Gerald Foos had a passion for baseball from a very young age. Born in 1950 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Gerald grew up listening to Reds games on the radio with his father and playing endless games of stickball in the alley behind their home. By the time he was 10 years old, Gerald had amassed a sizable collection of Topps baseball cards, swapping and trading with his friends between games. Little did he know at the time, but this childhood hobby would turn into a lifelong pursuit and make Gerald one of the most prominent names in the world of vintage baseball cards.
As a teenager in the 1960s, the baseball card boom was in full swing. Topps released larger sets each year and card values started to rise steadily. Gerald noticed some of his earlier cards from the 1950s becoming scarce and more coveted by collectors. He began focusing his collecting more on vintage cards from the 1930s to 1950s, searching local hobby shops and antique stores for unsorted lots that may contain hidden gems. On weekends, Gerald would take his bike around Cincinnati visiting every store he could, digging through stacks of mystery packs looking for his first Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays rookie card.
In 1972, Gerald graduated high school and enrolled at the University of Cincinnati to study business administration. Although distracted by schoolwork, he never fully stepped away from collecting. Each summer he would take road trips across the Midwest visiting card shows and conventions hosted by fledgling collecting organizations like the American Card Collectors Association (ACCA). At these early hobby events, he was able to interact with other devotees and sell-off duplicates to fund his collecting budget. By his senior year, Gerald had amassed one of the finer vintage baseball card collections in the region spanning from the 1930 Goudey set all the way to the beloved 1959 Topps set.
After graduating in 1976, Gerald took a job as a sales representative for an industrial supply company based in Cincinnati. The career allowed him flexibility during summers to travel further for card shows held in cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland. He began buying and selling more seriously to sophisticated collectors on the East and West Coasts as well through mail-order ads in hobby publications. In the late 1970s, Gerald realized there was real money to be made as the prices of his prized 1920s and 1930s tobacco cards skyrocketed. He decided to transition fully into the sports collectibles business, opening “Foos Collectibles” out of his home in suburban Cincinnati in 1979.
Foos Collectibles became one of the pioneering mail-order businesses catering to the booming baseball memorabilia market of the early 1980s. Gerald cultivated relationships with dealers around the country, spending weekends on buying trips to establish inventory for his catalogs. He developed an eye for finding complete vintage sets still in their original packaging that commanded top dollar from established collectors. By 1982, Foos Collectibles had outgrown Gerald’s house and he opened a retail shop in downtown Cincinnati connected to a spacious warehouse. The business thrived through the end of the decade as the card industry exploded with frenzied speculation. Previously unheralded vintage stars like Dazzy Vance and Goose Goslin became coveted by collectors spending big at auction.
As the 1990s dawned, the sports card market crashed with a devastating effect. However, Gerald had foreseen issues on the horizon and gradually transitioned his business model away from the risky speculative nature of the late 1980s boom. Instead, he refocused on cultivating long-term clientele and establishing graded vintage card auctions through major third-party authenticators like PSA and SGC. Foos Collectibles also expanded into other areas of memorabilia like autographs, game-used equipment, and signed photographs to diversify revenue streams. Over the decade, Gerald helped shape industry standards through organizations like the Vintage Trade Association (VTA), establishing best practices for consignment auctions and buyer/seller protections.
By the year 2000, Foos Collectibles was a mainstay in the Cincinnati business community and Gerald had long cemented his legacy as one of sports collecting’s pioneering entrepreneurs. Although he had many offers over the years, Gerald refused to sell the business that had been his passion project for decades. Instead, he groomed his son Cory to one day take over operations, passing along invaluable experience and industry relationships. In 2007, Foos Collectibles moved to a state-of-the-art facilities on the outskirts of Cincinnati with over 10,000 square feet of selling floors and climate-controlled vaults. The monthly public auctions drew bidders from around the globe, moving seven-figure vintage lots that appreciated steadfastly in value.
Now in his late 60s, Gerald can look back proudly on the hobby empire he built from childhood baseball cards swapped in alleyways. Under his guidance, Foos Collectibles helped shape the modern memorabilia industry through innovation and high standards of authenticity. Although he has stepped back from daily operations, Gerald still consults with his son Cory on new business initiatives and major consignments. The future remains bright as the third generation of Foos family now works at the company headquarters. Gerald leaves a legacy of passion, expertise and collectibles that will inspire sports hobbyists for generations to come. His story serves as an inspiring example that big dreams can start from a simple love of the game as a kid with a stack of baseball cards.
