My Entire Vintage Collection 1887-1952

[mouschi]

ATTN NET54 USERS: I want to personally thank each and every one of you in helping me build my collection of knowledge - and cards! Several of these below are from Net54 members. I'm grateful to each and every one of you that I have done deals with!

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Raise your hand if you sold something too early this past year.

If I were a betting man, I'd say that nearly every one of you reading this put your hand in the air while gritting your teeth. Never in a million, billion, trillion years would I think cards would explode in the midst of a pandemic!

I had a bunch of high graded PSA rookies from the 80s and 90s, as well as FASC wax, and even a ton of low grade vintage.

And I sold nearly all of it.

Before prices skyrocketed.

Yes, everytime I see for forum topic about how the 1989 Upper Deck Griffey PSA 10 is breaking records, another piece of my heart breaks. Heck, even the PSA 10 Canseco Rated Rookie. I long to have back my '48 Leaf Jackie Robinson, '54 Topps Hank Aaron, and others. Oh, and what about the time we were told by Gary V to buy 2003 Topps Chrome PSA 10 Lebron rookies when they were 1k, and now they are 33k? BLECH!!!

It is enough to make someone go crazy, but that's the hobby for you. In spite of all the missed opportunities, I'm very happy & thankful for what I was able to acquire with the money I got from selling everything. I want to share with you what my collection is now, along with the stories as to why they "made the cut".

How I Got Here

2019 was HUGE for me in terms of education and discovery of passion for vintage. After the 2020 sell-off, I had to make a choice as to what I wanted to dive into. I found that my love for owning cards of Ruth, Cobb, Wagner, Jackson, and 19th century baseball outweighed my love for owning cards of Bo Jackson, Bonds, McGwire, Trout, Clemens, and others.

But what about nostalgia? I have more than enough for both schools. The difference is this:

- Junk Wax Era nostalgia beckons me to obtain perfect copies of cards I had as a child, but not enough to pay what they are selling for now.
- Vintage nostalgia pulls at my heartstrings to obtain beautiful copies of cards I could only *dream about* as a child.

Why Vintage?

I have loved old cards ever since I was a kid. There is a certain mystique about them. Holding something that wasn't meant to be valuable, yet survived decades is exciting to me. I remember my first Tobacco card - a T206 I picked up when I was 12 years old. It was beat up, and a common, but I held it in my hands, and loved it. In the short stint when we lived in a small town in Kansas of 250-300 people, it was a fun show piece to tell the other kids.

We lived in an old house with my grandparents that was built around the same time period as the T206 was created, and it was fun to look at the old house & think that it was brand new when the T206 was created. Thanks to Google Maps magic, I'm able to take a trip there whenever I want - and also show you where I lived for a short period of time!



While I never had any super key vintage as a child, I saw them all the time - not in person, though - heck, the first time I held a '52 Topps Mantle in my hand was at a card show about 6 years ago! I'm talking about seeing these key cards all the time on the covers of price guides, magazines, and books.

The desire of chasing these key cards that constantly grace the covers of numerous magazines and books outweighs my desire to dive into the world of prospecting, or getting heavily into 80s/90s gem mint stuff. I think a lot of this is due to the journey I've taken with cardboard over the years.

"I know someone who has a Babe Ruth..."

How many times have you heard this story? "My dad/grandfather had a (insert name of Mantle, Cobb, Ruth, Wagner, Shoeless Joe Jackson here) until they were thrown away". Or "I know someone who has a Babe Ruth!" I'll admit, I am instantly skeptical whenever hearing this, because it comes up all the time when talking old cardboard. Most of the time, it turns out the Babe Ruth they are talking about is either a reprint, or one of those cards from the 80s they produced with green or orange borders. My ears used to perk up all the time as a kid and an adult whenever I heard the name Ruth/Wagner/Cobb/Jackson, but now I just kind of assume it isn't one from their playing days.

The burning question for me was what if *I* could be the one someone knows who has a Ruth/Cobb/Wagner/Shoeless Joe Jackson/Mantle? What if I could build my collection around the story I want to tell others about our hobby? In early 2020, some dads and their kids came over for a class in baseball card history. It was fun to be able to not only tell them about the history of the hobby, but also let them hold authentic 19th century baseball cards (cards decades older than the house we lived in Kansas!), a real Babe Ruth, etc. I would have *LOVED* that as a kid!

Showing the Cards

The joy that the dads and their kids got stuck with me. I love doing youtube videos, podcasting, writing articles, etc. especially if it means educating people on baseball card history, but showing them in person was way different.

A while ago, my wife's sister and her family came over. My brother in law and I got to talking about baseball cards (imagine that!)



I started telling him about a Babe Ruth card I had, and he was all in to hear more about the history of cards! Eventually, I showed him most of everything I had, and it had the authentic feel of showing real historical artifacts that could/should be found in a museum. The awe and wonder he radiated from seeing what I have is frankly what I feel all the time with them being in my care. It is exciting to be able to share that! Showing Trout/Griffey/Ripken/etc. simply wouldn't have done the same thing - especially since he isn't really a baseball card guy, I guess.

Case in point, I showed him some of my best Canseco stuff, like a barrel, knob, laundry tag, etc. He didn't bat an eye. He just wanted to see the old stuff, lol! I can't blame him. Heck, even my wife thinks the old stuff I have is cool, and it has become apparent to me that key vintage baseball cards not only transcend the boundaries of our ever-growing hobby, but also sucks in those who aren't collectors in! I like that very much.

Building a Museum Worthy Collection

After researching, buying, selling, buying, trading, etc. I have come up with a small collection of cards that make me feel as if they should be in a museum - my own remote personal little wing of the Hall of Fame that tells a compelling story of early baseball card history. I consider all the cards below to be iconic, but some are so scarce, you may have never heard of them. The vintage collectors don't typically have as big of a presence online as the newer guys do. In any event, what some of these little unknown pieces lack in recognition, they more than make up for in their story. Here is what is in my collection, and why.

1887 OLD JUDGE BILLY SUNDAY

This is the first card I ever had graded. I love the new SGC black tuxedo holders! PSA has only 3 of these graded. Old Judge cards are notorious for their pictures to be faded into oblivion. This picture is as solid as you can get, and is everything I wanted in an Old Judge card. The clear picture, the notable player (he is one of the first American evangelists), the bare hands catching, and the ball suspended on a string. More can be read about him in this article I wrote here: https://tanmanbaseballfan.com/2020/0...ly-sunday.html



1887 OLD JUDGE KING KELLY PORTRAIT AND BATTING

I won't go too much into detail on these since I recently wrote an article about these here: https://tanmanbaseballfan.com/2021/0...-the-babe.html but these cards make me absolutely melt. If you know me, you know that King Kelly is probably my favorite 19th century baseball player, and these are my two absolute favorites of his. The man had America's first pop song written about him (Slide, Kelly, Slide!) and started the autograph craze. He was the first in our favorite sport to transcend the game in the way that he did, and his picture hung in Boston saloons all over. I really hit the jackpot with these two! They are my two most inquired about 19th century cards from my 19th century collecting friends than anything else. The portrait looks like it could be on an Outlaw poster from the Wild West - why not - the time period matches up!



1887 (1888) ALLEN & GINTER COMPLETE BASEBALL SET & ALBUM

The PSA POP report shows between 50 and 200 of each of these as having been graded, so they are rare, but obtainable. Graded SGC 1, this is exactly what i look for: nearly pack fresh eye appeal with back damage. In the 19th century, kids were encouraged to glue them into a premium album that Allen & Ginter offered. As a result, many of these have missing paper stock from the back. They are beautiful miniature pieces of art.

I've talked at length about how I am amazed that these were so beautiful, Topps resurrected the design over a century later, and has been running the brand with a similar design each year for several years now, being one of the most popular sets ever. The original Allen & Ginter set was monumental, and perhaps the first nationally offered full color baseball card. The set is as historically significant to our hobby as it is beautiful.



Quite a while after picking up this set, I was able to pick up the album that Allen & Ginter offered as a premium. Each page features beautiful full color lithography showing every card in the set elaborately displayed. The album is probably quite a bit tougher to find than the cards.



1888 GOODWIN CHAMPIONS COMPLETE BASEBALL SET

After Allen & Ginter released arguably the most historically significant set ever, it is almost as if Goodwin said "Anything you can do, I can do better" and released the Goodwin Champions set. Instead of a single splash of color on a white background, Goodwin offers full color background lithography. The baseball set is 8 cards total, and feature some of the most beautiful cards ever made. The beauty of Anson and Kelly rival any art in museums, but the Glasscock is probably my favorite looking card from the set. He looks like he's at the park or on the beach about to field a ball with his bare hands.

These are much more difficult to obtain than the Allen & Ginters, as the PSA POP report shows between 50-75 each of these having been graded. If you are like me, a card #/50 produced in the past couple of years doesn't really make you bat an eye. When it comes to an iconic set like this that was produced in a time when hardly any other cards were released, the POP report of 50-75 means these are extremely scarce. It is fun to think that it is quite possible that only 10-30 other people in the entire world may have a complete baseball set graded by PSA.

Like the Allen & Ginter set above, this Goodwin set is in exceptionally beautiful condition, compared to their low grades.



The entire set is magnificent, but the individual character and beauty of each card may get lost when looking as a whole. Here is the Anson on top of a Monet. What a great pairing!



How about a pic of Van Gogh and Anson together? To put things into perspective, Anson was born in 1852, whereas Van Gogh was born in 1853.



1889 GOODWIN A35 ROUND ALBUM SET

This set was the subject of my main 2020 quarantine project written about here: https://tanmanbaseballfan.com/2020/0...e-project.html . When the American Tobacco Company formed, there was no need to create cards to entice people to buy, but before this happened, Goodwin offered an obscure premium that is rarely ever seen, though considered a true gem of the 1800s.



They are unusual in shape (circular), significantly bigger than even cabinet cards, and are considered by many to be the most premium, beautiful lithography ever offered for baseball subjects in the 19th century. They are truly a victim of their own scarcity. Very few people know what these are!

I created/invented a custom holder with full color artwork inspired by the A36 Goodwin Album to display each piece.





They are heavy and extremely impressive in size to look at. Instead of posting every full size picture here, I'll show the thumbnails, though it does them no justice whatsoever. More pics can be found here: https://tanmanbaseballfan.com/2020/0...e-project.html



Vinny at Shabby Shore Signs created this massive, magnificent wood advertisement. It is based off of the original advertisement that hung in cigarette shops nearly a century and a half ago. I cleaned up and brightened the original artwork taken from the Six Figure piece, and Vinny worked his magic! Imagine being a child back in the 1800s, seeing these for the first time and fawning over them.



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