Type Cards, is there an appetite?

[biggies]

1863-1980 (I include the Jordan set) 2359 sets right now

It changes daily. I started with Dave Hornish's list years ago, about 3500. But it needed massive filtering and I said before everyone's list is specific to them.

I insist on: must have listed players, at least 10 players, MLB only, etc
I have comprimised on all of these. I have over 250 TCMA sets, includes a lot of minors. How do you NOT include Zeenuts, Popcorns, etc. And if I happen to get a card in a set of less than 10 players, in it goes.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by biggies

1863-1980 (I include the Jordan set) 2359 sets right now

It changes daily. I started with Dave Hornish's list years ago, about 3500. But it needed massive filtering and I said before everyone's list is specific to them.

I insist on: must have listed players, at least 10 players, MLB only, etc
I have comprimised on all of these. I have over 250 TCMA sets, includes a lot of minors. How do you NOT include Zeenuts, Popcorns, etc. And if I happen to get a card in a set of less than 10 players, in it goes.

Really, only MLB players, AND at least 10 players in the set? So, you don't actively collect and search for type cards from sets like the S74 silks, Kellogg's Pep Sports Stamps, W.S. Kimball Champions, 1937 and 1938 Dixie Lids and their premiums, W511s, W512s, W513s, W565s, W590s, among other sets then?

Or what about a situation like with the various Michael Schecter Associates discs put out in the 1970s-80s, where they put out a sample, test set of only 6 discs in 1975. Do you collect type cards from all the other sets, but not from their original, very first set itself, because it contained fewer than 10 MLB players?

I fully understand and respect the need to set and follow certain rules and parameters when collecting. Just seems to me you may be missing out on collecting examples of some truly great cards/sets though. Or was that statement you made about sometimes compromising on your type card collecting happening a little more often than not? LOL

[conner]

This seems like a stupid question, but what is a type card?

[Leon]

Originally Posted by conner

This seems like a stupid question, but what is a type card?

My definition - It's any card from a set and is used as a card in a type card "set" to fill that spot. So, you generally try to get 1 from each set, or a type card. When I was doing it in earnest, I went from the ACC and added other sets Burdick didn't catalog.

I doubt anyone has completed an orange borders set, as there are most likely some that are uncatalogued. This is a type card from the set but any player could be one.

[molenick]

If I recall correctly, it is a term borrowed from coin collecting, where the idea was to get one example of every different "type" of coin based on the design and denomination (and sometimes broken into centuries as well). As a kid, I had an album with slots for collecting Lincoln pennies and an album for collecting type coins.

But with coins, it's a little more straightforward because it's pretty well defined. There are only so many designs a penny, nickel, dime, etc. has had (not to mention half cents, two-cent pieces, three-cent nickel, three-cent silver, etc.). I guess the main question was whether you were also going to do colonials and commemoratives (and whether you could afford gold coins as well...I don't think my album had slots for gold coins).

But with baseball cards, there are "standard" issues like Goudey, Topps, Bowman, etc. and thousands of regional or one-off issues, plus the question of, what is a "card". I am a type collector to some degree but only for cards that I want a type of....mostly T and E cards, and the cards that are not T or E, but look or feel like T and E cards (e.g. D359, M116, Tango Egg). I do have an occasional V122 or F50 but that's based more on opportunity (e.g., the card came up in an auction and I liked the look of it). I don't go into the 19th century and I don't go beyond the 30's for any type card. Also, I limit it to collecting one of each catalog number...if I have one T207 I have that type...I don't need every cigarette brand.

It's a self-defined endeavor for me which basically amounts to getting a nice example from sets I like the look of from the era I like to collect. I cannot afford, nor am I interested, in having an example of a card from every possible set. I think even people looking for "every card" have some limits (e.g., a date cut-off, it must be made of cardboard to be a "card", major league only, no strip cards, etc.).

[biggies]

To Bob C., in response:

As I said in my statement, there have become many comprimises. I tried to set up a general perameter. Mostly paring down from the 1 - 3 card sets I'd never see, or just generally paring. In truth if I were to get a card from every set with any conditions then well I guess I'd broaden the terms. Not much chance of that.
I think anyone can set their own limits and have fun.
PS, S74 silks, Kellogg's Pep Sports Stamps, W.S. Kimball Champions, 1937 and 1938 Dixie Lids and their premiums, W511s, W512s, W513s, W565s, W590s, are all on my list.

As are the Michael Schecter Associates discs, of which I pursue each back.

TC collecting is to me the essential embodiment of having-fun-collecting. None of the nerve wracking set completion issues, and it creates affordability for those of us with shorter pockets.

I will never finish but I will always have fun with it.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by biggies

To Bob C., in response:

As I said in my statement, there have become many comprimises. I tried to set up a general perameter. Mostly paring down from the 1 - 3 card sets I'd never see, or just generally paring. In truth if I were to get a card from every set with any conditions then well I guess I'd broaden the terms. Not much chance of that.
I think anyone can set their own limits and have fun.
PS, S74 silks, Kellogg's Pep Sports Stamps, W.S. Kimball Champions, 1937 and 1938 Dixie Lids and their premiums, W511s, W512s, W513s, W565s, W590s, are all on my list.

As are the Michael Schecter Associates discs, of which I pursue each back.

TC collecting is to me the essential embodiment of having-fun-collecting. None of the nerve wracking set completion issues, and it creates affordability for those of us with shorter pockets.

I will never finish but I will always have fun with it.

Great to hear, you appear to "compromise" your defined type card set limits a bit after all. LOL Would be a shame IMO to leave out so many sets that are not really difficult to come across, that include non-baseball players and/or have fewer than 10 baseball players in the set.

[BobC]

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