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Cards we choose to collect
I am a little torn in my collecting at the moment. The Obaks are awesome, and I enjoy them very much. I also think I would like to collect some of the southern league issues in T206, T213, T210, etc. I have been drawn to these cards because of the sheer beauty of them, especially the Obaks. Also, there is just something about the history of the game and the country that really comes shining through in issues like these. I mean it is interesting to me to see these obscure men who played ball back in 1910 or so in places like Oakland or Montgomery or Memphis or wherever. Also, from a collector's perspective, they are different from what a lot of fellow hobbyists choose to collect.
But there are times when I start wanting a Mathewson, Walter Johnson, or Cy Young. My collecting budget isn't big enough to do it both ways for very long. This got me to thinking about why we choose to collect as we do. Do you collect the cards that you do because of players, because of individual sets that are just visually appealing (players aside), or because those particular cards you collect "speak baseball" to you better somehow? I think I am a mix. When I was a postwar card collector, I was very player driven. If the player wasn't a HOFer, I didn't care quite so much. But now my prewar exploits, limited they may be, have manifested themselves in interest beyond HOFers. I am interested in minor league prewar for goodness sakes! I NEVER thought that would happen. What category do you guys think you fit in? I am tempted to buy a Mathewson or two, and it wouldn't be the worst thing if I did. But the way I operate I would eventually think of how many Obaks or T206 SLs I could have purchased with those funds. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk |
Reading the exploits and accomplishments of legendary players has drawn me to likes of Wagner, Cobb, Matty, WaJo, Young, Ruth and Gehrig. For me, it's truly special to own pieces of these historic players. I don't think you'd regret adding a Matty, WaJo or Young while persuing minor league pre-war. If you did regret it in the end, those players would be easy to move for something else more important to you. Good luck on whatever you decide.
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It's your collection
Honestly buy what makes you happiest. It is your collection after all not anybody else's collection. If future value is relevant i think you should go with the biggest names you can afford. However, if it is truly just a collection, buy whatever makes you happiest.
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If you like everything but aren't Bill Gates or Warren Buffet you might think about type collecting. You can collect everything you mentioned and then some!! You can collect a set or two too. http://luckeycards.com/pt330wallace.jpg |
I collect a bit of everything. I don't know that there's a term for what I do. I like to get a card of a type I didn't have before, but I also enjoy getting a card that fits a set I already have a few of. So not really a type collector or set collector. I also don't have any players that I collect in particular, so not a player collector either.
I think the advice of collecting what you like is excellent. If you like the stuff, that isn't prone to much change, unlike prices or if a set is popular. One thing to remember is that for nearly all prewar sets any method of collecting is to steal a phrase I heard here first "more of a marathon than a sprint" Especially with a budget that's got limits. Lately I've really enjoyed making album pages for a few items that I've picked up that are special in some way. Like a photo of a 1930's racing plane that once I learned about its history I realized I could narrow down the picture to probably the exact day it as taken. It wasn't an expensive item by any stretch, somewhere under $10 as part of a group. Adding the writeup makes it a lot more interesting. Maybe picking up a card here and there from any of those sets and making a small binder or group of pages to go along with it that has some information about the player and his career and maybe post career life? |
Great question
I definitely get your interest in the minor league sets.
I guess I am strange, but after I got into prewar and therefore had to reconcile myself to not collecting complete sets (with some exceptions), I got more and more drawn to collecting cards of as many different players as possible. I definitely want to have A CARD of Cobb, Wagner, and the greatest of the great, but the idea of paying thousands to get another Cobb doesn't appeal. So one of my wantlists is a player wantlist that looks like this: Allen Frank D381 Ball Jim T204 Bancroft Frank T204 Barnes Emile Star Player Barnhart Clyde E120 W573 E126 V61 Barrett Red FotoFun Baumgardner George T222 E145 Bayne Will E120 W573 E126 Bergen Marty M101-1 Berry Howard Koester Bithorn Hi 42cub 43cub Blake Mitchell Baguer Boley John 31-32exh Baguer Booe Everett Voskamp Bragan Bob 43dod Broaca John R318 Brooks John 25exh Brown Clint R318 40whitesox Worch Buckeye Garland Star Burkett Jesse T204 Koester Callaway Frank E120 W573 Carson Al Plowboy Cheek Harry E286 Clarkson Walter AmerLgPub Coakley Andy T204 Conzelman Joe Voskamp Crane Sam E120 W573 Davis Harry A. W574 Dilhoefer Pickles W514 Dixon Leo Baguer Dolan Cozy B18 Donahue Red M101-1 Doyle Jack M101-1 Drucke Louis P2 PX7 T332 Dudley Clise R316 5x7 Dumont George M101-6 Erickson Eric V100 E123 Finn Neal PX3 Foster Rube PM1 Fuhrman Ollie E120 W573 Gabler Frank R318 Gantenbein Joe FatherSon Gerken George Star Gilbert Larry D381 Gilhooley Frank D381 Gillis Grant Star Goldstein Isidore U1 Gooch Johnny 31-32exh Grabowski Johnny W-UNC 1931 Grampp Henry Baguer Guisto Lou W503 E135 Hafey Bud R318 Hahn Frank M101-1 Hamilton Billy M101-1 Haslin Roy (Snipe) U1 U3 Haslin Mickey R318 Henshaw Roy 36cub Hernandez Chico 42cub 43cub Herrera Ramon 26exh Heving Johnnie Star Hinkle Gordon U3 Holbrook James U3 Holloway Ken 29-30exh Holmes William 04FanCraze Huber Clarence 26exh Hughes Tom (WAS) E91-C Hunter Herb D381 Johnson Don 44cub Johnston Doc E120 W573 E123 E145 Johnston John D381 Jones Bob E120 W573 V100 E123 Jones Bill Plowboy Kahoe Mike T204 Kantlehner Erv D381 Kennedy William M101-1 Kennedy Bob 40whitesox Koenecke Len 34exh Lange Bill M101-1 Lee Dud 23-24exh Legett Louis U3 Leslie Roy E120 W573 Lind Carl R316 5x7 29-30exh 21-30dc etc... |
Leon mentioned a type collecting approach. Related to this I have considered branching out through player collecting. While I want a Cobb, Mathewson, etc., I don't really want to lay out for the big guns every time. I have thought about finding someone with an interesting story and name recognition to collect and get an example of a lot of sets in the process. Lajoie and Merkle are two players I really like. I didn't think I ever would, but I like the idea of accumulating several different backs of the same player. I can also dabble in Obaks from time to time as well. Fun stuff!
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I never thought I would actually collect any prewar sets. I used to just collect cards that I could afford that had images I liked. Then I joined OBC years ago and started listing post war sets that I never thought I would collect and I've been plowing through some of those. So I went ahead listed some prewar sets that I have a few cards from. It might take me years to complete them as my budget won't allow me to buy a Wagner or Cobb at this time, but I'll slowly pick up cards I need from the sets. I'm working on T206, e90-1, e93, e101 and T205 right now. And I really like them all a lot. Even the commons are sweet to me. I'm enjoying the ride for now.
Thanks, AndyH |
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Seems I am a month late to the party. I wanted to chime in. Up until a few years ago I purchased pretty much anything that caught my eye. There was little to no rhyme or reason to my collection. I had a very large collection but at the end of the day it lacked something....Passion. I was buying but was not on a mission and after a few days of a purchased it was filed with the rest and that was it. I wanted to do something different than what I was doing. So....I'm related to a ball player, Danny Murphy. I had already had a high grade t206 batting and throwing but had never really gone much further with it. It occurred to me that if I were to lose my entire collection, what would I miss the most. Well It was the Murphy's that I had. Easily replaceable but it answered my question to where my passion was. I was on a mission. I was gonna collect Murphy and mainly murphy. I bought a few different backs for the 206s as I was gonna work on a back run for batting pose. As things slowed down between purchases, I reached out to the throwing pose. I completed throwing and was at a standstill with batting so I purchased a few E cards. Then slowly started an E run. Now my attention was only on Murphy. However, I did not want doubles since that was not a challenge (unless it was a nice upgrade.) As I continued I knocked out the easy finds and started focusing on the more challenging and tougher examples. Cards were nolonger in the $20-$40 range but getting closer to the $200-$300 range. Every week I needed to add something so I then reached into A's team postcards if Murph was pictures on it. It was to the point I would lose sleep if I went a week with out adding a Murphy, it now became an obsession. For the 206 batting pose I am down to BL, DRUM, HINDU and Lenox. I was amped when the BL showed up at auction a few months back to only be disappointed when I bid $2400 to be outbid. About a month later the Murphy e107 showed up, It was my chance to bounce back from the BL loss. Wasn't a 206 but probably my only chance to add a 107. Dropped the $3600 to bring it home. My Murphy set is taking shape. My "master set" is covering everything for the 206s, E cards, D cards, Pinkerton, SC Domino discs, helmar stamps, 1900 cabinet card from Connecticut State League, custom signature cut card I had made, to the Awesome e107 and everything in between. The beauty of this project is not only have I turned my pc into a player pc but I have learned more in three years about pre-war types than I did all of my time previously. That is thanks to collecting a gent that passed 63 years ago. My apologies for the rambling. However, this is what got we started and the continued path to the cards I choose to collect. Murphy is that choice I have made and above is the reason why.
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Whew, it's been almost 15 years since I've been on this board and I found my way back. In my previous collecting life, I was chasing specific caramel issues, including some of the HOFs mentioned. But, times change and so have my collecting desires. I'm now going after T206s (which I never did before) and am having fun getting reacquainted. The best part about the hobby is, you can pick one direction now and change it later if something else tickles your fancy.
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A few months ago I posed a question to the boards about spending some extra money I had coming to me and was looking for the best bang for my buck. Several posters offered great suggestions and I weighed each of them carefully and decided to buy some lower grade hall of fame T206 cards as well as some mid grade stars of the '50's. When those cards came in I marveled at my new Sam Crawford and I wondered just how many people have owned this card since it was "born" and was curious about it's origins. I bought a Carl Lundgren because he is a local legend where my in laws grew up in Marengo, Illinois which was also near where I grew up and it was cool to have a card of the hometown boy in my collection. But it was the cards of the players from the 50's that have swayed me to focus on this era of baseball. I grew up seeing many of these greats play at the end of their careers and heard my father talk about them as he grew up so it was a natural for me to gravitate to the players of this era.
While I still desire to own a card of the BigTrain, of Cobb and Plank, I have found my allegiance lays with those cards of players I saw play, in many cases met personally and give me the greatest ability to remember a time that was awesome in my life. I do intend to add many of these pre-war greats to my collection as I LOVE baseball history and they will, no doubt have a treasured place in my heart and mind but the 50's and even the '60's currently do it for me. In short, collect what you like and what gives you the most meaning. |
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