[Leon]

Your friend didn't know Plank (he owned) was valuable. That doesn't happen too often within the vintage hobby anymore...

Originally Posted by bigfanNY

Coming into the Hobby in the early 1970's there were the Big "3" the Wagner and Plank T206 and the 33 Goudey Lajoie. These 3 cards had established themselves as the hardest to obtain cards in two of the most popular and collectible sets of baseball cards ever issued. They even sold t-shirts with the BIG 3 label and those cards pictured. At that time a Wagner sold for about $1500, a Plank for $400 and a Lajoie for about $500. IF..and a BIG IF you could find one to buy. A few months after my Father and I started collecting a Wagner was advertised for $1500 in the Sunday New York Times. The First Plank I ever encountered was from a collector here in NJ who I was trading with and he was showing me some of his checklists and I noticed the Plank. I thought it was a mistake and asked him if he had the card. He did and pulled it out a poor to good version I told him that it was a valuable card he thanked me and we kept on trading for about another 25 years. The first lajoie I came across I actually tried to buy. It was at a NYC show and a complete set of 33 Goudeys was for sale for a Thousand Bucks including the Lajoie. I tracked down my Dad he agreed it was a good purchase and we could afford it but by the time we went back it had sold. We purchased a 1940 Playball set (My Dad's favorite set) insted. I have never attempted to complete the T206 set but understand going to great lengths to complete a set.