I got my first T206 in 1979, when I was almost 13 years old, for $1.25 from a mail-order dealer named Paul Marchant in Charleston, Illinois. It was Pfeister seated, with a Polar Bear back partially covered by glue and scrapbook residue (which I later soaked off more than a decade later). In the same order I also got my first 1933 Goudey (Hugh Critz) and my first Batter Up (Johnny Vergez), all of which I still have. For the three cards, I paid a total of $3.25 plus $1 postage, which was a lot on my 50 cents-a-week allowance.
Packrat that I am, I kept the 24-page price list from which I ordered those cards, and tonight I went downstairs and dug it out from among my collecting stuff. Below are the first page, which includes ordering instructions and Marchant's grading standards, and pages 10 and 11, which includes the prewar stuff and is where I ordered my cards from. Most of the prewar cards he had for sale were in pretty rough shape, to judge by his descriptions; I ordered a random T206 in F-G condition for $1.25, a random 1933 Goudey in Poor condition for $1, and a random Diamond Star in Poor condition for $1. (The Diamond Stars Vergez that I got was/is a real beater, but the Goudey Critz is not as bad.) Note that he had a T206 Bresnahan for $5, and a T206 Cy Young in P-F for $4, plus other HOFers for under $5. Also a T200 in G for $20, and a couple in F for $15; T205 HOFers for $10 and under, and commons in EX for $3; a couple of T209s in F-G for $6 each; a T213 Tinker in F for $10; many E90-1, E93, and E95 HOFers for under $10 (albeit in rough shape); an E90-1 Marquard in EX-MT for $15 and Matty in VG for the same price; and an E95 Cobb in F-G for $30. Note that the price gap between low-grade and top-grade cards was much, much narrower than it is today.
