T206 Journey & Introduction

[StraightRaceCards]

Hey friends,

Wanted to introduce myself to the forum as I have been sitting quietly on the sidelines for the most part as I learn vintage cards.

I grew up as a kid in Texas with a family indoctrinated with baseball- with them originally being from St. Louis, most of them were Cards fans, but I stuck with the Texas Rangers. A few uncles actually played college and minor league ball. Watching baseball was our families way to connect and spend time together. Pudge Rodriguez was my favorite player and I loved going out to the ballpark when I could to watch my Rangers.

Along with following the sport, my favorite thing as a kid was to collect baseball cards. I would save up $5-10 to go to a target or walmart and get the latest box of topps. Classic junk Wax 1990-2005 era stuff! Still have every card I've ever owned with me.

Fast forward to a year or so ago, I was sitting in bed late one night and my old baseball cards came to mind. I raced to the attic and pulled out my old set, looking through each card well through the night. So much nostalgia... My love was back!

I didn't want to collect the modern stuff as there was too much going on to keep up with... so I followed the industry trying to figure out how to enjoy baseball cards again. It was there I saw a T206 card and fell in love with the history, artwork, and aesthetics of the set. I've got around 25 commons now at this point, and have loved getting into it. I want to pass the collection down to my sons one day, and it's been a great project!

The T206 Mathewson White cap is the dream card... after reading his biography and story I've got a newfound love for Matty, and sharing a similar name helps!

One of the net54 guys recommended getting a raw set together in a binder with tobacco sheets, which is my current gameplan to slowly build up over time.

Being a former track & cross country athlete, I just recently found the T218 collection... that will be a fun and smaller project to complete as there are only 43 track athletes to collect.

Anyways, thanks for reading thus far. Net54 has been a great resource and everyone I have interacted or bought from all have been helpful and great to work with. So thank you everyone!

Looking forward to connecting with more folks as I continue on this T206 journey. If you have any tips, ideas, or thoughts, let me know. I've got no pride in this hobby yet, so I am all ears!

Matt

[jason.1969]

Welcome, Matt. No shortage of T206 knowledge or enthusiasm in this group!

My own goals for the set are much more modest, just the 27 Brooklyn cards, and I may stop one short at 26/27 barring a heckuva deal or a change in financial circumstance.

I do agree that a binder is the way to go for maximum enjoyment of your collection. One note is that tobacco sheets come in two sizes: 15 or 20 to the page. I am a big fan of how much nicer the cards like with 20/page. Even if you’ve already loaded up on the 15s I’d make the switch!

[Casey2296]

Welcome Matt, and good luck on your journey!

[brianp-beme]

Good luck on the T206 journey, as well as the potential T218 track and field subset...it is a great set of cards too, possessing some interesting images and great color. Here are six from the set to inspire you, four of them track and field athletes, with a golfer and pedestrian pretending to belong to the track and field club thrown in the scan mix.

Brian

[MuncieNolePAZ]

Welcome Matt. Thanks for sharing. Good luck in your journey. You have come to the right place.

Chad

[Leon]

Welcome Matt. T206s are all the rage nowadays... I need to update this with a few new additions.... (and deletions)

My tip is to take it slow and easy. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
.

[LuckyLarry]

Welcome Matt: I completed my set (518) seven years ago raw in a binder. I bought a T-206 "The Monster" reprint set on ebay (around $100) and filled the pages with reprints. When I got an original I replaced the reprint. I saved the reprints and the box they came in and resold the reprint set for about what I bought it for. Here are a couple pictures before I completed my set as there are still couple reprints in there. Good Luck
Larry

[StraightRaceCards]

Thank you Larry, Leon, Chad, Brian, Casey, and Jason! Appreciate it!