About Us

AUTHENTICITY
Whenever you buy something from me, I give a personal (not a generic company certificate) guaranty of authenticity. It comes on my legal stationery, with my name, address, phone number, and fax number, so a customer can always find me. It is a personal guaranty to the person purchasing from me that I will stand behind the item, and refund money if any item were ever found not to be authentic. I am asked of what good is such a certificate. Well, it certainly does not guaranty to some "down the road buyer" who spent twice the money, that I will refund the last purchase price. It does guaranty to the person buying from me that I will stand behind any item bought from me, and refund the cost if any item were to be found not to be authentic. A certificate is only as good as the person or company giving it. That is its value. I feel comfortable that my position in the industry makes my certificate of good value.

-Personal Information-
Born: March 15, 1944, Newport, Rhode Island. I grew up in Danville, Virginia, and graduated George Washington High School in1962. Sports activities consisted of baseball till age 15, in addition to high school tennis and basketball. I attended Duke University, and graduated in 1966, playing tennis freshman year, but quitting my second year in order to concentrate on grades. I graduated from Emory Law School in1969. I have spent much of my adult life, after my stint in the army, involved with several charities. I work on several projects for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and have worked for them for over ten years. I have worked for the Major League Alumni Charity Golf Tournament for over ten years. And, for over 23 years I have been actively involved with the Muscular Dystrophy Association. (I have never had a vacation at Labor Day since my return to Atlanta, having worked 23 straight years as a volunteer at the Atlanta production of the Jerry Lewis Telethon. I have no great reason for this. I just have a passion to work against catastrophic diseases. Recently I have taken on a project for the American Cancer Society. My first wife, Beverly, I married in 1968 during law school. We were married ten years, and had two children, Dustin and David. My second wife, Virginia, I married a year after my divorce, and we remain married. June 1, 2000 will be 21 years. Both of my wives are breast cancer survivors, to date, and my passion to add cancer to my charitable efforts is driven by this factor. I have accepted roles working on various charity events that keep me active year round. The year of the founding of this web site (2000), I have plans to work on 3 Cystic Fibrosis projects. I will work on a Cancer project this summer. The Major League Alumni Golf Tournament will again be held, and their money split with the Boys and Girls Clubs. Finally, I will work the Jerry Lewis Telethon, and any other MDA project that arises in which I can be of aid. Any valid donations of items for these events can be remitted to me, and a tax receipt will be issued. Some people do not have the time to do what I can do, but they have the kindness and the generosity to want to help. I hope I can facilitate that desire by giving them an outlet.
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-Law-
I served four years in the U.S. Army as a JAG lawyer, and returned to Atlanta in 1974 to initiate my private practice. After stints with law firms through 1980, I opened my sole practice, in which I continue to date. I specialized in a variety of types of law early on, including divorce and other areas of family law, personal injury, business, wills and estate work, bankruptcy, and even some minor criminal work. But over the years my practice has constricted to more business work and advice, divorce, personal injury, and some contract negotiations. Basically, I am a negotiator, and my law practice specialties include areas where such skills are needed.
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-Industry Experience-
Fortunately, early in my career I was given the opportunity to work with the then manager of the Atlanta Braves, Bobby Cox. For a number of years in the late seventies and early eighties, I directed projects to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. As my children came to live with me, time was less available, and I had a son who was interested in sports, and began to play baseball. I had been getting items from sports personalities for years for my auctions in my own projects, and slowly began to attend shows, where my son was interested in card collection, while I concentrated on autographs from the stars brought into the shows. I used those items in auctions for charity, as well as collected ones for myself. While doing this, I was introduced to Mickey Mantle, and my introduction into the industry of memorabilia collection and, ultimately sales, was initiated.
As my youngest son, David, began to play baseball at age 10, in 1985, his love of the game, and his interest in cards, added to my own connection with the industry in obtaining items for charity auctions, led us into the trading card and memorabilia world. I promised David packs of cards as a reward, each game he got a hit or made a play. He was ten, but better than I expected for a kid that had never had any experience playing organized sports. In no time, his collection grew quickly. He wanted to go to local card shows to wheel-and-deal, and I wanted to go for autographs. After only a couple shows, we had items that were duplicates, and wanted to sell off. I first found friends from whom I had bought that let me share space. (I never realized until I became a dealer how annoying I was in doing this.) With items to vend, I obtained space at shows.
Promoters were always in need of contract help, problem solving that involved advice or negotiations, so I became one of the local sources to these promoters for legal advice. I also did charity auctions at these shows to continue to raise money for charity. At times, I was allowed to get items signed with the stars that appeared, and, was fortunate to meet most of the super stars of sports from these circumstances. I obtained items from Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Duke Snider, Joe Namath, Dan Marino…all the current and past super stars, many of the local stars, and virtually anyone that was brought to Atlanta for shows by local or other promoters. My collection and inventory continued to grow.
At some point in time, I was somehow introduced to Hank Aaron, and over the years was called upon to do three legal projects for Hank. I must not have impressed him that much, since he seemed to fail to recognize me later. I was apparently introduced to him as a result of my association with Bobby Cox. I never took fees from Hank, but always let him sign items in place of fees. Hank was happy to do that. Hank had a local personal attorney, but those of us in this industry always knew his agent for booking him in signings/shows was Bob Allen of Milwaukee. For myself, I was always proud that he asked for my help, and frankly rather proud that each endeavor ended with what I would call success, from a legal standpoint. My greatest break in this industry came in the middle to late 1980(s). I did some signing with Mickey Mantle, and met his agent, business manager, Greer Johnson. Greer was a local resident, and I found that she and Mickey had a place in Decatur where they frequently stayed for periods of time. I believe that at some time they discovered that I had done legal work for Bobby Cox, and I assume that if they did ask, Bobby gave me a decent report. I also believe she may have consulted with some local promoters who knew me. However, for some reason, and I am not sure Greer or I can truly recall what, she asked me to do some legal work for her. Mickey's personal attorney was a brilliant practitioner, Roy True, who had a fine firm he headed in Dallas. But Greer frequently had things that were personal to her, and wanted her own attorney. Starting some time around 1987, Greer Johnson became my client, and one of my closest personal friends. She remains one of my warmest friends to date. Through her, I had a wonderful 8-year association with "The Mick", and with her, and many others in this industry.
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-Mickey and Me-
In my first signings with Mickey, I was no different than any other awe stricken fan. I recall once telling Mickey he looked a lot different in person than I remembered. He said a lot of people for some reason thought he was bigger. I said I felt the same way, because to me he had been a 12 inch black and white figure on a my old family Philco. Trust me, before you groan, Mickey did not think I was funny either. Greer, however, was a great laugher, and enjoyed almost every person's sense of humor. I soon found that Mickey was most comfortable in signings when you did not do the "typical fan" thing. He did not want to be fawned over, and he was more comfortable if you could talk golf, fishing, betting, etc. He also seemed to have short spans of wanting to know about the industry itself. But talk about how great he had played, how much everyone loved him, or questions about players or typical fan questions seemed to irritate him, more than engage him in conversation. Most importantly, as Greer began to rely upon me for legal advice or even industry advice, Mickey became more of a friend, and was openly appreciative of that help and attention given to Greer. As for me, I was openly thankful for the almost unlimited access to Mickey for signings.
I can think of one other thing which might have helped my relationship with Greer and Mickey. Without going into detail, I feel several incidents gave them confidence that I would never take advantage of my relationship. I never asked Mickey to sign an item for me without payment, though he did so on some occasions without my requesting same, and he always was willing to sign for any charity events, in addition to signatures for which I paid for items for the charity events. I soon began to not only do signings for myself, but included other friends and vendors in the industry. I never charged fees to do this, since adding these pieces to my own made for a more enticing signing event for Mickey and Greer. Once in a while I added a dollar or so to cover some time in repacking and shipping the items back, since it took time from my law practice, but for the most part, those who joined me got my private signing price. However, I did see Mickey Mantle sign literally thousands of items over a period of 8 years. I always put some items back for myself, such as some photos, a number of dozens of balls, etc. Obviously today, that results in a decent inventory, added to the fact some items have been purchased from those I knew signed with Mickey. While I am not a forensic expert, I feel that I can discern a valid Mickey Mantle autograph as well as any person in the industry. I feel about 98% confident on flat items, and about 95% on balls. Can I be fooled? Don't let anyone kid you. EVERYONE CAN BE FOOLED!
However, after seeing the number of autographs I have personally witnessed Mickey sign, and feeling I know the major characteristics of his autograph that are always present, I have confidence in the ability to spot the fakes. And yes, there are many! Don't let anyone tell you that Mickey signed differently when he was drinking, or that everyone has different autographs at different times. Mickey had certain consistent factors present when he signed, regardless of his health, sobriety, or energy level. There is no question that I was blessed to have Greer Johnson as a client, and Mickey and Greer as friends. I was also blessed to be able to meet and share some time with some of Mickey's special friends. I never met Roger Maris or Billy Martin. But Whitey Ford, Moose Skowron, and Hank Bauer were all close friends that, being friends with Mickey and Greer, I was allowed to meet. I also was fortunate to be able to help Mickey and Greer with their charity golf tournaments, where a lot of Mickey's friends came to show their support for him and the charities he and Greer chose to support. Mickey was actually generous to a fault. He had a wonderful soft spot for kids' charities. What many people have never discovered was that Greer created a charitable trust using a lot of the memorabilia that Mickey left at her place over the years. She manages it, including selling pieces from the trust for cash that goes into the trust, and upon her death, the funds go to the charities she and Mickey supported over the years. I never saw that information released when the auction battle over his personal items appeared in the news in New York. That is a pity, because it failed to reveal a very decent side of both Mickey and Greer, and the resulting publicity was unfair in leaving this fact out of the public information released.
Because of my relationship with Mickey, I was able to obtain signatures from many other athletes. Having access to Mickey, I could reciprocate and have others get me signatures when they had signings with other super stars. It was this network that enabled me to obtain a lot of my inventory on persons other than Mickey. I was accorded a certain degree of respect from my relationship with Greer and Mickey, and it aided me in getting things done with others. For example, I always felt that Morris Engleberg, Joe DiMaggio's good friend and attorney for years, was a bit kinder, and Joe a bit more tolerant because I was the attorney for Greer. I had a couple of occasions to do signings with Joe, and this was the sense I got at such times, whether it was actually true or not. I respected what Morris did and had to do for Joe, and I think he had an idea what I had to do for Greer. I should point out that Mickey had a personal attorney, almost like a brother, who represented him from around 1969, as I understood it, until Mickey's death. His name was Roy True, and he practiced in Dallas, where I believe he did work for the whole Mantle family. I was only counsel for Mickey on those occasions where Greer needed me to do something for him on her behalf. Roy was always Mickey's real personal attorney. I had the good fortune to work with Roy on occasion. He was and is quite good, quite intelligent, and I enjoyed those times when we were able to work on something together.
Like most athletes, Mickey had a barbed sense of humor. One had to have a thick skin to hang with him. He could make you feel great one minute and then nail you with a joke or comment the next. One of his often used ploys with me was to invite me to dinner, and when I arrived, Mickey would have arranged for a table by myself, while Mickey and the entourage at his table laughed at my expense. But he always had a place at his table as well, and try as I might, I cannot remember Mickey ever letting me (or anyone else at the table) pick up a check. He loved to play golf, and he would bet on just about anything. He especially liked to bet on golf. Believe it or not, at age 60+ he was about a 7 handicap. But he would give you every chance to win, including moving your ball to a clearer shot, then still trying to beat you. He loved the even competition, giving strokes, etc., but he still had that fierce will to win.
Golf led to lots of laughs. The stories are too many to tell. But one he used then, I now use. He had an easy shot to the green, with one little branch in the way. This day I was his playing partner. He hit the shot, and this one tiny twig hit the ball, and knocked it down. Mickey dropped his club and said, "We're in trouble now…God's on lunch break, Billy's (Martin) in charge."
These days, whenever a little something strange happens, I just think God's on lunch break, and Mickey is in charge. He was a good friend. I miss him. I know all baseball fans everywhere do.

That is much of the story behind Stoner Sports Collectibles. I hope you are able to enjoy the contents of this sight as I have the past 13+ years.

Mike Stoner
President
Stoner Sports Collectibles

 

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