Quote:
Originally Posted by Jewish-collector
I'm sorry, but I have to collect reprints since I really can't afford many baseball cards in even poor grade.
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Friend, you don't need to apologize to anyone for collecting reprints because you cannot afford the real thing--even in lousy condition. I am in precisely the same boat, brother.
I was introduced to reprints by seeing a teenzie weenzie advertisement in THE SPORTING NEWS back in late 1971 or spring 1972 for a complete set of the 1933 DeLong Gum cards. Mike Aronstein put them out and the little 24-card set was a mighty mite addition to my small collection. They opened a large window on the world of early 1930s MLB and what a kid could have collected back then, if his town happened to be one that got those beautiful small cards.
Not long prior to the purchase of the reprint set, I had read a glorious article on those cards by none other than esteemed hobby pioneer, Lionel Carter. He was a young teenager in Colfax, Illinois and about to go see a movie. He had gone into some shop to buy a nickel candy bar to enjoy while watching a movie at the theater. However, he spied a box of some baseball picture cards. One card and a stick of gum for a penny. The wrappers were very colorful and enticing. Lionel changed his mind about the chocolate bar, and invested his nickel in five packs of the cards---the DeLong Gum cards! They were Lionel's first baseball cards, and the beginning of a beautiful friendship!
Lionel always loved his DeLongs, and so when Mike Aronstein reprinted these in the early 1970s through his company, TCMA, and took out an ad, I was all ready and eager to buy them. What a treat, re-reading his beautifully expressed memories in that October 1971 issue of SPORT HOBBYIST, and looking at the reprints of the cards Mr. Carter wrote so lovingly about. The reprints were of the highest quality, too.
Thus, those reprints brought me a ton of joy and happiness for the small price I paid. Being a widow's son by then, I had to be very careful.
There's always gonna be some collectors who will chide other hobbyists for "wasting their money" on reprints, or on modern cards of long-retired and deceased players. Sure, I do have some originals remaining to my once pretty nice collection, and I have some modern "commemorative" cards of Mantle, Maris, Ruth, Cobb, Koufax, et al. I also enjoy the reprints I have. I'm selective, however. I want a nice reprint. The 51-52 Bowmans done by Richard Gelman's Card Collectors Company are terrific. Ditto their 1960 Home Run Derby. The latter would have been virtually impossible for me, were it not for Richard.
Originals are much better than reprints. I shan't argue the point. They do, however, offer 90% or more of the eye candy, and almost all of the imagination you would think of while looking at originals you owned. If destroyed, no big deal. If you die suddenly, no big deal, where the cards are concerned. No worries about whether they'll appreciate in value.
It's all about getting a taste of what the real thing was like, without any of the burdens of buying and owning the real thing.
Keep enjoying your reprints, bro. Have a good weekend.
---Brian Powell