Looking for thoughts on direction. Re: T206's

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Posted By: ScottIngold

At this point i am 60+ cards (commons) into the t206's. All are between 4 and 7 grade wise. Any thoughts on changing direction and doing just HOF'S ? I find it getting a bit long in the tooth moving towards 500+ cards to do the set.

I thought maybe going for the HOF'S alone might be more rewarding and a bit less time consuming.
Has anyone else made a change like this ? Found it to be a bit less daunting ?

I have the Cobbs and 10 or so others. Possibly some rarer backs and Magie, O'hara ect... ???? This seems like it could be an interesting way to move.

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Posted By: Brian

Scott,

I deliberately chose to go for HOF players as entree into the T206 set, just for the same reasons. I started with the portraits, which I find most attractive, and am well on my way (although the Matty and Johnson portraits keep eluding me). Once I complete the mini-set of all HOF cards (minus the Big Ones, of course), I may go for portraits of the commons. I think the portraits are very appealing.

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Posted By: T206Collector

It's the "daunting" nature of the Monster that makes collecting it so great. But if I were recollecting my set today, I would start with acquiring the Hall of Famers, Southern Leaguers, stars are rarer variations -- because they are quickly becoming unaffordable -- and then go after the Unglaub's and Stone's of the set.

Keep the focus. The Monster wants you to give up.

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Posted By: joe brennan

Brian, I also have focused just on the portraits. At first I bought any card available, but found that not only to be too expensive (100's of cards available everyday on ebay, but less rewarding.) Now just looking for portraits has slowed me down, pointed me in a direction, and allowed me to pick up cards that are very appealing to me. I am 122 cards into the set and without counting prolly between 80-90 are portraits. 15 or so HOFer's and another 4 or 5 SLer's.

A scared man can't gamble and a jealous man can't work.

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Posted By: cmoking

Why are T206 Portraits so popular, yet T205 and M116 (mostly portraits in these sets, right?) are not nearly as popular - even compared to T206 non-portraits.

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Posted By: Frank Evanov

I started with the HOF T206 cards and was able to finish it in the 4-5 range in 6 months. I feel that's the way to go.

T205's are getting more popular King...just check some of the recent EBAY prices.

Frank

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Posted By: T206Collector

M116

This may not be an answer, but after I more or less finished the acquisition (as opposed to upgrade) phase of my T206 set, I began to look for a new set to collect. I quickly picked up three M116's -- Matty, Johnson and Chase. They were beautiful (still are, but I just don't own them anymore), but I sold the Matty and Johnson to get cash to continue the upgrade of my T206 set. It seems as far as a stray from T206, I just keep getting pulled back in. But on thing that I did notice about M116 in my brief forray is that they sort of all look the same. Sure, attention to details will show you the differences, but when you are showing off your collection to people, they will be non-plussed by the scores of pastel portraits of people that were baseball players, but now look like faded ghosts of yesteryear that fill photo albums at antique stores. It is a rather boring set to flip through if you do not have some basic understanding of the subjects various personalities.

T205

I think that the T206 portraits are much more engaging than the T205 portraits, which, again, like the M116, basically make up the entire set. Sure, the NLers are closer up than the ALers, and there are a few fielding portraits, but by and large, they're just ugly. I've never liked the color scheme. It's sort of clown faces with makeup surrounded by a tacky gold color. Just ugly, to me. But I know this is just taste.

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Posted By: Brian

I agree. I think the M116s are very under-rated. In fact, when I have finished the T206 HOF subset, I am going to begin with M116s. They have lots of eye appeal and are relatively easy to obtain in nice condition without breaking the bank. I like T205s, but somehow they don't appeal to me in the way that T206s and other issues do. Nothing like a nice, simple white border.

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Posted By: cmoking

"But on thing that I did notice about M116 in my brief forray is that they sort of all look the same."

Great observation! I never thought of that, but you are right.

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

SCOTT

I am on vacation this w/e.......but, my curiosity made me check-in.

As you know, I am working on my 3rd set, so I think I can give you
some meaningful advice.
I will email you with some good thoughts and options when I return
on Monday.

Best regards,

the T-Rex

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Posted By: JimB

If I were to do it over again, I would probably concentrate on HOFs first and see how I felt when that was done. This may just be the direction my collecting is currently going. That said, mixing it up and collecting commons along the way helped me feel like I was making some progress relatively inexpensively. And some of the commons in that set are some of the most visually appealing cards.
JimB

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Posted By: barry arnold

I have to repeat what Paul said.
It is the absolute truth about the T206's and what makes collecting them
all so seductive, so captivating, so demanding.

'keep the focus. The Monster wants you to give up.'
.....superb.


best

barry

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Posted By: Dustan Hedlin

I am in sort of the same situation as the original poster. I've only recently started collecting T206's, and bought my first few just to have a few. I only have 6 total, including one HOFer. I thought about just picking up Cubs players, or maybe also Brooklyn players (I love some of the shots of the old uniforms on the cards). With just these 2 teams, I have a fairly wide selection of players in my current price range, and a few that I'll have to try a little harder to get. I originally thought about jumping in and buying whatever I could afford, but like a previous poster mentioned, that takes a lot of the fun out of it.