What's the "easiest" and best pre-war set to complete?

[darkhorse9]

If someone wanted to collect complete pre-war sets on a budget, which ones would you advise?

It should be a set with enough cards to make it a true set.
Have enough Hall Of Famers to make it interesting without breaking the bank.
One that is attractive to the eye.
It has to be accessible to the collector through ebay and other sources.

Thoughts?

[Republicaninmass]

How big is the budget?

Can go wrong with a low grade 33 goudey set
Cheapet
I've always like the diamond stars, and no Ruth or Gehrig.

[Leon]

R333 Delongs are fun and not too expensive (minus a few).....

[brianp-beme]

All depending upon your 'enough cards' specification and your toleration for decent black and white photo portrait cards, the 1936 Goudey set of 25, which has 8 Hall of Famers as well as a handful of other popular players could fit the bill. They are relatively common and the cards usually sell for a reasonable price.

Brian

[SMPEP]

Diamond Stars were my first entry, and I thought they worked as a nice introduction.

[sterlingfox]

1936 Goudey (set of 25) is the perfect candidate for cheap and easy.
1935 Goudey 4-On-1 basic set of 36 is in color, has 4 players per card, only the Ruth will really set you back, and isn't that much larger.
1938 Goudey is also small and somewhat budget friendly, but some don't like how they look. Personally, I like them a lot (particularly the high numbers). The DiMaggio and Feller rookies will cost you a pretty penny.
1934 Goudey is under 100 cards and probably the most attractive (IMO), but there's 2 Gehrigs and a Greenberg rookie, so it will cost a bit more than some of the others.
1934-36 Diamond Stars is just over 100 cards, has a fun, art deco style of artwork, and has no Ruths or Gehrigs, but the high numbers will set you back a bit and can be elusive to find.
1933 DeLong is another good one. Small set. Pretty. But they are shooting up in price lately. I'm not sure I'd consider them as budget friendly - especially the Gehrig.

[vintagerookies51]

First set that came to mind was E95. Lots of hall of famers but only 25 cards (I think) so not too bad on the bank account

[rats60]

1935 Goudey 36 cards and only the Ruth is expensive. T201 Mecca Double Folders 50 cards and the Cobb will only cost a few hundred.

[conor912]

'35 Goudey base set is a great starting point. I would think you could do the whole set in VG for right around $2k.

[BobC]

Since you didn't specify a budget, a fairly easy set to collect is the 1936 S&S Game cards. They came 52 cards in the set, featured black & white photos of each player as well as biographical data, and included I believe about 17 or 18 HOFers out of the 52 different players shown.

They are relatively cheap and you should easily be able to put together a decent set for less than $1K. While roughly a third of the set consists of HOFers, none of the really big names like Ruth or Gehrig are included, which helps to keep the cost way down.

Though some collectors don't necessarily like them because they were part of a game, nor had color photos, they were actual photos and not the art-deco type drawings depicted on some of the other suggested sets like the Delongs and Diamond Stars. Plus, since they were issued as cards to be used in a game, they were printed on a little bit stronger and higher quality paper that was intended to hold up to the use and were made with rounded corner like regular playing cards, so they weren't subject to the dinged corner abuse most baseball cards from back then suffered. In other words, though relatively inexpensive for pre-war cards, they can usually be found in relatively nice shape also. Sort of a good match for someone trying to get their feet wet in pre-war collecting without going overboard on the cost or search.

[Scocs]

E96. Small set and not too many HOFers. Plus the HOFers in there are minor ones (no Cobb, Wagner, Johnson, Mathewson, Young).

[darkhorse9]

Lots of great ideas. I like the E96, and the 36 Goudey.

I didn't give a budget because so much can affect that. Lots of $50 cards can add up as fast as a few $400 cards.
For me, as long as it's easy to get the bulk of the set at reasonable prices. (i.e. $50 for low/mid condition for 100 or so cards or $100 for small sets) and there's only one or two cards that would set you back a few hundred, that would work perfectly.

[orly57]

I am not a set-builder, but if I ever did put a set together it would be the T3 Turkey Red. Every card is a work of art. Tons of Hall Of Famers. You could even find a nice way to display them. Since they often come with minor paper loss or pin-holes, you can get some really nice ones in low grades. Only a couple of them are expensive, and even those you can find rougher copies for ok prices. And...it's only 100 cards.

[Steve D]

First set that comes to my mind is T201. 50 cards, but each card has two players, so 100 total players. All the major HOFers except Plank, Wagner and Young are there. The Cobb, Johnson and Mathewson cards are significantly less expensive than their other cards.

As far as the 1930s sets go, you can't beat the 1934-36 Diamond Stars.


Steve