1991 1922 American Caramel (E120) Reprint Baseball Forum

My wife who knows very little about sports of any kind still recognizes many of the baseball greats by name and even picture. Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams to name just a few. The only other sports figure that is true for is Michael Jordan. Baseball is such a part of sports history.

I have very few cards pre 1978. I will eventually acquire more but they can be cost prohibitive. My biggest issue right now is deciding which ones I would focus on. I like building sets but there is no way I'd undertake a pre 70s set any time soon. I'll probably look for some for my favorite team (Red Sox). I often find there are just too many things I'd like to collect. So hard to narrow it down.

 I think team collecting is the way to go, especially for anything after 1987.   Vintage is always nice.   Complete sets pre-1984 are still fun and some challenge.    I worked with a guy who had every Phillies back to 1952.  Unfortunately his house was broken into and the cards disappeared.   Also unfortunate was that he gave up collecting.     

I only collect baseball cards.  I don't know what I'd consider "vintage", maybe pre 60's, but then I'm also 55.  I don't have time right now to respond to all the different threads started in this post, but as a student and big fan of baseball I'd like to recommend a book by Lawrence Ritter, The Glory of Their Times.  It is a book where the early history of baseball is told by players.  Most names will not be familiar to you, but their stories are fantastic.  If you like baseball and want to know more about the early, 1910-20's and 30's, find and read this book.  

For the NBA, vintage is considered pre-1986-87 Fleer. For Non-sports, there isn't really a break line that seperates things, so I personally consider the breakline to be cards older than me are vintage, everything newer than me is not. Totally arbitrary, but it breaks nicely at the Return of the Jedi set, issued the year before I was born. NASCAR didn't get cards until 1988, so there really isn't any truly vintage, but the 1988 and 1989 sets are significantly harder to find and act as if they were vintage- the 1989 set proved so tough for me to find that I didn't add any to my collection until 2009.

I would be curious to know where the other sports break between vintage and modern. I don't know enough to know myself.

I've often thought of what will become of all the junk I have collected when I am gone. I figure most of it will be sold, because what I hold dear, others do not, even that which is of some interest to them.

For instance, I had saved all my son's TMNT toys from when they first came out, all loose but fairly complete and in decent shape. Gave them back to him when I moved a couple years ago as I figured he'd like to have them now. First thing he did was throw them on eBay, same with all that Power Rangers junk I searched all over for back in '93. Blew me away that the few bucks he got for it all was worth more to him than the items he seemed to care so much about back then. He doesn't care much about cards, says they are just pieces of paper or cardboard, and it's stupid to spend a bunch of money on them. While I've given him some cards over the years, mostly non sports, and ccg stuff like MTG, he has hung onto those so far, but that is only one 1,800 count box.

I see people post they are collecting this, or that for "their kids"  be it toys MOC or MIB, cards, comics, etc. all over the net. I just roll my eyes when I see that, quit lying, you are collecting it because you like it. Most likely they won't give a crap about it, and will just want to sell it to buy whatever fad is hot that week as soon as they get a chance.

My son isn't really into sports, I tried to get him into baseball a few times. just wasn't interested. Says it's boring now, and won't even play video games based on it. Football, basketball, or even hockey seem to be more his style. The grandkids are about my only hope to carry it on, but then again, might just have it all burried with me so nobody gets my collection. Or maybe I'll sell it all and go to Vegas.

Edit: Went a bit OT, third shift, but mostly I oonsider 1980 as the cutoff for most vintage, at least for the major 4 sports.

You're right Doc Floyd. When my father died, I got his coin collection. I kept a few, framed them, to remember. Then I sold the rest. At least I knew other collectors would get them to enjoy. The same will happen with his trains and stamps. And same will happen with my baseball cards when I'm gone. They'll be sold at some price well below their value, and maybe a few will be kept. That's fine. I collect for me. I collect for my kids to the extent they like to see me happy and will indulge in some talk about it. And they'll remember stuff by looking at some cards. Heck, maybe I'll sell 'em myself when I hit 80 or so. 

And by the time my kids get them, all the cards I currently own will be "vintage."

v3

The way I see it, we will either sell our collections, give them away, have them taken away, or die with them.  An offspring, relative, or friend may or may not have any interest in building upon our collections.  My question has to do with the concern for reigniting an interest in the vintage hobby.  A friend showed me a completed 1962 Topps set back in 1987, and I was awestruck.  A 10-year old kid today looking at a 25 year old set would probably yawn, and would probably fall asleep looking at a 1962 set--or would they?  Our collections have to go somewhere.  Is there an interest in promoting vintage card collecting to preserve history?  Vintage card collecting can certainly get expensive quickly.  Are there any interesting ways to make it seem more affordable--to spark an interest in finding a niche?  I mean in a way that will preserve both the interest and the value those increasingly hard to find vintage cards.  Otherwise, they'll all end up in a museum or something.  The people that can afford them will no longer want to spend their money on them.  People would rather spend $100 on a limited edition patch card than 10 or more really low grade Goudeys. 

very funny comment from v3 about everything becoming 'vintage' as we get older....I don't think 88-92 would be consided vintage even in 20 years, we will just refer to the decade and not use the vintage term

vintage is 79 and older to me, although some feel more like 69 and older...guess it depends on if your outloook and how you fell about the 70s

as for the start of this thread by roundthediamond, my way of enjoying older cards and not busting the budget, is to collect in lower grade..creases welcome here, as long as priced appropriately.

I am working on a 61 set now, and up to high numbers 523 and up...most of the set is in G to VGEX condition..which I usually pay 10% to 25% of book value for (sometimes a little more for a last card to close out the 300s or 400s.

I am not paying for the top end mantles and aaron either....I put reprints in their place....although some of the all star ones are originals.....either way, I have noted in my spreadsheet each one with grade and notes on the reprint ones.

in the end, I am all about having fun- not about book value...or future appreciation, or such..

as for the next generation, I have made clear to my son that I do no expect him to keep it all, just pass a few star cards around the family to 'keep' as memory of me, and sell rest...I can see him going to the national one day when I am gone... with the top 10 oldest sets I have and going to the floor getting 3 bids on each one and taking the best offer...then someone else can enjoy them (after the dealer makes money selling as singles)..

good thread, thanks for starting

mark 

Good thread, but my first thought was .... wow I'm the first one here to even discuss hockey other than a footnote. Goes to show we truely are the bottom of the big four, even if we deserve to be there. Anyways, looked at my last Beckett Yearly Price Guide for hockey and couldn't find anything per say for "vintage". However the final year of the Charlton Standard Catalogue of Hockey Cards (16th Editon - 2006) has the chapters as follows Vintage 1879-1990, Boom Years 1990-1997, Modern Era 1997-2006. I actually used the Charlton as the "good" guide before the drama that went down to kill it and now sadly am stuck with the good ol Beckett.

Just getting back into the hobby in the last year I've tried hard to get my kids excited about it. The key for my 9 year old daughter was I found some WNBA cards in a collection I acquired. She is really excited about anything WNBA now. She was excited about it with me before but having cards with women on them really resonated with her. My boys are younger (3 and 6) and will go with me to shows and to meet people about classified ads. My older boy has a couple sets of his own from 1990 we are opening packs to complete. Trying to get him hooked with the same joy I had as a kid opening packs. Fortunately 1990 packs are so cheap and I don't feel bad about letting him handle them and put them in binders himself. He is still learning to read better so until that happens there is only so much joy he can have in it. I have learned that if I get my kids excited about it I have a much easier time having my wife happy with the hobby. I also hope some day one of the three would be excited about keeping some of them.