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.
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