Pre War Set advice

[conor912]

I don't collect t206, but it is my understanding that the set can be as complex or as simple as you want to make it. If that's what appeals to you, go for it.

My first prewar set was '33 Goudey, which is a good alternative, albeit expensive once you hit the Ruth's. I would recommend '34 Goudey, as it's a smaller set and has no Ruths. No matter what you pick, since you're going for low grade, I would also recommend raw instead of graded. Graded cards are like training wheels, nice to have at first, but you'll never learn what to look for if you just use the slab as a crutch. Plus the likelihood of a low grade goudey being messed with is pretty low, comparatively. Just my two cents anyways.

[ullmandds]

Originally Posted by conor912

I don't collect t206, but it is my understanding that the set can be as complex or as simple as you want to make it. If that's what appeals to you, go for it.

My first prewar set was '33 Goudey, which is a good alternative, albeit expensive once you hit the Ruth's. I would recommend '34 Goudey, as it's a smaller set and has no Ruths. No matter what you pick, since you're going for low grade, I would also recommend raw instead of graded. Graded cards are like training wheels, nice to have at first, but you'll never learn what to look for if you just use the slab as a crutch. Plus the likelihood of a low grade goudey being messed with is pretty low, comparatively. Just my two cents anyways.

Agreed...you can collect the southern leaguers...or a specific team...or the different backs...or portraits...whatever u want!

[x2drich2000]

Hello Greg,

A good alternative to T206s are the caramel sets (e92-e98, e101-e102). Most of these sets are small, loaded with HOFers and can be put together relatively inexpensively. They also aren't nearly as common as T206s so some can be a bit of a challenge.

This board can come up with some great suggestions if you give more details about what appeals to you (i.e. portraits vs action shots, time period preference, players you definitely want an example of, b&w vs color, a little more specific on amount you want to spend, do you want to be searching for cards for years or weeks, etc?)

In addition, you'll see a link to Old Cardboard at the top of the page. Old Cardboard has a great listing of different sets and most have an image gallery that you can browse through. It is a great resource when you are trying to find what you like.

DJ

[ullmandds]

e94 is a great pre war set to collect too...it is tough...but these days there seem to be a lot of them around at good prices.

[edhans]

E90-1.

[Econteachert205]

Join the t205 dark side.

[Luke]

I think e90-1 might be the best option. T205 is also a good choice. I'm partial to e95/96 (my e95s are attached), but they only have 55 cards combined.

I started out collecting the monster in like 2010 I think, and now 5 years later, I love the set more than ever, but I am not trying to complete it. I am just picking up cards I like, and having a lot of fun with it. So, you never know what direction your preferences will take you.

[Zach Wheat]

Another nice "team" set with a high percentage of HOF'ers is the T200's. I recently completed this set and had quite fun building it. There are only 16 cards. However, 3 of the teams will be quite difficult to obtain (I found the most difficult to be the Boston Nat'l closely followed by the St Louis (American) and St. Louis (National).

I liked the fact that the cards were actual photographs and fakes were easy to spot.

Best wishes either way you & go and enjoy the ride.

Z Wheat

[glchen]

Since you're still unsure what set you want to collect, I would recommend collecting HOFer's since if you change your focus later, those cards will be the easiest to re-sell. (However, you should always make sure that you purchase for a decent price and not just buy BIN's from ebay. You can use VCP or check past completed sales on ebay for this.)

If you don't want to go the HOFer route because you are by nature a set collector, then I would take some time and just look through some of the pickup threads here (like Feb or March), and just get an idea of what kind of cards that you enjoy looking at. You can also go to other resources like Old Cardboard or even ebay and the auction house catalogs. When you narrow it down to a few sets that you think you would like to collect, then you can come back to the forum and ask the board what they think about these sets and how collectible they are? That is, are certain cards practically impossible to obtain because they are so rare or expensive or is this a good set you to collect? You can also think about if you want certain HOFers in the set that you collect. For example, if you want a Ruth card in your set, you should probably look at 1920s-30s. If you want a Cobb, then 1900s - 1910s might be better. The T206 is always very popular and as others have said, you don't have to limit yourself to collecting the entire monster, but can just look to collecting a subset. The 1933 Goudey is an nice set, but there are 4 Ruth's and 2 Gehrig's as well as the practically unobtainable Lajoie, so that set can become very expensive. Good luck in whatever you decide!