[Archive]

Posted By: ErlandStevens

The dad of one of my friends was a big-time collector. When I was much younger, maybe 13 or 14, I collected the sets of the day - Topps, and then Donruss and Fleer. One day, the dad was driving my friend and me somewhere. The guy smoked. When I got in the car, he pulled two low grade T206s (Manning with bat and Konetchy low glove) out of a cigarette pack and gave them to me. He then explained how the cards were originally included with tobacco products. Later, he gave me a bunch of back issues of SCD. Stories I remember were on Cool Papa Bell and an umpire, Al Barlick maybe. From that point on, I liked vintage cards. There was a local card shop with a handful of vintage cards. I would go through the ragged selection of T206s about 100 times before picking out a card for $1. The first I bought from the store was Art Fletcher with a massive corner crease.