Origins of collecting - how was it done back then?

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Posted By: E, Daniel

I was just wondering if anyone has any real knowledge of how the cards we love to collect were traded (not obtained - I know t, e, etc..) circa 1908 -1912? Were collectors largely adult or 11 year olds? Did they tend to only collect the teams they followed - or put together larger more comprehensive collections? And most importantly, did people ACTUALLY trade?
Further (and please feel free to respond to any part of the post), did cards have monetary value? Were Cobb and Matty cards expensive to obtain if you didn't want to chew yourself sick on tobacco or caramels? Did you need 3 tinkers for a chance? Are there any Nagy's of the era who rounded up rarer cards and were re-nowned for their collections?

Anything else anyone can think of re the topic that's fun to share, please do!


Daniel

ps. I chose the era as is seems to me to encompass the earliest period that numerous card types, manufacturers and products exploded onto the market - that could feed a truly broad collecting community.........

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Posted By: barrysloate

One of the stories I've heard about T206 was that when an adult opened a pack of cigarettes, he usually just tossed the card or cards in the street. Kids knew that and would hang around outside tobacco shops to pick up the spoils. I don't think too many adults collected or traded them when they were issued.

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Posted By: andy becker

i have heard the same story of kids hanging out at the tabacco shops to collect unwanted cards.

btw, barry it's nice to have you back....hope you had a great vacation!!

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Posted By: barrysloate

Thanks Andy, I did.

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Posted By: Jeff Lowe

From what Ive found in the early years of collectibles , people who collected things collected EVERYTHING . From cigar labels , to matchbooks to postcards . They liked to look at them and kept them . Then along came the depression and people saved every little scrap of everything along with the used bacon grease .

There may have been some set collectors in the early history of baseball and tobacco cards but I believe the majority or people were just smoking or chewing their favorite tobacco and staching away their premiums .

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Posted By: robert a

I'm pretty sure that it was common for someone to throw a tobacco card of his favorite player right in the wallet.

It also seems that it was common to stamp or write your name on each card in your collection.

I've always imagined t206 cards and perhaps other issues scattered on the floor at the tobacco stand/shop. Perhaps the owner/retailer even picked a few up and kept them to give away or for a personal collection. The majority ended up in the garbage though.

What do you do with a cracker jack "prize" today?
It's not in my safe.

robert a

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

The comparitive value of cards is pretty well documented in the ACC and Sports Collectors Bible. In general, the prices were based at first solely on the perception of card rarity, with frequently no premium associated with HOFers, etc.

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Posted By: Anonymous

My wife's grandfather was born in 1900 and hung out and did gofor work at the family hardware store in our little town. I'm sure he collected the cards from all the old guys standing around smoking and shooting the breeze, but he also started smoking at a very early age (apparently acceptable back then). I believe, from the collection that he left us, there was some trading or at least special attention paid to saving cards of favorite players. I think there was a regional bias, judging from the number of southern stars (especially Cobb) and other southern players (exemplified by a large collection of t210 series 8s). Lucky for me about the smoking, but not for him, he died of lung cancer in his 60s.

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Posted By: Bill Stone

Speaking of T210's has anyone done any research on the distribution of these cards? I would assume from a marketing approach it would have made sense to have the Blue Grass League cards (Series 6)placed in packs of Old Mill cigarettes to be sold in Kentucky. What factory would have placed them in the packages and would they have been shipped to a Kentucky distribution point? In my research I have seen several Old Mill ads from 1910 in the Frankfort, Kentucky newspapers but they only indicate that base ball cards are included but don't indicate the league.