How many collections lay dormant?

[egbeachley]

Johnny, I second what David said. Heck, just offer $1,000 sight unseen and see if that lights a fire. If that sounds too risky I'll put up the cash and we can split the collection 50/50

As far as the original topic, I would agree that there are many unknown collections. For my specialty, 19th century non-sports, the guides often mention cards that exist but none have been sold in the last dozen years or so. One example is the N9 Allen & Ginter Flags of Nations card of Roumania. The book American Tobacco Cards mentions 6 known but the only public example is the one I have that's not one of the 6. I just think they'll eventually end up getting sold when the collector passes on.

[steve B]

Yes, lots of stuff out there that's in unknown collections.

A bit over a year ago I picked up a few cards from a collection. The main part of the collection was modern, but with a bunch of nice stuff. Too much for me to buy, but I got a few things for helping sort the stuff and setting the owner up with an appropiate local auction.

One of the things was a tiny collection that had apparently been bought and never sorted or checked. A few E94s a few T206s mixed up in a small paper bag with a bunch of nonsports cards of varying condition. One of those was an unlisted T49.

There's lots of stuff out there, even hidden in fairly active collections.

Steve B

[deadballera]

"unknown" might be a challenging



there are collectors that choose to collect only raw material

there are owners that do not know what they have sitting in the "attic"

Myself....I have a hundreds of "RAW" cards before WWII. Tobacco's, Goudey's, Caramels, etc. I have only sent in one card to be graded that I later consigned to an auction house.

I do not get them graded because of the cost. At some point, I would love to them graded. But for now...I can feel and smell the goodness of our hobby

[photo111]

I would hope that there are people who collect that do not care about grade, "low pop" or value. They collect because they enjoy it. A part of me hopes that these collections stay hidden, in the family, as part of the family. I don't know, maybe I just wish for a time that maybe didn't exist.

M. penz

[FrankWakefield]

I'm with Michael. I enjoy collecting because of the history of the game, the players, and the cards. The value actually gets in the way. Value makes it more difficult to obtain certain cards I want, and when a card I have can be sold for a bunch of dollars then it doesn't make sense to me to have that much money tied up in that piece of cardboard.

I'm not certain the question has been addressed, or maybe it was not well phrased. I believe there are 'dormant' collections out there; ones that are in a few boxes in a dresser drawer or attic, that haven't been disturbed for 30 or 40 years.

Separate from that, I'm certain that there are old collections out there that are 'active', but are outside the sphere that some of us see... There are old collectors who don't know about or care about Net54, about eBay, about the big auctions... some of them probably don't do the internet or email. I don't doubt they still write letters and trade cards through the mail. Those collections aren't 'dormant'; they are off of the radar of many of us.

[DanP]

A couple of years ago my friends father asked me to help him sell his cards. They were in his basement for years. As first I thought it was a waste of time, but in the middle of some 1970's cards I found a 1914 Mathewson CJ. I spent a week looking through over 100,000 cards. I found some other nice cards like a Connie Mack OJ (I sold some of his cards on N54).

More than 20 years ago (before I got back into collecting) a electrician friend of mine said he opened an old chest in an attic of a house he was working at (yes, he shouldn't have) in Waterbury, CT. The lady was in her 90's. The chest was full of baseball cards. I asked him what kind of cards, he said "I don't think any of them were worth anything they were not standard size and mostly black and white). I always wondered what the cards were and what happened to them!! They weren't cards from the 50's or later because they would have recognized them.

There has to be plenty more people out there like these two!!!

Dan

[B O'Brien]

A fellow I know rebuilds houses in New Orleans and I was walking through one of places last summer. I told him to give me a call if he ever found any cards, and said that he had just tossed out a few hundred Coupons found in one his places in the Irish Channel. That one was pretty much a fluke, because that is one of the few elevated places in the city. A family member passed down two beater houses after a death and the new owner just sold them both as is. My buddy just wanted to do quick rebuilds on the places, so never even thinks about taking the time to part out the houses and see what is inside, dumpster crews can wreck a house in a matter of hours without ever taking the time to see what is there.

I sure made me sad, but I did get a nice desk out of his last place!

I would think this happens a lot around the country. I know movie poster hunters check old houses because they were used as insulation from time to time!

Hope all is well,
Bob

[triwak]

I asked him what kind of cards, he said "I don't think any of them were worth anything they were not standard size and mostly black and white).

OMG, that is SO frustrating! People have been so conditioned by Topps and other modern card companies, as to what a "baseball card" is supposed to look like. It's a constant vigil trying to educate folks about all the cool stuff that came before 1948! Keep the faith...

[bh3443]

Yes, many collections I was responsible in helping build lay dormant for a decade or more just in my area.
When I opened my first store in 1981 I sold thousands of the new BB sets. Typically, the collector would then buy 1980 and descend towards completing a run of Topps sets. There are at least 2 or 3 dozen full runs of Topps and Bowman sets I was involved in making for these clients that are dormant.
The collectors with "deeper pockets" or "a more than passing interest in cards' ventured into making the Play ball, Goudey and T series would surprise you. More than 5 collectors bought Goudey runs (other sets like Diamond Stars, DeLongs we're sold, too) from me in one shot.
I still see collectors from the "old days', and many assure me they still have their cards and some have stayed with the hobby by purchasing the new sets each season.
Here in the suburbs of Boston we had so many wonderful cards produced and an abundant supply of Goudeys (even DeLongs) always existed. Not to mention, the greatest 1952 Topps Hi # find to ever surface came from this area. The only Current All-Stars I've ever seen of konstanty, Roberts & Stanky also came from this area early in the 1980's.
Since the early days of cards Boston has had some fantastic collections as well as some of the greatest cards ever made. These vintage collections may lay dormant, but believe me, they are everywhere.
Thanks to all my friends on Net 54 for keeping our hobby in such good hands.
God Bless,
Bill Hedin

[tedzan]

GOD Bless you Bill Hedin.


OK..I think the term "dormant" might not apply in this hobby's bigger picture. For, I can account, just in my small collecting sphere, that
there are approx. 50 vintage collections out there whose owners cannot tell you the difference between a "pop report" and a "pop tart".
Furthermore, they don't care, as they enjoy their cardboard "goodies" as much....if not more....than the new generation of Graded card
collectors.

I, for one, am part of this crowd. And, most of us are very active in the hobby....so, I don't think "dormant" is the right choice of words
to describe these collections.

Now, if I can account for 50 such collections, I would extrapolate that number into many 100's of such collections. And, I can tell you
that some of these collections of E-cards, T-cards, Goudey's, Play Ball's, etc. are in amazing condition (well kept in high quality mylar
sheets).

If some of these cards were to get into circulation, they would cause chaos in the "pop reports".


TED Z

[barrysloate]

They can not tell you the difference between a pop report and a pop tart.

Now that's good!

[E93]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

They can not tell you the difference between a pop report and a pop tart.

Now that's good!

That cracked me up too.

What I find interesting is that Ted remembers some very high grade collections and others report rarely seeing high grade cards. I think we "see" them more often these days in part because it is the high grade examples that often get into high profile auctions and few vintage collectors miss seeing those catalogs, at least online.
JimB

[FrankWakefield]

Put that in your toaster!!!!


By the way, I broke another slab today, it was PSA and the card appeared to be inside a plastic sleeve in there. However, when I got the slab apart, the card lay atop the sleeve. Seems to me that about a bit more often than not that is the way it is. Is that just laziness, or is there a reason they don't put in inside... Oops, just heard my toaster click! Time for a Pop Tart.

[bh3443]

Hi Ted, Barry, and the rest of my buddies,
The first time I heard the term population report used in regards to cards was from Alan Hager when he was up here at one of my shows pitching his BB Card Book and launching his "6-Sport" Price Guide!
I had a nice conversation with him, and then the pitch came about per cent of cards in various conditions that survived time, abuse, etc.., the need for a book like "6-Sport" to accurately value them and the Acu-grade slabbing and preserving cards. Alan was an interesting guy.
A few months later, Dennis Purdy said the "book was pretty, but then again so aren't most whores!" in his expose on Alan Hager: Buffalo Hunter in the Wild West. Dennis was another great guy and I enjoyed his magazine a lot.
Anyway, I like my cards in ANY condition. I get as much enjoyment from a beat up Jim Tabor card as I do a PSA 7 Babe Ruth. I like what I like!