When did you start collecting pre-war/vintage?

[4815162342]

I've posted this before, but my love for T206's began when I was a kid when I read this article in Beckett (Please pardon the link, it's the only site online that has it): http://www.t206museum.com/page/periodical_81.html

I didn't purchase my first T206 until more than 15 years later however.

[David W]

McGinnity and Casey at an antique barn in Georgia circa 1977 and Phillippe at Steamboat Days flea market in Peoria Illinois about the same time.

[ls7plus]

I collected as a kid, of course, starting in the late '50's and continuing part way through 1969 (I am presently 58). My return to collecting, I believe in hindsight, was orchestrated through fate. At my law office about 1990, a younger associate who was a collector, would regularly bring his cards into the office, ostensibly to organize them. I believe now, however, that his purpose for bringing them in was because his love for them simply wouldn't allow him to be apart from them all day! Others made fun of him, but I thought his cards were fascinating, and that provided all the stimulation I needed to return to the field. Unlike more sophisticated collectors, but probably like many others, I bought mostly the wrong cards at first (read modern rookies) because the speculative investment fever was still running amok throughout the hobby and its various publications (SCD WAS 300+ PAGES LONG) in those days. However, I was interested in vintage '50's and '60's cards from the start, and bought them at that time too, in as high a grade as I could afford, as they depicted the heroes of my youth.

With regard to pursuing pre-WWII cards, I have to give a lot of credit to Alan Hager, of all people. While other hobby writers were pushing modern rookies and/or cards dating only back to the '50s in high grade (often out of self-interest, as they were not only authors but also dealers, and that was the type of stock they had to sell), Hager was at least authoring books and price guides which were recommending pre-war cards as far better investments, based on their greater scarcity/rarity and the status of such upper echelon HOF'ers as Ruth, Cobb, Wagner, Matty and Johnson. He was also providing quality photos of an incredible number of different cards and sets from that era, and I was just snatched by the collar and dragged into focusing on such cards by those books. This coincided with the fall from grace of the over-hyped modern rookie cards, when it began to become evident even to those as initially naive as myself that these cards existed in truly humungous quantities in high grade and offered extremely limited potential for value retention or gain ( I sound like an invester here, but am really more of a collector/connoiseur who loves to hold the history of the game from generations past and the great players from those earlier times right in his hands. As a kid, and later as an adult, I not only spent countless hours playing baseball, but reading about its history, and playing stratomatic baseball with cards of not only the players of the time, but the greatest of all time. I just happen to like the idea and to believe that well-selected items will appreciate in value also). So, to cut this long-winded dissertation short, I was in my early forties when I migrated to pre-war collecting, wading in slowly at first, as I learned more about the cards, then damn the torpedos, full speed ahead!

Kudos to Clayton--great post!

Larry

[scooter729]

For me it began when I was probably about 10 years old (1983-ish) - for some reason, when I would go into the Halls Nostalgia store in Arlington, MA, I liked being able to buy a little card that was like 75 years old - how cool was that??

I had a newspaper route around the neighborhood starting at 11 years old, and remember using that money to buy cards and nothing else. Sure, I bought packs of the current stuff, but I always liked to try and buy something from the 1950s as well, so I could bring it home and show my dad. My goal was to see if he'd remember the picture of the card from when he collected while growing up (thrown out when he went into the service, of course).

But even when I would buy cards from the '50s, I always liked to try and pick up one of those really old small cards as well. The Halls often saved some of the real beaters for me, knowing I didn't have much of a budget.

Even though I probably have 150-200 T206's now, many of HOFers or nice-condition commons, I always have to smile when I see some of those common beaters of mine, knowing they were some of the first vintage cards I ever bought.

[williamcohon]

When I was a kid, I bought cards until I discovered girls. When we moved, my Mom threw the cards out; they were, after all, mere ballast.

At forty, my seven-year-old son asked me to take him to a card show. It was 1989, and he was looking for a Ken Griffey Jr. card. I had no idea I would see the cards of my youth, but there they were!

I immediately began buying the cards of the 50's, and within a year started collecting 30's and t cards as well.

My son lost interest in a year or two, but I'm still at it.

Thanks for this fun topic.

[willworkforT206]

I bought my first pre-war cards at a flea market when I was about eight years old back in 1976. Paid a couple of bucks for four T206 beaters - G. Brown (Washington), Graham (Boston), Abbaticchio (Brown Sleeves) and Maloney. All Piedmont or Sweet Caporal backs. I had absolutely no idea what they were at the time. Later did some research at the library and bought Bill Heitman's The Monster by mail. My friends thought I was crazy ("Why do you want that old stuff? Who are those guys anyway?"). As the years went on, they kept collecting the latest Topps and Donruss sets while I bought many more T206s blind through the mail from card shops on the east coast (House of Cards MD, Den's Collectors Den, etc.) because they were so hard to find at local card shows. Got out of the hobby after high school and back in again just three years ago - well after the dawn of third party grading and ebay.

I sure miss the old days.

Steve

[benderbroeth]

first off great great thread!!!

i must say ever since i was young i have always loved old stuff...the older the better i still own a 1797 penny, why becaus it is old, i love old books i just love old stuff. then i was into the whole pack stuff the thrill of the pull...but i would get great cards sell them then either boom they went way up or..i would keep them..those cards always went way down in value lol, so i would from time to time see older cards 50's or 60's i loved the older look the older feel, so i would buy them but i live on the west coast, well try finding t206 or that era on the west coast in the 90's good luck so i could never get the tobacco cards till the dawn of ebay and other great sites, now i collect old judges and t206's t205's why because they are old and i can afford beaters lol

[geor952]

In 2003, 28 years old, I was at the Moeller Show in Cincinnati looking for cards to finish my 1964 set. I met Mark Irodenko, owner of Outfield Sportscards, and bought a
t206, Ed Summers. I have been trying to slay the "Monster" ever since.