Posted By:
Dave ReyBrian --
Washington state is a very tough place to find pre-war material -- doesn't matter what part of the state you are looking in.
I worked at U-Trading in Seattle for about 3 years in the 1990s and probably had as good an opportunity as anyone to see what was circulating in the Seattle metro area during that time. There's a good supply of post-war stuff if you know where to look or who to ask, but we always had trouble scrounging up pre-war baseball cards.
Of course, there are fun regional and minor league issues in the NW that don't show up much in other parts of the country. Still, to get Obaks and Zeenuts, I generally had to wait for Mark Macrae to come north for the annual Seattle club show.
Plus, there are a couple really motivated private collectors who tend to scoop up just about all of the really really cool stuff...
I live just outside of Spokane now and it is a total barren wasteland for pre-war material here. People pretty much had to move it with them when they migrated to the NW and not many folks decided moving their pile of cards was worth the trouble if they pulled up stakes back east, I guess.
If you find any cool Wenatchee Chiefs stuff on your swing through Wenatchee (having tried that myself 50 times, I doubt you'll find anything), I'm always interested...