Why do you collect backs?

[Leon]

Back collecting is a lot of fun and adds variety to the common fronts...

From the previous collection...

[orly57]

Makes sense. Chasing rarities, while frustrating, is really fun. I also see the point about how a rare back makes what is usually a readily-available card into something more special.

[KMayUSA6060]

It's a collection of history. Advertising is boring nowadays. The outlets are no longer unique, and it's pretty easy to reach the masses. They had to be creative back then, and the backs are proof.

[SMPEP]

Why? Because it's 50% of the card.

[icollectDCsports]

I don't collect backs, but -- if you think about it -- we call them baseball cards but they are also "advertising cards" and, overall, their function was to market products.

[trdcrdkid]

When I was a kid, I didn't have much money, so it wasn't feasible for me to try to collect sets for any cards other than the current year's Topps set (which I did each year from 1977 through 1981). So as I got into older cards, I became a type collector sort of by default, trying to get examples of as many different sets as I could. That allowed me to see the history of baseball and baseball cards while keeping to my (necessarily) limited budget. See this post with my type checklist from 1980, when I was 14: http://net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=239160

When I got back into collecting in the early 1990s, I was a grad student with a bit more money than I had as a kid, but still not a lot. I was able to pick up more T and E and R cards for my type collection, and I didn't have to limit myself to a single example of each set; I could and did accumulate more of sets I liked. These included some that were relatively tough to find, but not much more expensive than T206s, such as T210s and T212s (and even T211s, which you could get in presentable shape for about $30 in the mid-90s). As I learned more about T206 backs, I saw that as another good way to extend my type collection without busting my collecting budget. In the early to mid-90s, the mid-tier backs (e.g. AB, Cycle, Tolstoi) didn't command much of a premium over common backs, but they were significantly tougher to find, which made them a good collecting challenge for me at the time. See this 1995 article on T206 backs, written by board member Judson Hamlin: http://net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=210404

More broadly, I see my card collection as a window into the past, of baseball as well as the culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. That's why I collect non-sport tobacco cards and trade cards as well as baseball cards. Collecting different backs allows me to see (and show others) the variety of different types of cards that were issued back then, and the variety of products they were issued with.

[orly57]

Originally Posted by SMPEP

Why? Because it's 50% of the card.

That's a good one. But something tells me that if t206s only had images of baseball players with blank backs, they would still be collected today. If the reverse were true, and they were only cardboard advertisements with no images, they would not be. Again, I am totally getting all of your motivations now, but not sure about that 50% argument

[rats60]

Originally Posted by orly57

That's a good one. But something tells me that if t206s only had images of baseball players with blank backs, they would still be collected today. If the reverse were true, and they were only cardboard advertisements with no images, they would not be. Again, I am totally getting all of your motivations now, but not sure about that 50% argument

But would they be as popular? Probably not. A lot of collectors like myself appreciate both the front and back of cards. Blank back cards have little interest to me. I won't ever buy a blank back t206.

[orly57]

Originally Posted by rats60

But would they be as popular? Probably not. A lot of collectors like myself appreciate both the front and back of cards. Blank back cards have little interest to me. I won't ever buy a blank back t206.

Agreed. I am not a back collector, yet I am not a fan of blank-backs.