Excited new member - intro + a few questions
 

Hi all. Let me start off by saying that I am amazed by the passion and wealth of information cooked up by the community here. I just discovered this site this weekend and have probably spent about 20 hours since then perusing.

A little about myself. I am 26 and live in Seattle. When I was in elementary school, every minute and penny I had was devoted to baseball. I would spend my time reading baseball autobiographies and baseball encyclopedias while spending my allowance and any other money earned at the local card stores. I moved on once I entered high school and didn't re-enter the world of baseball cards again until 2 years ago.

I tried getting into the new sets over a period of a few months but there were just too many options and I couldn't get into the autograph / game-used / serial #'d madness. I ended up selling all my old and new baseball cards except for ones that had special meaning to me (e.g., a 1973 Topps Willie Mays and 1961 Topps Duke Snider that I managed to get from a classmate in 7th grade for what was at the time 5x Beckett value in Indians players - Albert Belle, Kenny Lofton, etc.). I find myself looking at these old cards fairly often and have considered getting into vintage baseball cards for a long time because I appreciate the history of the game and how it used to be played by farmer's sons who had to plow the fields in the off-season.

My goal going into this is to acquire cards that tell me the story of the game and demonstrate its history. I THINK that I've decided on a collecting goal that can last me many years: to collect what I believe to be the "coolest" / "most unique" (and affordable) card of everyone in the HOF. I would like to display these cards on the wall in several displays that include the name and induction year of the players. Regarding this, I have a few questions:

1) Do any of you display your cards? I've seen a few cheap (~$50) displays online but none of them have looked that impressive. I'm thinking of commissioning a custom made one if anyone knows someone who can make it. I'd also love to see any displays that you have. I couldn't spend all this money and time on something that just ends up in a safe deposit box or a 3 ring binder.

2) Do any of you know a website where I can easily access an image of every single card ever produced? I checked out beckett.com but they are very limited. Ideally, I would be able to search by player and not by set.

Sorry for the long rant but I wanted to give a little background about myself before diving into the community. I look forward to talking with many of you over the years.

Take care,
Bryan

well first of all...welcome to wonderful world of vintage collecting! I'm also among the fairly young (30...no wait...31, haha) who likes the older cards. One of the nicest things about the older cards is there are so many different options in the way that you go about building your collection, and no matter what you decide, you're likely to end up with some really cool stuff!

I actually delve into both sides of the collecting, vintage and modern. I like them both but for different reasons :)

Now, on to your questions.

1) In my humble opinion, if you plan to display your cards, you need to put some thought (and money) into what you're going to display it in. I would HIGHLY recommend having them framed behind glass, and that the glass be UV coated. The reason for this is that if you have them up on a wall that gets any exposure to sunlight, over time the cards will slowly begin to fade. UV coated glass will drastically reduce, if not altogether prevent, this from happening.

I personally don't display mine, but I can think of umpteen different ways you could do it, it would mainly depend on what you're going to display and kind of the 'theme' of it.

2) As far as whether or not there is a site that shows a picture of every card out there, I very seriously doubt it. Honestly your best bet would be to just go to ebay and type in the guy's name. You'll be surprised at how much stuff will come up besides just the normal topps and bowman cards. There are all sorts of things out there that a lot of people probably don't even know about coming into the hobby. Just go poke your head around there every now and then and you're bound to find some stuff that'll catch your eye :)

Best of luck to you on your collecting!

Welcome to the forum, Bryan, from another new member! I'm Bill. Nice to meet you!

Like Travis, I collect both modern and vintage as well (with the emphasis on modern until recently). As somebody that's been reading through the forum since this last weekend, you might have seen some of the posts I've made that allude to the challenges I've found in storing cards from different eras.

Like you, I want to be able to share my collection with friends. But it sounds like we're going to go about it in different ways. You are looking at displaying them in your home. I will be displaying them online. I do web design on the side, and my plan is to share my collection virtually. I'll be doing high quality scans of my cards, as well as digital images of my memorabilia, and uploading them to my website. This way I can look at anything in my collection with ease, share my passion with my friends, and yet provide the best protection possible for my investments. The pictures I take will also serve as my proof of ownership for insurance purposes.

If you are serious about displaying your cards in your home, I have to agree with Travis. It's going to take some money and effort on your part. Every collection is unique, and you're probably looking at something custom built.

If you have a local card shop, you might talk to them about who helped them in constructing their display cases. You are wanting UV protection so the cards and autographs do not fade, and keep the cards out of direct sunlight at all costs. You also want a pretty controlled climate, as moisture can damage cards over time.

There is no website with pictures of all the cards ever created. I don't know if that would even be possible with the incredible number of cards that have been produced over the years. When I look for a particular card, I search on Google images, as well as Ebay (often using the advanced search feature, and completed auctions). Beckett allows for uploading of images to their database. I'm hoping that will grow over time, but you're right-as of now, it's pretty hit and miss.

Good luck! When you get your collection display up, please take some pictures and share them with us!

Hey Bill G, just to remind you, or let you know if you don't know, we have a place on this forum to upload hundreds of scans into several picture albums. It is under the Community tab in the darker blue line running across the screen. I have my own site as well as quite a few pictures there too. best regards

Welcome to the site!! Looks like the kind folks here have already answered your questions......... but I just wanted to say "welcome"!!

My personal site: www.firstyearcards.com will help you with first year cards of hall of fame players. Hope this helps you out. Bill.

Thank you, Leon! I will keep that in mind. I'm sure I'll store some photos here, too. I haven't quite worked out how I'll do it yet, but I do need to get the vintage cards before I can scan them! :D