The Golden Era For Collecting

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Posted By: peter chao

Guys,

Here's your chance to become nostalgic again. The prices are obviously way too high now. In your opinion, which decade would you consider the golden age for collecting pre-war vintage? Also, which dealers and collectors do you associate with the golden age?

Peter C.

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Posted By: Steve Murray

and it deserves an answer.

The golden age for me was the 80's way before Al invented the internet and before the grading companies turned this hobby into what it is today. People like Barry Sloate, Lew Lipset, David Festberg, Charles Conlon and most anyone else who advertised in the good old SCD were the dealers I most remember during that period. Sure, there were others, but my age defies remembering.

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Posted By: dennis

lots of stuff coming out of attics/basements and closets then. collectors and few if any investors. most if not all dealers were collectors. no grading companys because who cared the prices for cards were affordable for all. and there was an interest in new cards for almost all collectors!you actually looked forward to the new sets then.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Thanks Steve. The golden age for me was also the 1980's, and I even feel the 90's were equally exciting.

Interestingly, while today you can find more material for sale than in any era thanks to the internet, a lot of the fun is gone. Others of course will disagree, and that's fine.

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Posted By: Marc S.

Think of how much information has been dispersed to the hobby masses over the past 10 years, thanks to "finds", population reports, major auctions, the "coming out" of some secretive collections.

This is as good as it gets!

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Posted By: Jim Dale

Man I wish I had never opened that last box of '75 minis back when I was 10. And there was that shoe box of these really old cards with guys on them no one ever heard of that my mom tossed out. They didn't really look like baseball cards you know? Wish I had that box back....think they were my uncles or something like that. (yes they were likely T206 cards - tossed out like trash )

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Posted By: leon

I agree with Marc on this one...I think THIS is the golden age of collecting. Sure, we don't have many 15 cent T cards anymore but the variety and sources, compared to 20-30 yrs ago, must be like night and day. The internet has made it so much more accessible..Maybe not as fun...but maybe more fun too......regards

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Posted By: Josh Adams

Does Golden Age necessarily have to relate to price of cards?

I would agree that now could be the "Golden Age" given the way the internet allows for the easy exchange of information.

Great topic.

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Posted By: Ed Ivey

I agree that Al Gore invented the Golden Age.

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Posted By: peter chao

The Golden Age for Collecting would include the price of cards as one of the factors to be weighed. However, there are other hobby factors to be taken into account. The comaraderie of collectors, the availability of cards, the honesty of hobbyists, etc.

Feel free to tell us the factors you would take into account. Cards may be expensive now, but they may be cheap compared to the near future.

Peter C.

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Posted By: Paul S

I'm not really sure how the tern "Golden Era for Collecting" is defined; maybe a different interpretation for everyone. For me it was being a kid and being able to buy a pack of cards and be excited by the anticipation of who might be inside (this is era-independent, i.e., it happens in the era when you happen to be a kid.) If I was with a friend it was always, "Who'd ya get?" and "Get anyone good?" I also had, for me, a lot of "golden era" fun when I got a little older and could spend more on older items w/o breaking the bank. And now I am having alot of "current golden era" fun -- contradiction in terms there, I know -- since I've been on this board, although I am more dismayed by the pandemia of counterfeiting and misrepresentation than I am about the high prices.

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Posted By: peter chao

Paul S.,

Instead of looking at how each of us have matured as collectors, I'm looking at the hobby in general. The hobby is now big business and quite different than it was 20 years ago.

Peter C.

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Posted By: dennis

there was no internet but in the chicago area back in the early 80's there was about 6 different shows every weekend. you did not need the internet. i guess if you lived in a big city you were in luck. and remember most dealers only had vintage cards so anything could turn up.(and you could afford to buy it!)

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Posted By: Paul S

Peter, that's the point. I haven't matured!
And...I was buying packs at least 45 years ago, not 20.


*edited for honesty in dating myself.

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Posted By: boxingcardman

and declare the last several years as the best ever. Think about the quality and breadth of material and the ease with which we have access to it. It is unparalleled.

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Posted By: jay behrens

The Golden Era has to be 1979-89. 1979 saw the advent of the Beckett price guide letting the average person know that those cards in attic were worth some money. It was also the first big boom in the hobby. Shows and shops were popping up all over the country and anyone with a Price Club membership could be a dealer with a huge modern inventory in the mid to late 80s.

Then there was the fact that most of the major dealers of the day were also the legendary collectors we talk about today.

We'll never a see a time like that again where the hobby was growing and the innocence, awe and wonder was still there. None of that is there today.

Jay

The richest person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least.

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Posted By: barrysloate

It does depend how we define golden age.

If it is based on the availability of rare material, then there has never been a better time than today. But if it is based on when the hobby was the most fun, it is different for everybody.

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Posted By: Scot Reader

The public Internet spawned the Golden Age by reducing information barriers and thereby creating a far more perfect marketplace in vintage baseball cards than had ever been known. Peter, you are living in it!

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Posted By: jay behrens

The information may be better, but it's all very impersonal. How can this situation be better than going to a show, talking with other dealers and collectors and actually being able to look at and hold cards?

More cards and more information are available, but all of this is very sterile and impersonal.

Jay

The richest person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least.

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Posted By: Scot Reader

Jay,

I agree with you that personal contact is one of the great things about this hobby. That's why earlier this year I hosted a social for local collectors at my house. Without the Internet--more particularly this Internet forum--I would not have been able to organize such a get-together. The Internet does not preclude any of the great things we remember about this hobby from previous eras. Indeed, used properly, the Internet can enhance the social aspects of this great hobby.

Scot

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Posted By: Pcelli60

These are the "Golden" years..Prices not withstanding. Look at all that is at our fingertips. See how we bond electronically..The auction companies, big brother eBay. We all seem connected in a way that the 80's cant compare too..

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Posted By: Mike

1959 to 1966. Sitting around in the grass with my friends trading cards. Every guy I knew in grade school collected cards. Forget E bay, forget the national, forget the 2 Billion dollar Wagner card. Forget the trimmed and flattened crap, what I wouldn't give to be able to go back for a couple weeks, and just screw around with my buddies. To open that pack and see mantles face, that was awesome.

Edited to add: Just walking to the dime store, or corner market to buy them was half the fun. Just messin' around on the way. Cutting through peoples yards, swiping an apple, or kickin a tin can. catching a glimps of the cute girl in the neighborhood, which was rare, as her family must have kept her caged in the summer, as I hardly ever got to see her. Seeing her in the yard, was a thousand times cooler than watching Bonds or A Rod. It was a rare and much wished upon event. Funny thing is I ended up dating her in High school for a while. She wanted marriage. I wouldn't be ready for that for about another 8 years. I was in heaven. But to get back on track, to be a kid again, but only for a couple weeks. To walk into the stadium, and see mantle, Maris, Tresh and Berra, in the Flesh, ahhh....that would be priceless. How much more Golden era can it get ? And just think....no mortgage payment due in 2 weeks....

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Posted By: Paul S

Mike, you must have lived down the block from me.

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Posted By: P SPAETH

I agree with Mike. Nothing will ever replicate the experience of walking to the variety and candy stores and buying and opening packs, or the anticipation of the next series coming out.

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Posted By: peter chao

My preference is a later period of time. During 1990-1999, I consider this the heyday for both card shows and hobby shops. I enjoyed walking up the aisle of a baseball card show and spotting cards that I needed for my collection. I liked shooting the breeze with the local dealer about the Giants and the A's.

Also, I would get updated about the hobby from the dealers, I would find out about upcoming releases from the manufacturers.

Starting around 2000 there became too many card products to keep track of and the shows started disappearing because of the internet.

Peter C.

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Posted By: dennis

wow peter i thought there were too many new baseball card products to keep track of in 1991!

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Posted By: jay behrens

It's kind of hard to call the present time a golden era. To call any time period a golden era requires some historical perspective, and we don't have that with the present day.

Jay

The richest person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least.

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Posted By: Mike

My point is, at least for me, was the time when collecting was almost exclusively for kids. Adults weren't involved. Card shops weren't involved, it was only for us kids. The card collecting world was a place where us kids could go and just be kids. No adults. Adults knew nothing of cards, and that they were made for children. No Mr. Mint. No Al Hager. NO reprints. Just us kids with a show box full of cards. A nickel or a penny was all that it took. I understand the current state of affairs. I've spent many many thousands on cards. That is the way it is now. And I have no problem with what is going on now. I understand change. But for me, the most memorable time was when it was just me and my buddies. And never ever was the monetary value of a card brought up. Never.

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Posted By: Scot Reader

Mike,

Your first post was the best thing I've read in quite a while. For me the magical summer was 1977--warm afternoons and evenings spent with friends, first crushes, Little League and baseball cards. Not a care in the world.

Not a Golden Era of vintage baseball cards but surely the most joyous days of collecting.

Scot

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Posted By: Mark L

Maybe there have always been a few people who knew everything about hundreds of vintage sets. But today more information is available to an amateur collector such as myself than ever before. From the point of view of what is generally known about t206's and what is starting to be generally known about M116's, M101's, etc., this is a relative golden age.

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Posted By: peter chao

There's no doubt that the internet has made hobby information much more available. But the downside of this era is the high prices and the fear of card tampering.

Peter C.

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Posted By: Mike

Thanks Scot. All of it was true. And boy do I miss it all !

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Posted By: jay behrens

Although I there is no way I would consider the present to be the golden era of collecting, it is the golden era of altering cards and other sports items.

Jay

The richest person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least.