When did you start collecting pre-war/vintage?

[Andy Sandler]

I started collecting pre-war in 1973 when I was a member of the Southern California Sports Collectors Club. We met at Walton Junior High in Garden Grove once a month. I was 13 years old and could not wait! I have never stopped.
Before going to these club meetings the oldest card I had ever seen was a 1952 Topps!

[sportscardpete]

bought a t206 cy young EPDG at 16... took a break during college.. now collect regularly. I am currently 22.

[4815162342]

I've posted this before, but my love for T206's began when I was a kid when I read this article in Beckett (Please pardon the link, it's the only site online that has it): http://www.t206museum.com/page/periodical_81.html

I didn't purchase my first T206 until more than 15 years later however.

[David W]

McGinnity and Casey at an antique barn in Georgia circa 1977 and Phillippe at Steamboat Days flea market in Peoria Illinois about the same time.

[ls7plus]

I collected as a kid, of course, starting in the late '50's and continuing part way through 1969 (I am presently 58). My return to collecting, I believe in hindsight, was orchestrated through fate. At my law office about 1990, a younger associate who was a collector, would regularly bring his cards into the office, ostensibly to organize them. I believe now, however, that his purpose for bringing them in was because his love for them simply wouldn't allow him to be apart from them all day! Others made fun of him, but I thought his cards were fascinating, and that provided all the stimulation I needed to return to the field. Unlike more sophisticated collectors, but probably like many others, I bought mostly the wrong cards at first (read modern rookies) because the speculative investment fever was still running amok throughout the hobby and its various publications (SCD WAS 300+ PAGES LONG) in those days. However, I was interested in vintage '50's and '60's cards from the start, and bought them at that time too, in as high a grade as I could afford, as they depicted the heroes of my youth.

With regard to pursuing pre-WWII cards, I have to give a lot of credit to Alan Hager, of all people. While other hobby writers were pushing modern rookies and/or cards dating only back to the '50s in high grade (often out of self-interest, as they were not only authors but also dealers, and that was the type of stock they had to sell), Hager was at least authoring books and price guides which were recommending pre-war cards as far better investments, based on their greater scarcity/rarity and the status of such upper echelon HOF'ers as Ruth, Cobb, Wagner, Matty and Johnson. He was also providing quality photos of an incredible number of different cards and sets from that era, and I was just snatched by the collar and dragged into focusing on such cards by those books. This coincided with the fall from grace of the over-hyped modern rookie cards, when it began to become evident even to those as initially naive as myself that these cards existed in truly humungous quantities in high grade and offered extremely limited potential for value retention or gain ( I sound like an invester here, but am really more of a collector/connoiseur who loves to hold the history of the game from generations past and the great players from those earlier times right in his hands. As a kid, and later as an adult, I not only spent countless hours playing baseball, but reading about its history, and playing stratomatic baseball with cards of not only the players of the time, but the greatest of all time. I just happen to like the idea and to believe that well-selected items will appreciate in value also). So, to cut this long-winded dissertation short, I was in my early forties when I migrated to pre-war collecting, wading in slowly at first, as I learned more about the cards, then damn the torpedos, full speed ahead!

Kudos to Clayton--great post!

Larry

[scooter729]

For me it began when I was probably about 10 years old (1983-ish) - for some reason, when I would go into the Halls Nostalgia store in Arlington, MA, I liked being able to buy a little card that was like 75 years old - how cool was that??

I had a newspaper route around the neighborhood starting at 11 years old, and remember using that money to buy cards and nothing else. Sure, I bought packs of the current stuff, but I always liked to try and buy something from the 1950s as well, so I could bring it home and show my dad. My goal was to see if he'd remember the picture of the card from when he collected while growing up (thrown out when he went into the service, of course).

But even when I would buy cards from the '50s, I always liked to try and pick up one of those really old small cards as well. The Halls often saved some of the real beaters for me, knowing I didn't have much of a budget.

Even though I probably have 150-200 T206's now, many of HOFers or nice-condition commons, I always have to smile when I see some of those common beaters of mine, knowing they were some of the first vintage cards I ever bought.

[williamcohon]

When I was a kid, I bought cards until I discovered girls. When we moved, my Mom threw the cards out; they were, after all, mere ballast.

At forty, my seven-year-old son asked me to take him to a card show. It was 1989, and he was looking for a Ken Griffey Jr. card. I had no idea I would see the cards of my youth, but there they were!

I immediately began buying the cards of the 50's, and within a year started collecting 30's and t cards as well.

My son lost interest in a year or two, but I'm still at it.

Thanks for this fun topic.

[willworkforT206]

I bought my first pre-war cards at a flea market when I was about eight years old back in 1976. Paid a couple of bucks for four T206 beaters - G. Brown (Washington), Graham (Boston), Abbaticchio (Brown Sleeves) and Maloney. All Piedmont or Sweet Caporal backs. I had absolutely no idea what they were at the time. Later did some research at the library and bought Bill Heitman's The Monster by mail. My friends thought I was crazy ("Why do you want that old stuff? Who are those guys anyway?"). As the years went on, they kept collecting the latest Topps and Donruss sets while I bought many more T206s blind through the mail from card shops on the east coast (House of Cards MD, Den's Collectors Den, etc.) because they were so hard to find at local card shows. Got out of the hobby after high school and back in again just three years ago - well after the dawn of third party grading and ebay.

I sure miss the old days.

Steve

[Jcfowler6]

I was a kid. I think around 12. My first two older cards were a '59 Clemente that my dad bought for me for 10 bucks from the mayor of our town, Brockway PA. And then a '53 Bowman Pee Wee Reese that I got for a couple Dwight Gooden rookie cards a couple years later.

The Clemente was later stolen with a couple thousand cards from me when I was away at college. So when I joined the Army and had my first opportunity the '59 Clemente was my first purchase. Still haven't replaced my George Brett rookie but will soon.

I have been a card collector since I can remember. Still remember my dad coming home from work with a pack of football cards. I think it was 1980. Had a Walter Payton and a Steelers card with the four players in quadrents.

[Gradedcardman]

I began collecting vintage the first time I visited the "Super Flea" in Greensboro at 9. My first vintage card was a 1963 Lew Krausse. I still have it in a photo album. Collected only vintage after that. Mowed yards and did everything I could to make card money.

[teetwoohsix]

Thanks Larry-likewise also.

Interesting.... 5-15 years is in the lead........and not too close behind in second is 31-35. It's really cool to see that a majority of collectors that participated in the survey have been collecting vintage and pre-war since they were kids. True dedication, and no wonder there is so much knowledge on these boards !!! Thanks to everyone for sharing there stories, very enjoyable thread.

Sincerely, Clayton

[itjclarke]

I answered 16-20 on the poll, but think my definition of vintage may have been off. I got my first cards as a kid in the early 80's, then got more serious in the late '80's.. collecting Giants autos at games and going to several card shows at the Moscone Center and Cow Palace with friends in SF. Btw- still remember the outcry over the price for a Muhammad Ali auto (I think $30, circa 1989), but we ran into him in the hallway and he gave me a freebie. He must have given out over a hundred freebies that day.

Anyway, I got my first beat up '50's-'60's HOFers at those shows (about age 12), and the vintage collection grew from ages 12-16 (lots of great card shops then too). The collection made a big leap in HS when two friends sold me their father handed down vintage collections CHEAP! for beer and sneaker money. Seems sacrilegious, but all parties involved were happy. I expanded slowly into Goudeys/T206s soon after.. then went NUTS in the late 90's when eBay first took off. Making my first "adult money" during summer internships, while still living those summers rent free at home was great food for the addiction!

I took most of my post college 20's off, then got back in full steam about 2-3 years ago. Have been totally hooked ever since. My interests still include the stuff I've always liked.. 50's/60's Topps/Bowmans, Leaf, Play Ball, Goudeys, the T205/T206/T202 (currently obsessed with T202) and 19th Century.

Still love it, and am greatful to know through this site that I am far from alone in my addiction.