1988 article on T206s

[trdcrdkid]

This doesn't go back as far as most of my hobby history posts, but I thought people might still be interested in seeing how T206s were being collected almost 30 years ago. This article by John Spalding appeared in the October 1988 issue of Baseball Hobby News, accompanied by some nice color illustrations. There's nothing in there that a T206 collector of today wouldn't know, but it's interesting to see the differences from today. There is no mention of the Joe Doyle rarity (which had come to the attention of the organized hobby the year before), and T206 backs are mentioned only in passing, with Spalding admonishing the reader, "don't laugh" at the idea of collecting backs. It's also interesting to see the discussion of the differently-organized checklists then available, something that is no longer an issue today, when everybody uses a checklist that has all the cards in one alphabetical list.

I've posted the top part of the issue's cover, with illustrations of some cards, and then each of the two pages of the article, first the whole page and then the sections of the text, blown up for easier reading.