Posted By:
Brett DomueGreat topic. Warning! Lengthy response!
I started like most people, collecting new cards from the packs. When I was 8, my parents gave me a box of the new 1983 Topps cards for my birthday, the first time I ever received that many at once, and I tried to put together a set. After opening the box and numerous single packs, I was down to 1 card to finish the set, but couldn't pull it. Finally, I went for the first time to a baseball card store (Triple Play on West Street in Danbury, CT.) I bought that pesky Tony Pena card to finish my set, and while I was there, saw a board of real old cards. I decided to buy a card of Steve Carlton (1973) and that was my first ever "vintage" card.
A few years later, I started to collect runs of players. I would try for every regular issue card of any non-pitcher with any of the following: 1000 Runs, 2000 Hits, 300 Doubles, 100 Triples, 200 Home Runs, 1000 RBI or 400 Stolen Bases. Also any pitcher with 150 Wins or a combination of 250 Wins and Saves. I broke these runs into three categories...Active Players, Inactive Players, and who the heck are these guys Pre-World War Two players. After the first couple of years, I had completed runs of a great many active players, a couple inactive players, and didn't have a single card of any of the prewar players, though I at least could recognize names now, thanks to some of the reading I had done.
At this time, my family had relocated down to Pennsylvania. One day, I went into one of the local card stores and the owner had a plastic case of T206 cards for $2 each, all with major tobacco staining. I went through the pile and pulled the cards of the two names I recognized, Chesbro and Ewing. Well, I faced my disappointment when I got home and realized that Buck Ewing was long retired by then and this wasn't a card of him, but was thrilled with my Jack Chesbro card.
From then on, I was enthralled with collecting cards of the Hall of Famers from the pre-1945 era. I eventually stopped collecting player runs from the modern era and concentrated solely on the prewar HOFers, rookie cards of the modern era HOFers, and a few sets just to keep things interesting when the first two are going through dry spells (I already had most of the stars for the sets in my player runs, so really only had to find the commons.)