What was the salvation of the Prewar card hobby

[HercDriver]

I would say the internet opened up the vastness of what's out there, that you just never knew about. I have been collecting since 1974, moving towards pre-war in the early eighties, where I would trade Sandberg rookies for T205s, which Chicago shops were happy to do. Everyone wanted a Sandberg, nobody knew who Joe Tinker was. All my trading was by writing letters, from the classifieds in Trader Speaks and SCD, or whatever other periodical I could get my hands on. I used to come home from school and go straight for the mailbox, to see what might be in there. It's crazy to think how we would send paper versions of our wantlists, xeroxed at the library, hoping somebody had something...waiting a couple weeks for a response. Those were the days when you had to wait until after dinner to call your grandpa, because the rates were lower...remember that? Jeez...I'm 57 and I feel ancient. Anyway, the internet changed it for me in two ways. First, I found OBC, and later N54. Traders...in real time!!! Sure, you could trade in real time in grade school, because we all had cards. But by the time you got to college, what better way to spook your girlie action than a pile of baseball cards. The second was opening up the vista of what is out there. Sure, we had the Beckett price guides, but nothing like the monthly pickup thread on N54. I see cards on that thread every month, that I never knew existed. And for a T205/T206 guy like me, I never knew anything about back populations until the internet came along, and that eventually pointed me down the road I am on now, to get complete Sovereign back sets. Before the internet...the knowledge and data just wasn't available. I guess I'll add one more thing the internet did...friendships that were not possible before. Mine are primarily from OBC, which I joined around 1995. Guys have come and gone, but I still meet up with them and talk cards over beers. Guys I would never have met in the days of my mailbox in Illinois. It's so cool to meet up with somebody totally new, and feel like you've known them forever. I guess that was possible in the old days, but the relationships would have taken a lot longer to foster than it does in a forum like this. So say what you will about the scammers, the graders, the pack busters...the reality is 99% of our interactions are positive since the internet brought us all together. At least that's my experience...