Considering getting back into Pre-War...
 

Hi guys,

I'm mostly active over on the Postwar forums. It's been forever since I've even owned a tobacco card - recommendations on where put my feet back in the water if I want to try this again? I suppose I should go find a cheap T206, but feels like I've done that before. Any "outside the box" thoughts? I've also considered Obaks again...did that briefly a couple of years ago.

Thanks for any insight,
-John

The market for signed T206 cards is really hot right now.

Ha! No but seriously…


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John, he beat me to it!

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Considering getting back into Pre-War...
 

Unfortunately I can’t afford to do what I did when I was about 25 years old - when I bought an E92 Dockman Cy Young at a show…


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What do you like? Are you a set collector? Single players? Favorite Player? Favorite decade? B&W or Color? What kind of budget? Do you like the hunt or just want to buy whenever you have money? Standard size or oversized cards?
There are tons of options and no one can really give you a good recommendation without knowing what appeals to you. Personally, I'm a big fan of the E92 family of sets. A bit tougher than T206, but still manageable to complete a set and enough variations if you want to keep things interesting.

Pre-war options
 

T206's appear to me to be slowing going up in price ? I think a better option would be T205's of T202's , you still can get decent grades (G-VG) without getting yourself in trouble.......




https://www.flickr.com/photos/151843924@N04/albums

Gary, also not a prewar collector and have never considered myself a G-VG collector, but those T205s of yours looked good!

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That's the problem...definitely not a set collector - my theme more or less for the past 3 decades has been 50's and 60's HOFers. I don't like the hunt so much, normally just buy when I have the money at my disposal. Doing the big names pre-war is likely going to be a slow exercise in frustration for me; this is why I have always abandoned pre-war before. I would occasionally spend big money on a card, then later realize how futile the effort would be to get any sizeable number more. I think that a type-set or doing examples of different players from different sets may be the one thing I could get into and not break the bank. But still not sure if it is a dive I want to take.

A few hours here and there looking online over the last two days, and I will agree with you. It used to be you could get a VG range T-206 HOFer (not a name like Cobb or Johnson) for a couple hundred bucks. Those days are gone apparently, even poor and destroyed looking cards of the big boys seem to command major bills today so long as they are slabbed.

Another option may be doing the team collecting thing in pre-war. For my Cubs, 3-Finger Brown seems among the most expensive in the tobacco era, of course along with the poem boys, Tinker to Evers to Chance. But for T-205 they may still be do-able in lesser grade. I'll have to keep looking.

Just price-range wise - I'd say I spend $50 on a card several times a year, and spending more than $100 is a rare event. Just here lately I have spent well more than that on several postwar cards - I won't get into the details but those were pretty much one-off situations - the metrics around which I don't expect to occur again often.

Game Cards are a good way to get big stars for affordable prices.

1913 National Game and 1914 Polo Grounds Game have been two of my favorites, but there are others older.

Here are a few examples:

Attachment 335926Attachment 335927Attachment 335928Attachment 335930

I'd recommend spending a good amount of time running through oldcardboard.com. They have a number of oddball type sets and most of the sets listed have a checklist and at least 1 card listed to give you an idea of what they look like. The estimated value also generally isn't too far off to give you an idea of cost.

Thanks again guys for the responses. :)

It also depends on how quickly you like to collect.


I'm mostly an opportunistic collector. I like most cards, don't worry too much about condition, and realized years ago that even a really good type set was out of reach.

If you don't mind the collecting taking a LONG time, that can be a good way to go. Look around at HOF cards, and make a list of the ones you like the look of. Most sets have some really nice ones, and a few that just aren't all that nice. Seems a shame to pass up say a Diamond Stars that looks great because you're focused on Goudey.
Once you have a bit of a list of ones you like, just start hunting them until the "right " deal comes up. Maybe a card with really nice centering and image, but with back damage so it's cheap. Maybe an un graded card that's in bad shape that slides past most people. You'll know when you see it.

That is actually a good idea IMO. As long as you don't go for the Pirates, A's etc.

If it's the Cubs that wouldn't be too bad, and you could always go for low grade. There's T205, T206, T207, E90 etc. Cracker Jack could get expensive, but it's your collection, you can get the Cubs from whatever set you want.

Good Luck whatever you decide.

I don’t know what T or E set will allow you to get major hall of famers in any condition under $100. Unfortunately, I think that ship has sailed. T206, t205 and e90-1, provide the most opportunity for diversity, as they are the largest issues and have the most players. Most E90-1 and t205s tend to be cheaper than their t206 counterparts. But honestly, I am unaware of a proverbial bargain bin for T and E HOF.

I'd take a look at M116 Sporting Life set. It's kinda a love or hate set but most HOF'ers are pretty reasonable.

T205 Frank Baker.

A nice colorful Obak in mid grade (5 or better).

A T216 HOFer in good shape.

Good luck!

You don't need a theme necessarily. After my first quest at type cards now I just collect things I like, whatever they may be.

http://luckeycards.com/ioneteam.jpg

What is that a photo of?

Very cool. And odd. And slightly disturbing. :)

Those are the New York Knights on Ni...


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I think this might be kind of frustrating. Ultimately it just comes down to having realistic expectations, but any time I am trying to collect something that I really don't have the budget for, I end up calling it quits and selling before long.

If you're going to spend around $50 a few times a year and then $100ish maybe once a year, it's going to take a long time to assemble a fun stack of pre-war cards. I would try and map out a reasonable year of purchases and see how you think you'd feel after a year with those cards.

If I was going to do this project, a year would probably look something like this:

-trimmed or lower grade T206 Brown
-e96 Kling
-trimmed or lower grade T200 Cubs
-two or three raw 1916 m101 common Cubbies
-t206 Overall
-T207 Needham or Schulte
-a few game cards, 1933/34 Goudeys, Diamond Stars, e120, e121, etc

Obviously being opportunistic would be the best approach, but I think I'd end up with something like that. Probably about 10 cards over the course of a year.

I'm guessing it's a rookie card of the dog. Might be his only issue too.

hello
 

T206:)