Posted By:
JKDaniel,
I will turn your question around on you - how do you know there werent more than 200 collectors. Frankly, I think your argument is full of assumptions that are made without any real factual support. Some of your statements:
"There were probably 100-200 postcard collectors of the time, who put together GIANT collections, that through the years have been broken down and re-sold in various catagories."
In a country of, I would guess, approximately 100 million at the turn of the century you really think only 200 people collected pcs? On what basis do you make such an assumption? That is nothing more than pure speculation.
"Now the reverse. In the 1905s through 1940s, you have a company that produces postcards and the demand is definable - in the millions and millions and millions"
Admittedly, I am no expert in post cards, but I think you are making an huge assumption here. First of all, as to many postcards such as the sepia plank, Im not sure we know a thing about the company that produced the cards. You have assumed that a postcard company produced it, but there are no markings on the card to indicate that - so we really have no idea if the producer was a postcard company or some other business - for example, a sports store that gave them away to customers (I admit that the lack of advertising makes this unlikely, but we simply dont know). I think the same is true of most of the postcards if you check the old cardboard links. For example, was Rose Co. a postcard manufacturer or was it a clothing store? I dont know, but I bet someone here does. Other company's that put out postcards - the sporting news, exhibit manufacturers, novelty cutlery, detroit free press, wolverine news, etc. I would argue that none of these companies were in the business of producing postcards and simply wanted to make a product that appealed to collectors and non-collectors alike. Heck, I think its hard to argue that the sporting new's postcards werent meant as collectables when all their other card offerings were meant to be collected. Finally, if there were one such giant postcard company manufacturing cards of bb players, why is it that the list of postcards on old cardboard's website doesnt reflect that? You would expect numerous issues from one company if your theor were correct.
"but how do you measure the collector community of the time and the likelihood that the expenses you incur in producing postcards that double as baseball cards will be comfortably turned into profit by a collector whose tastes you probably don't fully understand"
Again, I think you are assuming profit on the sale of the postcards themselves was the motive. I doubt that was sporting news' motive - Im betting their motive was advertising and sales of its publications.
"the format that is different clearly to that used in most baseball cards in T, N, etc. form? Do you really build a business around that."
Again - your assuming the business was making postcards. Again, take a look at the sporting news -they put out supplements (m101-1s, m101-2s and m101-6 through m101-9s); cards (m101-4s, m101-5s); pcs (pc 757s), etc. The differing formats didnt stop them from trying it and they clearly built a successful business.
"And if we're being honest, we should also acknowledge that 'collecting' stuff has been legitimized/given a fresh face in only recent decades, and that before then most such collectors were more likely to be considered horders and eccentrics. Stamps and coins were fairly accepted, furniture for the hoy poloy, but after that........how many people collected and shared their love of dutch porcelain? Or silver matchsafes? Or any of the other collecting hobbies so much more widely enjoyed today."
Frankly, I think this is the biggest assumption of the bunch. What makes you believe people didnt collect things at the turn of the century? As noted above, antique collecting was widely accepted. Im betting many things (albeit different things than what might be collected today) were collected/saved etc. back then. While bb card collecting may have been in its infancy, the game was very popular and had a growing following. There is no reason to believe that kids didnt collect cards, pcs, supplements etc of their favorite players. In fact, didnt lionel carter collect cards from the 30s straight out of the pack? Those cards were produced to be collected, but do you really think there was a fundamental change between 1910 and 1935, a mere 25 years, that changed human nature? Humans by nature are horders, collectors, gatherers. Always have been and always will be. Now if you have evidence/facts to the contrary other than speculation, I'd love to hear it.