Why I collect

[Cozumeleno]

(I apologize for the length of this rambling ...)

It just hit me over the weekend.

So I got into pre-war cards only a few years ago after collecting current and other 'vintage' stuff for most of my life. Most recently, I have been in search of the last few T205 cards for my set (cheap plug: Now down to Cobb, WaJo, and Joss if anyone is listening) and, frustrated, have really been going all out in the past few months. Looking at websites of dealers/shops, joining collecting groups, checking AH listings, scanning old B/S/T listings here, etc. Pretty much anything I can think of.

Fast forward to this weekend when I went to a small advertised show at a nearby mall - by small, I'm talking like ten tables. Now, I wasn't expecting there to be much, if any, pre-war stuff. But since it was only about 15 minutes from my house, I figured I'd stop by.

I was correct to have the low expectations of finding what I needed. A couple of guys knew what I was talking about but had none. One guy had a single common that he was digging around for. A couple more didn't appear to have any idea what I was talking about. And one gave me a perplexed look as to why I was looking for that.

I have been to a few setups similar to this, flea markets, etc., but I have not been to an actual card show in many years so I'm somewhat insulated from the reality of the industry as a whole. All of a sudden, it hit me that the pre-war community was a lot smaller than I probably envisioned. Now, I knew it was a small population. But going out and talking with those few dealers (some of which had large offerings) actually emphasized that for me even more. Whatever percentage of dealers I thought had pre-war cards for sale was in actuality much smaller.

I think I expected someone to have something, even if it wasn't what I was looking for. A few T206s, even. Things like this site as well as seeing a good amount of pre-war listings on eBay fooled me into believing it's a bigger market than it really is - at least in terms of comparing it to the collecting population as a whole.

On the drive home, the experience made me reflect on why I enjoy collecting pre-war cards. I thought back to a recent conversation I had with a non-collecting friend. I basically was explaining to him that I collected cards of players that I'd never seen play and many of which, had not even heard of until I started collecting. So why did they appeal to me?

The reasons I came up with were many I thought about before, including just being a busybody that always feels like he has to be doing something. But I also realized that much of it is the very thing I was bothered by - that they were not as easy to find. That's often frustrating in the day-to-day search and I don't even collect what I consider to be the rare stuff. But I realized that it also is a reason I love collecting pre-war cards in the first place. Finding a card you needed is so rewarding and I know my T205s will mean so much more to me once I find the final few.

I'm not trying to denigrate collecting newer cards at all. There are certainly rarities there. Plus, everyone should collect what they like because, guess what? In the grand scheme of things, we're all just nuts anyway. But it helped me to realize that part of the reason I enjoy it so much is also the part that frustrates me - the pursuit.