Origins of collecting - how was it done back then?

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Posted By: E, Daniel

I was just wondering if anyone has any real knowledge of how the cards we love to collect were traded (not obtained - I know t, e, etc..) circa 1908 -1912? Were collectors largely adult or 11 year olds? Did they tend to only collect the teams they followed - or put together larger more comprehensive collections? And most importantly, did people ACTUALLY trade?
Further (and please feel free to respond to any part of the post), did cards have monetary value? Were Cobb and Matty cards expensive to obtain if you didn't want to chew yourself sick on tobacco or caramels? Did you need 3 tinkers for a chance? Are there any Nagy's of the era who rounded up rarer cards and were re-nowned for their collections?

Anything else anyone can think of re the topic that's fun to share, please do!


Daniel

ps. I chose the era as is seems to me to encompass the earliest period that numerous card types, manufacturers and products exploded onto the market - that could feed a truly broad collecting community.........