Finding your niche in vintage baseball cards can be a difficult path!
 

A little background... I collected baseball cards heavily in the 1970s. I amassed a decent collection of Topps cards; a complete, four sharp corners, collection from 1952-1978 (when I traded them for coins). I've dabble a little here-and-there since, but I have never collected vintage baseball cards.

Jump forward a few years, a family and me always away from home. I spend most of my time in Iraq and Afghanistan which complicates my ability to "see" the cards; hence my final decision on which group of cards I'll collect.

I looked at collecting T206s from Indianapolis, a simple group of 5 and a larger group with back variations. I looked at collecting all T206s in PSA 4. I looked at a type collection of 100 vintage "cards", a type collection of Topps from 1951 to 1975 (including all inserts). I looked at a Topps Pete Rose collection. I've done all this from my computer in Afghanistan.

I finally found my niche: Indianapolis players from 1887-1915. The cards must be in PSA 6/SGC 80 or better and Indianapolis must appear on the front of the card.

I know it sounds fairly specific but I can't "see" the card for months (which negates any return policy) and I collect several other things so I needed to minimize how frequently I make new purchases.

I don't know if it's a difficult path as much as it can be an ever changing or dizzying path at times, but that's one of the things I've come to enjoy most about vintage. Since I started collecting again, and started collecting vintage recently, as in this past April recently, I've changed my "path" several times already!

I started off with a T205 and 1948 leaf concentration, but that did not last long as I branched out into 1934 Goudey pretty quickly too. Recently I've started a D322 Tip Top Bread set and a E90-2 set as I was looking for a couple small sets I could complete while I hunt down my T205s, etc...

With the wealth of information and the variety of collectors on this board, I'm always finding sets/issues that grab my interest for one reason or another, so I always have to remind myself to come back to task on the now 5 sets I'm working towards completing.

Enjoy the journey.

I think all this falls into the category that you collect what you like. I have narrowed my collecting focus, and I agree that finding a board like this is a great information source that at times, will alter my specific collecting focus for a while.:)

Larry L- makes sense to me. Whatever we collect it really has to make us happy as there are a million ways to collect and everyone has a different view and "appetite". Since you can't see your cards (physically) for a long time it does make sense to go for cards in SGC80 or 6. Don't want to go into the whole grading debate but SGC, BVG and PSA are all good choices. Good luck in your endeavors.

For me, I always like variety so type collecting made sense from day 1. Since I got back into collecting, around 17 yrs ago, I have tried a few other things...... but when push comes to shove, and my resources dictate a direction, it's type collecting that wins out. As a matter of fact I just gave up another side distraction in my collecting (type 1 photos) as I just can't collect them and still focus on types due to limited (and not limitless) resources. The main thing is that I am collecting what I ENJOY. I love the hobby and think the good folks far outweigh the bad ones. We just have to stick together and help each other and the hobby is so much more enjoyable (at least to me). I am very biased but I can't think of a better vintage board on the net. Take care and thanks for your participation on the board.

A couple things:

- First, I collect scans as much as I collect cards. The scans of my cards are in the "clouds" on Picasa web, which has a nice app for the ipad, where my cards are even more bold and beautiful than they are in person. I love this app. No matter where I am, my cards are just a click away.

- My ultra-niche is signed T206 cards. They're mine ....my own.... my precioussssssssssssssssss....... Why are they so hard to find precious?

<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/TP31zEfAZ08BxbhN4fYEl4RT3dysq2WPtX5u9gk-z0Y?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/--OjGTF3frI0/T_byLtohKFI/AAAAAAAALFc/vNC0b81nXzU/s800/Gollum.jpg" height="384" width="272" /></a>

- Oh, and I now collect SGC 60/PSA 5 T206 cards, because the signed ones have become so damm hard to find!

Because you now own all of them! ;)

All the Stupid Fat Hobitsess be buying up all the precious!