What is the first T206 you ever purchased?

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Mine, about 4 years ago:

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Posted By: Dave

Before I started scanning...



edited..sorry

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Posted By: RC

Well, since you asked......

[IMG][/IMG]

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Posted By: Dean H

July 2002. Piedmont 350 back.

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Posted By: James Feagin

Ames (Portrait)in 1986, I was 11 years old.

James

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Posted By: Joe Jones

Not the exact card but the same pose.

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Posted By: Al C.risafulli

Rube Waddell Portrait - four clipped corners, wrinkled top to bottom, $1. Bought it in about 1981.

Still my favorite card.

-Al

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Posted By: Rob Dewolf

Late 1970s, Nazir Grotto monthly show in Canton, Ohio: Ty Cobb red portrait. I think the price was $40 or so. Of course, being a clueless, high school know-it-all, I sold it a few months later for a $10 profit.

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Posted By: Trae R.

If I wouldn't have dug up my first post on this forum I wouldn't honestly know but I would have said 4 or 5 years ago... which is off. I purchased my first T206 in November of 2004 - not even 3 years ago... which blows my mind. I feel like I've been collecting them much longer but that's the power of the T206 set!

I actually sold this one and found again two years later on eBay, so I bought it back - at a pretty unreasonable price too. At any rate, I have it back. It is/was my first pre-war card altogether. The scan could be better... Here he is:

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Posted By: steve

Bought years ago in an old CSA grading company slab. Submitted to PSA for crossover when no club membership was required. Very pleased it came back in this PSA 5 case.

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

JEFF

Too long ago to remember the very 1st T206....but, this Carl Lungren (Cubs) with the El Principe de Gales
back stands out as my 1st valuable T206.
It didn't cost me much 25 years ago; but. if I was to put it up for sale now....I'd gain a tenfold profit.

But gosh....I just can't do that....just like I can't part with my 1949 Bowman's and Leaf's I collected as a kid.

TED Z

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Posted By: George Dreher

Moose McCormick more than 40 years ago. It was in EX condition and I paid one dollar for it at a garage sale.

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Posted By: peter chao

I remember my first purchase because it was at a Coin and Baseball Card Convention. When I entered the convention hall I discovered that there were all coin dealers except for one baseball card dealer. I had brought some cards to trade and at first I thought it was hopeless because there was only one dealer. But I got lucky.

The guy had a T206 Walter Johnson Portrait very dignified looking. I traded him about a dozen cards and $80 bucks for the card. One of the cards I traded was the '85 Topps Mark McGwire rookie. Back then the card was actually worth something. Quite a deal, made the trip worthwhile. I'm not sure if the dealer felt it was worthwhile because, I didn't see anybody else buying baseball cards.

Peter

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Posted By: MVSNYC

about 15 years ago, i was at one of those "mall card shows", and i saw a few lower-grade T206 cards...Elberfeld NY, Devlin, Kroh...i bought all of them for a total $20...i still have them framed on my dresser.

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Posted By: Mark L

More than 35 years ago I bought 5 or 10 via an ad in the back of the Sporting News (I think). I don't remember all of them but I'm pretty sure that one was a Mathewson portrait. And I know that none of the cards cost more than $2.

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Posted By: Dave Hornish

Killian pitching, bought (I think ) in 1983. It still has, to this day, flecks of tobacco on it. I think I paid $11 but it might have been less. It's VG-EX and that seems high for back then. I didn't buy another for 10 years then I bought a Polar Bear Back at a show, then nothing until 2007. Collecting Superbas but contemplating attempting the (almost) full Monster.

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Posted By: DaveW

It may seem odd that my first purchase was a card I already had though it was badly creased.

I should also mention that this was the first card I ever bought as a collector.

The creased card:





The purchase:




Edited to add

Purchased in Feb 2004 for $40.

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Posted By: Andy

I had to have it, I grew up in Jersey.



btw, has anyone ever seen on of these with a clear image or do all Hannifan's have this blurred image?

Thanks,

Andy

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Posted By: barry arnold

The first i ever bought(not the first i ever owned since i was given 10 or so
in '82) was a Matty dark cap for 19 bucks which i bought around '84.
Still have it.

best,

barry

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Posted By: CN

Happy Smith Brooklyn about 28 years ago from Larry Gladstone at Hofstra.CN

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Posted By: Marc S.

with an Uzit back. Part of a split with some other Net 54's about 7/8 years ago from one of the Mastro groupings of rare backs.

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Posted By: Dylan

Unfortunatly when i bought my first pre-war card i wasnt collecting prewar and it was really an impulse buy. It was either a T206 or T205 SGC graded around VG and i sold them on ebay sometime later when i needed some cash, wish i didnt, but what can you do!?

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Posted By: barrysloate

I bought my first T206 around 1983 and it was Groom, Washington. Never forget it!

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Posted By: Jerry

Rucker Portrait, about 1989. I was collecting 50's & 60's at the time but since my last name is Rucker, I had to have it.

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Posted By: Steve M.

I have no clue who was first nor do I even have any recollection of the circumstances. I do rememeber how I really got into T206 when this old time collector in Virginia sent me his T206 album containing over 700 cards and asked me what I had for trade. Ended up trading him my 53 Bowman color set.

Those were the good old days before slabbing, before the internet, when we were in it for the fun of collecting. Hopefully most of us still are.

My first significant "purchase" was when I bought all four Cobbs from Lew. $2,672 which at the time was a lot of money. Eventually had them graded with the Green, Red and Bat off all grding as PSA 5's. The Bat On got a 2 which was the nicest 2 you'll ever see. Just ask the Board member who purchased it last year.

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Posted By: Martin Neal

I think it was in 1988 that I purchased my first t206. Actually it was a group of about 130 of which all in the condition as the ones I have scanned. There were lots of Hall of Famers many of which I still have. I have sold the only Cobb (bat on) from this bunch. I paid $100.00 for the lot which works out to about 75 cents per card. The seller, like me, had no idea what they were,(he had found them in an attic of a farmhouse they were renovating). Anyway, the odd thing about this find is that there were a lot of color variations and (no Bs) in the lot. These cards actually stayed in my garage until 2001 when I discovered ebay and vintage baseball cards. I've got to say it's been a lot of fun collecting T206s and T205s.





Andy, I don't if this one is more focused or not.

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Posted By: Bruce MacPherson

Mine was this cobb I purchased in the late 1970's for $10.

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Bruce -- wow.

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Posted By: Brian E.

my first purchase was back in 2002, a Red Cobb with EPDG back for $350 or so. I sent it into SGC and it came back as a 40. I was happy and still am!

Brian E.

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Posted By: Lee

I bought 2 t206's as my first t206's back in 1994, Schmidt Portrait and Wiltse Throwing. The Schmidt is EX and the Wiltse is vg-ex, both still in my possession and ungraded. I paid $10 each for them at a local civic center card show.

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Posted By: Richard L.

When I did collect baseball, Bill Campbell of Cinn. was my first back in the the late 70's. Thought he resembled Bill Campbell, pitcher for the Red Sox at the time. The card was a nice EX and cost me 2.00, all that I had in my pocket at the time.

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Posted By: Judge Dred (Fred)

It was either an Egan or Hoblitzell.... I can't remember which one for sure...

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Posted By: George

In 1961 I joined the Army, and I was in basic training at Fort Dix, in New Jersey. One weekend, I got a pass and went to Philadelphia. By some chance, I wandered into an antique store and asked if they had anything related to baseball. He pulled out a box that must have had 1000 T206's in it, although at that time I did not know what they were. The price was $1 each. That seemed like an outrageous price, because my Topps and Bowman cards had cost me only 1/100th of that, and they were bigger! I had only $35 with me, which was half of a month's pay at that time. But I pored through the cards, and found the 35 best........all Hall of Famers, and all in excellent condition, and I bought them. I had no idea that card collecting was a "hobby," or that these cards would eventually become valuable, but I knew what I liked. The players, as I recall, included Mathewson, Tinker, Evers, Chance, Cobb, Young, Brown, Collins.......but no Wagner or Plank, unfortunately. I mounted the cards in a large frame, which hung in my office for years. Around 1981, the first Beckett catalog was published. I bought a copy, and discovered that there were other collectors in the world, and my T206 collection took off from there.

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Posted By: Glenn

Chance portrait with yellow background

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

George, do you still have those cards in the frame?

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Posted By: Brian Weisner

Cobb..... 15-20 bucks

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Posted By: Jason Carota

Five months ago, this card changed everything (in a good way ):

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Posted By: Ray

Bought this "beauty" about a year and a half ago. While I don't really collect T206's (yet), I still have it and always will.

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Posted By: George

Jeff,

I eventually took them out of the frame and put them into an album, along with other T206's that I acquired subsequently. I still have all of them. I still have the frame, too.

George

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Posted By: joe brennan

About 5 years ago I wanted just one vintage card in my collection. I knew nothing about vintage and very little about grading companies. I bought this before I knew better, but it did start my collection.




In Rememberance of James W. Brennan Sr. 1924-1982. Dad, thanks for everything you did for me.

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Posted By: Andy

Your Hannifan certainly has better image registration than mine, but it still has the bluriness that I always see on this card. I do appreciate the response with image. What grade did yours get?

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Posted By: dennis

gavy cravath,he looked like a cartoon character.

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Posted By: T206Collector

Purchased in 1997 from a guy whose grandfather left a collection for him. The guy needed $500 for a trip to Vegas. I was more than happy to oblige.

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Posted By: Brian Weisner

Hi Andy,
Hannifan has so many different dark colors around the face, that it's difficult to find a really clear picture of his face. Here is my best:

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Posted By: Dave Williams

Circa 1977 when I was about 14, during Jimmy Carter's presidency, we were in Georgia, en route to Florida on vacation when we stopped at a "Bargain Barn/Flea Market" kind of place.

I asked for Baseball cards. He brought out a cigar box full of T 206 (which I didn't know what they were at the time). I liked history, recognized McGinnity as the "Iron Man" and for $2 it was mine. I also bought Casey of Montreal. They were all minor leaguers.

He also had shoe boxes full of Topps, going back into the 60's. I bought the 1968 Cardinal team for $1.

2 years later we went back on vacation, I saved money and had a lot to spend, and when we got there the old guy had died a month or so before, and his son said he had just sold off all the baseball cards.

Timing is everything. One of you guys probably got them all.

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Posted By: Steve Dawson

Back in 1979, I bought a Bresnahan (Batting), Keeler (Batting) and M. Brown (Pitching, Chicago) for $10.00 total. All were VG-EX.



Steve

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Posted By: davidcycleback

I can't remember the first one I bought, but the first one I owned was a Harry Pattee I received as a a Christmas present. I later got a Pattee signed index card and framed the two together.

The first Pre-War card I bought was a 1933 Goudey Jack Quinn from the Larry Frisch catalog when I was a kid.

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Posted By: Judson Hamlin

A Joss (port), Lajoie (port) and Waddell (pitch)- all vg or so that i traded for a Winfield rookie and maybe a couple of dollars in 1983 or so.

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Posted By: peter chao

Jud,

You walked off with quite a haul. The dealer probably regretted that trade.

Peter

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Posted By: Judson Hamlin

I was 15 or so and actually reluctant- I think the book on a Winfield rookie was fairly high at the time. The guy was selling cards out of his house- odd set up, but what did I know