Posted By:
Bruce BabcockThey say any publicity is good publicity as long as they spell your name right, but I am certainly not an expert in any way, shape or form.
Like a lot of people, I collected as kid for a few years and then moved on. When I was about 30, I read a couple of newspaper articles about how card collecting was beginning to take off, and that there was even a card, the T206 Wagner, worth $25,000. So I got back into the hobby.
Over a 25 year period (I paid $110 for my red portrait T206 Cobb) I've slowly put together a pretty nice collection, including some rare type cards and some tough but small sets. I've been burned a few times and got lucky a few times. I would say the most useful thing I've learned is that when you get a chance to acquire a nice piece that you've never seen before, grab it because you may never see it again.
To me the experts are the guys who have seen thousands and thousands of cards of the popular vintage issues and dozens of examples of some of the truly rare stuff. I'm not one of those guys. But I've certainly learned a lot from the folks on this board.
