Which Card Sparked Your Pre-War Addiction?
 

I haven't been collecting as long as many on the board,but understand that we all,at some point along the way,got hooked on pre-war cards,cabinets,PC's,etc.For me it was this Bill Hallman T206.What card,etc.,got you hooked?Would love to see scans/photo's,or just hear the stories.....

Thanks,Clayton

1934 Goudey Gehrig...was my first card

t206 tom needham got me hooked :D

This one. Or Pete Rose's rookie card.

Beater 1933 Goudey yellow Ruth

A grade 8 Goodwin Champions Rowe. The a Grade 7 T206 Needham. Neither I own anymore:(

Here is mines!! :)

T210 Series 6 Hoffmann, Frankfort.

T206 Speaker - it was on the cover of the 1987 Beckett guide, my bible as a kid. Naturally it became my first pre was purchase.

'33 Goudey #181.

Re: Which Card Sparked Your Pre-War Addiction?
 

This card made such an impression on me I wrote a book about
the Philadelphia Caramel Company. www.PhiladelphiaCaramel.com.

Sparked by
 

An old time dealer back in the 80's at a card show in St. Louis. He had a ton of E cards that I had never seen before in plastic sheets in a dusty binder. I was transfixed and hooked.

33 Goudey Gehrig.

Many years back, three very much trimmed '33 Goudeys. I had developed an interest, if not much in the way of knowledge, in pre war cards, due to their beauty and history. When I saw these three, beautiful to my eyes, trim jobs (which in my ignorance at the time, I didn't realize were trimmed), and the extremely low price which they were going for, I figured, ok, time to jump in. Didn't take long to figure out why, the "bargain" price :o

Still have those three butcher jobs and would never get rid of them, due to their obvious sentimental, if not aesthetic, appeal.

T206 Walter Johnson portrait. My dad grew up in the DC area and told me about times he saw him pitch at Griffith Stadium. When I walked out of the card show with it, I had goose bumps.

33 Goudey Ruth #149 was the start but the T206 Matty with Dark Hat gave me the disease.

T206 Bates.

N162 Anson

Great question, Clayton
 

Mine started here...

http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x...207/9362-1.jpg

... like Jason and others have alluded to - the onset of the disease doesn't take much.

My uncle gave me a handful of beater T206's when I was a kid (including Tinker, Evers and Chance). I eventually lost the cards, but still have the addiction.

Here's mine
 

T206 Eddie Collins, it's like an actual tiny oil painting in your hands. Love it!

T206 Jordan got me first...given to me by a store owner for free!

Joshua

T206 White Cap Mathewson with an Old Mill back.

Sold it on ebay in the lean times to a collector in the Seattle area (displayed stuff at the stadium). I would LOVE to have that back. I had it put in a PSA holder (VG) in 1993 or so. It was part of a trade for a Clemente RC that I had at a show in Charleston, WVA. It was a monster trade for me at 16 or so.

Cash reward for finding the owner!
Bob

I wouldn't say "sparked my addiction," but I picked up a couple of low grade (and have since lost the lower right corner on the former) T206s of Dots Miller and Bob Groom from a woman who appeared to be the original owner. This was at an antiques fair at South Hills Village in the late 1970s. The cost was $3.00 apiece.

Also, I picked up a 1933 Goudey #238 Hugh Critz. I have always loved the simplicity of the pose of the card. Later from the same dealer who had a store on West Liberty Avenue I picked up a 1934 Goudey of Lefty Grove for $20.00. I still have all of the cards.

The addiction didn't take off until 1989.

first one
 

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/calvindog/2909269085/" title="Lajoie Throwing by calvindog65, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3143/2909269085_e637840347_o.jpg" width="450" height="758" alt="Lajoie Throwing" /></a>

A card which most collectors don't like but it was an E90-1 Jackson in 1994 or 1995.

T202:Just Before the Battle with Mathewson and Meyers on the end panels. I went to Atlanta in 1992 for my first National. I held the card and went back to it several times. I finally got it and paid $135. Not a bargain, but the beginning of a sickness my wife will never understand. Fortunately, several people on this board do understand.

Mike

I bought a '39 Playball Gehringer after he signed an autograph through the mail for me in 1988. That started my descent into darkness and collecting very old "little pictures of men" as my wife would say.

T206 Cobb portrait red background and '33 Goudey Ruth #144
When I was a teenager I bought them both (at seperate times)from Lew Lipset out of an ad in The Trader Speaks for about $200 apiece

I was collecting 60s and newer when a dealer friend of mine showed me the Copeland catalog and sold me a Leaf Dimaggio. i remember thinking the US Caramel Hornsby was incredibly cool.

The card that started it for me was a PSA 5 T206 Nap Rucker (throwing), which I bought off of Ebay. It appealed to me so much that two days later I picked up the phone and bought a PSA 5 T206 Bresnahan (batting) from a dealer.

You know the rest of the story.

Jantz

For some reason I loved this T206 Admiral Schlei:

http://www.mikewheatcards.com/cards/435030.jpg

This card sparked my interest. Loved the jersey and had to get one!

T206 Nap Lajoie, throwing, raw, about 1974 or 1975

Gotta be this one. It was one of the first vintage cards I picked up after getting
back into the hobby in '98. I started out collecting the steroid era players (sigh),
then regained my senses and caught the vintage bug around '02. This Cobb is
actually in a PSA 3 holder (due to a couple surface wrinkles), and it opened my
eyes to the fact that you can find low grade cards that still have great eye
appeal, and also fit into a smaller budget.

http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/2511/cobb.jpg

sparked
 

Clayton,
an interesting and intriguing question.
for me it was the first vintage card i bought---back in '84.
I had been given a few in '82 but '84 was the year that i bought the
dark cap matty ---my wife and i were browsing at a convention soon after
marrying and it was a great find for 15 bucks or so.
I still have it---and more importantly, i still have her!!!
best,
barry

Mine was a T201 Chance/Evers, acquired when I was 13 from the legendary Hall's Nostalgia in Arlington, MA. Held on to it for 25 years, then it went off in an unsentimental trade. I still credit Hall's with my giving me my vintage jones.


Bill

For me, it wasnt a pre-war card that got me interested in pre-war cards. It was the Conlon Collection series 1 from about 1991. I just loved the photography and the vintage players so my interest in older baseball started.

This is the card that I blame for starting my pre-war addiction 11 months ago... :(

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/756/35goudeyfront.jpg

1922 e120 Elmer Miller

It was that way for me as well. No one card in particular but just hanging out at the shop seeing the cards and asking questions. And they were very good to me. I wanted a t206, but didn't want to spend the whole weeks budget on one card (A whole 1.50! ) They got in a batch that had a pretty awful Beckley. One large corner mostly torn off and reattached with clear tape. But it was a bargain at just 20 cents. Later on they gave me a totaly wrecked P2. Not exactly what a dealer would do today but it paid off in the long run. I'm still buying stuff from them 33 years later.

Steve B

As a kid growing up in the 60's and 70's, I had a decent start on a HOF collection, but didn't really know what was possible for the earlier players. Started looking into it about 6 years ago and these were my first 3 prewar. Hooked ever since. Cool that someone mentioned the same T202 earlier!

From Wayne Miller in around 1982. I had bought a few T206s from him before, but this was the one that really sank the hook.

Bill
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...Street-F-1.jpg

t205 Wilbur Goode given to me by my step father in about 2002.

A little internet research uncovered a whole set including some of the greats like Cobb, Young and McGraw and off I went.

My first T206 -- purchased in 1997 from a guy selling portions of his grandfather's collection to fund a trip to Vegas....

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/y0RdMf5jh6cgq0sLmxhv3g?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_Ys7fw31kTDs/RouvhE_nEhI/AAAAAAAAAmk/V5ntv7BtOFA/s800/MathewsonThrowingWhiteCapSGC60.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pmifsud3d/SGCGradedCards?feat=embedwebsite">SGC Graded Cards</a></td></tr></table>

My first signed T206 -- purchased in April 2004 on ebay, along with a collection of 3 other signed T206 Marquards. Thus began my signed T206 card mission....

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/CR1TuZ8XYxbAoHPgdA54TDiJm_Z5QsNdec5_I7WHZRE?feat=e mbedwebsite"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_Ys7fw31kTDs/Rv0PG3tTjsI/AAAAAAAABqI/S3lYSA1dB0k/s800/Marquard%20Portrait%20SGC%2030%20Auto.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/pmifsud3d/AutographedT206?authkey=Gv1sRgCNHhgMuiptWNcg&feat= embedwebsite">Autographed T206</a></td></tr></table>

T206 Chance Red Portrait with Polar Bear reverse...in terrible condition.

Bill

http://photos.imageevent.com/uffda51...0Schomberg.jpg

My first N172, purchased from a store, All-Star Cards in Van Nuys, run by Eric Cooper & David Hamilton, in about 1982. $30.

I bought a VG T206 Jack Bliss with a piedmont back at a baseball card store above a gas station (I think it was "Baseball Attic" or "Card Attic") in Chapel Hill in 1991. That did it. Store is long gone, I'm afraid, but I still have the card (just not a scan).

My First
 

My first Pre WWII card I bought in 1990. It was a 1921 Lefty O'Doul Zeenut and my second was a 1922 Lazzeri Zeenut.

Got me hooked ....
 

My first pre-war card, got me hooked, was a Jim Thorpe Sports Kings card. I bought it at a show in Richmond in God knows what year (88? 89? 86?), and that was it.. from there it was Diamond Stars, 36 Goudeys, etc., then non-sports, especially G-Men, which I thought for the longest time were impossible to find in better than G-VG (I know better now, but at a price).....