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Posted By: Joe Drouillard

Interesting to read the posts and note how many collectors are new to the T addiction. Addicted--I guess I fall into that class. Although I've been buying and selling vintage cards for about four years, my first T-206 was a McGraw (glove on hip). I bought it in a mixed lot with a bunch of 1970 cards about two years ago. I hated the card because someone drew a beard on the Hall-of-Famer and someone else tried to erase it. Pretty much destroyed the player's face. I put it for sale on eBay expecting to get $5 or $6 bucks for it. I was shocked when the T brought 10X that much. I thought it odd that in a hobby where condition is everything, how a poor specimen could be worth so much.

I thought about the McGraw often; the weird think was that I actually missed the card. I didn't buy another T for at least a year, but then one day when I was scrolling down the listings on eBay I saw another McGraw. A nice ungraded card without any creases or paper-loss. I placed a $80 dollar bid and for some reason won the auction. That was about a year ago and I've been collecting Ts ever since. I own over fifty cards now-about six Hall-of-Famers, mostly ungraded. I try to only buy cards that are not creased and have clean backs, but lately I've been thinking about concentrating on more expensive rare backs and Hall-of-Famers.

Sounds strange to call a hobby an addiction, but I think in my case the description is accurate. As soon as I get a card there is that itch to own another. My wife tells me that there are worse addictions, I could be chasing women, or betting on the ponies, but I . . . I don't know if I will be selling all of my 1952 Bowmans and Topps to buy a Red Cobb, but I'm thinking about it.

Best wishes,

Joe