Collecting Focus: Share Your Story

[Rhotchkiss]

Since getting back into cards in about 2015, my focus has been on investment and I have generally targeted blue chip players and sets from 1903-1927, but mostly 1903-1911.

For a while, I got heavily into back runs and advertising backs in general, and I assembled as much as I could of T206 Chance Portrait, Evers Yellow Sky, Tinker Bat off, E92 Wagner Batting, Wagner Throwing, and Cobb on Bat, and M101-4/5 Thorpe. I put together a master T206 back set, including Cobb back/T213/T214/T215, and I started hoarding T206 Brown Old Mills and T206 Brown Lenox. I also wanted to own sets and I assembled a complete 524-card T206 set, a complete E107 set, a complete 1914 CJ set, a virtually complete T3 set, and then had some smaller team sets, like E104-2, 1906 Lincoln Publishing, etc. I am done with all that now.

Over the past year I have sold the vast majority of my cards, by bulk, but retained the majority of value. Now, I generally only want super-special museum cards. I feel like I have been to the mountain top and now just want a few, key souvenirs from that journey.

There are some things I do regret selling, such as my 1914 CJ Set, my T206 multistrike Cy Young Ghost (but that now lives in a great home), and my 1901 Pittsburgh cabinet with Wagner's first image in a Pitt uniform. But generally, I do not regret trimming down the fat.

I still look at all auctions and get excited about all the Cobbs, Wagners, Ruths, Jacksons, etc. but right now I am putting money into real estate and more usable assets instead of cardboard. That said, I am an addict who has collected on and off my entire life. I expect its only a matter of time before I jump back headfirst into T, E, and D cards, W600s, Rose Co PCs, etc etc etc.

Cool topic, thanks for starting the thread