What was your first vintage baseball card??

[Chris-Counts]

When I first started collecting in 1970 at nine, I knew nothing of vintage cards, By the following year, I began discovering the cards of the 1960s. I found a '68 Mantle at a garage sale and thought I had unearthed a historic artifact. Over the next two years, after visiting many more garage sales, my brother and I had a Topps card from every year going back to 1953. Next, I received my first Larry Fritsch catalog and ordered up a 1952 Topps card of Johnny Mize for about 15 cents. Then came a trip to Goodwin Goldfadden's store and my first card show (Anaheim, 1974), where John Parks was selling sharp-corned T206s recently soaked from an album at $1 each for commons and $3 for HOFers. I bought Chase, Lajoie, Magee, Bradley and Three-Finger Brown. I also picked up a 1933 Goudey of Bing Miller for about $2 ...

[Big Ben]

Cool thread!

My first Pre-War card was a T206 Fred Merkle throwing that I spotted at an antique shop in the early 1980's for $2.

My first 1950's card that I bought was a 1952 Topps Bob Feller that I purchased for $5. The card has a pin hole in it, and a couple of years later, I had Feller autograph the card.

Good times!

[ullmandds]

By vintage...I presume this means pre-war...my first pre war card was/is a t206 matty white cap in f-g shape I got for $2 at a local card show in the NJ area in the late 70's.

A few years ago I acquired another matty white cap that was gorgeous...ended up grading sgc 70...which I sold...I still have the beater...and probably will til the day I die!

[Blunder19]

Originally Posted by Chris Counts

I found a '68 Mantle at a garage sale and thought I had unearthed a historic artifact. ...

Thats hilarious!...I did the same thing when I was little the first time I found a halfway decent baseball card at a garage sale.. it was a dave winfield rookie for $2.. I walked around holding it like it was a fossil for the rest of the day I love the rush you get when you found a great deal on a vintage baseball card.

now i just take out some old cards and have them next to me while watching the show american pickers on the history channel.. they dig for antiques and so do we...

[bbcard1]

T206 Snodgrass batting purchased from Card Collector's Company.

[brob28]

My first two were acquired at the same time a 1951 Bowman Gil Hodges and 1954 Topps Warren Sphan. A kid in my neighborhood's Dad gave him all his old cards and the kid decided to sell them instead of keeping them. Not sure what the Hodges cost, but I paid him a nickle for the Sphan. That was in about 1980. I can't remembner what else I got, but my only regret is I did not buy the entire shoebox from him! Still have both cards.

[steve B]

Sort of two parts for me.

In 74 they had the Hank Aaron specials showing all his cards. I told a friend of mine I'd really like to get some of them. he said his brother had some, but not Aaron and he'd see if he could get one. But I'd have to swap somereally good cards.

A couple days later I swapped what was probably a fistful of 74s, likely all As and Red Sox for a 68 Matthews. It's pretty beat but I still have it.
(Ok, it was only 6 years old at the time, but I was 11 and my oldest card was from 1969. At the time it seemed like an ancient card)

Around 77-78 I had moved to a new town and Halls was on my way home from school. Wow, stuff that was very old, T206s, boxes full of cards from the 50's and 60's all sorts of fascinating stuff. I wanted T206, they were 1.50 and they'd mounted them on 3x5 cards with a piece of 9 pocket page, and the cards had some stats typewriten on them. Must have been a few months later, they weren't doing the 3x5 card thing anymore. One day I stopped in and they said "look at this before you buy something" It was a truly awful T206 Beckley. Polar bear, no stains, but totally beat. Held together by tape. But it was only 20 cents! And they'd set it aside just for me.

I still have that one too. It got me started on older cards, and although I didn't know it at the time, it taught me a great lesson about how to really run a hobby business right.

Steve B

[Howe’s Hunter]

Saw it at the Burlington Arcade antique store in Lincoln. I couldn't move away from the case. The next day, we went back and bought it as my anniversary gift, which was the next week.

It is one of only six of the original collection I had that I didn't sell when I decided to pursue Howe's collection. The others are the portrait versions of Tinker/Evers/Chance and a Johnson/pitching that were all my 10th anniversary gifts, and a Bliss portrait my son picked for me as a Father's Day gift when he was three.

[triwak]

First pre-war. Bought on eBay in 2004 to begin an attempt at a complete HOF collection, expanding on what I had acquired as a kid (still ongoing). Knew nothing about pre-war until this arrived. I was now hooked!

[Kalineman]

I bought my first vintage cards at the 1973 Troy (MI) card show. Actually, I was intrigued by the look of the T-206 cards, so I bought Tinkers, Evers and Chance as a trio for the princely sum of $11 total.

[bjcunningham]

I was probably 14 or 15 at a card show, my Dad let me borrow $20 to buy a T206 Evers.

[Hot Springs Bathers]

I think I have told this story before but my first card show was 1976 in Ft. Smith, Arkansas. After seeing a complete set of T205s for sale I was hooked.

On my way out the dor I stopped again to see hobby legend John England's table. I asked about an Old Judge card and paid $4.00 for it. It was a Bushong Browns Champs. It was my largest purchase at the show.

[brianp-beme]

My first vintage cards came as group in the early 70's from an older brother, mostly 1959-64 Topps.

My first Pre-WW2 cards came together in lumpy fashion. I was driven by my folks to a card show near LAX in 1981, and the first dealer inside (yes, I remember it was on the right side) had some beat up old cards in their case. I took them all for $11.00, pretty much all I had to spend. I ended up with:

T206 Mathewson Dark Cap
T206 Johnson pitching
E98 Cy Young
T205 Breshnahan
T205 Wheat (Broadleaf back)

All around Fair to F-G condition. These cards started me on the path to low-grade collecting bliss. I still have each card, and if I had to get rid of all my cards I have collected except one, I would hang onto the Matty.

Brian