1991 1922 American Caramel (E120) Reprint Baseball Forum

How many people collect vintage cards?  What do you consider a vintage card anyway?  '70s, '60s, '50s?  What about '40s, '30s, and '20s cards? How about Turn-of-the-Century cards?  Why or why not?  What about the cost of collecting these old cards.  

Are you so rich that you can buy high-grade tobacco cards like gumball machine candy?  If not, then how do you collect higher-priced vintage cards? Or do you?  Do you have only one old Bowman, Play Ball, or Goudey in a glass case, and can't name another player other than Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrigh, and Joe Dimaggio?

I'm sure there are still a few collectors out there that can remember collecting cards before there was a such thing as a Topps card, but how many of those people are left?  Whose buying their cards other than millionaire ballplayers that can afford them.  How will the love for these old sets and players be passed on to the younger generations with all of the older ones moving on?  

How many vintage collectors out there are still under 40?  How about under 30?  With many of the older generation collecting despising reprint sets, how do younger collectors on a low budget gain an appreciation for vintage card sets?  Who's going to buy the old man's cards?   

I'll often start off with a vintage reprint set, and then replace each card one-by-one with originals.  I currently have reprint sets for 1915 Cracker Jack, 1922 American Caramel (E120), 1927 Playing Cards (W560), 1933 Goudey, 1935 Goudey, 1936 Goudey, 1938 Goudey, 1939 Play Ball, 1947 Tip-Top, 1948 Bowman, 1949 Bowman, 1951 Bowman, 1952 Topps, 1953 Topps, 1953 Bowman, and 1954 Topps.  

These reprint sets provided the motivation to go after low-grade originals with patience knowing that I still have fillers instead of gaps to allow my education of vintage baseball to grow.  I'm now less than 10 cards away from the 1954 Topps set, half finished with 1953 Topps, finished with the 1951 Topps Red Backs, one card away from the 1950 Bowman set, and have acquired a substantial number of '40s, '30s, and '20s cards.  It was the reprint sets that sparked that motivation, like "Hey, I've heard of that player".  

Thoughts?  

I have some and some that I am looking for. But I'm specific on players not era. There are a few TCU Horned Frog baseball players (Pete Donohue is probably the best known) with cards from pre-WWII. I think the oldest card I know of for my collection is a 1910 Louis Drucke.
I love the old cards, but I don't really concentrate on them.

Like baseball itself, card collecting is dying. So, I would argue, is an appreciation for history in general. So there are fewer vintage collectors. It's just life. At this point, I consider vintage to be pre-1980, but that's personal opinion. As I've argued before, I'd love this site to have a separate listing of largest vintage collections, by whatever definition. 

By my own criterion, I have thousands of vintage cards. But I have exactly four pre-Topps cards. I'm looking for more. I'd like a card from every decade of baseball. But that's expensive. Not just "I can't afford it" expensive, but "is that how I want to spend my money" expensive. Buying any '52 Topps card is few bucks. Buying cards from the 30's can be deadly. I could buy a lot of 68's for the same price, and tons of 2016s. So I mix it up. Cheap/expensive/cheap.

And my choice of cheap has been throwbacks, which I've relaxed my stance on. The Gypsy Queens have a nice feel, are a new design every year and have modern and old players. Smart. A kid can get his Mike Trout along side of Lou Brock, alongside of Ty Cobb. And that might help the hobby and remembrance of history. Makes me want to get a vintage Gypsy Queen card someday. 

Dont know if I've answered all the original poster's questions, but those are some of my thoughts. 

V3

I'm under 40 and prefer to collect 1933-1963 issues, but haven't embarked on a set completion quest yet.  1956 Topps is the first set I might try to finish, and I'd go about it slowly enough to read every card back and get to know the players.

Other than PC I try to stick to hall of famers.  I am minimally concerned with condition (though I rely on grading to verify authenticity) and have found items reasonably priced, other than the centrepiece cards of Gehrig, Ruth, Mantle, Robinson, Aaron, Mays, Clemente, et al.

I've never thought about whether there'd be a market for my collection when it is eventually offered for sale.  There are cut signatures and relics from plenty of hall of famers in modern products.  Maybe seeing those cards might inspire a few people to learn about and acquire cards of those legends from their playing days.  I know I'd be much happier with a late 1930s Joe Dimaggio card than a "black parallel 1-of-1" half-inch thick collectible with a little pinstriped swatch peeking through a window.

 i don't think baseball is dying.  Sure, the hobby is taking a hit with the outrageous prices per pack.  The hobby is evolving.  As a kid, everyone tried to get the whole set.  Nowadays, lot of youngsters are collecting only their team players, cheaper that way.   Also there are more minorites getting into the hobby nowadays which is wonderful.   Thirty years ago , the card shows were all white.     Now you put a Clemente up for sale and see if it sells.  You bet it will and fast.     Vintage cards will always take a lot of cash and maybe there things will stagnate.     Also, the big influx of people into the hobby around 1987 which lasted aroudn 4 years was fueled not by collectors but by "investors" who thought every card would go up in value.   Now, I think, we've thinned the herd and are back to collectors being in the hobby for enjoyment.

It's a whole other thread, but baseball has slipped behind football and basketball in popularity. It isn't a center of culture like it used to be. Now, that's football. Hands down. Baseball might not be dying, but it's slowly waning. You know, like the sun. 

V3

There will always be collectors who are interested in the history of the sport. How many people collecting today collected the T206 when it was new? I'm guessing the number can be counted on one hand...if any are left at all..yet those cards have not lost any popularity.

Weather you can afford them or not is a seperate issue. (I couldn't...thankfully for me the earliest set for my sports is "only" 1948, and half of them I will never be able to afford...the bigger name cards sell for more than we paid for our Jeep)

I like vintage cards...probably why I also like reprints, Archives, Heritage  cards and the like. Many of these bring back memories of cards I once had but no longer have.

Sure I have vintage cards safely protected, if 1970 is considered vintage, I'm really good, but I, me have to think older then 1970. The only set that I ever tried to complete earlier than 1960 was the  1955 Topps All-American, and I continue to upgrade to this day....and that was only a 100 card set! And it's really tuff to find NRMT cards, let alone affording the price of any of these gems.

Does anyone have a pristine set of 1955ers?

~BOB~

From a sellers standpoing, baseball easily outsells football.   They may be rabid fans but they don't collect like baseball fans do. Also, with the problem of CTE and even some college players abandoning the sports, more parents are discouraging their youngsters from playing.      Another point is the gambling.  Without block pools, I imagine the number of viewers would drop off, especially among women.    How many would tune in for a meaningless Monday night game if there was no gambling?

Yeah, there will always be something special about baseball - most likely the much longer history, which creates its own mythology. The abundance of stats. Something. So I'm not at all surprised that there are more baseball collectors and that they continue to sell more. Perhaps, over time, football will lose popularity and baseball will again surpass it. Either way, I'm happy just collecting the one sport. I keep wavering on whether to just give up on set collecting and focus more on cool really, really vintage cards, though. If nothing else, it'd save space and binder expenses....