Do you think vintage players collected their own cards?

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Posted By: pete

When I was about 10 (late '70's) my cousin was dating some utility player from the Angels. I had seen him play on tv a few times but cant remember his name. He gave me a bunch of hitting tips and a few of his baseball cards he had, he must of had around 100 or so.

Question is, do you think Walter Johnson, Ty Cobb and all the other great players collected their own cards? And that maybe somewhere in their family is 100+ "MINT" tobacco cards of these guys just waited to be sold at auction? Or do you think they have already been sold off?

What do you guys (and gals) think?
pete-

my best pitch was the one that made it to the plate!

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Whether or not they actively collected, I'm sure a number of Pre-War players owned at least a few baseball cards of themselves. Auctions of player belongings have shown that they typically kept baseball trophies, photos, yearbooks and other mementos.

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Posted By: Paul

Didn't Honus Wagner own the uncut T-206 strip that included his card?

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Posted By: Wesley

I remember an auction with Jackie Robinson's very own 1949 Bowman Jackie Robinson. It was only PSA 3 but the PSA label read "Jackie Robinson Estate"

A little gimmicky but I guess that is better than Mr. X's Estate.

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Posted By: andy becker

paul, i think you are correct that the uncut strip containing wagner was owned by his relatives.

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Posted By: Richard

http://t206museum.com/page/ga_proofswagner.html

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

...in 1884! Tch, tch...

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Posted By: BlackSoxFan

Interesting i didn't know that..perosnally i think that jackie robinson's own jackie card would simply add to the items provenance ... i think that is the idea behind the Mr. X collection, but like you guys i think that is total hoey! Is that a word? I don't really put Mr. X and "Jackie Robinson Estate" in the same league.. especially since we don't know who Mr. X is...

Regards,

Black Sox Fan

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