What was the salvation of the Prewar card hobby

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

At the same time, Mickey Mantle contributed far more to his profession than Welk did to his.

Well I dunno....

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

If I could actually think of the baseball equivalent to Lawrence Welk, I might laugh for a week straight!

I like jingram058's Mickey Mantle pick.

Originally Posted by jingram058

I have never understood the Mickey Mantle phenomenon. But I guess his meteoric rise in value is similar to Lawrence Welk in the big bands.

I'm going to get not just weeks but years of laughs at the expense of Yankee fans with the "Mickey Mantle is the Lawrence Welk of baseball" analogy!

[Peter_Spaeth]

IMO one of the internet's biggest impacts was giving collectors a way to sell somewhat efficiently for retail prices, rather than having to sell to a dealer at an unconscionable discount. This was, again IMO, vitally important to grow collections.

[brianp-beme]

Moms that did not throw out vintage cards laid out the foundation for our current hobby.


Brian

[Hankphenom]

I have a theory that the publication in 1966 of Larry Ritter's "The Glory of Their Times" and its continued massive popularity thereafter was a major catalyst for a renewed interest in both baseball history and prewar card collecting. Bob Davids started SABR in 1971, adult biographies and histories of the game started being published around that time, and the first well-organized shows and well-produced collecting publications began appearing. If the names Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Satchel Paige, and the rest had meant little to card collectors of the boomer generation, or if there was no historical context to put them in, I think most would have been satisfied to put the collecting habits of their youth to rest or be satisfied with recreating the card sets and collections that so many mothers famously tossed while they were away at college, the army, etc.