A question for you all........

[whitehse]

I dont post much on these boards as I try and soak up all the knowledge you all have in regards to pre-war cards but I certainly check the boards everyday and have done so for ten years. I have been collecting since I was 8 years old and am now 53 so I am no newbie to the card collecting world but pre-war is an area I never dabbled in because, well I just didnt have the knowledge. I have never treated my collection as an investment as I have only collected what I liked but I have had the good fortune to make some money in this hobby over the years due to having a good amount of knowledge but I must now ask this question to the pre-war experts.

In a few weeks I have about 500 bucks to play with and I thought I would invest it into some pre-war cards. In the effort to carry over the theme of "collect what you like" I feel I want to spend this money on some hall of famers that are either T cards or even perhaps some Goudeys. I would prefer graded but would certainly consider raw. My question to you experts is what would you sink your 500 bucks into? One lower grade T206 HOFer but nice eye appeal or a collection of Goudey's HOFers that are low to mid grade. Or perhaps something else.

I would love to hear what you all would do with this small some of money in order to open the door to pre-war collecting for someone who has never ventured there and perhaps somewhere down the line there might be a return on investment.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

You can get several T206 HOF'ers in about PSA 3 for $500.

[pokerplyr80]

I would just find a card you like. I wouldn't think of a card at the $500 level as a great investment opportunity. But popular HOFers from popular sets seem to do the best over time. Maybe something like a t206 Matty, Johnson, or young would be a good pre war card for 500 bucks that could appreciate and would be cool to own.

If $500 is more than you'd normally spend on a card and this is some kind of bonus money you're getting I'm more a fan of getting one big card than several small ones. You can buy smaller value cards any time.

[rats60]

Originally Posted by pokerplyr80

I would just find a card you like. I wouldn't think of a card at the $500 level as a great investment opportunity. But popular HOFers from popular sets seem to do the best over time. Maybe something like a t206 Matty, Johnson, or young would be a good pre war card for 500 bucks that could appreciate and would be cool to own.

If $500 is more than you'd normally spend on a card and this is some kind of bonus money you're getting I'm more a fan of getting one big card than several small ones. You can buy smaller value cards any time.

I would second this. Unless you can find more money and get a low grade, nice eye appeal t206 Cobb, I would go for one of the 3 big pitchers from t206. Walter Johnson would be my preference.

[Leon]

As someone who is doing a t205 set some midgrade
Hall of farmers from that set is an option.

[Dave Farquhar]

For $500 you can do a lot of things, so why not take a philosophical look. What do you like? It's OK if you don't know why. Do you just want to pick up a few HOFers and be done with it, or do you have a goal of building a set someday?

If you think you might want to go back and build a set someday, consider what set you might be able to attain, and buy some HOFers from that set. Then you can go back and pick up commons from that set at a later time with smaller amounts.

If you don't have any interest in building a set, think about picking up a selection of HOFers from your favorite team across eras or sets, whatever that may be.

I can say I'd spend $500 the same way I'd spend any other amount of money; the question is just what quantity and condition I'd target.

[Luke]

I'm biased towards T206s for a few reasons. One that might be good for you is T206s are so liquid. If $500 is more than you'd normally spend, it might be nice to know you could recoup most or all of that money very quickly if you need to.

If you like the idea of getting just one really nice card, I'd go for a nice looking lower grade T206 Mathewson portrait or Walter Johnson Hands at Chest. Or if you want to spread it out a bit, you could get 2 or 3 cards and include some underappreciated HOFers like Sam Crawford.

[ValKehl]

Originally Posted by Leon

As someone who is doing a t205 set some midgrade
Hall of farmers from that set is an option.

Leon, how many mid-grade T205 Hall of farmers do you think one could obtain for $500?

[Leon]

Originally Posted by ValKehl

Leon, how many mid-grade T205 Hall of farmers do you think one could obtain for $500?

A quick search on the bay of T205 HOF makes me think you can get 7-8 nice looking HOF'ers for $500....

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...05+hof&_sop=15

.

[bnorth]

With an extra $500 I would pick up a low grade 1910 T210 Series 3 Walter Morris. It is the only horizontal card in the set. Plus every card in the set is as rare or rarer than the T206 Wagner.

[mechanicalman]

I think the biggest bang for your buck could be a really nice T202. For $500 you could get a very nice mid-grade card with one or two HoFers including WaJo, Matty, Speaker, Cy, etc. They are incredibly pleasing to look at, you’d have a nice grade, and I personally believe they are undervalued presently.

[clydepepper]

While I realize I'm in the minority when I say this, I will proceed anyway:

Card Game issues are an affordable way to purchase high-grade cards of even the biggest stars for relatively low prices.

Five hundred dollars won't last long even with these issues, but they are visually pleasing and may increase in value in the future.