything.
Like--
- Yeah, well I went a different
direction.
Went into manufacturing.
- Right.
- The retail store, retail
business was in big trouble
because there was more stores
than people collecting.
- Right.
- So now, they're gonna go south.
- So you had some tough times
and what...
- I didn't have tough...
I was still strong here.
We were still pretty strong
in 19...
- Business-wise.
- '89.
- But family-wise, your
marriage, that... it ended.
- I went stupid, that's all.
Okay.
- You disappeared.
Where did you go?
What... I don't understand?
Where the fuck have you been?
- I... I became stupid.
I listened to a woman
because men become stupid
with women.
- But didn't you feel bad
about that?
- Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
- What is ha-easy to just leave?
- No, you just don't think;
you get caught up in it.
You just get caught up.
- So what about... you didn't
think...
- It hurt! Don't worry.
You phoned me one day,
"you comin' back, Dad?" And
I said, "well, I don't know."
"You know, you gotta come back,
Dad, this is a joke."
You remember at all?
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- And you didn't come back.
- No.
- No.
- No. But it's... also, I don't
want to blame anybody,
but when you're a Holocaust kid,
you can get cold pretty easy.
Most Holocaust kids
are not normal.
They are crazy.
- You think you're crazy?
- Well, Holocaust kids
are really...
some of them are really
fucked up.
They can get cold, real quick.
You don't care about anybody.
- So do you think that Karie
and Dena and me...
- Oh I know! It all hurts,
it's all punishment.
I uh, there's only so many times
I can say I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
But what can I do?
I can't change nothin'.
- I mean, you've had 20 years
to think about it, I guess.
So do you regret it?
- What's that?
- Leaving?
- No, but that was...
I had a brand-new family again.
You start over.
3 little kids, remember?
- So just start again with
them?
- That's not the first time
that's ever been done, Stuart.
- Right.
- It's probably been about
a million times, you know.
- You said you were the King
of Trades,
you always loved making trades.
- Yeah.
- So this is kind of like
a trade, you like, trade...
and you went...
- I had a brand-new
young family that depended
on me at the time, so,
- And how is your relationship
with those kids?
- I've cooled off with them,
too.
6 kids is a lot of kids.
For an only child
from Holocaust survivors.
When your grandmother died,
it was very,
very depressing for me.
Even though you have 6 kids,
you feel like you're alone,
because that's your immediate
family.
So when Bubbe died,
you feel wow, now I'm alone.
But you're really not alone,
so.
Okay, can we stop this?
What's goin' on?
- You okay?
- Yeah.
There's no napkins around here?
- Someone could get...
- Oy vey.
So uh, thanks for talking to me.
- It's been a long time.
- Yeah.
- Long time coming.
- Yeah.
- You're my dad,
no matter what happened.
- Yeah.
- And uh... you know I would...
I would like for you to be
a part of our lives.
I wish that I...
- I'm trying.
- I wish that you would try
a little harder.
- I didn't expect to have
6 kids.
- Well, I would hope that
the lessons
that you've learned from us,
you could not make those
mistakes with the other kids.
- Yeah.
- I mean, you should try.
- Well, I'm avoiding them too,
So...
- I think you should stop
avoiding them.
You were my hero.
- We were every day.
- Well, these stories will make
you more of a hero.
- And then it just kinda
stopped.
- People make a lot of big
mistakes in their life.
- You know, thank you
for coming out of
the witness protection program
to talk to me.
And I hope you learned...
I learned a lot about you,
and I've learned a lot
about cards,
and now I know what I have to do
to make these cards worth money.
- You have to destroy them all.
- You would have to destroy
them all?
- Yeah. What made a card
collectible in the first place?
Everybody's parents threw
them in the garbage.
- Good to see you.
- Love you.
- Take care. Behave yourself,
all right?
- Okay.
- Thanks for doing this.
I'll see you in 20 years.
I don't know how to feel.
I feel...
like I gave...
I feel...
I feel like I gave him closure,
or gave him an opening,
maybe the opposite of closure.
That's all I got.
When I started out
on this journey,
I thought I was gonna find out
what happened with baseball
cards,
and what ended up happening
was that I found out
what happened to me.
♪♪♪
♪ Fallen, my bed is warm
♪ Mama Maria has been released
- People will show up.
♪ Come in, my bed is warm
♪ I can't wait,
no I can't wait ♪
Karie, I told you I had
another sister.
♪ So one of a kind,
so sweet, so curious ♪
- Open it up, open
the package. Have fun.
♪ I can't make you mine
These are all from
when we were kids?
- Yeah, everything.
- Full action over there,
he's having the best time.
♪ I finally found
what I'm lookin' for ♪
- Joe Carter!
- There is Joe Carter!
♪ Dream about it anymore
♪ Heaven, heaven
♪ I've been made a believer
A lot of people look
at the hobby of cards
as something that's a real
father and son type of thing,
that you did with your dad.
Um, I want to say that
I think I've figured out
what actually caused
the boom in cards, and uh,
although it may have been
a hobby
that was enjoyed by fathers
and sons, uh,
I think the real reason
why the boom happened,
I can confidently say,
is because of the mothers
that threw away our fathers'
cards and destroyed them.
She was one of the mothers
that didn't throw away...
- Anything.
- My stuff.
And uh, I think that in order
to save our memories
and the childhood hobby
that we all loved,
I think what we need to do
is burn it to the ground.
And uh, I want...
I think it's fitting
that my mother,
who worked at Sluggers,
who was the godmother of
baseball cards in Toronto, uh,
be the first person to throw
some cards on the flame.
And I'm gonna give,
here's a fresh wax pack,
just like you like.
♪ You've got me burnin' up
♪♪♪
♪ I've finally found
what I'm looking for ♪
♪ Won't have to dream
about it anymore ♪
♪ Heaven, heaven
♪ I've been made a believer
♪ I've been made a believer
♪ I'll keep you safe,
I won't go away ♪
♪ The things you say,
they keep me away ♪
♪ Now I've been made
a believer ♪
♪ Ooh ooh ooh
♪ Now I've been made
a believer ♪
♪ Ooh ooh
♪ Now I've been made
a believer ♪
♪ Ooh ooh
♪ Now I've been made
a believer ♪
♪ Ooh ooh
♪ Now I've been made
a believer ♪
♪ Ooh ooh
♪ Now I've been made
a believer ♪
♪ Ooh ooh
♪ I've been made a believer
♪ Now I've been made
a believer ♪
♪ Ooh ooh
♪ I've been made a believer
♪ Ooh ooh
♪ I've been made a believer
♪ Ooh ooh
♪ Now I've been made
a believer ♪
♪ Ooh ooh
♪ Now I've been made
a believer ♪
♪♪♪
- I'm not sure if you have
this card, or not,
but uh, if you do have it,
you'll let me know.
- Yep, I'll let you know.
- But if you don't have it,
I want maybe I can add it
to your collection.
- Okay.
- Hold on a second here.
- Oh wow! I don't have that one.
- What do you see there?
- Me running with a bat in my
hand, up in St. George, Utah.
- Sage Sports Cards has
officially made
a Foul Ball Paul rookie card.
Oh wow, that's great!
If we open this entire box,
and there's not a Canseco
in it, that is just like,
- The chances of a real Canseco
being here, slim to none.
That wouldn't happen.
Jim Wolf, Rudy Law,
Wayne Walker.
Carlton Fisk.
Same cards over and over again.
- I know.
- This is impossible, because
they use different sheets.
- I'm like way ahead of you
here, you're too slow.
I'm fucking devastated
right now.
I have never pulled a Canseco
out of a pack.
I just bought a 30-year-old box
of cards that had a seal on it.
What is this worth?
- Hard toilet paper.
- You need to go to the
bathroom?
- Not yet.
♪ You don't have to know
the devil ♪
♪ There are other ways to say
- Wow, ha. And there's
the old school gum,
so that's... how old...
how old is this gum?
And it's got the crunch.
- Who else needs some gum?
- Go Sanders.
- Joe you want the gum.
- It's like rite of passage.
1989.
1989, that is vintage gum.
You know how much money
that gum is worth
on the open market?
- That is awesome.
'84, '94, this is over
30 years old.
- I've got gum, too.
- Pat Tabler.
Here, we got another
gum eater, right here.
- It's stale!
I'll give it a shot.
Mine's cracked in half,
so I'll try a little
piece of it.
Oh!
Yeah. Did you just
break a tooth?
Do we have to call the
emergency dentist right now?
- Well, actually like, no.
No that's bad, that's bad.
That's bad!
I'll be right back.
That gum's been in that
pack for almost 30 years.
- Mmm.
- Honey, the baby.
- There's a baby in there!
30-year-old gum.
- You might go into labor
or something.
- It's not gummy,
it's like candy.
Harv, you
wanna eat some gum?
Come over here and do it.
We're gonna get the...
the people behind the camera
to get involved in this gum.
I ate one stick,
I think that's my limit.
Oh wow.
- It's a bit hard.
- I ate one.
Of course you did.
Harvey chew gum.
Pretty hard gum.
It's more like hard
candy now.
I'm assuming it's safe to eat.
- I don't know.
How 'bout this?
That was a bad idea
♪♪♪