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david posesa little background- like pretty much everyone new to vintage cards, initially, i had convinced myself that i would assemble the full 524-card t206 set. within a few days, the goal became "the full 520 card set." then it occured to me that the hall of famers were much more plentiful than the southern leaguers, so my primary focus was to assemble the sl'er set, with a side-hobby of gathering up as many other t206 cards as i could come by. for some reason or another, i found myself resenting the southern league set. i didn't want to buy ike rockenfeld. that guy looks like he's wearing a hat you'd see in an s&m biker bar (no, i don't know from experience). mccauley too. why do i "have" to buy these and other cards i may not want. i hate the arch persons card. he looks like a fat guy about to throw a ball. but if i wanted to get every southern leaguer with piedmont and old mill backs, i'd need to shell out good money so i could have two ike rockenfelds.
the more i researched the hobby as a whole, the more the concept of "the 25 card collection" appealed to me. collect what you want, downsize when necessary, but don't limit yourself to cards you think you should have because if you want to have a southern league subset, you'd better track down a few arch persons cards.
*disclaimer: most of the southern league cards, imho, are some of the nicest looking in the t206 set, let alone the hobby. shag, hickman, paige, fritz, reagan...
i sold my near-set of southern leaguers recently, keeping only a few spare gordon hickman cards, one of my two ray ryans, and the shag shaughnessy with the hindu back (not the one i sold a few months ago- the nicer one).
the whole world is open to me now. i'm looking at the e102 hal chase not feeling like "oh s**t- if i get this, i'm going to screw up the southern league fund." maybe i'll track down an e98 plank (in not so stellar shape). i got a few t210's. i almost won a b/w t209 on ebay last weekend. part of me feels like i had to get the t206 set thing out of my system like some kind of vintage collector's initiation hazing. i feel liberated.
the last thing i want to do is bash the t206 collectors- please don't take this the wrong way. i'm just speaking from my own experience of having a eureka moment recently when it dawned on me that there's a whole world out there.
surely some of you can relate. care to share how your collection has evolved? anyone into the "25 card collection" how is it working for you? how do you choose your cards? what cards are in the 25 card collection?