Broad question for the type collectors

[Exhibitman]

Commons bore me...

[Brian Van Horn]

I like Exhibitman's comment.

For me, it's that what is that reaction I have when I see a different card for this first time. It's not an overwhelming feeling, but it's, hey, that's different....and interesting.

[Rickyy]

For me its the pure fun of variety...and like Leon stated...you can pretty much branch out to whatever you want from there... Bruce brought out the point of studying about the manufacturer of the cards and their history...that's another fun thing too...to learn about the history behind the cards.. I tend to go for eye appeal of each type card I acquire and so its a mix of HOF and common players..as I said before..I never get bored.. and I occasionally swap out a type card and replace it with another one if I see something I like better.

[jmk59]

What a great question.

When I first got into vintage, I was sort of all over the place. It was like a kid in a candy store - so many different things. I thought early on that I'd collect 20's kinds of issues because actual photographs are so cool. But then I realized that I much preferred the colors even if the image was not photographic.

So I just sort of merged into type collecting without having consciously decided to do so. It gave me the ability to indulge in every new cool thing I saw, in a way.

I'm a huge Tigers fan, so I decided to go for a Detroit player from every set. I was able to include the really great-looking minor league sets like Obak and Zeenut by getting a card of any player that had, at some time during his career, played for Detroit. This gave me a good balance between being focused and actually working toward something (Detroit players from pre-war sets) while also being able to get a wide variety of looks - I could by the latest cool thing I saw.

I could never actually get a DTW player from each set - Leon's quest has demonstrated how extremely impossible some of these sets can be. But I have liked trying, even though I've been sitting on my money lately have haven't bought a card in awhile.

Joann

[tesitzes24]

Joann, that is pretty much exactly my plan, at least here at the beginning, I'm sure my focus will change down the road. I thought I would try to get a few types, but also slowly try to work on something like a Cardinals t206 team subset. I also thought about trying to get a Cardinals player from each set like you did with the Tigers. But I would like to get some other stuff too, so I guess that's the beauty of collecting types....you can change any time you want.

[Tom S.]

Troey, that is the same way I'm working on my prewar collection. I started out with trying to create a type set for my favorite team - the Chicago White Sox (as shown in my sigline). I'm closing in on 50 different types right now, and I'm having a blast!

After I got a couple of T206's, I decided to try and build a team set with an extra challenge of each card having a different back (either by brand or factory designation). I have also decided to build a T205 team set, and a 1941 Goudey team master set as well.

Hope that you will keep us up to date on your set building...good luck, and have fun with it!

[ValKehl]

When I resurrected my childhood 1954-60 Topps/Bowman collection in the 1980s, I first began completing these sets and other 1950s-60s sets. But, when I discovered the existence of pre-War vintage cards, I soon lost interest in this endeavor. Rather, I decided to collect type cards, because I liked variety and I didn't have the resources to try to complete many of the pre-War sets. And, I get a tremendous thrill from adding a type card from a very scarce set to my collection, even if the type card is in poor condition and not worth much (e.g., the 1917 Merchants Bakery card in the recent B&L Auction - lot #281).

Being a life-long Washington fan, to make it interesting, I decided to try to obtain cards of my favorite players - W. Johnson, S. Rice, M. Vernon, and P. Runnels - for my type cards. For sets in which these players do not appear, I look to obtain another Wash. player, or at least a player who played for Wash. at some point during his career.

Along the way, I have branched out a bit to work on a few Wash. team sets - e.g., N172, E120, M101-4/5, Holland Creameries, etc. - and I recently added E. Rixey cards.

One of the best aspects of this hobby is that there are so many different ways to collect!
Val