Personal Pre-War Set and Collector Survey

[jchcollins]

Well, I'll be that guy.

I don't collect prewar cards.

It's not that I don't like them or find them interesting, it's just that there are other things I would rather do with with the vintage hobby in terms of my postwar interests given a limited budget, and limited time here on the ol' merry-go-round to do it.

I'm 44. I started collecting with Topps packs at the grocery store and 7-11 at age 9 in 1986. Within 2 years or so, I had quickly come to know what "vintage" (then just called old) cards were, but anything prewar was a rare sight indeed. At the shops back then it was mainly current wax, and then overpriced 50's and 60's cards in lower grade. It was more common to see T206's and other tobacco cards at shows - but for me as a kid those were few and far between - and way out of my price range anyway. So I didn't get the bug as a kid with prewar in the same way I did with 50's - 70's Topps cards. I had other opportunities, but it never clicked. I passed up a PSA 1 Goudey Ruth at a show maybe 20 years ago for $800? I think I bought a Mantle or Aaron instead.

I have dabbled in the past. I've owned T206 portraits of Walter Johnson, Cy Young, and Nap Lajoie. But I was always miffed at the tradeoffs I had to make with selling a lot of other cards in order to be able to afford just a few prewar cards like that - and in much worse condition to boot.

Please don't misunderstand - I'm not knocking the prewar side of the hobby at all - it's just a choice I've made for myself given where I am with my collection right now. I have a decent sized 50's and 60's single HOF'ers collection, and I'm working on a couple of 60's and 70's sets. I do own one token T206 - Danny Hoffman? and somewhere an absolutely destroyed '34 Goudey Hugh Critz. But they aren't cornerstones of my collection or anything. I'm not ruling out a limited type set or anything prewar in the future - it could happen - but the last serious evaluation I made in this department - and there is still far more postwar stuff I'm interested in collecting first for the foreseeable future.