When did you start collecting pre-war/vintage?

Whilst we began collecting cards fresh from the pack when were 6 years old, our interest in ultra rare high grade baseball cards dates back to 1977.

At that we committed ourselves to building the world's best type card
and selected memorabilia collection.

Among our earliest purchases were a group of George Millers (now sgc 70), a Texas Tommy from Larry Kelley and two 19th century cards from Sir Rob Lifson
a Four Base Hit and a Just So (both highest graded)

Quality never goes out of style.

Bruce

[hangman62]

Im finding it hard to believe that so many 5-15 yrd old kids started collecting ' PRE WAR" cards at that age . It doesnt sound right...young kids..just starting to play little league baseball ? ages 6,7,8,maybe 9....just starting to understand the game/the teams/the rules...just starting to buy ( or have someone buy packs for you)..I just cant see it. I know as a young kid in the mid/late 60s..I was in love with my team and the current yr cards...and just occasionally looking at a 60/61 Fleer card would completly turn me off..seeing those very old guys mugs !....why would a 6-7 8 yr old find joy in a 34 Goudey card of players who...they didnt know..even when grandpa sat you down and told you about Waner,Speaker,Cobb,etc.., didnt you still find more attraction to Swoboda,Mantle,Seaver, and Pepitone ??

[B O'Brien]

I marked myself in the 16+ age. My turning point was my 12th birthday (1988) and my dad said he would buy me any card or cards I wanted as long as I didn't cross $40, and that was it. We went to JR's in Powderly, KY and I had my heart set on a sharp Mattingly 1984 Fleer. JR had just taken in some trade stock and he had two 1956 Topps Campy's. One was nice crispy with a wrinkle and the other had a slightly rounded corners but no creases. Please remember that Mattingly, 45 minutes south of where he grew up was king at this time, and that is still one good looking card! The color on the wrilke free Campy was super vivid and I fell in love, my turning back the years in the card world had begun. The prices on both were $35, so I grabbed the Campy a new Beckett and a pack of clean top loaders (never had any new ones before that!). I still have that card and always will!

As I got a little older I set up at the local shows and sold new stuff from wax and would take in trade of whatever had value, so I started to amass some good post war stuff. I was set up at a show in Charleston, WVA in 1992 (we moved, coal mining family), and one of my regular guys was working on a 1955 set in EX or so, and I had a nice Clemente to fill his slot. After months of trying to work out a deal (I was asking $500) he shows up with an Old Mill White Cap Matty that is crease free and $300. I managed to squeeze out a NMMT Payton RC to sweeten the deal. That Matty was my first PW card and I loved it.

My sell off lasted right at 5 years. When I decided what I wanted to do for real, need to relo and go back to school (Culinary degree this time), I had to sell of nearly all of my stack of cards. I sold the Matty on ebay (2001 or early 2002 after getting married, it was the last to go) in a PSA 3 holder to a guy in Sea, WASH. I have tried to find him for last few years to get it back, but no luck. Between my time as being broke with the wife when we started out and the college days (I had expensive recreational choices then, and very little income), I sold off all of my prewar cards for next to nothing (just before the internet). I used to keep really good records in my notebooks from show deals (what I took in on trade) and the same stuff that I sold off at $10 a card in college is staggering for me now, as I would just bulk out my T206 (VG-EXish) hoard to the local dealer in LEXKY because he had a guy that was framing them and would take all I would bring for the flat price.

I managed to stay away for 5 years before joining Cardtarget and the partial shares market. I figured if I only had a portion of some T cards it would be OK! When I found out we had to close down, I could not think of letting the Lenox Johnson go to someone else, so I bought it in the summer of '08 to fully knock myself off the wagon.

As with some of you all, I think the baseball cards have been one of the things that have linked the stages of my life. My first set for the holidays in 1986 from the JC Penny catalog, because I thought it would be fun to have 792 tiny presents, to learning math and statistics as I got older from the backs, to trying to find tough backed T206 HOFers or just cards I always wanted when I was little, as I do now (I bought beater Duke Snider and Pee Wee rookies the other night!!) It is the one constant no matter what else changes around me.

I love me some ball cards and prewar just makes it that much more fun. I love to learn the history of what was going on when these cards were being produced to set the players or company up with what was going on in the times. My next little project will either be the Bluegrass League or the LA issues T cards. Since both groups of cards seem to be out of my price range, I may take a new route on collecting. The journey continues!!!

I just reread that, sorry for the ramblings!!,
Bob

[Bilko G]

Originally Posted by hangman62

Im finding it hard to believe that so many 5-15 yrd old kids started collecting ' PRE WAR" cards at that age .

i have a feeling many people who voted are confused.

[Mark]

Originally Posted by Bilko G

i have a feeling many people who voted are confused.

That could be. But I voted in the 5-15 yr old category because I took up vintage collecting when I was about 11 or 12. Back around 1971, a handful of sellers advertised pre-war and post-war cards near the back of the Sporting News and Baseball Digest. I knew lots of the players names both from my dad's stories about Waner, Traynor, Hubbell, Sisler, Ruth, et al and had read both The Glory of Their Times and 8 Men Out. After I bought some cards from the sellers in TSE and BD, the sellers would send around mimeographed sheets of cards for sale every couple of months. Back then, they would sell t-206's by the player's name alone, omitting any reference to whether it was a portrait or not or what back it had or even its condition. And at a local flea market, there was a guy who always had a box of cards and a cat with him. He introduced me to a couple of Goudeys. Somehow, I learned about the existence of the Trader Speaks. I ended up with a lot of t-206's and a number of Goudey's and Playballs, but never ran across most of the issues from the 20's that I collect now.

[Leon]

I admit I am quite surprised by the poll numbers too. I would have thought the #2 spot would have been the #1 spot by quite a bit and that is the spot I fell into. That is when my (little bit of) discretionary income and boredom set in . It's hard to imagine so many on the board started collecting PRE-War/vintage so young and never stopped. Thanks for all who have responded so far...and sorry for my tangent of going off topic....Those early little league days bring back some very fond memories (obviously). regards

[David W]

Originally Posted by Leon

I admit I am quite surprised by the poll numbers too. I would have thought the #2 spot would have been the #1 spot by quite a bit and that is the spot I fell into. That is when my (little bit of) discretionary income and boredom set in . It's hard to imagine so many on the board started collecting PRE-War/vintage so young and never stopped. Thanks for all who have responded so far...and sorry for my tangent of going off topic....Those early little league days bring back some very fond memories (obviously). regards

What you've got to remember is that in the 70's when I was in my early teen's, pre war stuff was readily available at flea markets. It was available at garage sales, and it was cheap. I got a whole scrapbook full of newspaper clippings from pre WW2 with several cards, including a Bottomley Goudey in it for $5 once. So if you were a kid like me who loved baseball you'd buy it. I had friends of my dad give me their cards from when they were kids. People just gave away the 70's cards to who ever would take them.

It wasn't until the Beckett annual guide came out around 1980 that the casual person had any idea cards might be worth something some day.

[tonyo]

Maybe the poll should be re-taken to just include "pre-war"

I owned 1 pre-war card prior to 2009 and have collected pre-war almost exclusively since then. I answered 41-45.

However, I started collecting as a kid in 72, buying all the current stuff, but I did end up with several cards from the 50's and 60's. So I suppose I could've answered in the 5-15 category depending on the definitions of "collect" and "Vintage"

[wonkaticket]

Originally Posted by Yankeefan51

and two 19th century cards from Sir Rob Lifson a Four Base Hit and a Just So (both highest graded)

Bruce

Rob has been knighted?? Allright now I know he's making too much money!

Originally Posted by Yankeefan51

Quality never goes out of style.

True, but narcissism may grow old (Kidding Bruce).