How many have gone from collecting new cards to collecting vintage?

[mouschi]

There seems to be a trend that I'm seeing - and I could be wrong, but I don't think I am - that a lot of people have started with collecting newer cards, get tired with them and then end up going to vintage. Is this the case with you? Have you noticed this as well?

[Woundedduck]

That's what I did. I get a few packs here and there, but less than $50 of the new stuff a year. I will buy autos of more recent HoF guys, but vintage is my primary focus. When I made the switch it was mostly prewar, but I've added some postwar HoFs also.

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[Cmount76]

It's exactly what I did. Manufactured scarcity of prospective stars vs. genuine history of the greats of our national pastime was a no brainer. Once I made the move, I never looked back.

[drcy]

I collected both modern and vintage from the start. Even as a kid, I was interested in both. But latest insert collecting was fool's collecting has it didn't hold it's value.

[brianp-beme]

I made the switch and haven't looked back. This switch was completed in 1983, but 1983 Topps, Fleer and Donruss cards were considered new then.

Brian

[sando69]

I started collecting vintage cards in 1959, when they were new...
but, they are all vintage now!

[Leon]

I did rookie HOF'ers when I first started around 20+ yrs ago. But the (mostly 50s-70s) cards were so common I quickly went backwards to pre-wwii. I never went back to the newer stuff. Mostly it just got older and older

Originally Posted by mouschi

There seems to be a trend that I'm seeing - and I could be wrong, but I don't think I am - that a lot of people have started with collecting newer cards, get tired with them and then end up going to vintage. Is this the case with you? Have you noticed this as well?

[cubman1941]

I started in 1976 when my daughter gave me a Hostess Cub card for my birthday. I then started buying the new stuff but not a whole lot because I was financially strapped. In 1984 I got better and started buying and putting together sets. As the newer brands came out I continued to buy it all. As a Cub guy I would get all the Cubs from those years and started to go back in time to 1952 with my Cubs. I then hooked up with a seller and continued to get the new Cubs and continued to buy everything to put together sets. I finally realized, when the 1 of 1 and 1 of 2 and etc. that I could not put together sets anymore. In 1992 quit buying the new stuff and started looking at getting the Cubs before 1952. I had a lot of fun going to different card shops looking for vintage Cubs. Made many mistakes like passing up a lot of non-Cub 1952's when I had the chance to get most, including Mantle, at a good price, but I was not too smart and passed because "they weren't Cubs". Now I have fun looking all over (card shops are extinct in my area), at auctions and this site for vintage Cubs I need. I still frequent antique shops looking for vintage baseball as I travel around.

[Chris Counts]

I bought my first pack of baseball cards in 1970 at 9, and by 1973, I was deep into vintage cards. I recall it started when I picked up a 1968 Mantle at a garage sale in my Orange County neighborhood for a penny. Next came a neighbor who sold me a bunch of 1964s. He had a few 1957s as well, which blew my mind and really got me going on old cards. By the time I went to my first card show in 1974, I had acquired an example of every Topps card back to 1953 from literally knocking on the doors in my neighbors ("Hi, you wouldn't happened to have any old baseball cards lying around?").

Next, I sent away for a 1952 Topps Johnny Mize from Larry Fritsch, mostly because I loved the image of it I saw in his catalog. I didn't pay more than a quarter for it. Then my dad took me to Goodwin Goldfadden's shop, where I met a very crank hobby legend who clearly didn't like kids or cards, but he sold me some of the latter.

My first card show came in 1974, and I spend all my money at the first table on ex-mt T206s: $1 for commons and $3 for stars. I bought a Nap Lajoie, a Mordecai Brown and a Hal Chase. The seller was John Parks, who started the old monthly card club shows at the Walton School in Garden Grove. The shows were later moved to a rec center in Fountain Valley. Those shows were amazing, although curiously, nobody was interested in pre-war cards, although I recall buying a high grade '34 Goudey Gehrig for $30, and some thought I was nuts. It was all about cards from the 1950s. The older guys were mostly in their 30s and 40s, and they chasing the cards their mothers threw away. Nothing was considered more desirable than 1950s regionals like Stahl-Meyers and Hunters and cards that weren't available out west. Bell Brands and Mother's Cookies were also popular. I liked getting my cards in nice shape, and some thought that was weird. I was a glorious time.

[Orioles1954]

I've actually gone from pre-war to modern.

[joshuanip]

Originally Posted by Orioles1954

I've actually gone from pre-war to modern.

Interesting! Would like to know what prompted you to move?

[Orioles1954]

Originally Posted by joshuanip

Interesting! Would like to know what prompted you to move?

I really enjoy keeping up with the modern day game/player, opening boxes/packs and interacting with a larger community. I still enjoy pre-war and appreciate its history, but for the time being am attracted to the modern industry.

[Smanzari]

Originally Posted by mouschi

There seems to be a trend that I'm seeing - and I could be wrong, but I don't think I am - that a lot of people have started with collecting newer cards, get tired with them and then end up going to vintage. Is this the case with you? Have you noticed this as well?

I actually started with Vintage with a 1973 Topps Aaron from Gramps and going through my Uncle's Childhood cards. With this sparked interest, I would regularly go to the local shop but their vintage was more like mid-80's cards during the time (and I wanted 50's & 60's!), so I would grab modern as the "second best"

[vintagebaseballcardguy]

Originally Posted by Orioles1954

I've actually gone from pre-war to modern.

James,

Any particular team/set/player focus??

WPS!

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[wdwfan]

I've really noticed it too, and I've gone back and forth with new and vintage. For example, I enjoy busting packs from time to time. So I'll get a few packs when I go to the LCS to get supplies or go to Walmart to get groceries. But I'll also collect vintage.

And many people collect vintage. From time to time I run into guys that run auctions or buy storage buildings and then sell their stuff. Once I find out, I'll tell them to let me know if they ever find cards. The first question is what are you looking for. When I say vintage, they usually say yep that's what everybody is looking for. So it's becoming more and more popular.

Problem with vintage is prices. People think they're sitting on goldmines and ask 2-3 times what cards go for. It's frustrating to get into collecting vintage. I'm getting ready to start a thread asking about 1970s vintage. My main question is there investment potential. In other words, will it ever go up. I know the big thing is HOFer RCs and to some point HOFer stars. But not sure vintage's investment potential beyond that.

[wdwfan]

I try to go to the LCS, but they live by book value. They don't sell anything under BV. So it's hard to trade/buy for vintage there. The one thing they do is trade. They give you 1/3 BV in trade. So I can build up credit then get a nice card. But most of their cards are pretty much VG-Ex at best.

Originally Posted by Smanzari

I actually started with Vintage with a 1973 Topps Aaron from Gramps and going through my Uncle's Childhood cards. With this sparked interest, I would regularly go to the local shop but their vintage was more like mid-80's cards during the time (and I wanted 50's & 60's!), so I would grab modern as the "second best"

[Orioles1954]

Originally Posted by vintagebaseballcardguy

James,

Any particular team/set/player focus??

WPS!

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Orioles.

[topcat61]

I started out collecting new cards when I was a kid. And what I mean by new cards is 1980's. Anyway, that changed during the 1994 Baseball Strike and I went completely towards vintage afterwards. I was making that transition anyway, but the Strike was the final nail in the coffin for me.

[steve B]

I'm so slow and unfocused that I've gone from collecting new cards to vintage, and it's the same sets

[riggs336]

Even though I began collecting new cards in 1953, I never owned a pre-war card until the 1970's when I traded a grocery bag of 1958 Topps dups for about 30 T cards, including a dozen or so T206 HOFers. I've often wondered who got the better end of that deal. Probably me. But there were a ton of Mays, Aaron and Clemente cards in that sack (I kept the Mantles).

[egri]

I started collecting in 2006, modern because I was 11 years old and those were the players I watched and looked up to. That year was the 60th anniversary of the 1946 Red Sox, so local news was full of stories about them. That got me into reading The Teammates, and from there I branched out into postwar. There weren't any cards from 1946, but my local card shop had 1949 Bowmans of Bobby Doerr and Sam Mele that I saved up for and eventually bought. When I got into autographs, I stuck with vintage because the old timers have better penmanship, and a lot of them were happy to be remembered 50-60 years after they retired. I'm also a big history nut, so there was that element as well.

[mrmopar]

I started with new cards, but developed a taste for older cards early on. Nothing major, as I was still just a pre-teen, but was picking up 50s stuff in the early 80s. When I discovered the internet, I did go after a lot of older and oddball stuff, but as the prices increased, my collecting of the older stuff slowed down as I was not able to continue affording it. I am glad I got what I did when I did, but woish I would have started earlier in earnest and gone after more than just personal favorites. For example, I liked Jim Palmer more than Seaver or Ryan.

I dabble in anything now if it catcvhes my eye, but unfortunately the vintage pick ups are fewer and further between these days. I did just get a T-205 Brooklyn card the other day though.

[Promethius88]

Originally Posted by Leon

I did rookie HOF'ers when I first started around 20+ yrs ago. But the (mostly 50s-70s) cards were so common I quickly went backwards to pre-wwii. I never went back to the newer stuff. Mostly it just got older and older

Rumor has it that Leon has a Jesus Christ and the 12 Apostles team card. Think it was issued at the Last Supper but little is known about the actual distribution and the print runs since that original info was lost in a fire sometime around the 7th century.

[CobbSpikedMe]

I started in the 80's with modern (at the time) but always wanted vintage cards. I used to read Beckett back then and saw the prices for star vintage cards and was discouraged away from vintage thinking I wouldn't be able to afford any of it. I really wanted T206 cards but thought they were really tough to find and would have been too expensive even if I did find them. Fast forward to like 15 years ago or more and I got my first T206 I was hooked on prewar. Then I found the old Network 54 boards and joined there and it was all about prewar for me. I then found out that had I just looked for T206s at the shows in the 80's I would've found them and they would've been pretty cheap. I was very disappointed that I missed out on them back when I was a kid. Those are what I really wanted back then. Oh well. I've been a prewar/vintage collector at heart since the beginning I guess. I do still pick up a modern pack every now and then just to open them and see who I get. But I give away most of those modern cards to other collectors.

[lloydchristmas]

It’s the case with me. I collected as a kid in the 90’s, came back to in the last decade and the abundance of autograph and material cards do nothing for me.

[Leon]

This sounds like me today. I just have no interest in the new stuff whatsoever. Of course in the late 60s, as a collecting kid, it was all Topps and maybe a Fleer or two. But as said up in the thread, as an adult, I quickly went from HOF rookies (mostly Topps) to pre-war.

Originally Posted by lloydchristmas

It’s the case with me. I collected as a kid in the 90’s, came back to in the last decade and the abundance of autograph and material cards do nothing for me.

[jerrys]

Started with interest in both vintage and new. Not many card shows - made baseball card contacts at coin shows. New Topps sets, late 1970s - $8.00/set. Vintage T206 cards: $2-$10 - Cobb $50, W600s: $75-$150 HOF $150-$300 rarely found, Goudeys: $5-$10 Ruth $50-$100.

[jchcollins]

I got started with cards because Topps' Garbage Pail Kids were so popular when I was in 3rd grade. This led me to find a trading buddy at school who also collected baseball cards. My first card packs were '86 Topps, 35 cents at the local 7-11 or Cashion's grocery store. By the next year or so I had discoved what old card were down at a local antique shop. The cards were actually from the collection of former Milwaukee Braves catcher Paul Burris - who was from the area and still lived nearby, retired. I remember buying a '62 Topps Gil Hodges and a bunch of '54 Topps commons. Burris had stamped them all "1954" in small letters on the front. Anyhow, that set the hook. I collected modern (what at that time had become junk era wax) until I was in high school, but was always way more intrigued by the older cards. I traded with dealers at shops and shows, and had accumulated a nice little collection of postwar stars and HOF'ers by the time I went to college. I was interested in prewar, but back then it seemed that virtually no shop had anything as old as tobacco cards. You did see them at shows, but they were always way out of my price range. I was born too late lol, started going to shows in the late 80's instead of 20 years earlier. I put the cards away in college, but got back into it when I discovered online auctions and ebay around 1999. The rest is history, I've collected on and off - mostly on - ever since. I could care less about autos and relics and it's very rare that I will buy a "pack" of anything new today. I think Topps Heritiage is cool, but way too expensive for what it is for me to consider seriously going after them.

[the 'stache]

I started off with Topps as a kid. 1979 Topps as a wee 7-8 year old, and I collected those until probably about 1992. Topps, Donruss, Fleer, Upper Deck and all their variations. I've got a closet full of late 80s Topps.

Maybe ten years ago, I came back to the hobby, starting off with the shiny cards. Bowman Chrome certified autos. But I got tired of people asking $500 for a guy that had "potential", and might never make it to the bigs. For every Mike Trout there were 100 Mat Gamels.

Moving to vintage and pre-war just made sense. It got back to why I began collecting in the first place. The love of the game's history, and collecting for collecting's sake. Now, I'm just biding my time until I can really get back to the hobby. I've been working on my McFarlane collection until then. A few baseball, football or hockey Hall of Famers and greats a month. They're a lot of fun, and I can't wait to pair a T206 Cobb with the figure, or a Topps Jackie Robinson with the figure I just bought.