My suggestion: read whatever you can about the subject. And don't just jump into the hobby until you're ready.
While others here have mentioned Ritter's Glory of Their Times, there are other books and websites that are hobby-specific.
Below this post are three links you could feel free to check out.
My website covers a lot of vintage issues with pictures and info...but without getting into prices. I'm willing to say brag, even) that it can help you get a nice foundation about the hobby. However, it barely scratches the surface about what's out there, so places like Net54 are excellent sites to build upon that.
The "Hobby Bookshelf" link has a number of books available through Amazon about the hobby. What's even better is that many of these books are available used, at a great bargain. The more you learn and understand about the hobby, the better and more informed you are as a collector, and therefore much less likely to be burned by the few shady characters out there selling fake cards with interesting "stories."
Finally, the third link is to my vintage sportscard blog. 3-4 times a week, I add new posts to it, covering vintage from prewar through about 1980. I tend to be a little irreverent, but hopefully my deep love and respect for our hobby comes through, even when I'm showing off some of the more "well-loved" specimens in my collection. My entire point of the blog is to share my hobby with others, and there would be no better thrill than to someday find out that something I wrote caused a new collector to gravitate more to the hobby.
When I was younger, I read a 1981 book by Ron Erbe and Keith Mitchell called The American Premium Guide to Baseball Cards that I found in my middle school library. In fact, from 6th grade through 8th, the book would be checked out dozens of times and gave me my first glimpse into the vintage hobby. I would love to tell both of those guys about the impact that book had on me. Also of interest are the three volumes of Lew Lipset's Encyclopedia of Baseball Cards (also found as a 3-volume set). Unfortunately, all these books are often a lot more expensive than others but worth searching out if you're looking for a deeper knowledge of the hobby.
Finally, welcome!
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