Share your contrarian hobby opinions
 

Share your contrarian hobby opinions that go against accepted hobby norms. Not looking to pick fights, but it’s good to question long established hobby opinions.

Personally, I think the 1933 Goudey Ruth Red background is a nicer, and tougher, card than the yellow Ruth.

I also think the 1956 Topps set is overrated; huge print runs for each card (compared to earlier 1950s sets), and the color (or lack thereof) makes the set look boring.

T206 Kleinow (Catching)
 

It is my personal opinion that the Red Kleinow (Catching) Boston is more common than the Red Kleinow (Catching) N.Y.

Patrick

I like the 1940s MP & Co. cards

The Armour Coins is one of the best ever issues

I don't like the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle

Collectors focus too much on centering. It's not that big of a deal.

Two things:

1. I think the 57 Topps set the standard and model for the modern day card.

2. I think grading has done more harm than good for the hobby when it comes to young collectors and significantly contributed to the morphing of a hobby into an investment.

I believe the E92 dockmen are tougher to find in nice condition (PSA 5+) than people think.

The T210 set is by far the best looking T set.

T cards are boring.

Great idea for a thread!

1953 Bowman cards…. Overrated Great pictures, but they don’t look like baseball cards to me.

1952 Bowman is a better set than 1952 Topps for these reasons:

1. Better artwork
2. Prices aren't inflated which makes it more collectible
3. Smaller set which makes it more collectible
4. Mays is a scarce high number but still more affordable than it's Topps counterpart, despite it's better image and lower population.
5. The Stan Musial card is one of the best looking baseball cards EVER (and Topps is lacking Musial)
6. The image on the 1952 Mantle makes me think of the Mona Lisa...while the double printed Topps Mantle is sort of ugly.

OK, I'll admit the omission of Jackie Robinson in Bowman is a pretty big downside...but overall Bowman is still better.


(OK, feel free to kick me off the boards for these opinions) :)

I don't keep up with any major league (professional) sports.

and I think the E90-1 Jackson isn't good looking....
.

Agree

Action shots/poses are better than portraits.

It's stranger to love simple pieces of cardboard from before your parents were born than shiny, high-tech cards of contemporary players.

I try to collect other cards, comics, memorabilia, but always find myself going back to T206.

Well, since we all collect cards of players who haven't played in YEARS, I don't see how current pro sports are even relevant :)

I think t205 and 1953 Bowman color are the best looking baseball cards ever.

I think 1953 Topps and 1955 Bowman are the worst looking ever. In fact, I think1953 Topps is just effing hideous.

I'm pretty OK with most of the opinions so far, but OP this one really triggered me :)

I don't know how ANYONE can not love 1956 Topps with the upclose portaits and full colored backgrounds. Maybe the best set ever. Yeah, huge print runs, but that way we can all get more of them! :)

+1 agree with every word.

+1. If only it had a Ted Williams and even, maybe, a DiMaggio.

48 Leafs are probably the most beautiful set ever. And I think Andy Warhol ripped them off.

I think t205s are the 1953 Topps of tobacco cards.

Agree on both counts re: Bowman

Piggybacking on this, I think the 1952 Bowman is Willie Mays’ best card. The 1951 Bowman and 1952 Topps are too dark, the ‘53 Topps isn’t a nice image, and 1954 onward have too many cards printed.

Yes, since Bowman didn't appear to reuse any poses from prior years in 1952 (unlike some repeats from '50 to '51) it's fun to think what a new Ted Williams painting would have looked like. And yeah, a DiMaggio would have been amazing.

I do not see the appeal of any of the hugely popular T206 or 1933 Goudey cards.

Dotted lines
 

Strip cards are awesome! Plus…. I don’t give a darn if they include a dotted line on the edge or not as long as they have some even borders…. And this includes Bazookas too! You are really going to pay 10x for a 9 vs an A just to see that dotted line???????

Agreed
_

These views have evolved over time and I realize that some of my past actions are in direct conflict with them. They are mine and some or all may be incorrect or certainly subject to debate, a debate I have no interest in partaking in.

1. Set collecting is a waste of time and money. Collect the players you like and forget the others. The biggest waste of time and money is registry set collecting. This just gives you an opportunity to overpay for a 10 that on another day might have been a 9 (or an A).
2. The T206 set is the most overhyped set of all time. Some cards are nice looking (Cobb bat off, for example) but many are ugly.
3. Collecting rookie cards was a pursuit thought up by dealers to make money
4. A significant portion of high dollar signed cards are forged
5. At $10 apiece cards were a hobby, at $10,000 apiece they are an asset class.
6. A National at Atlantic City is a horrible idea
7. Cap Anson’s bust should be removed from the HOF.

Have I pissed off enough people yet, I can keep going. ��

Exhibits, postcards, photos, cards cut from magazines have never been as desirable, widely collected or valued as gum or candy cards. I just dont see it. Sure they have a nice image what have you, but they were not a side promotion for the gum/candy and subsequently thrown away. Hence the entire collectibility aspect of the hobby. My mom threw out my postcards...doesnt have the same ring to it.

T205 is a much better set than T206 and the master set of t205 is far harder to finish than a 522 of t206

Upper Deck and card grading forever changed the hobby of card collecting, and NOT FOR THE BETTERMENT OF THE HOBBY.

PLEASE...keep going! I agree with every word.

Calling super-whamadyne expensive cards a hobby is laughable, unless you're made out of money.

IMHO 1952 Topps cards (except Mathews, Camp, Jackie, Mays, and Mick) are hideous. To me they look like a bad airbrush job.

I could care less what some unknown person working for a company that is corrupt or incompetent or both thinks about a cards grade.

I don’t care about centering. Miscuts are better.

Creases are preferable to no creases.

95% of my vintage is not sleeved at all.

Hall of Famers are no more desirable than a common.

Jackie Robinson, Roberto Clemente, Mickey Mantle and Current Years Hot Rookie are greatly overvalued.

I’d love for the market to keep declining. Would be thrilled if it totally crashed.

Claims about cards and card sets are not true because of who makes the claim or how long they have floated about the hobby; actual evidence makes them true.

I don’t hate modern. A lot of the base looks very nice.

Non-sports are as cool as sports.

Centering doesn’t matter.

Modern collectors deserve respect.

Obaks are way better than T206

Delongs are better than Goudey

1930s cards are more interesting than tobacco cards.

I can't believe intelligent, well-heeled people would fork over colossal sums of money for either the 1952 or 1953 Topps Mantle cards. They look like something out of a comic book. No envy or jealousy. I find them both absolutely stupid looking. Laughably so. If you gave me the money I would buy something else. And then there's a Roy Campanella Bowman card that's even worse, a weird looking tiny hat on his otherwise big head that is just out and out ridiculous looking.

I don’t think anyone disagrees with this. DeLongs are the best

I wish the baseball card so-called "hobby", the value of baseball cards, would crash to the floor. Then it could become a hobby again.

I wish card grading companies would all go bankrupt.

-1938 Goudey low numbers are tougher than high numbers
-1938 Goudey is an attractive card set
-The N162 Kelly and the T205 Cobb are the most beautiful baseball cards
-1952 Topps is an overrated set and 1953 Topps is much better
-Grading has been a huge benefit to the hobby
-Modern collectors and investors are all collectors, there's room for all of us

-Al

• Any Dave Kingman at-bat was the most exciting thing ever for a fan.

• The 1967 Topps Mickey Mantle is a great portrait.

• Any card/picture of Hughie Jennings showing his mouth wide open, hands flying all over the place and once again shouting, "Ee-Yah!" is a complete annoyance. You were exuberant. We get it!!!

• Jeff Kent unquestionably should've been a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

• The 1973 Topps Willie Davis card, showing him getting plinked, is the greatest piece of cardboard in history!!

For pre-War cards, collecting cards from obscure sets is more fun than collecting T206s, T205s, and 1933 Goudeys.

For post-War cards, collecting cards from regional sets is more fun than collecting Bowman & Topps. The neatest Bowman set is the 1955 TV set.

Ee-Yah!
_

Just the facts.

More Ee-Yah beauty!! :D

I second this, which leads into mine,

Mine is that I prefer black and white cards, such as 1921/22 Caramel cards that contain actual photos of the player as opposed to the artwork type cards such as T206 and 1933 Goudey where the resemblance to the player is often sketchy.

I tend to like color artwork over photographs but:

All of the cards featuring bright red lipstick on players are ugly and overpriced. Nap Lajoie did not look like his E96. He was a baseball player, not a drag queen.

Wow, great run!

Not me, I enjoy spending $100 to have someone tell me that my card is creased, then encasing it in plastic so no one can ever touch it again, and then take 2 years to return it to me. I guess that's necessary if I want to make 50K on a 20 dollar purchase and keep a child, or grandchild, from actually touching my card - they might put a crease in it - God forbid! Besides, I like keeping my graded cards in a safe or safe deposit box so no one will steal them or damage them. I can always take them out and look at them when I'm alone and no one is around. Maybe I'll buy one of those digital only cards that I'm the only one in the world that can see it - that part of the "Hobby" is sure to take off in the next few years! I'm sure it will, if someone can just figure out how to grade it.

AIJ (All in jest)

I LOVE that the 56 Topps set is packed with a combo of HOFers: Mick, Jackie, Mays, Aaron, Clemente, Williams, and on, and on...Plus Jackie's last card and Mick's triple crown year, depicting an amazing catch and the absolute most joyous smile ever.

I dont like postcards.

Grading has ruined the hobby.

48 Leaf/49 Bowman Jackies are some ugly ass cards. The 52 Topps Jackie is fine art.

Very hard to argue with that (says the guy who, sadly, will be bidding on graded cards on eBay tonight). Ugh.

Rarer cards of ruth/cobb should be more coveted and valuable than t206's and goudeys.

I like trimmed cards. I bust everything I buy out of the slab it came in. I ignore the constant advice to focus my collection. Instead, I collect just about anything that's vintage, related to baseball and looks cool. I believe Mickey Mantle, Roberto Clemente and 1952 Topps cards are overrated. And I'm puzzled why people take the Hall of Fame so seriously.

Marilyn Monroe stuff is greatly undervalued, she's every bit the American icon that Babe Ruth is.

I second the trimmed cards love. I makes no sense why these beauties are considered to be trash

Jackie Robinson and Sandy Koufax cards are over rated 🙋🏻*♂️

Mick’s best card imo. Also Feller in the set:

I don't get the point of collecting most sets with 75 percent common players nobody gives a damn about. :) How someone can be psyched to pick up a Karger or Abbatachio or Hoblitzell or Dooin or whoever is beyond me. :)

That is a great run!
.

I crack cards out of PSA to send to SGC for my collection.

I do the same, although SGC hands out A's way too much due to grader inexperience.

T213 are the first reprint cards ever.

I really like the SSPC set.

Me2

Kellogg’s are the Van Goghs of baseball cards because of the blurred 3D backgrounds. I never tire of looking at them. Especially the original 1970 set.

Ty Cobb T202
 

Top pic is Ty Cobb, well documented. So is this T202. Note the stripes on the cap.

To steal another member's line, A is for Awesome! Especially when they can be had for beat up PSA/SGC 1 prices. Personally having zero faith in any TPG's ability to detect more carefully performed trimming / alterations makes this an easy bridge for me to cross.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...c2956bf9_z.jpghttps://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ffa414f8_z.jpghttps://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...7b913a4a_z.jpghttps://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5ba16b6d_z.jpghttps://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...21687e67_z.jpghttps://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...38c42ae5_z.jpg

The following cards are hideous:
--1933 Goudey Foxx
--1933 Goudey Gehrig
--T206 Young glove showing
--T206 Speaker
--E90 Jackson
--1952 Topps Mays
--National League T205s
--R427 blue tint
--W512, W513, W9316, IFS Blue and Orange, Universal Toy & Novelty strips

T227s are lousy likenesses of the subjects.

The premium for the Obak Ten Million card is asinine.

Just because a player was a great player doesn't mean his cards are worth as much as he was. Frank Robinson, Eddie Collins, Nap Lajoie, Tris Speaker, Rogers Hornsby, etc.: sorry collectors, but their cards are never going to be on the same level as Ruth, Cobb, Johnson, Aaron, Mantle or Gehrig, no matter how much we discuss it.

Willie Mays is not less popular than Mickey Mantle because of race: he was an asshat who played for the least popular NY team for a few years and spent most of his career in the godforsaken frozen wasteland of Candlestick Park. He is less popular because his fan base is much smaller.

Joe Jackson was a crooked player who should never get into the HOF. Ditto Pete Rose.

Racist players from the Jim Crow era who are in the Hall of Fame should stay right where they are: do not erase history, learn from it.

Anything made from 1981-1988 is junk wax. Period. Anything made after 1989 is shiny crap. Period. Have fun with it, play with it, speculate with it, but recognize it for what it is in the end: recycling.

Anyone who spends more than $1,000 on a card, or who owns more than $10,000 of cards, and says that they don't care about the value of their cards, is lying.

The set registry is stupid. Bunch of insecure old white guys comparing pee-pees.

The National should be in Chicago every year. Good venue, easy airport, lots of hotels and food. If the show isn't going anywhere west of Chicago or south of AC, it isn't a National it is a northeastern regional. Just stick it in Chicago and stop pretending.

Long baseball pants are an abomination and should be banned immediately. The players today look like kids in their favorite team PJs.

Pitch counts are for wimps.

Michael Jordan is overrated.

I agree with a lot of what Adam says, but I think many vintage collectors are off base about the strength and lasting power of modern cards. They have and I believe will continue to have a huge following, much bigger than our vintage community.

Preach. Although I don’t agree with it all, this post contains is very truthful takes.

I wouldn't say this is even remotely contrarian.

1913 National Game/Tom Barker Game cards are underappreciated considering the quality of image for a smaller non-exhibit/postcard sized card.

1911 Sporting Life (M116) has been undervalued for way too long considering it's size and checklist.

Neither issues are common or mega-rare, but it's not too hard to find examples of either of these issues in great shape when you do run across them.

A couple of mine:

- those who praise the 33 Goudey Lajoie but rip modern cards for manufactured rarity are hypocrites

- the vast, vast majority of T206s are ugly

Turkey reds

Contrarian? How about this:

Stop bumping BST posts with another post to say "Sold!" It now places the unavailable item at the top. Just edit the original post to indicate the item is sold. Case closed. It's not that hard people. :eek:

Oh, and yes, the T227 Cobb is based off the T5 Pinkerton image, but he looks like Telly Savalas and it sucks.

1953 topps is boring and ugly, especially compared to ‘53 bowman color.

519. Fool’s Sold
Adding a new post to your own thread (that everyone is now forced to read) to declare that the card has been sold, instead of simply editing the title to reflect this fact.

-T212 Obak's are superior to T206, and it isn't close.

-1910-1920's cards with actual photos of players are superior to cartoonish representations from most of the litho sets made in the 1910's and 1930's.

-Cards of obscure players are more interesting than those of stars

-True rarity trumps Condition rarity

-People that don't collect sets are doing it wrong :D

-1953 Bowman color is the most attractive set
-1933 Goudey Ruth 149 is the better of the 4
-1952 Bowman’s Mantle and Mays both are far better looking than 1951/2 examples
-1952-54 Topps are not my favorites
-T206 Cobb red portrait is nicer looking than the green
-T205 set is underrated
-Any vintage card high grade is an asset
-Todays prices are absurd

Colgan's are the best source of actual player photos