well first of all...welcome to wonderful world of vintage collecting! I'm also among the fairly young (30...no wait...31, haha) who likes the older cards. One of the nicest things about the older cards is there are so many different options in the way that you go about building your collection, and no matter what you decide, you're likely to end up with some really cool stuff!
I actually delve into both sides of the collecting, vintage and modern. I like them both but for different reasons
Now, on to your questions.
1) In my humble opinion, if you plan to display your cards, you need to put some thought (and money) into what you're going to display it in. I would HIGHLY recommend having them framed behind glass, and that the glass be UV coated. The reason for this is that if you have them up on a wall that gets any exposure to sunlight, over time the cards will slowly begin to fade. UV coated glass will drastically reduce, if not altogether prevent, this from happening.
I personally don't display mine, but I can think of umpteen different ways you could do it, it would mainly depend on what you're going to display and kind of the 'theme' of it.
2) As far as whether or not there is a site that shows a picture of every card out there, I very seriously doubt it. Honestly your best bet would be to just go to ebay and type in the guy's name. You'll be surprised at how much stuff will come up besides just the normal topps and bowman cards. There are all sorts of things out there that a lot of people probably don't even know about coming into the hobby. Just go poke your head around there every now and then and you're bound to find some stuff that'll catch your eye
Best of luck to you on your collecting!
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Originally Posted by Pythonfactory
Hi all. Let me start off by saying that I am amazed by the passion and wealth of information cooked up by the community here. I just discovered this site this weekend and have probably spent about 20 hours since then perusing.
A little about myself. I am 26 and live in Seattle. When I was in elementary school, every minute and penny I had was devoted to baseball. I would spend my time reading baseball autobiographies and baseball encyclopedias while spending my allowance and any other money earned at the local card stores. I moved on once I entered high school and didn't re-enter the world of baseball cards again until 2 years ago.
I tried getting into the new sets over a period of a few months but there were just too many options and I couldn't get into the autograph / game-used / serial #'d madness. I ended up selling all my old and new baseball cards except for ones that had special meaning to me (e.g., a 1973 Topps Willie Mays and 1961 Topps Duke Snider that I managed to get from a classmate in 7th grade for what was at the time 5x Beckett value in Indians players - Albert Belle, Kenny Lofton, etc.). I find myself looking at these old cards fairly often and have considered getting into vintage baseball cards for a long time because I appreciate the history of the game and how it used to be played by farmer's sons who had to plow the fields in the off-season.
My goal going into this is to acquire cards that tell me the story of the game and demonstrate its history. I THINK that I've decided on a collecting goal that can last me many years: to collect what I believe to be the "coolest" / "most unique" (and affordable) card of everyone in the HOF. I would like to display these cards on the wall in several displays that include the name and induction year of the players. Regarding this, I have a few questions:
1) Do any of you display your cards? I've seen a few cheap (~$50) displays online but none of them have looked that impressive. I'm thinking of commissioning a custom made one if anyone knows someone who can make it. I'd also love to see any displays that you have. I couldn't spend all this money and time on something that just ends up in a safe deposit box or a 3 ring binder.
2) Do any of you know a website where I can easily access an image of every single card ever produced? I checked out beckett.com but they are very limited. Ideally, I would be able to search by player and not by set.
Sorry for the long rant but I wanted to give a little background about myself before diving into the community. I look forward to talking with many of you over the years.
Take care,
Bryan
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