Another new T206 collector, wondering how you guys store/show your cards.

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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

Hello Geoff,

I started by keeping white border tobacco cards in the 3x5 hard holders, with sleeves. I kept them rubber banded together. After a while I bought a long white box with a lid, it had 2 rows inside, and the hard holders fit perfectly. I loved it at the time, and now perceive it as wasted money.

After a couple of years I pulled the cards out, and put them in a ring binder, in 9 pocket sheets. That gradually filled. And eventually, if you did that, you'd find that you had so many cards in there of such a value that you start thinking about moving them to a safety deposit box. And that is an excellent place for the cards. I'd be worried about someone breaking into my house one day if I kept all of my cards at home. Realistically, some of the 80's and 90's stuff I'd give to a thief, if one shows up.

I then saw those nice 15 pocket sheets, perfect for the white border tobacco cards. So I won a big box of them on eBay. Now the binder would hold more cards, 67% more than the 9 pocket sheets!

But, if you're going to tuck cards away in a safety deposit box, or a safe, space becomes critical. I now store my white border cards in a small box in which my business cards were shipped. It is about 6 1/2 inches long, almost 4 inches wide, and just over 2 inches deep. It will easily hold a set of 524, or 520. With room for a few duplicates and back varieties. It takes up about as much space as maybe 8 slabbed cards. And I have my cards sorted by team, then alphabetically. Which is how the old timers did it years before Dr. Beckett came on the scene. With that sorting, it is easy to see the progression of card changes, portraits, uniform design, and the like, you can see Zach Wheat added to the existing Brooklyn players, and understand why a Hall of Fame player has only one T206 card. I understand Ted Z's method of sorting, which is by brand and series, then alphabetically, which would get someone to the chronological order of issue. That makes sense to me. What doesn't make sense is a purely alphabetical listing, and where a player has multiple cards his cards aren't listed chronologically, but based on a description of the front. That is the system most folks use. And it doesn't lend itself well to an understanding of baseball history, or the history and development of baseball cards.

I understand that most folks think stacking the cards up as I do is nuts. I had a small cigar box that I used, instead of this business card box. But the business card box fits better in a safety deposit box. So there they are. But wouldn't a cigar box full of white, gold and brown border cards look nice, with a handful of red Cracker Jack cards on top...

All of this reminds me of a story I heard about a collector of years ago. He had a fairly good collection, lots of cards. He started selling and trading the sets and near sets off, and was trading and buying really tough cards. Eventually he got things down to where his collection would fit in his shirt pocket. Cobb tobacco cards, a Plank white border, a 33 Lajoie, a Lindstom US Caramel, a Bump Hadley Tattoo Orbit, E90-1 Mitchell, a Lowdermilk brown border... a couple of dozen nice cards. A fine collection. One that would fit under the bed.

So here's a photo of how I store my white border tobacco cards, those T206s. When I saw your post a few days ago I knew I had to go get my cards and take a photo for you.

Frank.