Tampa Bay Bucs Collectors -- Prepare for Heart Attack

[commando]

We know how tough it is to find early Buccaneers jerseys. Where are they? Well, in a Sports Collectors Digest from early 1981, Hartel Sports ran an ad where they were selling well over 100 jerseys from the Bucs' first five seasons. Someone somewhere bought quarterback Steve Spurrier's inaugural 1976 orange jersey for under $60! Early LeRoy Selmon and Ricky Bell jerseys were the most expensive, at $200 each.

You have to wonder if one person with some cash made a deal and purchased ALL of these (or most of these). Oh, to go back in time...

[Larry Pelliccioni]

Not many on this Forum remember the senior member of Hartel Sports, Mr. Floyd Hartel who was one of the early pioneers of this great hobby and a fine gentleman to deal with. His greatest legacy, his son Bruce, carried on his father's tradition of being fair and honest to deal with. Both men of great integrity. Now that Mike has taken over most of the inventory one would think that he is a "missing" Hartel son as he is equally fair and great to deal with. If you have a chance to deal with anyone in this hobby, you may want to consider Hartel Sports as a great resource and fair dealer in my opinion.
I have a few of these Tampa Bays, Ricky Bell, Mike Boryla and Terry Hanratty and they are among the favorite things I have in my collection.

Larry Pelliccioni

[commando]

Not many on this Forum remember the senior member of Hartel Sports, Mr. Floyd Hartel who was one of the early pioneers of this great hobby and a fine gentleman to deal with. His greatest legacy, his son Bruce, carried on his father's tradition of being fair and honest to deal with. Both men of great integrity. Now that Mike has taken over most of the inventory one would think that he is a "missing" Hartel son as he is equally fair and great to deal with. If you have a chance to deal with anyone in this hobby, you may want to consider Hartel Sports as a great resource and fair dealer in my opinion.
I have a few of these Tampa Bays, Ricky Bell, Mike Boryla and Terry Hanratty and they are among the favorite things I have in my collection.

Larry Pelliccioni

Congrats Larry, I would love to see photos of those shirts. The Boryla would be from the inaugural year of 1976, while the Hanratty would be from 1978. The Bell must be incredible, too. I'm not a Tampa fan, but I can appreciate how incredible these jerseys are.

[legaleagle92481]

the prices you quote are preinflation. in todays money its alot more. 200 bucks was alot back then.

[34swtns]

Thanks so much for sharing that. As soon as that time machine is available......;)

Larry has an amazing early Ricky Bell that I hope he leaves me in his will. :D

Meantime, here's a 1981 Bell I'm proud to own. This was his last season with the Bucs.

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i56/34swtns/BellAMIpic.jpg

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i56/34swtns/BellAMIpic2.jpg

[commando]

the prices you quote are preinflation. in todays money its alot more. 200 bucks was alot back then.

Pre-inflation? The inflation rate in January of 1981, based on the Consumer Price Index, was 11.83%, one of the highest inflationary rates in our nation's history.

But I do agree that $200 was quite a bit for a jersey 30 years ago. I'll gladly take the Spurrier for $60. :D

[mariner_gamers]

$200 bucks in 1981 is roughly equivalent to $486.93 today. Oh and those jerseys are awesome!!

[sammy]

Love looking at the old ads in SCD and other sports magazines. The prices just make me drool.


http://www.amazon.com/b?%5Fencoding=UTF8&site-redirect=&node=256994011&tag=colmor-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325

[ferrisfain41]

Let me chime in on Hartels.
Both were always answering the phone, knew their stuff and indeed were fair.
Always had great Cardinal jersies.
And while we are remembering, Dick Dobbins of SF Giants Memorabilia, was a great teacher of the hobby and always had fair deals and always had time to talk on the phone- long distance from East coast!
Russ Barmmer

[Larry Pelliccioni]

I will get some pics out and amend my will but I would like to add kudos for the late Mr. Dick Dobbins as well.
And also to the nicest man I have ever met in this hobby, Mr. Murf (we used to call him Allen Denny) of Brule Wisconsin.
For my generation, he was undoubtedly the standard by which all others were judged, he and wife Pat were and are a total class act. If ever their was a collector/dealer hall of fame, I would consider him to be the cornerstone of it.
The Hanratty is also from 1976, road white in which he played his only game, a loss to his former team the Pittsburgh Steelers. I also have his helmet.
My favorite item in a collection that totals more than 2000 items is a Tampa Bay Buccaneer helmet of Hugh Green.
I very rarely have overpaid for items that I have in my collection. Others may not see the same value in it but that doesn't affect the way that I feel about it.
We went about collecting these things a lot differently back then.
As a sidelight, the person who sold these jerseys I believe spent time in jail for selling them.
Larry Pelliccioni

[Larry Pelliccioni]

I will get some pics out and amend my will but I would like to add kudos for the late Mr. Dick Dobbins as well.
And also to the nicest man I have ever met in this hobby, Mr. Murf (we used to call him Allen Denny) of Brule Wisconsin.
For my generation, he was undoubtedly the standard by which all others were judged, he and wife Pat were and are a total class act. If ever their was a collector/dealer hall of fame, I would consider him to be the cornerstone of it.
The Hanratty is also from 1976, road white in which he played his only game, a loss to his former team the Pittsburgh Steelers. I also have his helmet.
My favorite item in a collection that totals more than 2000 items is a Tampa Bay Buccaneer helmet of Hugh Green.
I very rarely have overpaid for items that I have in my collection. Others may not see the same value in it but that doesn't affect the way that I feel about it.
We went about collecting these things a lot differently back then.
As a sidelight, the person who sold these jerseys I believe spent time in jail for selling them.
Larry Pelliccioni
Let me amend two things, Murf and Pat Denny are still very much alive, I think I may have sounded like Mr. Hartel and Mr. Dobbins that they have passed and they have not.
Also, the person spending time in jail worked for the team and was not the Hartel family.
Hope that clears it up.
Larry Pelliccioni

[Larry Pelliccioni]

If you want to see pics of the Tampa Bay Hanratty's, Ricky Bell jersey and Hugh Green helmet, please email me at llpell@wowway.com
Larry Pelliccioni

[jake33]

I was only 1 years old at the time, but would have loved 'em still.

[commando]

I was wondering when a jersey from this sale would pop up.... And this one finally did on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/Jimmy-DuBose-1977-Tampa-Bay-Buccaneers-game-used-jersey-/220824272313?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item336a26fdb9


Quite a beauty!

[sox83cubs84]

A great item...it only stands to reason that a quality seller like BPH would be the ones offering it.

Dave Miedema

[UGA-1]

Just got this awesome jersey from a fellow forum member. I wonder if this is the Giles jersey on that list??

[34swtns]

That Giles is a beauty. If you ever decide to let it go please keep me in mind.

Is it a Sand Knit or a Wilson? Does anybody have an idea of exactly when the Bucs used Sand Knit? I thought they only used Wilson.

[UGA-1]

Glad you like it! It is a Wilson size 48. Jersey has 4 small repairs which was was a nice bonus. My last name is Giles, so this was an interesting pickup for me.

[TwinLakesPark]

Bump, just because...

[commando]

Bump, just because...

Hahaha, that's awesome!

I have a sizable library of sportscard collecting magazines from the late 1970s through late 1980s, and love seeing the GU advertisements. Oddly enough, some of the items sold 30 years ago are worth about the same amount today, while other items are worth considerably more today.

It's also interesting to wonder how many of those items lost their provenance over the years and wound up in the trash or local thrift shop... :confused:

[commando]

There's a chance that the O'Bradovich on Ebay right now (from Ballpark Heroes) is the one from this ad. It's a size 46 as stated.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Jim-OBradovich-1978-Tampa-Bay-Buccaneers-game-used-jersey-/221748346678?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33a13b3f36

[Buccaneer Madden]

Would be sweet to have a "classic" bucs jersey but man $450 for a nobody might be a bit much for me no matter how tough those jerseys are to find.