Personal Pre-War Set and Collector Survey

[Leon]

Originally Posted by BobC

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Thanks Phil. Looks like you have some great items and collecting interests as well. Your mention of a West coast type collection sounds really intriguing, and very expensive. LOL. I actually also type collect on top of the many sets I'm working on as well, and have a lot of oddball stuff I've acquired over the years. In regards to West coast items, are you at all familiar with the circa 1936 Sports Stamps that were printed in various newspapers across the country back then? They included pictures and short stories and bios of baseball players, as well as individuals from multiple other sports (even race car drivers), that were to be cut out of the papers so they could be saved and collected. The old Krause/SCD catalogs would list some of the newspapers these Sports Stamps used to be printed in, but one they never did list were 1936 Sports Stamps from the Los Angeles Examiner. Was wondering if you ever came across any of these in youe type collecting pursuits? I believe for baseball players they listed guys in the Pacific Coast League. Would seem to be something you'd be interested in. Just an FYI.

I am a type collector at heart and always will be. I dabbled in a mid grade T205 set but lost interest and went back to more type cards
The 1936 Sport Stamps were carried in several newspapers. Here are some from my last collection. I no longer own them.

[judsonhamlin]

-I’ve been at pre-war cards for about 35 years (oof, I feel old typing that)
-I’m at about 2700 cards and don’t sell much although I have some T205 dupes that I will be posting soon.
-I think my favorites are my Newsboy Mike Tiernan and T206 Drums
-complete or near complete sets: Batter-Up (-1); C46; Diamond Stars; E-90-1 (-9); E95 (-3); 1933-36 Goudey (-12 in all, incl. a 35 master set); 1939-41 Play Ball (-2); T201; T205 master set (-6); T206; Tattoo Orbit; W519. I’m also working on a few other sets like E96, certain N172’s and T222 but those are more theoretical at this point. Focus has never been my strongest trait.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by judsonhamlin

-I’ve been at pre-war cards for about 35 years (oof, I feel old typing that)
-I’m at about 2700 cards and don’t sell much although I have some T205 dupes that I will be posting soon.
-I think my favorites are my Newsboy Mike Tiernan and T206 Drums
-complete or near complete sets: Batter-Up (-1); C46; Diamond Stars; E-90-1 (-9); E95 (-3); 1933-36 Goudey (-12 in all, incl. a 35 master set); 1939-41 Play Ball (-2); T201; T205 master set (-6); T206; Tattoo Orbit; W519. I’m also working on a few other sets like E96, certain N172’s and T222 but those are more theoretical at this point. Focus has never been my strongest trait.

Great stuff Judson, you sound a lot like me.

[kmac32]

Collecting prewar for around 30 years and have maybe 300 slabbed prewar cards

Have T205 Cubs front/ reverse collection 149 out of 151 possible cards
T207 Cubs front reverse with all factory's possible
e121-80 and E121-120 Giante/ Yankees collection
Some Koester Bread to match
T210 -1 Jacksonville set missing DeFraites
Elmer Miller items including his 1919 contract
Assortment of press photos of Elmer Miller
s74 Cubs silks with different types

Fun collection in general

[BobC]

Originally Posted by kmac32

Collecting prewar for around 30 years and have maybe 300 slabbed prewar cards

Have T205 Cubs front/ reverse collection 149 out of 151 possible cards
T207 Cubs front reverse with all factory's possible
e121-80 and E121-120 Giante/ Yankees collection
Some Koester Bread to match
T210 -1 Jacksonville set missing DeFraites
Elmer Miller items including his 1919 contract
Assortment of press photos of Elmer Miller
s74 Cubs silks with different types

Fun collection in general

Ken, that is an awesome collection, and am especially impressed with your back/front combo portion of it. Those back/front runs are really hard to complete and seem to always include a combination or two (or even more) that are virtually impossible to find, or so darn expensive you could never afford them. Big reason why I never really got involved or interested in collecting back/front combo runs, or card runs of individual players. However, I do have one particular player back/front combo run I've thought about completing. And the fact that you mentioned you collect S74 silks let's me know you may better understand and appreciate this. There are 4 different tobacco brands that the ad-backed S74-1 white version silks were sold with; Old Mill, Turkey Red, Red Sun, and Helmar. And of the 4 brands, only the Turkey Red silk backings came in two different versions. One with a simple border or frame around the printed information/ad on the attached paper backing, and the other without any frame/border, just like the backs on the silks for the other 3 tobacco brands which also had no borders/frames. So there is potentially a total of 5 different backs for any one individual player in the set. I'd love to put together a back run of all 5 different backs for one player in the S74-1 white version set, but am not even sure it is possible. Red Sun backed silks are exceedingly rare. I doubt if there are any players in the S74-1 set that even approach having a double digit number of Red Sun backed silks that still exist, if they even have any that exist at all. But then the Helmar backed silks are even worse. Forget about not having a double digit number of Helmar backed silks for any one player in the set. How about not having a double digit number of Helmar backed silks known to exist............period. And add to that the need to also then find an oddball framed Turkey Red back version which also doesn't appear for every player in the set and......well, you get the idea. It likely is impossible to put such a back run together. Will keep an eye out though. Got to stay positive in collecting, right?

[Ronnie73]

1. I've been collecting cards since 1982 but started pre-war collecting at the end of 2010.

2. I own around 2000 pre-war sports cards. I also own around 6000 pre-war non sports cards. I don't really sell many pre war items, so my answer for number 2 and 3 are the same.

3. I own around 2000 pre-war sports cards. I also own around 6000 pre-war non sports cards. I don't really sell many pre war items, so my answer for number 2 and 3 are the same.

4. The most significant cards are probably my T206 Blue Old Mill, my group of T206 No Prints, and the large amount of different T206 front/back combo's.

5. I don't have any pre war sports card sets complete but my T206 set is at 514 different card fronts. For pre war non sports cards, I have a minimum of 6 complete T59 Flag 200 card sets, and probably around 20 complete and near complete (missing less than 5 cards) sets of random Chinese cards with the Pirate Cigarettes brand back. Also a near complete T113 Types Of Nations, T79 Military, T42 & T43 Birds, and T58 Fish. There's probably a few other sets but I'm mainly focused on T206, T59, and Chinese Pirate brand cards.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by Ronnie73

1. I've been collecting cards since 1982 but started pre-war collecting at the end of 2010.

2. I own around 2000 pre-war sports cards. I also own around 6000 pre-war non sports cards. I don't really sell many pre war items, so my answer for number 2 and 3 are the same.

3. I own around 2000 pre-war sports cards. I also own around 6000 pre-war non sports cards. I don't really sell many pre war items, so my answer for number 2 and 3 are the same.

4. The most significant cards are probably my T206 Blue Old Mill, my group of T206 No Prints, and the large amount of different T206 front/back combo's.

5. I don't have any pre war sports card sets complete but my T206 set is at 514 different card fronts. For pre war non sports cards, I have a minimum of 6 complete T59 Flag 200 card sets, and probably around 20 complete and near complete (missing less than 5 cards) sets of random Chinese cards with the Pirate Cigarettes brand back. Also a near complete T113 Types Of Nations, T79 Military, T42 & T43 Birds, and T58 Fish. There's probably a few other sets but I'm mainly focused on T206, T59, and Chinese Pirate brand cards.

Ronnie, that is geat, and getting to 514 T206 subjects is no mean feat. And nothing wrong with non-sports sets as well. Sounds like you have some really interesting sets you are working on.

[x2drich2000]

Bob, that's quite an impressive list of sets. Here's my breakdown:

1) about 12 years. Like most I started with T206 but got bored so switched to focus on caramels instead.
2) probably around 200
3) again probably around 200
4) Most significant item I have is probably my E92 red croft group due to their rarity. Currently have 9 of the 18 that I know exist.
5) I don't have any complete sets, but close on a few: E93 (missing cobb), E92 Nadja (about 75% complete), E92 red croft (missing 3 that I know exist), and W554 (missing 3). I'm also very slowly working on diamond stars, E253, PC796/novelty cutlery, and T222.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by x2drich2000

Bob, that's quite an impressive list of sets. Here's my breakdown:

1) about 12 years. Like most I started with T206 but got bored so switched to focus on caramels instead.
2) probably around 200
3) again probably around 200
4) Most significant item I have is probably my E92 red croft group due to their rarity. Currently have 9 of the 18 that I know exist.
5) I don't have any complete sets, but close on a few: E93 (missing cobb), E92 Nadja (about 75% complete), E92 red croft (missing 3 that I know exist), and W554 (missing 3). I'm also very slowly working on diamond stars, E253, PC796/novelty cutlery, and T222.

Very nice Richard, and those red Croft's are fantastic. I especially like that your set includes a Dots Miller card with the way oversized glove. That is the exact Miller image that Pete Ullman previously mentioned he has a Miller card run of. That oversized glove image is so weird, it is super cool. Some of those oversized glove cards of Miller are exceedingly rare. And good luck in completing your E93 set and getting the Cobb. Right now Cobb cards are ridiculously high priced, making it tough and extremely expensive to complete any set where you still need a card of him. I got lucky and came across a crappy, but reasonably priced, E93 Cobb a while back that got me started on my own Standard Caramel set. Lot of truth to the advice for set collectors to always try and go after the big cards in a set first.

[ullmandds]

Here is my run and for you DJ some early pandemic pick ups!

[BobC]

Originally Posted by Leon

I am a type collector at heart and always will be. I dabbled in a mid grade T205 set but lost interest and went back to more type cards
The 1936 Sport Stamps were carried in several newspapers. Here are some from my last collection. I no longer own them.

Thanks Leon, you saved me the trouble of digging out my LA Examiner copies to scan and post. However, I probably should still look for them to at least post an image of the Joe DiMaggio Sports Stamp I have that mentions him having played in the PCL. Also includes the youngest image I've ever seen of Joe D, he looks like he's a young teen.

This kind of relates to a different thread I recently saw on Net54 in one of the other forums about pricing and values of articles and stories out of the newspapers. Was surprised no one mentioned the Sports Stamps or Rinkydink Stamps sets in it. You would think these newspaper originated collectibles would have more interest and value. Like cards, they are still paper/cardboard based, were massed produced and distributed, but are much rarer in that their distribution was limited to one single day and newspaper is exceedingly more fragile and subject to the ravages of time and the elements more so than cards ever are. It is almost a miracle that any survived till today, unless glued into a scrapbook or otherwise compromised in some manner. Finding these newspaper cut-out collectibles in really nice, pristine condition is exceedingly rare. Definitely an undervalued and underappreciated pre-war collectible.