Posted By:
David SmithI like B-18's for several reasons.
First, you can get Hall of Fame players issued during the time they played and not have to pay too much for them. Not including the rare variations, the most expensive is Joe Jackson and you can get one of his in nice condition for $1,000 or less (I think).
Two, B-18s come up fairly often on eBay.
Three, I assume they would be MUCH harder to make a copy or reprint of.
Four, when found, they often come in groups. Ten years ago, when I first started to collect them, at different times, I found three large stacks that had 20 or more B-18's in them. I know in two of those stacks there was a Walter Johnson. I didn't buy any of the stacks (wish I had now) because I didn't have the money. The MOST that any of the sellers was asking for the stacks was $375 dollars. So, the average per blanket cost was under $20. At that time, I thought it was too much.
Three years ago, I bought 43 different at a local auction for $325 dollars. Included was a Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Miller Huggins and Rabbit Maranville. There was one brown infield variation and a number of Pittsburgh and Cleeland players. I would have had them for less than $100 dollars but somebody ran me up, even though they had NO CLUE what these things were.
As another poster showed, these were often sewn into pillow cases and blankets and make good display pieces. I once bought a blanket that had over 120 B-18's sewn together. The B-18's were around the edges with other tobacco felts on the inside and a LARGE Amercan flag tobacco felt in the center. I paid $600 for it and immediately consigned it to an auction house (I didn't have the money to keep it and no place to display it because of the size). It sold for $3,500 dollars in the auction. The profit I made helped me pay for a semester of college.
Five, ease of storage. They are small enough to be able to fit into a LOT of things and since they are fabric, you don't have to worry as much about creasing them.
The software I use to store images has gone on the fritz. Once I get it back up (or buy another edition) I will post pictures of some of my collection.
Happy hunting,
David