[OldBatBoy]

It started with a house... More specifically a display case in a house my family moved to this Spring. As we are not a "trophy" family the empty display case taunted us for several months until my wife suggested we resurrect the stored baseball cards and memorabilia from my parent's house. As a collector in the late 80's and early 90's my parents were under strict orders not to throw out any of the cards, cracked bats, and autographed balls I accumulated as a batboy for the AAA Portland Beavers in the early 1990's. To that end (and after several trips back and forth) we soon had a display case filled with the mementos of my youth.
As you can imagine, it took about three days of walking by the case to open it up for the first time and to start investigating, within a week I was back into my binders and cards.
The challenge then became what to collect? It took a couple of trips to the local baseball card shop before I found my muse 1934-36 Diamond Stars. The cards looked spectacular and seemed (from my research online) to be a fairly affordable and attainable set.
So that is what brings me here... I have been watching this forum and learning about the changes in baseball card collecting since I departed the hobby (PSA, SGC, the numerical designations, etc.) Overall the forum seems like a wonderful place with lots of helpful like-minded folks.
I have two questions if anyone cares to respond:
1.) Some suggested reading on pre WWII baseball cards?
2.) The best sources for purchasing older cards?

Thank you so much for this wonderful forum and I look forward to becoming a contributing member.

Andrew