Pre-war player collectors - biggest following?

[Belfast1933]

I’m curious which pre-war players have the biggest collector following? Of course the biggest (Ruth, Cobb, Matty, Johnson, Young, etc) are on all of our want lists.

I’ve heard Brown has a bit of a cult following…. Any other pre-war high demand player collectors?

(Also learned at the National that some “type” collectors try to snag all the mustached players - who knew??)

[Casey2296]

Add Wagner to your list and you have the top tier.

Second tier includes but not limited to;

Lajoie, Speaker, Crawford, Plank, Collins, off the top of my head.

[Golfcollector]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

Add Wagner to your list and you have the top tier.

Second tier includes but not limited to;

Lajoie, Speaker, Crawford, Plank, Collins, off the top of my head.

I am a Crawford only, guy...and I do throw our some posts here from time to time, so I might skew it a bit...but I will say when you check some of the larger auction offerings the Crawford items seem to be a lot less in quantity compared to some of the other guys...not sure if that means he is not quite as popular, or people are just holding on to his stuff!

[ValKehl]

Jeff and Phil, I'm surprised that Lou Gehrig isn't in either of your player lists.

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by ValKehl

Jeff and Phil, I'm surprised that Lou Gehrig isn't in either of your player lists.

Ah yes! I knew I was missing some names, thank you Val.

[Vintagedeputy]

I know a few collectors who collect Hal Chase specifically.

[Carter08]

Originally Posted by Belfast1933

I’m curious which pre-war players have the biggest collector following? Of course the biggest (Ruth, Cobb, Matty, Johnson, Young, etc) are on all of our want lists.

I’ve heard Brown has a bit of a cult following…. Any other pre-war high demand player collectors?

(Also learned at the National that some “type” collectors try to snag all the mustached players - who knew??)

An offshoot of this question could be who has an unusually large following compared to their on field production.

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by Carter08

An offshoot of this question could be who has an unusually large following compared to their on field production.

Buck Weaver and other black sox.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Carter08

An offshoot of this question could be who has an unusually large following compared to their on field production.

King Kelly.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Carter08

An offshoot of this question could be who has an unusually large following compared to their on field production.

Ten Million!

[ValKehl]

Originally Posted by Carter08

An offshoot of this question could be who has an unusually large following compared to their on field production.

"Dummy" Hoy.

[BioCRN]

Not-on-topic detour, but I'm still amazed at the power Bo Jackson still holds on the hobby from collectors.

It's not just people 40+ years old that lived through the "Bo Knows" era, either. A lot of younger people have a very positive view of the guy and want him in their collection.

[Tomi]

Originally Posted by BioCRN

Not-on-topic detour, but I'm still amazed at the power Bo Jackson still holds on the hobby from collectors.

It's not just people 40+ years old that lived through the "Bo Knows" era, either. A lot of younger people have a very positive view of the guy and want him in their collection.

It helps that many of his cards are very affordable.

[packs]

I know there are quite a few Hank Greenberg collectors out there. I always enjoy his section of Glory of Their Times too.

[calvindog]

For me:

Radbourn, Anson

Chase, Cobb, Brown, Donlin, Jennings, Mathewson, McGraw, Bill Donovan, Crawford, Jackson, Ruth, Berg, Greenberg

Mantle, Robinson, Campanella, Koufax, Bouton, Pepitone

[Schlesinj]

I would just add the sub-set of Cuban/Negro leaguers.

[vintagerookies51]

Ruth, Cobb, Gehrig, Wajo, Mathewson, Young; Wagner, Joe Jackson

[bcbgcbrcb]

Safe to say that anyone not yet mentioned here is flying under the radar and, thus, a possibly undervalued candidate to “invest in”.

[Rhotchkiss]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

Safe to say that anyone not yet mentioned here is flying under the radar and, thus, a possibly undervalued candidate to “invest in”.

Perhaps. But I would take the opposite position: players not yet mentioned are not flying under the radar. Rather, they are not widely collected, and thus, not ideal for investment. Or put differently, I am unlikely to bet money on (invest in) a player who hasn’t been mentioned, because I don’t think there is a broad/strong demand for that player (they are not popular). But as they say, opinions are like assholes…. And that’s just my opinion.

[raulus]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

Safe to say that anyone not yet mentioned here is flying under the radar and, thus, a possibly undervalued candidate to “invest in”.

I think the real question is whether those not mentioned will continue to be overlooked, or if everyone will wake up one day and suddenly realize how amazing they really were.

My guess is that any positive change is likely to be driven by some good publicity. Think Alexander Hamilton. He was sorta known among a set of the populace that was into history, but not seriously known by the general public. But along comes a fancy new musical, and all of a sudden he’s got some crazy popularity.

So maybe your strategy should be to buy up most of the supply of a few under-loved players, and then create a musical that features those players and goes viral and takes the world by storm. Then you can slowly offload them at huge gains.

If you feature a few pitchers as your main characters, you could name it “Pitches be Trippin’”.