Type Cards, is there an appetite?

[biggies]

So I have been a collector of mainstream baseball for 50+ years and have amassed a decent collection, albeit marginal in this community.
In recent years I have devoted most of my attention to type cards, that is an attempt to get 1 card from every set printed.
I draw the line at 1980, so as to not go crazy with inserts and parallels, etc.
Its such a commitment for me I am hoping there is a community of us out there. Is there? Could there be a separate page for this on Net54?
Probably not, but I have to ask.

[Casey2296]

I love type collecting, you don't have to buy the heavy hitters to enjoy a type card and can usually get a higher grade common to represent the set. Personally I like the rare types from the 1909 to early 20's era.
That's quite an undertaking you've chosen, I wish you the best of luck putting it together.

[brianp-beme]

I think it would perhaps be best served by creating a thread to solicit interesting posts from type collectors the additions to their collections that they have made. Type collecting is something I have dabbled with, never an overriding focus, but still a fun collecting pursuit, and to me it is always interesting to see something I am not that overly familiar with/or just plain rare or out of the ordinary

Brian

[Leon]

My ebay handle for the last 24+ yrs has been.. Type-Card-Collector.

That is what I have done almost my whole time collecting, 25+ yrs. I was only a few cards away from (my definition of) finishing a type set when I sold my collection 8 yrs ago. I have always loved type cards...and if there are over several known, it's not that rare.

I am not sure we need a different section. Just post them on the front page.
.

[darkhorse9]

I am foremost a set collector, but only for post war. The rest of my collection is mostly type collecting
I have a display of my pre-WW1 cards showing the variety of ways baseball cards were made from 1887-1919.
It's a fun and affordable way to show the Hobby's history, so I'm all in.

[darwinbulldog]

I have dozens of different "sets" I'm working on at various paces, but my favorite ones are the Louisiana type cards (T211, Tango Eggs, etc.), the bakery type cards (D304, D381, etc.), and the rare back type cards (Shotwell, Hendlers, etc.).

In theory I'm primarily a collector of rare type cards, but in practice I'm too impatient not to also busy myself with much more common stuff (T206s and rookie cards).

[BobC]

I've been using the old SCD Vintage Catalog as my checklist for type cards/items up through 1980 for years now. Similar cut-off year/period as you are using. Figure to try and see how far I can go to get at least one of every item/set listed in those SCD vintage catalogs. An obvious impossible task to ever fully complete at 100% as some of the items/sets listed are so rare and scarce, you'll never come across any for sale. And even if you're ever lucky enough to find one of these uber-rare type cards/items for sale, it is usually so ridiculously expensive you'll never be able to afford it.

Also work on many different pre- and post-war sets as well, particularly the more obscure, less well-liked/collected sets. What with the recent pandemic price surge in many card prices for most all the pre-war superstar/HOFers, finishing many of those early pre-war sets that included Wagner, Cobb, Jackson, and other such player cards/items in them, the cost of acquiring such player cards/items to finish many of these pre-war sets has gotten out of reach for the more average collectors. So, seeing there are now many sets I'll likely never finish, it is still nice to be able to work on the type card side of my collection, and can still find many, many cards/items at relatively inexpensive prices. I don't worry much about condition, and will take a common, low condition card/item as a type card, especially if talking about some of the rarer, early pre-war sets to begin with.

And there are likely many collectors on this forum that are type card collectors as well, whether it be for all cards/items, like myself, or maybe just for a specific team, player, or even a year or era. So as Leon said, go ahead and post on the front main forum pages for the cards/items in the specific era(s) you're talking and asking about (pre-war, post-war pre-1890, post-war post-1980) and you'll get plenty of eyes and responses. Even pre-war collectors that only focus on the stars/HOFers, and/or maybe only rookie cards, more from an investment than a true collector standpoint, are actually a form of type collector as well, even if they don't think of themselves that way. At the end of the day, I think you'll find that most pre-war collectors are at least some variant/form of a type collector at heart. You pretty much have to be unless you're wealthy and can afford some of the crazy prices for certain cards these days to finish sets. LOL Good luck with your collecting.

[biggies]

Thanks all for the input. I will take Leon's advice and see if I can't stir up some TC interest on the front page.

bb

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by biggies

Thanks all for the input. I will take Leon's advice and see if I can't stir up some TC interest on the front page.

bb

Bob, how many sets do you consider between 1880 and 1980?

[biggies]

1863-1980 (I include the Jordan set) 2359 sets right now

It changes daily. I started with Dave Hornish's list years ago, about 3500. But it needed massive filtering and I said before everyone's list is specific to them.

I insist on: must have listed players, at least 10 players, MLB only, etc
I have comprimised on all of these. I have over 250 TCMA sets, includes a lot of minors. How do you NOT include Zeenuts, Popcorns, etc. And if I happen to get a card in a set of less than 10 players, in it goes.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by biggies

1863-1980 (I include the Jordan set) 2359 sets right now

It changes daily. I started with Dave Hornish's list years ago, about 3500. But it needed massive filtering and I said before everyone's list is specific to them.

I insist on: must have listed players, at least 10 players, MLB only, etc
I have comprimised on all of these. I have over 250 TCMA sets, includes a lot of minors. How do you NOT include Zeenuts, Popcorns, etc. And if I happen to get a card in a set of less than 10 players, in it goes.

Really, only MLB players, AND at least 10 players in the set? So, you don't actively collect and search for type cards from sets like the S74 silks, Kellogg's Pep Sports Stamps, W.S. Kimball Champions, 1937 and 1938 Dixie Lids and their premiums, W511s, W512s, W513s, W565s, W590s, among other sets then?

Or what about a situation like with the various Michael Schecter Associates discs put out in the 1970s-80s, where they put out a sample, test set of only 6 discs in 1975. Do you collect type cards from all the other sets, but not from their original, very first set itself, because it contained fewer than 10 MLB players?

I fully understand and respect the need to set and follow certain rules and parameters when collecting. Just seems to me you may be missing out on collecting examples of some truly great cards/sets though. Or was that statement you made about sometimes compromising on your type card collecting happening a little more often than not? LOL

[conner]

This seems like a stupid question, but what is a type card?

[Leon]

Originally Posted by conner

This seems like a stupid question, but what is a type card?

My definition - It's any card from a set and is used as a card in a type card "set" to fill that spot. So, you generally try to get 1 from each set, or a type card. When I was doing it in earnest, I went from the ACC and added other sets Burdick didn't catalog.

I doubt anyone has completed an orange borders set, as there are most likely some that are uncatalogued. This is a type card from the set but any player could be one.

[molenick]

If I recall correctly, it is a term borrowed from coin collecting, where the idea was to get one example of every different "type" of coin based on the design and denomination (and sometimes broken into centuries as well). As a kid, I had an album with slots for collecting Lincoln pennies and an album for collecting type coins.

But with coins, it's a little more straightforward because it's pretty well defined. There are only so many designs a penny, nickel, dime, etc. has had (not to mention half cents, two-cent pieces, three-cent nickel, three-cent silver, etc.). I guess the main question was whether you were also going to do colonials and commemoratives (and whether you could afford gold coins as well...I don't think my album had slots for gold coins).

But with baseball cards, there are "standard" issues like Goudey, Topps, Bowman, etc. and thousands of regional or one-off issues, plus the question of, what is a "card". I am a type collector to some degree but only for cards that I want a type of....mostly T and E cards, and the cards that are not T or E, but look or feel like T and E cards (e.g. D359, M116, Tango Egg). I do have an occasional V122 or F50 but that's based more on opportunity (e.g., the card came up in an auction and I liked the look of it). I don't go into the 19th century and I don't go beyond the 30's for any type card. Also, I limit it to collecting one of each catalog number...if I have one T207 I have that type...I don't need every cigarette brand.

It's a self-defined endeavor for me which basically amounts to getting a nice example from sets I like the look of from the era I like to collect. I cannot afford, nor am I interested, in having an example of a card from every possible set. I think even people looking for "every card" have some limits (e.g., a date cut-off, it must be made of cardboard to be a "card", major league only, no strip cards, etc.).

[biggies]

To Bob C., in response:

As I said in my statement, there have become many comprimises. I tried to set up a general perameter. Mostly paring down from the 1 - 3 card sets I'd never see, or just generally paring. In truth if I were to get a card from every set with any conditions then well I guess I'd broaden the terms. Not much chance of that.
I think anyone can set their own limits and have fun.
PS, S74 silks, Kellogg's Pep Sports Stamps, W.S. Kimball Champions, 1937 and 1938 Dixie Lids and their premiums, W511s, W512s, W513s, W565s, W590s, are all on my list.

As are the Michael Schecter Associates discs, of which I pursue each back.

TC collecting is to me the essential embodiment of having-fun-collecting. None of the nerve wracking set completion issues, and it creates affordability for those of us with shorter pockets.

I will never finish but I will always have fun with it.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by biggies

To Bob C., in response:

As I said in my statement, there have become many comprimises. I tried to set up a general perameter. Mostly paring down from the 1 - 3 card sets I'd never see, or just generally paring. In truth if I were to get a card from every set with any conditions then well I guess I'd broaden the terms. Not much chance of that.
I think anyone can set their own limits and have fun.
PS, S74 silks, Kellogg's Pep Sports Stamps, W.S. Kimball Champions, 1937 and 1938 Dixie Lids and their premiums, W511s, W512s, W513s, W565s, W590s, are all on my list.

As are the Michael Schecter Associates discs, of which I pursue each back.

TC collecting is to me the essential embodiment of having-fun-collecting. None of the nerve wracking set completion issues, and it creates affordability for those of us with shorter pockets.

I will never finish but I will always have fun with it.

Great to hear, you appear to "compromise" your defined type card set limits a bit after all. LOL Would be a shame IMO to leave out so many sets that are not really difficult to come across, that include non-baseball players and/or have fewer than 10 baseball players in the set.

[BobC]

.

[nebboy]

If your collecting for collecting sake and really want a challenge for type cards go after 1900-1969 Minor League cards. So many unique issue and many Hugh challenges. A flip through the Standard Catalog of VBC, will get one’s juices following.

[Casey2296]

I'm also an image collector as well, so my type collection has to have great images within the set.

[Brian Van Horn]

Type? Me? Hmmm. It's possible.

[toppcat]

I am a type collector of anything Topps sold at retail in a pack (or similar) with gum (and some candy) from 1939 through 1980, sports and non-sports alike. Plus Gum Inc. and Bowman and OPC and A&BC. We are a rare breed.

[Exhibitman]

I type collect Hank Aaron. Anything that will fit in my album is fair game. That said, I don't bother with modern cards. He had a lot of oddball cards, especially in the wake of the HR chase. My 'oddest' one is this 1980 card from Korea:




Aaron and Banks were on a paid tour for a food company and the Korean pro league.

[toppcat]

That's a killer Aaron piece Adam-yikes!!

[Lucas00]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

I type collect Hank Aaron. Anything that will fit in my album is fair game. That said, I don't bother with modern cards. He had a lot of oddball cards, especially in the wake of the HR chase. My 'oddest' one is this 1980 card from Korea:




Aaron and Banks were on a paid tour for a food company and the Korean pro league.

The company translates to Beksul Ham (they are Vienna sausages). The left side talks about Hanks biggest Feats. And the right is baseball terms, perfect game, triple play etc.

Still in business today.

[jetsetr1]

Originally Posted by darkhorse9

I am foremost a set collector, but only for post war. The rest of my collection is mostly type collecting
I have a display of my pre-WW1 cards showing the variety of ways baseball cards were made from 1887-1919.
It's a fun and affordable way to show the Hobby's history, so I'm all in.

Beautiful. Would love to display exactly like this but worry too much. Maybe will do for a pic

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

I type collect Hank Aaron. Anything that will fit in my album is fair game. That said, I don't bother with modern cards. He had a lot of oddball cards, especially in the wake of the HR chase. My 'oddest' one is this 1980 card from Korea:




Aaron and Banks were on a paid tour for a food company and the Korean pro league.

That's a cool Aaron card, Adam. Never seen that one. And I generally like loose definitions too.

I could talk type cards all day. Another that returned to my collection from my first one.