Harlan J. Werner attended his first sports card show when he was 13 years old.
That show just happened to be the very first National Sports Collectors Convention in Los Angeles in 1980.
“I was mesmerized,” Werner said. “I got hooked and really it’s been a love affair off and on for four decades.”
Werner was so enthralled with sports collectibles that he soon dove head-first into the hobby, buying and selling cards at local shops and shows. At age 17, he promoted his first card show. A year later, he opened his own card shop and hobby store.
One of his first big shows was a 1986 charity auction he ran for Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson that raised nearly $200,000 for two Detroit hospitals. After the show, Anderson became a role model and mentor to Werner, often referring to him as “my boy.”
Two years later, at age 21, Werner promoted one of the largest shows in the country, attracting such sports legends as Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Sandy Koufax, Pete Rose, Don Drysdale, Jim Brown and Muhammad Ali to sign autographs at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.
As a young sports entrepreneur, Werner was so good at engaging and schmoozing with high-profile athletes that The LA Times once called him the “Heavyweight of Hustle.”
