What was your first vintage baseball card?? [Archive]

Blunder19

01-18-2012, 10:25 PM

Always love to hear how others got hooked... I was wondering if you would share the following...

What was your first vintage baseball card?

Do you remember how you got it?

Do you still own it?

Mine was a 1959 Topps Sandy Kofax... my dad bought it for me at a local card show... I sold all my cards when I was in college cause I needed the cash.. thankfully the kofax was the one card I refused to sell.. still own it to this day.

Jamie

FrankWakefield

01-18-2012, 10:33 PM

First pre-war card was Bridwell in that sweater from the white border set, I think.

t206hound

01-18-2012, 10:36 PM

Mine was a beater T206 Tris Speaker from a sports card shop in Virginia around 16 years ago. Didn't buy another one until 2005 at which point I was primarily a flipper. Took another five years for me to get hooked.

z28jd

01-18-2012, 10:37 PM

My first vintage card was a GD condition T206 Bresnahan portrait I bought when I was 16 from the Larry Fritsch museum in Cooperstown. Damn right I still have it, wouldn't sell it for 100x the $42 price tag I paid for it. I live 6 hours from Cooperstown and probably looked at that card for 5 of those hours on the ride home

Vegas-guy

01-18-2012, 10:39 PM

Mine was also a '59..:) but mine was Mantle. My first job was in a baseball card shop, I was only 14 so by law couldn't be "paid" in cash so I worked for cards. Most of the time I just got boxs of wax packs to open but when the Mantle came in on trade I had to have it, I had to work 4 weekends just to get it, I kept it for over 10 years sold it and started a '55 topps set.

doug.goodman

01-18-2012, 10:39 PM

Mine was a 1959 Topps Sandy Koufax...

Funny, because when I started "going backwards" mine was the 1957 Koufax.

Doug

Blunder19

01-18-2012, 10:40 PM

Ronnie73

01-18-2012, 10:45 PM

Not really vintage but in the early 1990's at a show, I bought a 1955 Topps Charlie Silvera card for $5 in EX condition. At the time, it was my oldest card and I still own it today. I didn't start to be interested in older cards such as T206's until a few years ago. I remember always seeing them at shows in the late 80's early 90's but just didn't know anything about them and what to look for. It was pre internet days so becoming an expert wasn't just a click away.

packs

01-18-2012, 10:55 PM

My first pre-war was a T206 Miller Huggins Hands at Mouth. I remember I bought it at a Gloria Rothstein White Plains show in the late 90s. I was probably 12 or so. I'm pretty sure it was the show where Joe Dimaggio and Ted Williams were signing for about a hundred bucks each. Still wish we got one but we thought that was crazy at the time.

Still have it. Would never sell.

zljones

01-18-2012, 11:08 PM

My first vintage cards I obtained when I was 10 years old. I had:

1979 Topps Walter Payton
1975 Topps Hank Aaron card#1
1975 Topps Bucky Dent All Star Rookie
1969 Topps Reggie Smith
1969 Topps Johnny Bench A.S. card
1963 Topps Bobby Richardson reprint that I swore was real back then
1962 Topps Warren Sphann
1955 Bowman Don Larsen

I was very vintage card deprived I mainly just spent my time drooling over the black and white photos in Beckett Magazine or drooling at the local card shop. I still have the 75 Aaron, 75 Dent, 69 Bench but the rest were all stolen from me by other kids. My mom bought the Aaron, Bench, and Smith card for Christmas because she knew I wanted a 54 topps Hank Aaron but she could not afford it so she did the best she could, and because of that I charish those cards because of how special it was to me that she tried to make me happy. Too bad punks stole my 69 Reggie Smith that she bought for me!

triwak

01-18-2012, 11:19 PM

My childhood collecting years were 1968 (when I was 7 years old) - 1974 (when I discovered girls). Still have everyone one of those cards. But one glorious weekend in 1972 (I was 11), a buddy and I found a garage sale while riding our bikes. A man had a HUGE cardboard box containing hundreds of cards from the early '50s - '60s. Selling them for a penny/card. Below is some of what I came away with before he kicked us the hell out of his garage! Wish I had offered him $20 for the whole box - bet he would've taken it. Only spent 24 cents, which is all I had. Not too bad of an investment for an 11 year old.

Apologies for the multiple post-war scans, but this was a fun trip down memory lane for me. :-)

alanu

01-18-2012, 11:35 PM

1933 goudey yellow ruth beater that I traded for at a show was the first goudey era card

first earlier card was a Eddie Collins beater Cracker Jack that walked into a friend's card shop and I bought it from him

kmac32

01-19-2012, 12:29 AM

1922 E 121 series of 120 Elmer Miller picked up at National in the late 80's and yes, I still own it. Now slabbed in SGC 20 condition. He is also a distant relative so DNA in baseball hooked me.

Bilko G

01-19-2012, 12:43 AM

1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey jr rookie card

Jantz

01-19-2012, 01:03 AM

Great thread topic!

Before my days of buying on Ebay, I would buy modern cards every now & then from a gentleman named W.S. Morrell, who ran a mail auction from his home. You had to get on his mailing list and you would receive maybe 10 photocopied sheets of paper with a list of cards up for auction. Each card had a minimum bid and you would have to call and place your bid before the auction ending date.

Now I can't remember the exact reason at this time, but I missed placing a bid before the ending date, so the next day I gave him a call to see if the card sold, which it hadn't. We got talking and I told him that I would wait for his next auction and place a bid. Then he ask me "You've bought from me before?" and I informed him that I had bought cards from him for 2 years now. To which he replied "I'll tell you what, you can have the card now if you want it. How about $100 plus $5 for S&H?" I couldn't reply fast enough!

So a week later my first vintage card arrived and I wasn't home. I drove up & down the streets looking for my mailman while holding that pickup slip like it was the winning lottery ticket. Three streets later I found him and claimed my prize. It was a SGC 84 1961 Topps Mickey Mantle MVP card.

Sorry for the long version, but I wanted to build some suspense. ;)

Do I still own it? Nope, sold it about 3 years ago to buy more T206s. Oh well, I enjoyed it for over a decade and now someone else is enjoying it.

Thanks for bringing back some good memories.

Jantz

John V

01-19-2012, 04:21 AM

I had a shoebox full of my childhood cards from the 60s. So, the first card that I purchased "as vintage" was this Carey. $5 from local dealer. Still have it.

jp1216

01-19-2012, 04:42 AM

My uncle gave me his 50s collection while I was in high school and working at a card shop (1989ish). I began chipping away at a beautiful '59 set.

First graded card was a '50 Bowman Otto Graham PSA 7. Early days of eBay. Before PayPal etc. I remember writing a check for $200 and sending it cross country. Praying the seller (with virtually zero feedback) would be trustworthy... 2 weeks later, the card arrived. The holder/slab was so neat/different....

First pre-war was a T206 Bradley w/ bat PSA 2 (later crossed to a SGC 3 :)) Nice little white border card. Still part of my set.

Jason Carota

01-19-2012, 04:57 AM

My first vintage card was a 1951 Bowman Monte Irvin. As the prewar genre pulled me in, I picked up a T206 Bates. Neither of those cards are in my collection anymore.

bcbgcbrcb

01-19-2012, 05:02 AM

'59 Topps Bob Gibson RC

matty6

01-19-2012, 05:35 AM

I bought an unslabbed T-205 Arthur Devlin on Ebay for $30 about 10 years ago. That started my collecting of T-205's. I sent it off to get graded, and it came back an SGC 70.

Been hooked ever since. Sadly, I no longer have this card...

rainier2004

01-19-2012, 05:39 AM

1959 Topps Musial - First pre-war was 1933 goudey sam byrd

Got my musial when i was 8 yrs old w/ Dad at a local show, and like Jamie damn right I still own it and have it on display. The byrd was bought exiting my first national 5 or so yrs ago. Couldnt ever sell these cards...

Chris Counts

01-19-2012, 07:13 AM

When I first started collecting in 1970 at nine, I knew nothing of vintage cards, By the following year, I began discovering the cards of the 1960s. I found a '68 Mantle at a garage sale and thought I had unearthed a historic artifact. Over the next two years, after visiting many more garage sales, my brother and I had a Topps card from every year going back to 1953. Next, I received my first Larry Fritsch catalog and ordered up a 1952 Topps card of Johnny Mize for about 15 cents. Then came a trip to Goodwin Goldfadden's store and my first card show (Anaheim, 1974), where John Parks was selling sharp-corned T206s recently soaked from an album at $1 each for commons and $3 for HOFers. I bought Chase, Lajoie, Magee, Bradley and Three-Finger Brown. I also picked up a 1933 Goudey of Bing Miller for about $2 ...

Big Ben

01-19-2012, 07:24 AM

Cool thread!

My first Pre-War card was a T206 Fred Merkle throwing that I spotted at an antique shop in the early 1980's for $2.

My first 1950's card that I bought was a 1952 Topps Bob Feller that I purchased for $5. The card has a pin hole in it, and a couple of years later, I had Feller autograph the card.

Good times!

ullmandds

01-19-2012, 07:27 AM

By vintage...I presume this means pre-war...my first pre war card was/is a t206 matty white cap in f-g shape I got for $2 at a local card show in the NJ area in the late 70's.

A few years ago I acquired another matty white cap that was gorgeous...ended up grading sgc 70...which I sold...I still have the beater...and probably will til the day I die!

Blunder19

01-19-2012, 08:33 AM

I found a '68 Mantle at a garage sale and thought I had unearthed a historic artifact. ...

Thats hilarious!...I did the same thing when I was little the first time I found a halfway decent baseball card at a garage sale.. it was a dave winfield rookie for $2.. I walked around holding it like it was a fossil for the rest of the day :) I love the rush you get when you found a great deal on a vintage baseball card.

now i just take out some old cards and have them next to me while watching the show american pickers on the history channel.. they dig for antiques and so do we... :)

bbcard1

01-19-2012, 08:36 AM

T206 Snodgrass batting purchased from Card Collector's Company.

brob28

01-19-2012, 08:51 AM

My first two were acquired at the same time a 1951 Bowman Gil Hodges and 1954 Topps Warren Sphan. A kid in my neighborhood's Dad gave him all his old cards and the kid decided to sell them instead of keeping them. Not sure what the Hodges cost, but I paid him a nickle for the Sphan. That was in about 1980. I can't remembner what else I got, but my only regret is I did not buy the entire shoebox from him! Still have both cards.

steve B

01-19-2012, 08:59 AM

Sort of two parts for me.

In 74 they had the Hank Aaron specials showing all his cards. I told a friend of mine I'd really like to get some of them. he said his brother had some, but not Aaron and he'd see if he could get one. But I'd have to swap somereally good cards.

A couple days later I swapped what was probably a fistful of 74s, likely all As and Red Sox for a 68 Matthews. It's pretty beat but I still have it.
(Ok, it was only 6 years old at the time, but I was 11 and my oldest card was from 1969. At the time it seemed like an ancient card)

Around 77-78 I had moved to a new town and Halls was on my way home from school. Wow, stuff that was very old, T206s, boxes full of cards from the 50's and 60's all sorts of fascinating stuff. I wanted T206, they were 1.50 and they'd mounted them on 3x5 cards with a piece of 9 pocket page, and the cards had some stats typewriten on them. Must have been a few months later, they weren't doing the 3x5 card thing anymore. One day I stopped in and they said "look at this before you buy something" It was a truly awful T206 Beckley. Polar bear, no stains, but totally beat. Held together by tape. But it was only 20 cents! And they'd set it aside just for me. :D

I still have that one too. It got me started on older cards, and although I didn't know it at the time, it taught me a great lesson about how to really run a hobby business right.

Steve B

Howe’s Hunter

01-19-2012, 09:31 AM

<a href="http://s150.photobucket.com/albums/s81/T206ster/?action=view&current=Cobb-RedBackground.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s81/T206ster/Cobb-RedBackground.jpg" border="0" alt="Cobb Red"></a>

Saw it at the Burlington Arcade antique store in Lincoln. I couldn't move away from the case. The next day, we went back and bought it as my anniversary gift, which was the next week.

It is one of only six of the original collection I had that I didn't sell when I decided to pursue Howe's collection. The others are the portrait versions of Tinker/Evers/Chance and a Johnson/pitching that were all my 10th anniversary gifts, and a Bliss portrait my son picked for me as a Father's Day gift when he was three.

triwak

01-19-2012, 10:12 AM

First pre-war. Bought on eBay in 2004 to begin an attempt at a complete HOF collection, expanding on what I had acquired as a kid (still ongoing). Knew nothing about pre-war until this arrived. I was now hooked!

Kalineman

01-19-2012, 10:16 AM

I bought my first vintage cards at the 1973 Troy (MI) card show. Actually, I was intrigued by the look of the T-206 cards, so I bought Tinkers, Evers and Chance as a trio for the princely sum of $11 total.

Hot Springs Bathers

01-19-2012, 10:24 AM

I think I have told this story before but my first card show was 1976 in Ft. Smith, Arkansas. After seeing a complete set of T205s for sale I was hooked.

On my way out the dor I stopped again to see hobby legend John England's table. I asked about an Old Judge card and paid $4.00 for it. It was a Bushong Browns Champs. It was my largest purchase at the show.

brianp-beme

01-19-2012, 10:43 AM

My first vintage cards came as group in the early 70's from an older brother, mostly 1959-64 Topps.

My first Pre-WW2 cards came together in lumpy fashion. I was driven by my folks to a card show near LAX in 1981, and the first dealer inside (yes, I remember it was on the right side) had some beat up old cards in their case. I took them all for $11.00, pretty much all I had to spend. I ended up with:

T206 Mathewson Dark Cap
T206 Johnson pitching
E98 Cy Young
T205 Breshnahan
T205 Wheat (Broadleaf back)

All around Fair to F-G condition. These cards started me on the path to low-grade collecting bliss. I still have each card, and if I had to get rid of all my cards I have collected except one, I would hang onto the Matty.

Brian

deadballpaul

01-19-2012, 11:15 AM

Waler Johnson T206 (hands at chest)

glchen

01-19-2012, 11:31 AM

Looking back at my records, my first prewar cards were a bunch of 1933 Goudey's which I picked up at the same time I was picking other modern 80s cards from my youth. I purchased these raw, and they were described by their sellers as VG-EX to NM and ended up grading poor to fair when I sent them into SGC. You can say that was my baptism as a newbie collector, and one of the reasons I am strongly TPG now.

For vintage, when I was a kid, my older cousin gave me his collection of beater 1973-75 cards which I always liked. I remember I had reprints of T206 Wagner and Magie which I looked at with reverance, but I never thought about collecting prewar then. It's like many people have said. A $6 card was a lot of money back then. I didn't even think about being able to afford really old cards. Just picking up a few 87 wax packs was enough for me back then.

7nohitter

01-19-2012, 01:19 PM

When I was 16 I bought a '69 Ryan at a card show I ONLY paid $200 for it as there was a ding in the right hand corner...for a 16-yr old dropping $200 from a 'rough week' at Star Market in Natick was a big deal!!

Zan

01-19-2012, 01:47 PM

http://i317.photobucket.com/albums/mm370/broth6/Hank%20Greenberg%20collection/Vintage/scan0004.jpg

Big Six

01-19-2012, 01:50 PM

a T205 McElveen...I had that card for several years until high school...don't know if I traded it or just lost it. In fact, I don't know where it came from either...it just appeared in my collection...an odd fish in a sea of late-1970's and early 1980's cards. Flash forward many years and I finally replaced it in my collection with the one below...

http://www.collectorfocus.com/images/show/BigSix/1911-t205/2250/mcelveen-sweet-caporal

Because of this card, I am now working on a modest collection of T205s...

39special

01-19-2012, 04:25 PM

1958 Topps Carl Furillo.I bought it at a local card shop in 1979 for $.75.
I grew up in the same area as Carl.My dad knew him so a few weeks after
I got it my dad took me to his house,and he signed it for me.I still have the card.I'm gonna be buried with it.

Blunder19

01-19-2012, 05:00 PM

If reading this thread doesnt make you want to go out and buy some cards..

I dont know what will...

a surprising number of people still have their first card... always nice to see people with the same passion about collecting that i have.. now the next thread will be how long did it take before your wife was ok with your obsession.... :)

David W

01-19-2012, 05:21 PM

Purchased at a junk barn in rural Georgia on our way to a family vacation over Christmas about 1977. The old man running the barn had a cigar box full of them, 2 for $5. He also had box after box of Topps and Fleer Baseball greats. I was only 11 or 12, conned my folks out of $10 and bought these and the 1968 team set of the Cardinals.... Could have had Ryan or Bench rookies for a dime!!!!

2 years later we went to Florida again, I saved for 2 years to buy the old man out, and when we got there the barn was closed, we asked at the house, and his son said he died a few months prior and he auctioned everything off......

mrvster

01-19-2012, 07:51 PM

got back into pre-war when Johnny D talked me into buying my first t206 bres batting in g cond for $20.00 about 14 years ago....YOU BASTARD~;)

scmavl

01-19-2012, 07:58 PM

My first vintage card was a '54 Topps Heinie Manush I got at a card show when I was 12 or so. I still have it.

I don't remember what my first pre-war card was. Maybe a '33 Goudey Arky Vaughn?

leftygrove10

01-19-2012, 08:01 PM

Here is my first vintage card.... I will never forget how I felt when it showed up in the mail back in 1987.... I was just 16 years old...

leftygrove10

01-19-2012, 08:03 PM

And I got the two cards below a little while later.....

z28jd

01-19-2012, 08:13 PM

got back into pre-war when Johnny D talked me into buying my first t206 bres batting in g cond for $20.00 about 14 years ago....YOU BASTARD~;)

You were spending too much on the new shiny cards and when you said you paid something like $300 for a Frank Thomas card I stopped you and said, have you seen these things called t206s? :)

CubsFanCurt

01-19-2012, 09:16 PM

As a kid I loved the '56 Ernie Banks but couldn't afford it. In my 20's I finally got one. First pre WW2 card was a t206 Chance

mintacular

01-19-2012, 09:18 PM

My brother and I received a small batch of '57s during X-mas '90 from my dad that he had picked up from a struggling seminary student. This is why I collect this set. Most of the original cards are gone but one of the main ones survived:

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq66/nollpm/Drysdale.jpg

mrvster

01-19-2012, 09:19 PM

THanks for saving me....

I too was a victim....alot of griffey rookies back then.....that was the 1995 bowman's best set i bought if i remember Johnny for $330.00 , bad Vlad in the set, jones, ect.....then you steered me in the right direction.....still have the bresh batting....collecting the t206 hofers at first is how i started, but then the freak bug bit me:D....o boy......:)

Johnny, can't thank you enough...love the stories and your o.j.s never mind the monster:cool:

HRBAKER

01-19-2012, 09:19 PM

June 1991, won a '39 Playball Gehringer from a Kevin Savage auction out of SCD.

ValKehl

02-01-2012, 05:05 PM

When I resurrected my childhood 1955-1960 Topps & Bowman collection (that, thankfully, Mom didn't toss away!) in the mid-1980s, I started going to local shows and acquiring cards to try to complete these sets as well as earlier and later Topps & Bowman sets. It was then that I first learned that pre-War cards existed! One Saturday, I drove over to Bill Higgins' store in nearby Maryland, and I traded him some 1960 Topps (in pristine condition, as I recall) for my first Pre-War card (see pic below). By the early to mid 1990s, my collecting focus had changed to Pre-War cards.
Val

sycks22

02-01-2012, 05:42 PM

I remember buying very beaten up '64 Topps Mantle / Mays. I think I got both for $40 at a show when I was 12ish. I thought I got the deal of the century.

Jason

02-01-2012, 06:00 PM

My first vintage card was a Ed Killian Portrait I picked up off Ebay after a random search for a new hobby to pass some time.

Lee17

02-01-2012, 06:10 PM

My first vintage card was a '54 Al Kaline my father bought for me in the early '90s. I was only 10-12 at the time and liked it, but didn't love it. It's funny when you look back and I cherished an '89 Griffey over it at the time.

Jcfowler6

02-01-2012, 06:17 PM

My dad gave me a '59 Clemente about 30 years ago now. Yikes time is flying by.

My first vintage card I got in a trade on my own was a 53 Pee wee Reese bowman. I got it for a couple of doc goodan rookies in the late 80s.

Chris Counts

02-01-2012, 06:25 PM

Shortly after I started collected in 1970 at the age of nine, I came to the conclusion that older cards were more interesting than new cards. Over the next couple years, after my brother and I had acquired older cards from garage sales and older kids, we had an example of every Topps set back to 1953. I got a catalog from Larry Fritsch and ordered a 1952 Topps card of Johnny Mize for about a quarter (I still love the pose!). Finally, in 1974, I attended my first card show and picked up a sharp-cornered lot of T206s for a buck each (HOFers were $3). I also paid $2 for a '33 Goudey of Bing Miller ...

Cooper1927

02-01-2012, 06:42 PM

I bought my first vintage from my 8th Grade Science teacher. Best teacher ever, Ben Blazier...

http://www.net54baseball.com/picture.php?albumid=304&pictureid=5816

kkkkandp

02-01-2012, 08:22 PM

WG5 National Game near mint John McGraw purchased January 14, 1995 at the Parsippany (NJ) PAL baseball card show. Proudly, I am still the owner.

MVSNYC

02-01-2012, 08:42 PM

my first T206 cards, acquired around 1992. still have them.

t206blogcom

02-01-2012, 10:15 PM

I collected as a kid from 1987-1992, but always preferred older cards. My first vintage card was a 1954 Bowman Pee Wee Reese (still own it). I treasured it. After that, I got on an early 70s Harmen Killebrew and Lou Brock kick.

I bought my first T206 (Schafly - Piedmont) around this time as well. Rode my bike back to the mall a week later and picked up a T206 Bush - Piedmont.

I always gravitated towards the T206 cards, but I didn't buy another one and start seriously collecting T206 until 17 years later. Had to get through all that high school/college/career/marriage stuff before I could find the time, interest and money to extend the collection. Now I'm down to less than 25 T206 cards to go. :)