One piece of advice for a vintage collector starting out

[FrankWakefield]

Lot's of thought provoking stuff...

I like that observation about needing to know the person and the goal to give advise that fits. Who here knows what a Brannock Device is? Almost all, but most of those don't know that they know the name... It's that clunky thing in the shoe stores of the past that had sliding parts to determine shoe size and foot width. Those guys measured the foot before throwing a shoe on the foot.

Early on I discovered a neighbor who knew tons about what I consider old baseball history. I wish I'd talked with him about baseball much sooner. Later, I found out he had old cards. Occasionally he'd call me, and he'd then show me a few cards he wanted to sell. He was firm on his prices, the prices were low and always reasonable. I didn't pick and choose through his cards, I'm certain that I never saw them all. Everything he had that I saw was from between about 1909 and the early 1930s, mainly the early 1910's. He had cards I'd not ever seen, such as DeLong's. And I hadn't heard of DeLong's, either. He thought I should have a DeLong's card of Jimmie Foxx, so I bought it... I'm now glad I did.

So, I still have that Foxx card. I agree with making an acquaintance with a collector who has cards of the era in which this new collector has interest. I agree with being able to see and touch the cards, to get to know what the cards should look like (that'll help in determining authenticity). Knowledge is power, I'm in agreement with that; READ... The Standard Catalog, Mr. Lipset's Books, Mr. Sugar's Sports Collectors Bible (3rd or 4th edition), and if the collector is interested in !880s - 1890s cards, Goodwin & Co OLD JUDGE Photographic Baseball Cards 1886-1890. The goal is to know and understand what you want to collect. If he's wanting to collect Brooklyn Dodgers cards, then he doesn't really need to know about Wagner, Cobb, Johnson, Mathewson, Ruth, Gehrig, Cy Young....

I feel like I'm echoing Mr. Robinson's advice to Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, when he says "Plastics". BLACK LIGHT
A collector who doesn't get a black light and learn about fluorescence is potentially cheating himself...

An older collector from when I was young suggested to try to not buy cards twice. If you buy a really ragged card that you don't like, you'll end up buying a better example later. I've had that happen to me a few times... and he was right. But the factors of how good of a card (condition) can you afford, and how often is the particular card available.... still, buying a certain card twice can be frustrating.