Why Do You Collect Pre-War??

[david_l]

Originally Posted by seanofjapan

It's not necessarily political to point out that many things in life were extremely brutal relative to today in the pre war world.

This is actually one of the things that makes pre-war collecting appealing to me. Look at the stories of a lot of those players in the early 20th century, from Rube Waddell to Christy Mathewson - those guys went through a lot of drama and tragedy in their lives that make them quite appealing as legendary figures and in ways that differentiate them from most post-war players. They lived and died in a harsh world that most people raised after the war would recoil in horror at the thought of.

Totally agree. I'm not a huge (modern) boxing fan per se but after reading about the struggles of the line of fighters from Molineaux, to Peter Jackson, to the big four of the early 1900s I really became enthralled with these individuals and the history and context of such athletes. So I started collecting pugilist cards a few years back. Such amazing individuals and stories. Often they end tragically but they are almost always fascinating. Such individuals had to overcome poverty, racism, mob control of their sport, violence from spectators, health issues, etc. and still achieved tremendous things while simultaneously disproving many contemporary myths of the time. Such examples ended up advancing numerous social causes which I think is really neat to learn about.

As you mentioned, the same is true in baseball. There's just so many fascinating tales. I love getting cards and learning about player's lives and careers. I collect these cards because, as you so elegantly stated they lived in a harsh world but managed to do great things. I find that inspiring.

David Luft