What Got You Collecting Pre-WWII Baseball

What was the big spark that got you collecting Pre-WWII baseball cards or memorabilia.

Mine was a meeting with Bill Mastro at a show in 1981 and this cigar lable got my attention and off it went. I did not buy that but later picked up on ebay.



My first vintage card, i still own it:



Lee

I grew up in the Beckett generation where I thought sports cards were invented in 1948 because that year's Leaf and Bowman sets were the first ones printed in the monthly price guide. Incidentally, I thought Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio played together because Ruth was included in '48 Leaf.

I remember being on eBay in 1999 when I was 17 and stumbled upon a Tris Speaker T206. It was being sold by one of the big dealers out in Vegas at the time. American Beauty back (but I didn't know what it was) and was in really rough shape (it'd later grade an SGC 10).

Well I remember bidding it up (there was no sniping back then) so I'd bid like a day ahead of time and just hope I'd win (and cost myself a bit extra in the process) and won it for about $75. I was very excited, but didn't have the money and remember having to beg my grandmother to send the money order (no paypal yet).

When the card came my initial reaction was "wow. this is small." but I was hooked and immediately got a part-time job so that I could add one T206 HOFer a week. Lajoie (x2), Keeler, Mathewson, and finally ... Cobb. I remember saving 3 weeks pay for Cobb and buying one with a nail hole in it (that magically got a numerical grade). There was no going back once I had that Cobb.

yes ebay...when i got back into the hobby '01 ebay was a great source for me to buy rc's of barkley, bourque, lemieux, lafontaine, manny vlad guerrero etc etc etc. then the light came on about a year later and i started doing searches on "walter johnson" "cy young" "ty cobb" "honus wagner" "nap lajoie" and that was pretty much it.

i found this board fullcount sometimes later in '02 and as they say the rest is history! only difference back then elliot was the mod and it only had about 80-100 members including julie vognar and dan mathewson and dr. koos who was really a nurse that altered cards on the side driving his imaginary tricked out sl600 mercedes and peter chao was still several years away. how far we've come!

p.s. either a t206 johnson pitching or an e93 lajoie was my first pre-war...not certain but i think it was the johnson. my first raw was an e93 wagner from slwilloughby's huge caramel find back then.

The book Baseball Cards by Kieth Miller. The detailed write ups of each set. My first card was purchased at the old Thunderbird show in the Twin Cities. Larry Fritsch and Bill Henderson (The King of Commons) were set up there. I went to show wanting to get all the Pete Rose cards I didn't already have. I also wanted a Killebrew rookie a t205 and an Old Judge card.

I walked away a run of Rose cards from 1963-69, a 1956 Jackie Robinson (Lee will attest to the amazing color this card had), a Killebrew rookie, a t205 (I forget who it was) and stack of 1955 commons that I in the auction that they held at the show.

By 1982 this what my collection looked like (those ugly b18s belonged to Lee) there was also a complete t201 set that is not pictured.

Collected Topps as a kid shedding pack after pack in the early 70s and as I got older my father would tell me about the great players of the game. He would tell me who held the record for the most wins, or the most home runs or the most hits.
That made me always want a card of Ty Cobb. I stayed with topps until we went to a store in Towson Maryland ( Jays) around 1990. That is where I got my first Cobb-a t206 bat on. Started going to the local shows and the Philly show slowly collecting the 206 players.I only knew about HOFers, had no idea who any of the commons were. Really didn't start the tough backs and the Baltimore collection until ebay.
Found the forum when E was the mod and would only read -could not bring myself to post. Finally met E at the Cleveland National along with Bill C. Missed the old FC board

It appears that 1/2 the cards in your scan Jay were mine (bottom 1/2). I still don't know where I got most of them though