How much vintage is out there!?

steve B · #1 09-27-2022, 12:45 PM

There are very certain things that affected both production figures and survival for almost anything made pre WWII compared to postwar.

The depression would have lowered production, and at least in cards there was some competition that spread the buying dollars out over different companies. That would have held for most of the 1930's.

At the time as well, there were scrap paper dealers that would buy accumulations of anything paper. (Actually there were scrappers for very nearly everything) The opportunity to sell whatever "junk" paper items were around the house would have been very attractive especially at the worst of times.

The with WWII we had paper drives, metal drives, etc. A big portion of what didn't get scrapped in the 30's went in the mid 40's.

Afterwards? We had a few decades of general prosperity, ups and downs, but seldom bad enough that digging those old cards out of an attic would have been a priority. Plus the collecting/hoarding attitude leftover from the depression leading to people saving stuff for a "rainy day" that rarely came.
Stuff might have gotten tossed in a cleaning frenzy, but more often it was saved. Oddly, even when being tossed some stuff might get saved. Like a kids box of cards being thrown out or given away but their favorite players kept. (Even into the 80's, I bought two small collections being sold by the kids parent, each held back the kids favorite players. )

tulsaboy · #2 09-27-2022, 03:03 PM

I think that there is far, far more "vintage" out there than anyone suspects. Probably more 1950's stuff than people think, but definitely more 1960's. There is no substantial shortage of Topps 1960's products, and absolutely no shortage of 1970's products. The really interesting thing to watch will be how bulk, low to mid-range cards fare in the coming decades. There will always be some completionists, but they are increasingly the exception. More and more people seem to be interested in projects (like team projects, or player projects, or all star game projects) than they are in just an old fashioned "complete set" of given years. There is certainly still a market for 1960's commons, but how long will that last? At some point, the sheer challenge of storing tens or hundreds of thousands of commons simply for others to use as set fillers becomes cost prohibitive. I also think that people just won't care as much. There will always be a market for Mantle and Mays and Aaron etc., but how long will there be a substantial market for, say, bulk 1964 Topps commons? I think that era is drawing to a close, generally speaking. At some point, I just wonder if even 1960's and 1970's commons are tossed as more trouble than they are worth.
Just an interesting thing to ponder in the coming decades.
kevin

obcbobd · #3 09-27-2022, 04:21 PM

I'm 60. I have all my childhood BB cards (of course), and have added to them to complete sets from 67-79. A lot of my friends, also about 60 yrs old, still have cards from their youth. They are not collectors but big on sports and never threw them away. I think there are a lot of people like that.

Exhibitman · #4 09-27-2022, 04:48 PM

Coincidentally I got a call today from a collector I know who is in his late 70s and wants to liquidate his card collection. He has been collecting for decades but decided that he wanted to start the process of winding down for his heirs. He likes the memorabilia he's collected way more than the cards, so he is starting with the cards. I hope to close a deal in the next month or so.

GasHouseGang · #5 09-29-2022, 12:36 AM

Found this old thread.

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=281357

Some good info.

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