19th Century Card Prices in 1981

[brianp-beme]

I agree that information about vintage cards, and tracking down specific cards was quite a bit more difficult back before the internet and ebay, but there were plenty of opportunities to purchase cards...Sports Collectors Digest was a once week treasure hunt I enjoyed much more than I do the daily ebay grind, and card shows could be extremely fruitful, as long as you had a wide range of collecting interest within vintage bb. I have a listing of 19th century cards for sale that Lew Lipset mailed out in the early 80's that would rival any top notch auction house offering today. And although I didn't subscribe (because I didn't know about it!) the Trader Speaks provided valuable input about vintage cards. But all these options just didn't come streaming into your house like they do now...you had to seek them out.

By the way my first Old Judge came from a SCD ad by Wayne Miller (if I remember correctly). It is a Good condition card with a nice bold photo of Ezra Sutton, and it cost me $12.00...so that Lew Lipset price guide was on target. It was the only 19th century card I owned until a couple of years ago.

Brian

[tbob]

Brian, perhaps you lived within driving distance of card shows featuring pre-war cards and possibly had card shops nearby which had tobacco and caramel cards for sale, but for those of us living in the hinterlands, pre-war cards were few and far between. As much as I hate the "new" ebay, the "old" ebay was directly responsible for many sets of pre-war cards I accumulated.
tbob

[brianp-beme]

Hi Bob...I took exception to the previous statement that vintage cards were nearly impossible to find. Yes, I did live in a big city close to multiple card shops, but only a few handful of my cards came from shops. I relied on SCD ads, the occasional show and a few dealers such as Lipset, Fritsch, and later Mark MaCrae and auctions for my cards. All of these were available to collectors throughout the US...you just had to somehow find out about them. The internet has been great in connecting cards to collectors. My collection has benefited greatly as well from ebay and even contacts made on the internet and here on Net54. I was just pointing out that it wasn't impossible to locate cards back then. I fully acknowledge the incredible spending bucks for cards ease that exists today...my bank account reflects this.

Brian

[barrysloate]

Lew ran lists back in the 1980's he called "The Fortunate 500" that offered simply amazing material. I bet I still have it in one of my folders.