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T206CollectorI received this book as a Christmas gift when it came out in 1987. My step-mother bought it for me, after realizing that I enjoyed collecting 1987 Topps cards. She was always trying to show me that baseball cards could actually be considered works of art -- when the Met made a poster of the Burdick Collection, she bought that for me, too.
Though I picked up a few 1933 Goudey's in the late 1980's, it was many years before I began collecting T206 cards in earnest -- 1997 to be exact. By then, the book had lost its spine, and I had marked up some of the pages. It was falling apart. I decided to remove many of the pages and player images from the book and matte them and frame them. The T206 cards of Mathewson, Cobb, Tinker and others from that book are now framed and hang on my children's walls. I even managed to sell a few framed clippings from this book on ebay a few years back -- mostly the 1800's images.
Of course, before I could cut apart my beloved book, I purchased a nice new-looking one on ebay. I keep it lying awkwardly (big as it is) under some books on a standard book shelf. I hardly ever open it, for fear that I may damage the spine.
In short, this book was a true inspiration behind my collecting vintage baseball cards. Indeed, I specifically recall thinking as a kid that Tinker's hair looked cool -- I still do.