Help with novel, sort of off-topic, but T206-related
 

Posted By: <b>Rob Fouch</b><p>Hi, everybody. I'm an occasional poster, but I mostly lurk, read and learn. <br /><br />I have a question maybe some of you guys who collected in the '80s can help me with. I'm an aspiring novelist and have completed a couple of books that I'm trying to get published. In one of the books, the two main characters collect baseball cards. Shocking, huh? <img src="/images/happy.gif" height=14 width=14><br /><br />Anyway, one of the characters is a high-intellect, geeky kind of guy who's a hard-core collector and has money to spend (from a very profitable yard-mowing business). He acquires Topps sets from 1969 through the 1980s. And he also manages to get a T206 Cobb red portrait in decent shape. (The cards are integral to the novel's final scene.)<br /><br />Here are my questions: <br />In the early to mid-'80s, what would have been the most logical way for this character, who lives in a very small West Virginia town, to acquire these cards? Ordering from ads in the back of price guides? Obviously, this was pre-ebay. <br /><br />And what would a Cobb red portrait have cost from a dealer in that era? In approximately VG condition. <br /><br />I collected as a teenager back then, but I wasn't smart enough and didn't have the cash to order those kind of cards. I simply bought pack after pack of the modern stuff at the local 7-Eleven. Sigh.<br /><br />Anyway, whatever help you could give me would be appreciated. I really want to get the details right.<br /><br />Thanks. Rob<br /><br />

Help with novel, sort of off-topic, but T206-related
 

Posted By: <b>Rich Klein</b><p>Sources such as Larry Fritsch and other people who were dealers at the time and advertising in National Media.<br /><br />Publications such as Baseball Cards (More newstand oriented) then SCD and Baseball Hobby News.<br /><br />Basically all was done mail order in those days from catalogs and magazine ads<br /><br />Rich

Help with novel, sort of off-topic, but T206-related
 

Posted By: <b>Brian</b><p>Probably would have bought the card through an ad in the Sports Collector Digest (SCD) or a local card show. <br /><br />No clue to the price, I can't remember what I paid for gas last week.

Help with novel, sort of off-topic, but T206-related
 

Posted By: <b>T206Collector</b><p>....my 15 or 16 year old friend purchased an (obviously raw) EX-MT Christy Mathewson T206 portrait from an ad in Sports Collector's Digest. This would have been 1988 or 1989. I believe he paid about $400 for it. A VG Cobb would probably have sold for a little less -- maybe $200 to $300, though I really have no means for comparison. <br /><br />

Help with novel, sort of off-topic, but T206-related
 

Posted By: <b>barrysloate</b><p>I was selling T206's in the 1980's and I would guess a red Cobb VG might have been in the $90-120 range and Ex in the $175-200 range. Doing this strictly from memory.

Help with novel, sort of off-topic, but T206-related
 

Posted By: <b>Steve M.</b><p>but best bet is he was a subscriber to the SCD. Most of us were in those days and bought mostly from that source. My guess on the Cobb (even before I read Pauls) is $250.00.

Help with novel, sort of off-topic, but T206-related
 

Posted By: <b>T206Collector</b><p>...completely outdone by my friend, I purchased a 1933 Goudey Grove (which now is in an SGC 60 holder) for $225 at a show at Pier 92 in Manhattan in March 1989. I was 15 years old. Not sure if that is at all helpful....

Help with novel, sort of off-topic, but T206-related
 

Posted By: <b>Steve M.</b><p>Maybe in 1980 but in the later years of the 80's they were going for more.<br /><br />So, I guess the author will have to decide when in the 80's the card was acquired.

Help with novel, sort of off-topic, but T206-related
 

Posted By: <b>andy becker</b><p>i would agree with barry on red cobb price in the early 1980's.....more as the decade wore on....but $80-$125 sounds right. <br /><br />as a side note, the red portrait cobb has always been a "sexy" card....and sold for a huge premium back then.<br />in the same era an e92 cobb was $25. <br /><br />scd is good too, but i would say serious collectors were participating in sales and auctions from "the trader speaks", a publication that ran from the late 1960's to the mid 1980's.<br /><br />my thoughts, good luck on your book.

Help with novel, sort of off-topic, but T206-related
 

Posted By: <b>peter chao</b><p>Rob,<br /><br />Your writing a novel, right. It's not necessary to adhere to the facts, put the Ty Cobb in a PSAS holder. This stands for PSA Sucks. <img src="/images/happy.gif" height=14 width=14><br /><br />Peter

Help with novel, sort of off-topic, but T206-related
 

Posted By: <b>barrysloate</b><p>Fair enough- sometime during that decade I was selling VG's for $90- but perhaps by 1989 it was higher. But didn't Rob say the story was taking place early to mid-eighties?

Help with novel, sort of off-topic, but T206-related
 

Posted By: <b>Steve M.</b><p>my bad <img src="/images/sad.gif" height=14 width=14> I Should have read more closely.