Personal Pre-War Set and Collector Survey

[BobC]

Originally Posted by jefferyepayne

Great reading through this thread! I'm mostly a football guy but have dabbled in baseball through the years if I see something that strikes my fancy. If I was going to pick two sets I don't currently have a card from that I'd really like to have they would be: Turkey Red and Rose Postcards.

Also have a project to collect baseball cards of pre-war professional football players (Thorpe, Neale, Nevers, Abbaticchio, Charlie Berry, Walter French, Paddy Driscoll, Pat Flaherty, etc.) which is a lot of fun.

Here are the answers to your questions

1. How long have you been collecting pre-war cards?

I picked up my first pre-war baseball card as a kid in 1978 (t206 common and a 1927 strip card). Didn't collect between 1983 - 2008 before getting back into the hobby in 2009. Been active ever since.

2. What is the approximate largest number of pre-war cards/items you've
ever owned at any one time?

I'm at around 400 pre-war baseball items at this point. Over half are t206 cards as I'm at 214 of the monster but haven't actively worked on this set for a few years now. The rest are type cards or cards of pro football players who have baseball cards.

I have cards from these sets: N172 Old Judge, N284 Buchner Gold Coin, 1889 ER Williams, 1895 Mayo, t206, t205, E92 Dockman, E90-1 American Caramel, T201 Mecca, 1914 Cracker Jacks, 1915 Cracker Jacks, 1916 M101-5, 1917 Boston Store, 1919-1930 Zeenuts, W514 strip, 1923 Willard's Chocolates, 1933 Sport Kings, 1933 Goudey, Diamond Stars, 1936 National Chicle Fine Pens, 1939 Play Ball.

Also have some RPPCs as well. Also a few Pittsburgh Pirates memorabilia items from their pre-war World Series wins. Go Bucs!

3. Approximately how many pre-war cards/items do you currently still own?

See above. I'm a hoarder, not a collector so don't sell anything ;-)

4. What is/are the most significant card(s)/item(s) you currently own?
(Not what you may have owned at one time.)

Probably one of my Thorpe cards ... but I don't track prices so don't know which one is currently the highest.

5. What complete sets or near complete sets (say 75% or more) do you
currently own? (Again, not counting sets you used to own, and only
counting the baseball cards in multi-subject sets in determining the
percentage complete. And not including as sets any issue with only 1 or
2 listed baseball cards/items in it.)

None.

jeff

Great collection Jeff. And even though you may not think of it in the same way of what is normally thought of as a set, I think your collection of baseball cards of football players is actually a very specialized, and unique set. Heck, I even just put a bid in on an Earle Neale card I saw online just a couple days ago myself, talk about coincidences. LOL I imagine you have a complete list of everyone in that set somewhere? Might be cool to share it with everyone if you ever feel so inclined. I'll bet you'd see more interest in it from some other collectors than you might expect. And does that unique set go all the through up to today? And if so, did Tebow ever get a baseball card of himself issued? If he did, I imagine he must be the most recent addition to your list.

And just think, you might have now passed on the idea to someone else to maybe start collecting baseball cards of basketball players. Doesn't go as far back in time as it does for football players, but right off the top of my head I can immediately think of Dave DeBusschere, Danny Ainge, and of course, Jordan. And I'm sure there are others I can't even think of.

And as for what significant cards you have, it isn't necessarily all just about the money. We've discussed that already in earlier posts of this thread.