He was a familiar face at sports card shows in the Upper Midwest for nearly four decades. The National? Steve Gold never missed one. His family’s brick-and-mortar shop changed locations a couple of times, but Chicago area collectors always seemed to find AU Sports.
The collecting community lost one of its most outstanding members late last week when Gold died of cancer at age 52.
He set up at his first card show as a kid in the early 1970s, then began helping out once his parents, Eddie and Audre, opened AU Sports several years later. Gold took over the family business for good after his parents died in 2002.
Late last year, AU Sports moved into a new 2300 square-foot location in a large shopping center in Niles, IL, a Chicago suburb.
Steve Gold is survived by his wife Mary Ellen, his 11-year-old daughter Rebecca, his brother Bruce and several nieces and nephews.
A funeral service will be held Tuesday.
[…] will be the second National I will not be able to see my late friend and long-time hobby dealeer Steve Gold, with whom I usually had dinner with once a show for oh, about the past 20-25 […]