Why the **** did you start collecting vintage memorabilia????

[BigJJ]

Ben,

I felt privileged to have read your post. Thanks for sharing, great story.

I didnt know you were a sentimental guy.

Great thread.

At age 6, my dad told me, out of the blue, one day at my grandparents, that he kept all his cards.

Didnt mention it before, even though I had collected since birth about, and then sat down with me, in a serious discussion at my grandfathers house, where they had been kept for 30 years at the time. It was all there, 1953-1960, baseball, football, basketball. every set about.

And then I was shown my grandfathers generation of cards. My grandfather had kept T-206s from the 1910s, and my dad had added from tobacco shops and stands in Manhattan. These tobacco shops and stands were fill-ins for formal baseball card shops from 1950-1970. My dad told me he paid 25 cents for the T-206 green Cobb in circa 1960.

I believe I received 9 cards that day. The first card I received from my dad's collection was a 1956 Hank Aaron.

And there it all was. I learned from the cards. They were still the internet in the 1980s, along with books. and learned from my family the history of baseball, and how to care for the cards.

As I got older, I wanted to be closer to the actual players. and then, closer to the players actually playing the game. I moved from cards, to autographs, to pre-war game used and for the c.1900-1915 group, photos. Cards became autographs became game used.

My grandfather J@mes Fuld was an attorney by day, and a sheet music collector, really a historian of music, by night/weekend/vacation.

He assembled our history of popular music - The Star Spangled Banner, Happy Birthday, Mary had a Little Lamb, etc. from collecting the sheet music, from 1600 to 1900. from first edition to final edition. alterations, developments. music and lyric may have been created separately and merged over time. He also collected the handwritten spontaneous creations. So he really collected to piece together the history of popular music. At one point he owned 3 of the surviving 7 original printings of the Star Spangled Banner printed in 1814. Incredibly, they were not tremendously expensive, like Ruth jerseys and Wagners were not.

I have a researching/collecting gene, I cant help it. I guess thats my why. My 2 year old son has about 80 little toy horses of various sorts. Lord help him and us.

But I love the game. Playing, and researching and collecting.

[Runscott]

Great post, Ben.

I got fired up by a 1909 Pirates supplement that had hung in Honus Wagner's office at Forbes Field. It hung on my wall for a far shorter time and then I regrettably sold it. Wish I had not. The thrill was in having something that actually had a personal tie to the ballplayer, unlike cards which the players never actually touched. I finally picked up a piece to replace the supplement - this 12" x 16" 1917 photo of Wagner that hung in his house:

[Forever Young]

Originally Posted by Runscott

Great post, Ben.

I got fired up by a 1909 Pirates supplement that had hung in Honus Wagner's office at Forbes Field. It hung on my wall for a far shorter time and then I regrettably sold it. Wish I had not. The thrill was in having something that actually had a personal tie to the ballplayer, unlike cards which the players never actually touched. I finally picked up a piece to replace the supplement - this 12" x 16" 1917 photo of Wagner that hung in his house:

You know how much I love this piece.. it is fantastic and I think you make up for "yor loss" very very well. I am glad it didn't discourage you otherwise we wouldn'y have teh pleasure of you posting on here ruffling feathers.. HAHA!

[Runscott]

Ben, it's funny. I sold that piece for about what I paid for it, and the buyer was having a lot of second thoughts. I think when he re-sold it and doubled (or tripled) his money, he felt a little better.

[Runscott]

Here's the other piece I should have kept, and a check as well:

[BigJJ]

I added a horse pic above, representing about one tenth of the horses here.

[gnaz01]

Great thread!! Having dealt with just about everyone in this thread, I, too, feel privileged to have read this and to "know" all of you, sort of!

[drcy]

I collected a variety of sport and non-sport memorabilia as a kid, including Topps baseball cards. I consider trading cards a kind of memorabilia. As a 7 or year old I collected newspaper, political buttons, figures, TTM autographs-- and still have some of it in a closet box. I'm not a hoarder in the least, and family members sometimes comment only how little I have in my home.

As I kid I also was interested in art and music, played piano and clarinet, composed 'classical' music for piano, painted, had my own cartoon strip and was in planning stages of my own version of Disney land. In college I had a couple of political cartoons published in a newspaper and a poem published in an anthology-- neither areas held my interest, so that was the beginning and end those. So the who general art and collecting fits together.

[Forever Young]

Originally Posted by BigJJ

Ben,

I felt privileged to have read your post. Thanks for sharing, great story.

I didnt know you were a sentimental guy.

Great thread.

HAHA.. I have my moments..

As a kid, my dad received teh collection of an old man down the streat in Detroit. He then collected all through childhood. He was able to keep all teh cards and they even made it to Fargo ND when his family moved and he went to college. The problem is, his mom(my grandma-who was the best btw god rest her soul) gabe them to the truck driver(who moved them). So close to being in your shoes... mantle rookies, tobacco cards..ahh.. makes me sick. Anyway, it was something that my father and I were able to do togethe rtoo. He bought me other cards as a grew up(mis-spoke when I said it was just vintage memorabilia- that included vintage cards). He also collects stamps.. so yeah..
Your son appears to have "the gene" too buddy! haha! I love how you "learned to care for teh cards" from your family. I wonder how I learned? I probably spilled jelly on one and tried to trade it and someone said no.