I was thinking about some of the froth on this board around modern cards, bubbles, the mainstay that is vintage for most on here....
And it got me thinking about my cards, and how I view them.
My first few USA cards purchased were in 2000, a 93' Pinnacle Jeter BGS8, a couple other rooks of his - not SP's, a PSA8 Jerry Rice and PSA8 Montana. I'd grown up in Australia with the NFL getting broadcast one day a week around 3:00am, and most games revolved around the Dolphins and 49ers. It was early/mid 1980's after all.
And I was the only NFL nutcase I knew in the city of Melbourne, adored the 49ers, hated the Cowboys, and there it ended.
Baseball didn't even get in the sports show highlights back then in Oz.
Until I rolled up on to these shores in 2000.
I discovered eBay and sportscards on probably the same day just a few weeks after arriving and was besotted with them, feverishly needing cardboard of my 49er heroes and also a card of some local NY wonderboy who leapt off the screen that was Derek Jeter.
That lead maybe a couple months later into a discovery card that changed my life, truly, and this hobby has never left me since.
A blue backed 58' Aaron. I wasn't sure it was blue, the pic on the ebay listing was dim and trash, the seller didn't know what it was, but I could tell there seemed to be a lack of yellow around the Chief and thought - what if...?
I knew there wasn't a blue back in the collectors bible - I bought the newest series copy I could find almost immediately to discovering cards - and couldn't find reference to one online. My heart raced.
I got it for $120 give or take as a mid grade green with yellow writing, but it was in fact a blue.
That was vintage to me. The card was 42 years old, but from an era I knew only by historical reference.
And then I found this site and quickly discovered that phooey on me, if it wasn't pre 1945 it COULDN'T be considered truly vintage.
So looking at this pic below of my baseball card collection (I have some other sports too), and some cards I've purchased recently from the 70's and 80's, I realized that my 72' Topps Cloth Clemente was nearly 50 YEARS OLD.
It's absolutely got a cool vintage vibe, as do some of my 70's basketball.
And then I imagined a collector in the year 1972, who was collecting 'Vintage' of cards similarly 50 years back in time was looking for issues from the 20's or slightly earlier....
They certainly would have seemed vintage to him, the issues had unique styling and caught players in action he/she likely never saw live.
So maybe it's time for a modernization of what 'vintage' is in cards?
Maybe the 100+ year old stuff should be called Antique?
Perhaps there's gray in this area and we should celebrate ALL the cards and ALL the collectors equally for their tastes and choices.
Doesn't mean this site needs to specifically cater to discussion of post second world war, but it could be that young collectors of today buying cards of the 80's and earlier get that same vintage buzz we all felt when locking eyes on a T206 or American Caramel. I just bought an 88' Topps AS Jordan and definitely do!
And perhaps celebrating them and their collecting nouse is also celebrating todays vintage - not disparaging everything that is different as shiny and crap?
Just a perspective, and I've probably made too much of mine.....but sheesh, reading some of the sanctimony on here about todays collectors taste and penchant for spending on it drove me to it.
