How did you get into pre-war card collecting?
 

Being that I'm not a pre-war card collector, I'm curious to know your stories of how and why you got into pre-war card collecting. Did a family member or friend get you hooked? Is it the look and the rarity of the cards? I'm genuinely interested in knowing. Thanks, Tony

Pre-war and Vintage
 

It's sounds like you're talking about pre-war collecting, rather than just vintage.
I'm a post-war vintage collector. I started buying when I was a kid. That was back in 1962. So the players were current to me. I did see them play, and I grew up with them.
I never did get into pre-war collecting. I thought it was too expensive for me. In hindsight, that was a big mistake on my part. Anything I could afford back then, it has now greatly increased in value.
While a collector didn't grow up with the great pre-war players, they are legendary, and most baseball fans are very familiar with them.

Thanks for sharing. You’re correct, I meant pre-war.

I read "The Glory of Their Times." A half dozen times (so far.)

I got into pre-war vintage because the cards mimic the popular art forms/ theories at the particular time. The cards are also a fascinating representation of the socio-economic of that era.

Just once
 

I also read "The Glory of Their Times". It's a great book, but I only read it once. Maybe it's time to pick it up again.

I grew up a big yankees fan...had a neighbor who was a sportswriter for the herald trib. He told me stories of the past...I was really interested in baseball history...I read a lot. I sold my childhood collection to buy a car in the late 80's which consisted mostly of 50's-present. I kept my prewar which was maybe 2-3 cards.

When I got back into collecting a few years later I didn't want to re-collect the cards I used to have so I decided to focus on prewar...they were much more interesting to me.

I've since re-accumulated many of the more modern cards from my original childhood collection...but to me these cards belong in binders...not slabs!!!

I have collected on and off for 40+ years (since I was 7). In my first collection, I had a t206 Bresnahan batting, and I thought it was so cool. Before my brother and I sold the collection (in 1992), my best and favorite vintage card was a real beat up t206 Cy young with glove. For some reason (maybe I am an old soul), I have always been attracted to the old stuff.

I got back into the hobby in 2014-15 with an eye toward investing, but investing in things I love and would like to collect. So, I jumped head first into t206 HOFers, and fell in love with rare backs. Then I expanded into Cobb, Wagner, Jackson, Plank, Ruth, and then have just stayed with rare version of key early HOFers. I love the players, the stories, but especially the Americana and add-backs. Below is my favorite add back - given out only at one store, in Philadelphia in 1909.

From an investing standpoint, I believe there is no better risk-adjusted-return in cards than rare pre-war and HOF pre-war.

In the early 80s I was working in a coin and stamp shop. The owner let a fellow set up his baseball card inventory in a display case. I've been a baseball fan all my life, especially Washington, so when Wayne Miller put his cards out I was interested. The oldest cards I had were Post off the back of my mom's Raisin Bran boxes. One thing led to another, and I was hooked. Wayne had a seemingly endless supply of T-206s among other fabulous items. The only regret is that I didn't buy more.

Bill

Some cards from Wayne:
Maybe the last five-buck T-3
https://i.ibb.co/N7B5GTL/T3-Elberfeld-f.jpg
Walter...
https://i.ibb.co/nCQpfxT/T206-Johnson-portrait-F.jpg
...and his battery-mate
https://i.ibb.co/vDVfz6P/T204-Street-F.jpg

This:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/...wL._SL500_.jpg

I saw it in a bookstore on 86th Street in NYC. I was ten and there with my parents. A suitable amount of begging, whining and pleading and it was mine. Read and re-read it incessantly and I was hooked.

I was "shanghaied" by Leon and his Pre-war henchmen, brought to this sub and haven't been able to escape.

I was given some tobacco cards with some other cards along with Boy Scout stuff and comic books in a big box when I was 11 years old (1969).

I bought a lot of 1950 Bowman football cards with a Marion Motley rookie. I know it isn't the time period, but these beautiful cards got me hooked on the non-Topps era for vintage. This made me dive into the history of cards and soon I was buying T206 and 1933 Goudey cards. I have always loved history of sports and the cards are not just a piece of art, but the stories of the players are amazing. The rarity of the cards and the emphasis not put on grading is also the big thing that stopped me from junk wax to modern. Pre 1952 cards raw and graded don't have the insane multipliers that current cards have. Sometimes grading them makes the card lose value because the raw collectors don't want to deal with slabs.

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Thanks for sharing your stories. Much appreciated!!!

Back around 1938 I noticed that a silver cup with baseball motif that held my mothers sewing materials also had an old baseball and a gold plated medal that read "Detroits First Winner of the Dauvray Cup." I asked her "where did these come from?"
She answered, "oh, those belonged to your great uncle, see it is engraved on the back S. Thompson R.F.
Thus, I have developed into a lifelong Detroit collector and fan, no matter how mercenary the players become, no matter how often they lower or raise the pitcher's mound, no matter how many balls or strikes constitute an out ...

An older gentleman named Joe P. He helped me out the most in the beginning. He has since passed away and resides at Arlington Cemetery. RIP Joe.

Another major influence is Ted Z. We have a shared interest in research and tobacco so its always been a great conversation and learning experience.

Met a dealer in Milwaukee called the Wise Guys in the early 1990’s that had pre war cards that caught my eye. After talking to Joe and John I became very interested in t206 and the many different back varieties. After the mid nineties I rarely bought a modern card and focused on vintage cards.

I've always loved baseball cards starting as a 7 year old in 1980 and completed most sets in the 80's through pack purchases. In the late 80's we were helping my grandma and grandpa move out of their home into a retirement community and these two items were stored in his garage and he gave them to me.

1. First edition Pride of the Yankee's book (published in 1942 w/ lesser quality paper due to WW2 - it even states it in the forward)

2. My Grandpa's baseball bat from his semi-pro days in St. Paul, in the 20's. It is a Rogers Hornsby model.

I read and re-read that book many times and still pull the bat out just to look at it. Anyway, it really got me hooked on the early days of baseball and once I graduated college and began earning some spending money I started collecting in around 2000/2001 through eBay and eventually Net54.

Great thread!

Bill

I think for me I got back in to it when I realized I could now actually obtain what had once been "unobtainable".

I collected cards as a kid with limited means in the 1980's. But since baseball cards in the 1980's were extremely abundant, I could collect cards of all the current stars relatively cheaply (Bo Jackson was my favorite players, and even in his prime, you could pretty much buy any Bo Jackson card for less than $10.00). But the vintage cards listed at the FRONT of the Beckett price guide, guys with names like Ruth, Cobb, Mays, and Mantle had all those EXTRA ZEROS at the end of their prices. They became sort of sacred in my mind because I figured I would NEVER be able to afford cards of those guys.

Fast forward 30 years and I was browsing the magazine section at Barnes and Noble and came accross a Beckett Vintage magazine, and I thumbed through it. Yeah, those guys all still have extra zeros (even more then when I was a kid) but life has been good enough to allow me enough disposable income to buy some of those. So I dove back in, and have enjoyed owning some of those IMPOSSIBLE cards from my youth.

S Thompson? You mean like HOFer Sam Thompson? Whoa that is awesome! Still have that trophy???

In early elementary school around 1981-82'ish I got a baseball card collecting kit at the yearly book fair. This contained around 50 cards from 1978-80, a dozen or so 9 pocket pages, and a price guide that had many photos of Goudey and Play Ball cards. This was the first time I'd every seen photos of cards that old and I was memorized by the 1933-34 Goudeys. Fast forward a few years and I was able to pick up a few Goudey commons at a local card shop and they were the prize of my collection at the time. Around 1990-92 I was in high school and bought my first T206 (Mickey Doolan Batting) over the phone from Sportscards Plus after seeing their advertisement in SCD. I thought that little card was amazing when I got it in hand. I've never really focused on pre-war specifically, and don't buy many cards today, but I'll always remember my first pre-war cards.

Here's my story, and I'm sticking to it:

1. Grew up playing baseball.
2. Collected baseball cards when young.
3. Come from a family with the 'Collecting Gene'.
4. Like history, and in general just like old things.
5. Like creating lists and putting things into order.
6. Was always fascinated by baseball stats, and along with all of the above made me explore the pre-war game and its players.
7. Developed an appreciation for the artistry and varied graphics of the issues.

I would be cheating out my destiny if I did not collect pre-war baseball cards.


Brian (destiny is not only found in the stars, but the commons as well)

I had this...this is the one with pic of the 33' Delong Traynor.

Yep, having that book for me too. That did it.

When I was a kid in the junk wax era I was always proud of whatever my oldest card was, but in those days I never really ran across anything pre-war or considered that I might be able to afford such a thing. In 2002 I finally got on eBay and, for old times' sake, started looking through the baseball card listings. When I realized I could not only afford a real 1933 Goudey or a real T206, but I could easily find hundreds of them all of a sudden, that was it.

I didn't really know anything about rare pre-war cards then, but I think I came to the original Net54 page by way of Google in trying to figure out what the deal was with PRO compared to PSA/SGC/GAI, and that's how I learned about trimming. Then I stuck around and read through old posts and realized how little I knew about old baseball cards compared to some of these people. Twenty years later, and maybe now I am one of those people.

Opening wax packs in 1983 as a 9-year old.
Thanks to Donruss, Dick Perez and Ty Cobb.
Got in love with that puzzle portraying an ancient baseball icon I knew little about at the time.
Took a bus every week to pick up the SCD periodical at the only news shop in town that carried it and started annoying old dealers the age of my grandfather with phone calls and buying tobacco cards through the mail.
Never looked back.

I really miss those days finding great stuff, my first year with prewar was when I first started making good money after college. There was a good amount of stamp shops and coin shops in my area back them in the late 1990s. There was always a selection of T206 and Goudeys to pickup, so I got really hooked. When I got married, read the entire Halper's Auction catalog. Start looking just everywhere and then I started hleping one of my best friends sell and the rest is history. Lots of fun over the years!

Happy collecting!

Jimmy

This 'member' needs to get das boot.

Brian