Help with novel, sort of off-topic, but T206-related

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Posted By: Rob Fouch

Hi, everybody. I'm an occasional poster, but I mostly lurk, read and learn.

I have a question maybe some of you guys who collected in the '80s can help me with. I'm an aspiring novelist and have completed a couple of books that I'm trying to get published. In one of the books, the two main characters collect baseball cards. Shocking, huh?

Anyway, one of the characters is a high-intellect, geeky kind of guy who's a hard-core collector and has money to spend (from a very profitable yard-mowing business). He acquires Topps sets from 1969 through the 1980s. And he also manages to get a T206 Cobb red portrait in decent shape. (The cards are integral to the novel's final scene.)

Here are my questions:
In the early to mid-'80s, what would have been the most logical way for this character, who lives in a very small West Virginia town, to acquire these cards? Ordering from ads in the back of price guides? Obviously, this was pre-ebay.

And what would a Cobb red portrait have cost from a dealer in that era? In approximately VG condition.

I collected as a teenager back then, but I wasn't smart enough and didn't have the cash to order those kind of cards. I simply bought pack after pack of the modern stuff at the local 7-Eleven. Sigh.

Anyway, whatever help you could give me would be appreciated. I really want to get the details right.

Thanks. Rob