What was your first vintage baseball card??

[FrankWakefield]

First pre-war card was Bridwell in that sweater from the white border set, I think.

[t206hound]

Mine was a beater T206 Tris Speaker from a sports card shop in Virginia around 16 years ago. Didn't buy another one until 2005 at which point I was primarily a flipper. Took another five years for me to get hooked.

[Ronnie73]

Not really vintage but in the early 1990's at a show, I bought a 1955 Topps Charlie Silvera card for $5 in EX condition. At the time, it was my oldest card and I still own it today. I didn't start to be interested in older cards such as T206's until a few years ago. I remember always seeing them at shows in the late 80's early 90's but just didn't know anything about them and what to look for. It was pre internet days so becoming an expert wasn't just a click away.

[packs]

My first pre-war was a T206 Miller Huggins Hands at Mouth. I remember I bought it at a Gloria Rothstein White Plains show in the late 90s. I was probably 12 or so. I'm pretty sure it was the show where Joe Dimaggio and Ted Williams were signing for about a hundred bucks each. Still wish we got one but we thought that was crazy at the time.

Still have it. Would never sell.

[zljones]

My first vintage cards I obtained when I was 10 years old. I had:

1979 Topps Walter Payton
1975 Topps Hank Aaron card#1
1975 Topps Bucky Dent All Star Rookie
1969 Topps Reggie Smith
1969 Topps Johnny Bench A.S. card
1963 Topps Bobby Richardson reprint that I swore was real back then
1962 Topps Warren Sphann
1955 Bowman Don Larsen

I was very vintage card deprived I mainly just spent my time drooling over the black and white photos in Beckett Magazine or drooling at the local card shop. I still have the 75 Aaron, 75 Dent, 69 Bench but the rest were all stolen from me by other kids. My mom bought the Aaron, Bench, and Smith card for Christmas because she knew I wanted a 54 topps Hank Aaron but she could not afford it so she did the best she could, and because of that I charish those cards because of how special it was to me that she tried to make me happy. Too bad punks stole my 69 Reggie Smith that she bought for me!

[John V]

I had a shoebox full of my childhood cards from the 60s. So, the first card that I purchased "as vintage" was this Carey. $5 from local dealer. Still have it.

[jp1216]

My uncle gave me his 50s collection while I was in high school and working at a card shop (1989ish). I began chipping away at a beautiful '59 set.

First graded card was a '50 Bowman Otto Graham PSA 7. Early days of eBay. Before PayPal etc. I remember writing a check for $200 and sending it cross country. Praying the seller (with virtually zero feedback) would be trustworthy... 2 weeks later, the card arrived. The holder/slab was so neat/different....

First pre-war was a T206 Bradley w/ bat PSA 2 (later crossed to a SGC 3 ) Nice little white border card. Still part of my set.

[Jason Carota]

My first vintage card was a 1951 Bowman Monte Irvin. As the prewar genre pulled me in, I picked up a T206 Bates. Neither of those cards are in my collection anymore.

[bcbgcbrcb]

'59 Topps Bob Gibson RC

[scmavl]

My first vintage card was a '54 Topps Heinie Manush I got at a card show when I was 12 or so. I still have it.

I don't remember what my first pre-war card was. Maybe a '33 Goudey Arky Vaughn?

[Lee17]

My first vintage card was a '54 Al Kaline my father bought for me in the early '90s. I was only 10-12 at the time and liked it, but didn't love it. It's funny when you look back and I cherished an '89 Griffey over it at the time.

[Chris Counts]

Shortly after I started collected in 1970 at the age of nine, I came to the conclusion that older cards were more interesting than new cards. Over the next couple years, after my brother and I had acquired older cards from garage sales and older kids, we had an example of every Topps set back to 1953. I got a catalog from Larry Fritsch and ordered a 1952 Topps card of Johnny Mize for about a quarter (I still love the pose!). Finally, in 1974, I attended my first card show and picked up a sharp-cornered lot of T206s for a buck each (HOFers were $3). I also paid $2 for a '33 Goudey of Bing Miller ...

[Cooper1927]

I bought my first vintage from my 8th Grade Science teacher. Best teacher ever, Ben Blazier...

[kkkkandp]

WG5 National Game near mint John McGraw purchased January 14, 1995 at the Parsippany (NJ) PAL baseball card show. Proudly, I am still the owner.

[MVSNYC]

my first T206 cards, acquired around 1992. still have them.

[t206blogcom]

I collected as a kid from 1987-1992, but always preferred older cards. My first vintage card was a 1954 Bowman Pee Wee Reese (still own it). I treasured it. After that, I got on an early 70s Harmen Killebrew and Lou Brock kick.

I bought my first T206 (Schafly - Piedmont) around this time as well. Rode my bike back to the mall a week later and picked up a T206 Bush - Piedmont.

I always gravitated towards the T206 cards, but I didn't buy another one and start seriously collecting T206 until 17 years later. Had to get through all that high school/college/career/marriage stuff before I could find the time, interest and money to extend the collection. Now I'm down to less than 25 T206 cards to go.

[triwak]

My childhood collecting years were 1968 (when I was 7 years old) - 1974 (when I discovered girls). Still have everyone one of those cards. But one glorious weekend in 1972 (I was 11), a buddy and I found a garage sale while riding our bikes. A man had a HUGE cardboard box containing hundreds of cards from the early '50s - '60s. Selling them for a penny/card. Below is some of what I came away with before he kicked us the hell out of his garage! Wish I had offered him $20 for the whole box - bet he would've taken it. Only spent 24 cents, which is all I had. Not too bad of an investment for an 11 year old.

Apologies for the multiple post-war scans, but this was a fun trip down memory lane for me. :-)

[alanu]

1933 goudey yellow ruth beater that I traded for at a show was the first goudey era card

first earlier card was a Eddie Collins beater Cracker Jack that walked into a friend's card shop and I bought it from him

[kmac32]

1922 E 121 series of 120 Elmer Miller picked up at National in the late 80's and yes, I still own it. Now slabbed in SGC 20 condition. He is also a distant relative so DNA in baseball hooked me.

[Bilko G]

1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey jr rookie card

[Jantz]

Great thread topic!

Before my days of buying on Ebay, I would buy modern cards every now & then from a gentleman named W.S. Morrell, who ran a mail auction from his home. You had to get on his mailing list and you would receive maybe 10 photocopied sheets of paper with a list of cards up for auction. Each card had a minimum bid and you would have to call and place your bid before the auction ending date.

Now I can't remember the exact reason at this time, but I missed placing a bid before the ending date, so the next day I gave him a call to see if the card sold, which it hadn't. We got talking and I told him that I would wait for his next auction and place a bid. Then he ask me "You've bought from me before?" and I informed him that I had bought cards from him for 2 years now. To which he replied "I'll tell you what, you can have the card now if you want it. How about $100 plus $5 for S&H?" I couldn't reply fast enough!

So a week later my first vintage card arrived and I wasn't home. I drove up & down the streets looking for my mailman while holding that pickup slip like it was the winning lottery ticket. Three streets later I found him and claimed my prize. It was a SGC 84 1961 Topps Mickey Mantle MVP card.

Sorry for the long version, but I wanted to build some suspense.

Do I still own it? Nope, sold it about 3 years ago to buy more T206s. Oh well, I enjoyed it for over a decade and now someone else is enjoying it.


Thanks for bringing back some good memories.


Jantz