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Aaron M.I first began collecting what I considered to be vintage in 1983 and 1984, very shortly after I began collecting baseball cards in general.
I think for purely aesthetic and historical reasons the players and the look of vintage cards greatly appealed to me and as it turned out, I would never buy contemporary cards at any other point in my life.
I'm still not quite sure what exact the triggering point was, but I went from putting together a 1983 Topps set to looking exclusively at "older" cards of some of my favorite players.
Bear in mind I was 11 and 12 years old at the time, but I started buying mostly 1960's and early 1970's cards of Johnny Bench, Nolan Ryan, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle and many others.
I even bought a ton of basketball and football cards, including what turned out to be Walter Payton, Joe Nameth and Lew Alcindor rookie cards.
I took another step back and bought a 1957 Duke Snider and 1963 Stan Musial. And I still remember desperately wanting the 1953 Topps Satchell Paige and not being able to afford it.
By then, however, I had already become interested in the memorabilia side of the hobby. I don't know how many 12 year olds bought Hartland Warren Spahn statues and 1960's HOF Rogers Hornsby busts, but for whatever reason, I did.
By the time I turned 13 in 1985, however, I gave into social pressures and stopped collecting altogether. The cards and memorabilia went into shoeboxes in my closet and that was that.
That, of course, brings us to Bill Mastro. In mid-2001, I was flipping around the channels and found a show on A&E called "The Incurable Collector." I've always been interested in collectors and their collections of virtually every sort so I started watching. The end of the show, however, blew my mind.
It was a profile on Bill Mastro and his auction site, but most specifically it featured Bill's personal collection and gave an almost shelf-by-shelf airing of his incredible memorabilia display room.
This was exactly what I fantasized of having as a 12 year old but, of course, didn't have the financial ability to afford any of it.
I TiVo'd the piece (and have since watched it countless times) and immediately went searching on the Internet.
Even if it was just an extremely small-scale (both in size and value) version of his collection, now that I could better afford it, I was going to put a memorabilia display in my home office/den.
I first participated in his August 2001 auction, and that led to my discovering Lelands, Hunt, Grey Flannel, and of course, E-Bay.
I made two decision early on: First I selected 1969 as the latest I would collect items from. (I picked the year because that was about when flannel jerseys became knit, old one-of-a-kind stadiums became cookie cutter monstrosities, and expansion and relocation led to the end of the classic pennant race.) I also decided to center my collection's individual display shelves based on a collection of 1960's Aurora Sports models I began collecting and having professionally built-up and painted.
Like Mastro's display, I always wanted my display to be a wide variety of memorabilia items from the turn of the century through the 1960's (with heavy emphasis on pre-WWII items), so I have programs, baseballs, pins, game-worn caps and jerseys, you name it. Integrated into the display are various sports cards including a 1934 Goudey Gehrig (which led me to this site) and my latest prized purchase: a 1948 Bowman George Mikan grey variation.
With my display pretty much complete and space always at a premium, I don't have much chance at collection expansion until we buy a bigger house. But for now, my vintage collection gives me immense pleasure and for good or bad, I have Bill Mastro to than for it (or as my wife says, to blame for it).
01-06-2004, 12:45 PM
How Vintage Collecting Began For Me
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