[brian1961]

I love reprints, but am just as picky regarding them as I am with the originals.

Quality-wise, reprints are all over the scale. The Dovers looked and were very cheap. Sometimes high gloss is OK, if it was generally well-done.

Historically, it was a hot subject of major debate in the hobby 40 years ago. The "HAVES" did not want the "HAVE NOTS" to even enjoy the pseudo measure of joy in having a nice facsimile of the real deal. I don't know; maybe they felt threatened that their original holdings would lose value, or would not be as valuable when the time finally came for them to cash in their collection of scarce and rare cards. Some of those wealthy collectors, or extremely fortunate collectors who got in on the ground floor of penny or two cent or nickel-a-piece T-206s and early twentieth century candy cards were most vehement about reprints. Their fears regarding the potential devaluing of their collections turned out to be completely false, as we all know.

I was a widow's son. We struggled but got by OK. Luxuries such as vintage baseball cards were rarely attainable, when they were just available.

Back in the early 70s I was absolutely nuts about the 1930s. When TCMA's Mike Aronstein placed an ad in The Sporting News for a reprint set they were offering of the very scarce 1933 DeLong Gum Company issue, I jumped at the chance. For 3-4 bucks with shipping, Mike had lovingly created a simply fabulous reprint set of these gorgeous cards. I had read a beautiful article in The Sports Hobbyist late in 1971 on this very set, written by the esteemed Mr. Lionel Carter. Loved the article, loved the reprints. They gave me so much happiness to get a blast from the past. Sure they were just reprints, but they were of high quality and most accurate.

I would just gaze at them and recreate in my mind the scene Mr. Carter recounted of not buying his usual five-cent chocolate bar to enjoy with the movie at his local theater, opting instead to purchase five one-cent packs of these baseball cards he had never heard of before. The pack wrapper intrigued him, looking so beautifully colored and interesting. He was not to be disappointed, and thus started a life of collecting baseball cards. He was around 15 at the time.

In the late 1980s when Card Collectors Company put out a high quality reprint set of the 1951 and 1952 Bowman baseball series, I purchased them for their reasonable price and was thrilled. Sure, originals would please me more, but that would never happen...

The last example I wish to relate was when the same aforementioned firm came out with a very high quality reprint set (actually near set; they did not bother to do a card of the host, Mark Scott) of the 1960 Home Run Derby cards. Talk about a rare set, and I actually got to view a complete set of the originals in late 88, and I'm telling you the reprints perfectly match the originals, with the proper but innocuous "CCC88" printed on the lower right side border. Yes, I'd be honored and very thrilled to have originals. The Mickey Mantle is a peach of a Mantle card, and is easily one of the great ones rendered of The Commerce Comet. In this case, the reprint set, along with the gorgeous factory DVDs of the TV show, are a genuine delight at a cost I could afford.

Don't get me wrong. Again, I love the real thing. I have a few original Mantle cards that would make Donald Spence flush scarlet with envy and mad with desire. Be that as it may, our hobby has more than a few cards that have come to be worth "a tad more" than the old penny, nickel, and dime-a-piece.

As the old saying goes, you can't have everything. I am just very thankful for the good things that I've got. And some of those good things just happen to be reprints. If that makes you choke, .... hold your hand up and take a few deep breaths.

Right now I'd love a nice quality reprint of the devastatingly beautiful 1910 Washington Times Ty Cobb. I have a scan, and I might just make one---and write on the back of it "printed by Brian Powell in the year 2015!!!

Gotta go and eat supper. Take care, ya'll. ---Brian Powell