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#1
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What was your first vintage baseball card??
Always love to hear how others got hooked... I was wondering if you would share the following...
What was your first vintage baseball card? Do you remember how you got it? Do you still own it? Mine was a 1959 Topps Sandy Kofax... my dad bought it for me at a local card show... I sold all my cards when I was in college cause I needed the cash.. thankfully the kofax was the one card I refused to sell.. still own it to this day. Jamie |
#2
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First pre-war card was Bridwell in that sweater from the white border set, I think.
Last edited by FrankWakefield; 01-18-2012 at 10:34 PM. |
#3
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T206 Speaker
Mine was a beater T206 Tris Speaker from a sports card shop in Virginia around 16 years ago. Didn't buy another one until 2005 at which point I was primarily a flipper. Took another five years for me to get hooked.
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#4
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My first vintage card was a GD condition T206 Bresnahan portrait I bought when I was 16 from the Larry Fritsch museum in Cooperstown. Damn right I still have it, wouldn't sell it for 100x the $42 price tag I paid for it. I live 6 hours from Cooperstown and probably looked at that card for 5 of those hours on the ride home
__________________
Please check out my books. Bio of Dots Miller https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CV633PNT 13 short stories of players who were with the Pirates during the regular season, but never appeared in a game for them https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CY574YNS The follow up to that book looks at 20 Pirates players who played one career game. https://www.amazon.com/Moment-Sun-On.../dp/B0DHKJHXQJ The worst team in Pirates franchise history https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6W3HKL8 |
#5
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Mine was also a '59.. but mine was Mantle. My first job was in a baseball card shop, I was only 14 so by law couldn't be "paid" in cash so I worked for cards. Most of the time I just got boxs of wax packs to open but when the Mantle came in on trade I had to have it, I had to work 4 weekends just to get it, I kept it for over 10 years sold it and started a '55 topps set.
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#6
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Funny, because when I started "going backwards" mine was the 1957 Koufax.
Doug |
#7
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Quote:
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#8
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Not really vintage but in the early 1990's at a show, I bought a 1955 Topps Charlie Silvera card for $5 in EX condition. At the time, it was my oldest card and I still own it today. I didn't start to be interested in older cards such as T206's until a few years ago. I remember always seeing them at shows in the late 80's early 90's but just didn't know anything about them and what to look for. It was pre internet days so becoming an expert wasn't just a click away.
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#9
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My first pre-war was a T206 Miller Huggins Hands at Mouth. I remember I bought it at a Gloria Rothstein White Plains show in the late 90s. I was probably 12 or so. I'm pretty sure it was the show where Joe Dimaggio and Ted Williams were signing for about a hundred bucks each. Still wish we got one but we thought that was crazy at the time.
Still have it. Would never sell. |
#10
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My first vintage cards I obtained when I was 10 years old. I had:
1979 Topps Walter Payton 1975 Topps Hank Aaron card#1 1975 Topps Bucky Dent All Star Rookie 1969 Topps Reggie Smith 1969 Topps Johnny Bench A.S. card 1963 Topps Bobby Richardson reprint that I swore was real back then 1962 Topps Warren Sphann 1955 Bowman Don Larsen I was very vintage card deprived I mainly just spent my time drooling over the black and white photos in Beckett Magazine or drooling at the local card shop. I still have the 75 Aaron, 75 Dent, 69 Bench but the rest were all stolen from me by other kids. My mom bought the Aaron, Bench, and Smith card for Christmas because she knew I wanted a 54 topps Hank Aaron but she could not afford it so she did the best she could, and because of that I charish those cards because of how special it was to me that she tried to make me happy. Too bad punks stole my 69 Reggie Smith that she bought for me! |
#11
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My childhood collecting years were 1968 (when I was 7 years old) - 1974 (when I discovered girls). Still have everyone one of those cards. But one glorious weekend in 1972 (I was 11), a buddy and I found a garage sale while riding our bikes. A man had a HUGE cardboard box containing hundreds of cards from the early '50s - '60s. Selling them for a penny/card. Below is some of what I came away with before he kicked us the hell out of his garage! Wish I had offered him $20 for the whole box - bet he would've taken it. Only spent 24 cents, which is all I had. Not too bad of an investment for an 11 year old.
Apologies for the multiple post-war scans, but this was a fun trip down memory lane for me. :-) Last edited by triwak; 01-19-2012 at 01:31 AM. |
#12
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1933 goudey yellow ruth beater that I traded for at a show was the first goudey era card
first earlier card was a Eddie Collins beater Cracker Jack that walked into a friend's card shop and I bought it from him |
#13
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1922 E 121 series of 120 Elmer Miller picked up at National in the late 80's and yes, I still own it. Now slabbed in SGC 20 condition. He is also a distant relative so DNA in baseball hooked me.
__________________
Favorite MLB quote. " I knew we could find a place to hide you". Lee Smith talking about my catching abilities at Cubs Fantasy camp. |
#14
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1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey jr rookie card
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#15
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Great thread topic!
Before my days of buying on Ebay, I would buy modern cards every now & then from a gentleman named W.S. Morrell, who ran a mail auction from his home. You had to get on his mailing list and you would receive maybe 10 photocopied sheets of paper with a list of cards up for auction. Each card had a minimum bid and you would have to call and place your bid before the auction ending date. Now I can't remember the exact reason at this time, but I missed placing a bid before the ending date, so the next day I gave him a call to see if the card sold, which it hadn't. We got talking and I told him that I would wait for his next auction and place a bid. Then he ask me "You've bought from me before?" and I informed him that I had bought cards from him for 2 years now. To which he replied "I'll tell you what, you can have the card now if you want it. How about $100 plus $5 for S&H?" I couldn't reply fast enough! So a week later my first vintage card arrived and I wasn't home. I drove up & down the streets looking for my mailman while holding that pickup slip like it was the winning lottery ticket. Three streets later I found him and claimed my prize. It was a SGC 84 1961 Topps Mickey Mantle MVP card. Sorry for the long version, but I wanted to build some suspense. Do I still own it? Nope, sold it about 3 years ago to buy more T206s. Oh well, I enjoyed it for over a decade and now someone else is enjoying it. Thanks for bringing back some good memories. Jantz Last edited by Jantz; 01-19-2012 at 01:10 AM. Reason: jm |
#16
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I had a shoebox full of my childhood cards from the 60s. So, the first card that I purchased "as vintage" was this Carey. $5 from local dealer. Still have it.
Last edited by John V; 01-19-2012 at 04:24 AM. |
#17
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My uncle gave me his 50s collection while I was in high school and working at a card shop (1989ish). I began chipping away at a beautiful '59 set.
First graded card was a '50 Bowman Otto Graham PSA 7. Early days of eBay. Before PayPal etc. I remember writing a check for $200 and sending it cross country. Praying the seller (with virtually zero feedback) would be trustworthy... 2 weeks later, the card arrived. The holder/slab was so neat/different.... First pre-war was a T206 Bradley w/ bat PSA 2 (later crossed to a SGC 3 ) Nice little white border card. Still part of my set. |
#18
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My first vintage card was a 1951 Bowman Monte Irvin. As the prewar genre pulled me in, I picked up a T206 Bates. Neither of those cards are in my collection anymore.
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#19
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'59 Topps Bob Gibson RC
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#20
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T-205 Arthur Devlin
I bought an unslabbed T-205 Arthur Devlin on Ebay for $30 about 10 years ago. That started my collecting of T-205's. I sent it off to get graded, and it came back an SGC 70.
Been hooked ever since. Sadly, I no longer have this card... |
#21
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1959 Topps Musial - First pre-war was 1933 goudey sam byrd
Got my musial when i was 8 yrs old w/ Dad at a local show, and like Jamie damn right I still own it and have it on display. The byrd was bought exiting my first national 5 or so yrs ago. Couldnt ever sell these cards... |
#22
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When I first started collecting in 1970 at nine, I knew nothing of vintage cards, By the following year, I began discovering the cards of the 1960s. I found a '68 Mantle at a garage sale and thought I had unearthed a historic artifact. Over the next two years, after visiting many more garage sales, my brother and I had a Topps card from every year going back to 1953. Next, I received my first Larry Fritsch catalog and ordered up a 1952 Topps card of Johnny Mize for about 15 cents. Then came a trip to Goodwin Goldfadden's store and my first card show (Anaheim, 1974), where John Parks was selling sharp-corned T206s recently soaked from an album at $1 each for commons and $3 for HOFers. I bought Chase, Lajoie, Magee, Bradley and Three-Finger Brown. I also picked up a 1933 Goudey of Bing Miller for about $2 ...
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#23
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Cool thread!
My first Pre-War card was a T206 Fred Merkle throwing that I spotted at an antique shop in the early 1980's for $2. My first 1950's card that I bought was a 1952 Topps Bob Feller that I purchased for $5. The card has a pin hole in it, and a couple of years later, I had Feller autograph the card. Good times! |
#24
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By vintage...I presume this means pre-war...my first pre war card was/is a t206 matty white cap in f-g shape I got for $2 at a local card show in the NJ area in the late 70's.
A few years ago I acquired another matty white cap that was gorgeous...ended up grading sgc 70...which I sold...I still have the beater...and probably will til the day I die! Last edited by ullmandds; 01-19-2012 at 07:56 AM. |
#25
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Quote:
now i just take out some old cards and have them next to me while watching the show american pickers on the history channel.. they dig for antiques and so do we... |
#26
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T206 Snodgrass batting purchased from Card Collector's Company.
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#27
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My first two were acquired at the same time a 1951 Bowman Gil Hodges and 1954 Topps Warren Sphan. A kid in my neighborhood's Dad gave him all his old cards and the kid decided to sell them instead of keeping them. Not sure what the Hodges cost, but I paid him a nickle for the Sphan. That was in about 1980. I can't remembner what else I got, but my only regret is I did not buy the entire shoebox from him! Still have both cards.
Last edited by brob28; 01-19-2012 at 08:52 AM. |
#28
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Sort of two parts for me.
In 74 they had the Hank Aaron specials showing all his cards. I told a friend of mine I'd really like to get some of them. he said his brother had some, but not Aaron and he'd see if he could get one. But I'd have to swap somereally good cards. A couple days later I swapped what was probably a fistful of 74s, likely all As and Red Sox for a 68 Matthews. It's pretty beat but I still have it. (Ok, it was only 6 years old at the time, but I was 11 and my oldest card was from 1969. At the time it seemed like an ancient card) Around 77-78 I had moved to a new town and Halls was on my way home from school. Wow, stuff that was very old, T206s, boxes full of cards from the 50's and 60's all sorts of fascinating stuff. I wanted T206, they were 1.50 and they'd mounted them on 3x5 cards with a piece of 9 pocket page, and the cards had some stats typewriten on them. Must have been a few months later, they weren't doing the 3x5 card thing anymore. One day I stopped in and they said "look at this before you buy something" It was a truly awful T206 Beckley. Polar bear, no stains, but totally beat. Held together by tape. But it was only 20 cents! And they'd set it aside just for me. I still have that one too. It got me started on older cards, and although I didn't know it at the time, it taught me a great lesson about how to really run a hobby business right. Steve B |
#29
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It was a first anniversary gift from my wife back in 1989
Saw it at the Burlington Arcade antique store in Lincoln. I couldn't move away from the case. The next day, we went back and bought it as my anniversary gift, which was the next week. It is one of only six of the original collection I had that I didn't sell when I decided to pursue Howe's collection. The others are the portrait versions of Tinker/Evers/Chance and a Johnson/pitching that were all my 10th anniversary gifts, and a Bliss portrait my son picked for me as a Father's Day gift when he was three. |
#30
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First pre-war. Bought on eBay in 2004 to begin an attempt at a complete HOF collection, expanding on what I had acquired as a kid (still ongoing). Knew nothing about pre-war until this arrived. I was now hooked!
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#31
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First Vintage Card
I bought my first vintage cards at the 1973 Troy (MI) card show. Actually, I was intrigued by the look of the T-206 cards, so I bought Tinkers, Evers and Chance as a trio for the princely sum of $11 total.
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#32
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I think I have told this story before but my first card show was 1976 in Ft. Smith, Arkansas. After seeing a complete set of T205s for sale I was hooked.
On my way out the dor I stopped again to see hobby legend John England's table. I asked about an Old Judge card and paid $4.00 for it. It was a Bushong Browns Champs. It was my largest purchase at the show. |
#33
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First pickings
My first vintage cards came as group in the early 70's from an older brother, mostly 1959-64 Topps.
My first Pre-WW2 cards came together in lumpy fashion. I was driven by my folks to a card show near LAX in 1981, and the first dealer inside (yes, I remember it was on the right side) had some beat up old cards in their case. I took them all for $11.00, pretty much all I had to spend. I ended up with: T206 Mathewson Dark Cap T206 Johnson pitching E98 Cy Young T205 Breshnahan T205 Wheat (Broadleaf back) All around Fair to F-G condition. These cards started me on the path to low-grade collecting bliss. I still have each card, and if I had to get rid of all my cards I have collected except one, I would hang onto the Matty. Brian |
#34
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Waler Johnson T206 (hands at chest)
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#35
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Looking back at my records, my first prewar cards were a bunch of 1933 Goudey's which I picked up at the same time I was picking other modern 80s cards from my youth. I purchased these raw, and they were described by their sellers as VG-EX to NM and ended up grading poor to fair when I sent them into SGC. You can say that was my baptism as a newbie collector, and one of the reasons I am strongly TPG now.
For vintage, when I was a kid, my older cousin gave me his collection of beater 1973-75 cards which I always liked. I remember I had reprints of T206 Wagner and Magie which I looked at with reverance, but I never thought about collecting prewar then. It's like many people have said. A $6 card was a lot of money back then. I didn't even think about being able to afford really old cards. Just picking up a few 87 wax packs was enough for me back then. |
#36
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When I was 16 I bought a '69 Ryan at a card show I ONLY paid $200 for it as there was a ding in the right hand corner...for a 16-yr old dropping $200 from a 'rough week' at Star Market in Natick was a big deal!!
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#37
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#38
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My first pre-war card was...
a T205 McElveen...I had that card for several years until high school...don't know if I traded it or just lost it. In fact, I don't know where it came from either...it just appeared in my collection...an odd fish in a sea of late-1970's and early 1980's cards. Flash forward many years and I finally replaced it in my collection with the one below...
Because of this card, I am now working on a modest collection of T205s...
__________________
M@tt McC@arthy I collect Hal Chase, Diamond Stars (PSA 5 or better), 1951 Bowman (Raw Ex or better), 1954 Topps (PSA 7 or better), 1956 Topps (Raw Ex or better), 3x5 Hall of Fame Autographs and autographed Perez Steele Postcards. You can see my collection by going to http://www.collectorfocus.com/collection/BigSix. |
#39
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1958 Topps Carl Furillo.I bought it at a local card shop in 1979 for $.75.
I grew up in the same area as Carl.My dad knew him so a few weeks after I got it my dad took me to his house,and he signed it for me.I still have the card.I'm gonna be buried with it. |
#40
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If reading this thread doesnt make you want to go out and buy some cards..
I dont know what will... a surprising number of people still have their first card... always nice to see people with the same passion about collecting that i have.. now the next thread will be how long did it take before your wife was ok with your obsession.... |
#41
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Purchased at a junk barn in rural Georgia on our way to a family vacation over Christmas about 1977. The old man running the barn had a cigar box full of them, 2 for $5. He also had box after box of Topps and Fleer Baseball greats. I was only 11 or 12, conned my folks out of $10 and bought these and the 1968 team set of the Cardinals.... Could have had Ryan or Bench rookies for a dime!!!!
2 years later we went to Florida again, I saved for 2 years to buy the old man out, and when we got there the barn was closed, we asked at the house, and his son said he died a few months prior and he auctioned everything off...... |
#42
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Great thread Jamie
got back into pre-war when Johnny D talked me into buying my first t206 bres batting in g cond for $20.00 about 14 years ago....YOU BASTARD~
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#43
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My first vintage card was a '54 Topps Heinie Manush I got at a card show when I was 12 or so. I still have it.
I don't remember what my first pre-war card was. Maybe a '33 Goudey Arky Vaughn? Last edited by scmavl; 01-19-2012 at 08:00 PM. |
#44
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1935 Diamond Star of Lefty Grove....
Here is my first vintage card.... I will never forget how I felt when it showed up in the mail back in 1987.... I was just 16 years old...
__________________
http://www.bandkgreen.net/baseballcards.htm |
#45
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1933 Tattoo Orbit and 1934 Goudey of Lefty Grove....
And I got the two cards below a little while later.....
__________________
http://www.bandkgreen.net/baseballcards.htm |
#46
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You were spending too much on the new shiny cards and when you said you paid something like $300 for a Frank Thomas card I stopped you and said, have you seen these things called t206s?
__________________
Please check out my books. Bio of Dots Miller https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CV633PNT 13 short stories of players who were with the Pirates during the regular season, but never appeared in a game for them https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CY574YNS The follow up to that book looks at 20 Pirates players who played one career game. https://www.amazon.com/Moment-Sun-On.../dp/B0DHKJHXQJ The worst team in Pirates franchise history https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6W3HKL8 |
#47
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As a kid I loved the '56 Ernie Banks but couldn't afford it. In my 20's I finally got one. First pre WW2 card was a t206 Chance
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#48
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Drysdale
My brother and I received a small batch of '57s during X-mas '90 from my dad that he had picked up from a struggling seminary student. This is why I collect this set. Most of the original cards are gone but one of the main ones survived:
Last edited by mintacular; 01-19-2012 at 09:18 PM. |
#49
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Johnny D
THanks for saving me....
I too was a victim....alot of griffey rookies back then.....that was the 1995 bowman's best set i bought if i remember Johnny for $330.00 , bad Vlad in the set, jones, ect.....then you steered me in the right direction.....still have the bresh batting....collecting the t206 hofers at first is how i started, but then the freak bug bit me....o boy...... Johnny, can't thank you enough...love the stories and your o.j.s never mind the monster |
#50
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June 1991, won a '39 Playball Gehringer from a Kevin Savage auction out of SCD.
__________________
Check out my aging Sell/Trade Album on my Profile page HOF Type Collector + Philly A's, E/M/W cards, M101-6, Exhibits, Postcards, 30's Premiums & HOF Photos "Assembling an unfocused collection for nearly 50 years." |
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