[egri]

I've been a member here for about five years, so I don't know that I qualify as a newcomer, but I collected growing up. When I was about ten, I saw a piece at a silent auction that showed the 2004 Red Sox winning the World Series, framed and matted with their 2005 Topps cards, and that lit the fire. Later that week I got my mom to take me to the LCS, and collected for the next five years or so. I started out in modern, with some junk wax as well. Then at the LCS, I met an older collector who saw that I was buying a card with a piece of Bobby Doerr's jersey on it and started asking me questions about the Red Sox teams of that era. He had with him a 1949 Leaf Ted Williams that I spent several minutes ogling. That was my introduction to vintage. He gave me Doerr's address, and Doerr was kind enough to sign a lot of items for me. That got me in to collecting autographs. Around that time I picked up my first vintage cards, 1949 Bowmans of Doerr and Sam Mele, a 1952 Bowman Jimmy Piersall, and a handful of 1933 Goudeys. A neighbor also gave me several 1960s Topps from his childhood collection. I didn't get any of those signed at the time because back then it was near heresy to get old cards signed.

I stopped collecting around my freshman year of high school. Wasn't sure what the girls would think, and it was difficult collecting vintage on a 14 year old's budget.

Then in 2014, when I was a freshman in college, I got the bug again. I dug out the vintage cards, and sent them off to the players who were still alive. Some didn't come back, but a lot of them did. When I exhausted what I had on hand, I started buying more from the LCS and online. After picking up several from a few different years, I figured I should pick a set and commit to it. I had just gotten my 1953 Topps #225 Bobby Shantz back from him, and something about the artwork jumped out at me. I started focusing on the 1953 Topps set, and was able to write to 44 of the players. Every one of them responded, some of them enclosing other cards or pictures as well. While this was going on, I stumbled across this forum and joined up, and since then its been off to the races.