New to Pre-War...Please give me an education!

[campyfan39]

Hello.
I have got about all the cards I can get from the 50's on.
I guess I have never collected pre-war because of the fear of the prices and the confusion. There seems like there are so many sets and issues etc.
Any advice on where to start? What sets are considered the best? Which ones are decently affordable? Which players/sets are super expensive?
Any links or sites to help me would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance guys!

[bcbgcbrcb]

Welcome, Chris!

It sounds like a logical starting point for you might be to work your way backwards beginning with the late 1940's issues such as 1949 Bowman, 1949 Leaf (quite a bit more expensive) & 1948 Bowman. From there you could go with regional/national sets such as 1947 Tip Top Bread & 1947 Bond Bread and gradually work your way back from there.

[novakjr]

If you're looking to strictly put together sets, then Phil's advice is about as good as you'll get.

If you're not sure what you wanna do yet, I'd suggest maybe going with a specialty like HOFers or certain teams. Maybe pick up a few decently priced lots here and there. At some point you may just fall in love with a specific set and wanna focus on that one. Or maybe, you'll just get to the point where you've got a decent percentage of a certain set, and decide you're close enough to try and finish it..

[campyfan39]

Thanks for the responses. I am not sure I am ready for sets. I guess what I would like to do is maybe start picking up a few or so from each decade. What would be some of the best sets to get a few cards from if you were going to focus on one per decade? Thanks again!

[jg8422]

For the record....is "pre-war" anything prior to 1945? Is their a specific cutoff date or is it up for debate?

[leftygrove10]

From the 1930's, I would consider some of the following to be pretty popular, affordable and available cards:

1933 Goudey
1934 Goudey
1934-36 Diamond Stars
1933 Delong
1933 Tattoo Orbit

From the 1920's, there are Zeenuts, Exhibits and lots of strip cards

From 1914-1915, there are Cracker Jack cards

Before that, you have lots of T cards to choose from.

I would recommend clicking on the "Old Cardboard" link near the top of the page and clicking through some of these sets on that website. That will give you an idea of what the cards look like and what the commons sell for.

[novakjr]

Originally Posted by jg8422

For the record....is "pre-war" anything prior to 1945? Is their a specific cutoff date or is it up for debate?

Technically, I think it's pre-1943. I think it has something to do with the paper shortage(or whatever it was) during WW2 that's created a window of time used as the cutoff point. That's just semantics though. Collect what you want. Let's just call it vintage. If you want to collect anything pre-'52, or pre-57, or pre-48, or pre-1930, or 19th century, or whatever, then do it. Ain't no one here judging anyone. Well, maybe there's a few.

The '41 Double Plays are a very attainable set with some great names.

[jg8422]

Originally Posted by novakjr

Technically, I think it's pre-1943. I think it has something to do with the paper shortage(or whatever it was) during WW2 that's created a window of time used as the cutoff point. That's just semantics though. Collect what you want. Let's just call it vintage. If you want to collect anything pre-'52, or pre-57, or pre-48, or pre-1930, or 19th century, or whatever, then do it. Ain't no one here judging anyone. Well, maybe there's a few.

The '41 Double Plays are a very attainable set with some great names.

Well, there is one less person who judges after he was given the boot a few weeks ago. Anyway, I am 20 cards into the 1934 Goudey set and only 1 card into the 1933 delong set. Those delongs are fairly expensive (at least with my budget) in mid-grade (psa/sgc 5) condition. I am enjoying the '34 goudey set and would reccomend it to others.

[mintacular]

Well, I was new to pre-war a couple years ago until I came here....It is a very exciting experience to collect cards from a bye-gone era. There are many beautiful cards to look at. I would suggest going to the "Pick up threads" for each month and start looking at card designs, players, $'s, etc. and try to narrow your focus if your budget is limited. The most popular early 20th century is the T206 set b/c there are 500+ players, they are pretty plentiful, and have interesting poses and great color (among other reasons).

You could spend a good few years collecting these cards. There's a ton of other stuff, too. T205 Gold Border (my avatar) is right up there too. Most of these commons cards can be bought for around $25-ish--of course these will be lower grade. Good luck and have fun with it. Here is one of my favorite T206s that I own, it's been fun collecting Pirates (my hometown).

[smtjoy]

I got my start years ago in vintage by working on a type card set of Pittsburgh cards, one card from as many sets as I could afford. I found it a good way to see the many great sets out there and easy to work within a tight budget.