Advice for switching in to prewar/vintage

[kevinlenane]

All great advice here. Speaking from the side of someone that also recently re-engaged in the hobby about 1.5 years ago - I have found that picking some kind of focus area is really helpful and also a ton of fun. I picked Ted Williams because im a Sox fan and there is just so much out there when you pick a player. I buy all his cards but I also buy old Ted Williams fishing tackle, shotgun shells and Moxie bottles with his likeness. I only say pick a focus because you will invariably stray to other things - the focus just gives you SOME direction. A player collections also gives you wide variety.

Anyway, about 8 months into Teddy Ballgame I branched into creating a The Teammates (David Halberstam book) collection of Ted, Dom Dimaggio, Bobby Doerrr and Johnny Pesky. I like to think Ted appreciates having his buddies/subjects around him. From THERE i went to the million dollar outfield (Red Sox) comprising Tris Speaker, Harry Hooper and Duffy Lewis. So I guess my collection is really now Red Sox with about 90% of it being Ted Williams. This doesnt stop me from needing to own a Mantle and a Ruth as well. Focus is just plain fun, and player focus is 2x the fun because you start to get into issues that you can't just go buy on Ebay and you have to go to shows and talk to people to start to round out the collection/Master Set.

Other potential focus ideas I like that aren't super common (T206s are the king of all cards really but the market is so hot right now and you can burn up a lot of dough quickly there) Obaks (MUCH cheaper then T206 but from the same era) The Red Man Set, Triple Folders, Montiel Propagandas (Cuban cards).

Finally if you do care about value over time - player collections of the top, top tier like Ted, Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth etc. seem to be a pretty decent bet to me given the stronger personal affinity for a player vs. an individual card/year set. This isn't based on any data really - its just my opinion about what could get larger multiples over sum value at an auction like Sotheby's (or one of the many disreputable proprietary sports memorabilia auction houses) One last point on value - I focus on population not on price. The two are not always directly correlated and they don't make 80 year old cards any more.

Welcome to vintage!