New to Net54- Introduction

[OldBatBoy]

It started with a house... More specifically a display case in a house my family moved to this Spring. As we are not a "trophy" family the empty display case taunted us for several months until my wife suggested we resurrect the stored baseball cards and memorabilia from my parent's house. As a collector in the late 80's and early 90's my parents were under strict orders not to throw out any of the cards, cracked bats, and autographed balls I accumulated as a batboy for the AAA Portland Beavers in the early 1990's. To that end (and after several trips back and forth) we soon had a display case filled with the mementos of my youth.
As you can imagine, it took about three days of walking by the case to open it up for the first time and to start investigating, within a week I was back into my binders and cards.
The challenge then became what to collect? It took a couple of trips to the local baseball card shop before I found my muse 1934-36 Diamond Stars. The cards looked spectacular and seemed (from my research online) to be a fairly affordable and attainable set.
So that is what brings me here... I have been watching this forum and learning about the changes in baseball card collecting since I departed the hobby (PSA, SGC, the numerical designations, etc.) Overall the forum seems like a wonderful place with lots of helpful like-minded folks.
I have two questions if anyone cares to respond:
1.) Some suggested reading on pre WWII baseball cards?
2.) The best sources for purchasing older cards?

Thank you so much for this wonderful forum and I look forward to becoming a contributing member.

Andrew

Welcome Andrew, from a newbie! I'll allow the more season contributors to answer your first question, but B/S/T is a great place to make deals with members and post items you are looking to buy. Enjoy the boards...A tremendous amount of knowledge here (excluding maybe myself, lol)!

[tonyo]

Hi Andrew and Welcome!

1) Try Lipset's encyclopedia (http://www.oldcardboard.com/encyclopedia.asp) while you are at oldcardboard.com spend an hour clicking on all their links.

Also ask for the catalog from REA Auctions.

Also, pick a few sets and use the search function on this forum. You can spend hours doing that.

The SCD vintage card price guide might be a good book to get as well.

2) B/S/T (as mentioned), eBay, at least a dozen on-line auction houses.


Welcome, have fun, and don't forget to post a picture of the trophy case

Tony

[ethicsprof]

i'm with Tony Q on the 'helpful hints'.
welcome aboard the board!!
all the best,
barry

[the 'stache]

Welcome to the forum, Andrew!

To build upon what Tony mentioned, the REA catalog is pretty incredible. Brian Dwyer from REA popped in with information about getting the catalog, and their upcoming auction, in a discussion I started here. The catalog is free to anybody that requests one.

The vintage links will include many auction houses as well as individual dealers on Ebay. Besides the B/S/T boards on this site, those are your best bets for building your collection. It is of course important to buy from reputable sellers.

Have fun, this is a great place.

[OldBatBoy]

Thanks Bill, just requested the catalog

[Leon]

Welcome to the board Andrew. As Tony mentioned, If you get Lipset's 3 volume encyclopedia, the Krause Big Book of Baseball (SCD) and maybe a run of OldCardboard magazines you will be off and running and have enough to read for the next many months to a year or more....The Net54baseball BST, auction houses and ebay are the normal venues to acquire stuff. If you ever need to check a reference on the board you can always PM me and I will try to help.....happy collecting.

[CW]

Welcome to the board, Andrew.

Feel free to post some pictures of your display cabinet -- that sounds pretty cool. Did any stars or HOFers come up through Portland's AAA team? (to post pictures you can either upload them here when replying to a message, or you can use the links from a photobucket-type site).

If I could offer some advice it would be collect what you like. Some people can afford and prefer high grade cards, some collectors search for mid-grade cards with nice eye appeal, while others collect well-loved beaters and could care less about grading, condition, etc. It's all good.

Regardless of the grade, you will find cards with really good centering selling for premiums. If you are bidding on a card or item and you lose out, be patient -- most likely another one will show up down the road and you will get it for a lower price. Good luck and have fun!

Some helpful links:

http://www.auctionreport.com/

http://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/

http://www.cardtarget.com/ (great free price tracking site)

http://www.vintagecardprices.com/ (subscription site, but they offer a cheap, one day membership that can help out in a pinch)

And finally, nice choice on the Diamond Stars set. I feel it is somewhat underrated, and I love the art deco style of the artwork. I only have one in my collection, but it was one of the first vintage cards I bought when I got back into collecting in '99 (also my only Hornsby card).

[mrvster]

Welcome Aboard.....YOU'll Love it here

I suggest you collect "The Monster"....The T206 set....

there are so many ways to collect them.....check out T206resource.com


Peace

Johnny

[pencil1974]

Welcome aboard. There is a wealth of knowledge and good people on here.

[EvilKing00]

welcome to the board - good place to buy, is right here, the forum has an area called (BST) members buy and sell there, ebay is also good, as well as many auction houses.