Why Do You Collect Vintage?

[FlyingDutchman]

I previously posted some of this comment to the baseball section, but I also wanted to introduce myself here.

I'm new to the Blowout Forum and the vintage section has been a great source of information and ideas. I'm slowly re-entering collecting after not buying anything for the past 10-15 years. Recently, I’ve been selling and consolidating my collection (primarily 🙈 purchases from 2002-2010) and trying to wrap my head around all the products/current market prices.

At this point I think I’ve honed my overall collecting interest to vintage baseball singles with modern sealed boxes baseball mixed in every now and then.

I’m interested in vintage for a number of reasons:

1. Sentimental connection to my dad who passed away unexpectedly in 2016 (📢-please make efforts to take care of your heart). The idea of collecting the 50’s and 60’s reminds me of him and stories he shared from his childhood.
2. One year as a teenager my parents got me a T206 Rube Kisigner as a birthday present. I realized it wasn’t worth all that much in 2007, but I thought it was super cool to just have a card that was that old. That was the initial hook into vintage.
3. With so many new products and parallels it seems difficult to keep track of what’s what.
4. I dabbled in prospecting when I was a teenager and that just no longer interests me much.
5. The financial aspect is also a consideration. I’m not looking for cards to be a serious investment vehicle. I’m also not looking to purchase a card and then have the value considerably decline over time or over night (I realize there are ebbs and flows).
6. I already have a handful of raw mid-50’s Aaron’s and the previously mentioned T206.

Here’s my question for all of you. Why do you collect vintage?

[oplum29]

i originally collected vintage as a way to connect to my Dad's childhood. i grew up playing and loving baseball, only i grew up with Canseco, Griffey Jr., Frank Thomas, Nolan Ryan, Boggs, and Mattingly.

but my dad always tells me about how he grew up, collecting baseball cards and using them on their bikes when they were kids. he was a Mantle fan, but he always brought other great players from that era, like Boog Powell, or Brooks Robinson, or Bob Gibson.

so that's how i started.

my love of baseball included adding a whole collection of baseball films, and those films turned my interest over to collecting pre-war cards of guys like Cobb, DiMaggio, Nap Lajoie, etc.

i love vintage cards overall though. the rough feel compared to these glossy cards. the difficulty in finding well-centered cards, or how some the color is richer than others because of the printing machines.

i would rather drop $1K on vintage than modern any time, it's just a better and wiser thing to do. let this generation Z go crazy buying up thousands of dollars on guys like Tatis or Wander Franco, which is fine, to each their own, but i'd rather buy DiMaggio and Ted Williams instead.

good stuff.

[soey10]

I collect vintage because of my overall love for baseball. Baseball has such a rich history that is full of stories and characters. I have always found it fascinating that a piece of cardboard that is over a hundred years old is still intact, these cards were not made to be held onto forever and were not even the main attraction, the gum or the tobacco was, so the fact that they still exist is pretty cool.
I also collect vintage for the simplicity of the cards and the great photography, each one is like a little piece of art. Nowadays everything is beyond overproduced and fabricated scarcity. As a kid in the 90’s if I pulled an insert or a parallel, I knew exactly what it was, nowadays if I pull an insert I have to know what color/parallel of the insert I have because there are 12 different kinds and the sheer number of parallel colors for base cards is ridiculous.


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[discodanman45]

I collect vintage for a few reasons.

1. If I want every Hank Aaron card from his playing days, I could easily accomplish that goal. Modern players can have that many parallels from one set these days.
2. Don't have to worry if your card grades a Mint or Gem Mint grade. If your card is Mint, it is worth more raw. If it is Gem Mint, the card is worth 10 x's more. It is silly that an opinion can make that much of a difference on many modern cards.
3. Vintage can be as expensive or as cheap as you want it to be. Look for beat up raw cards, a nicely centered PSA/SGC 2/3/4, a sharp off-centered PSA/SGC 5, or go for a PSA/SGC 9. You can collect how you want and make it as cheap or expensive as you want.
4. There is 1 rookie card. If I want a Hank Aaron rookie card, there is one option. Well with some early Bowman/Leaf/Topps/lesser known cards there may be a few options... I have over 20 different auto'd Sandy Alcantara rookies. It is nice to have a card where 99.9% of the collecting hobby agrees that it is their rookie card.

[hxcmilkshake]

I like old guys.

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[Gustomania]

I like iconic players and history.

Grew up in the 80s and 90s and just doesn’t do it for me, vintage for me stops at 1980 for baseball and IMO the Henderson RC

Old guys rule!!!

[mfw13]

The card designs....

Vintage card designs are generally bright and colorful....modern card designs are generally fairly ugly.....

[Above the Rim]

I collect vintage because:

a) I really like the historical angle, had a table top board game I used to play with my dad with all time greats Cobb, Ruth, Lefty Grove, Ted Williams, etc. - loved it!

b) appreciate the scarce low pops generally seen more on the vintage side

c) always thought vintage will have the better price appreciation long term

[StateEx]

Iconic players and interesting personal stories. Not to say people don't have interesting stories today but Curt Flood, for example, had quite a life.

[oplum29]

Originally Posted by discodanman45

I collect vintage for a few reasons.

1. If I want every Hank Aaron card from his playing days, I could easily accomplish that goal. Modern players can have that many parallels from one set these days.
2. Don't have to worry if your card grades a Mint or Gem Mint grade. If your card is Mint, it is worth more raw. If it is Gem Mint, the card is worth 10 x's more. It is silly that an opinion can make that much of a difference on many modern cards.
3. Vintage can be as expensive or as cheap as you want it to be. Look for beat up raw cards, a nicely centered PSA/SGC 2/3/4, a sharp off-centered PSA/SGC 5, or go for a PSA/SGC 9. You can collect how you want and make it as cheap or expensive as you want.
4. There is 1 rookie card. If I want a Hank Aaron rookie card, there is one option. Well with some early Bowman/Leaf/Topps/lesser known cards there may be a few options... I have over 20 different auto'd Sandy Alcantara rookies. It is nice to have a card where 99.9% of the collecting hobby agrees that it is their rookie card.

amen to your post brother!

My boy Joe Montana has one rookie, like it or not. that's it, one. some of these dudes, who will never play in an NFL game, have 20-30 different rookies, autos, patches, plates, die cuts, blah blah blah, it's crazy.

also, i completely agree on your #2-3 post.

[Diver757]

I collect vintage because of the connection I feel with my old man. I never saw Johnny Romano or Jerry Lucas play, but for some reason Dad loved them, so when I flip through those cards he bought I think of him.

[gmoney328]

Originally Posted by oplum29

i originally collected vintage as a way to connect to my Dad's childhood. i grew up playing and loving baseball, only i grew up with Canseco, Griffey Jr., Frank Thomas, Nolan Ryan, Boggs, and Mattingly.

but my dad always tells me about how he grew up, collecting baseball cards and using them on their bikes when they were kids. he was a Mantle fan, but he always brought other great players from that era, like Boog Powell, or Brooks Robinson, or Bob Gibson.

so that's how i started.

my love of baseball included adding a whole collection of baseball films, and those films turned my interest over to collecting pre-war cards of guys like Cobb, DiMaggio, Nap Lajoie, etc.

i love vintage cards overall though. the rough feel compared to these glossy cards. the difficulty in finding well-centered cards, or how some the color is richer than others because of the printing machines.

i would rather drop $1K on vintage than modern any time, it's just a better and wiser thing to do. let this generation Z go crazy buying up thousands of dollars on guys like Tatis or Wander Franco, which is fine, to each their own, but i'd rather buy DiMaggio and Ted Williams instead.

good stuff.

Pretty much this. My father died when I was very young, but my grandpa stepped in and immersed me in the world of sports in the early 70s. Very much a nostalgia thing for me as well. All the cards I had no hope of owning as a broke kid are now at my fingertips.

[mizzoujohn]

Because I like history, and sports history.
Also have proven to be a solid investment over time.
John

[FlyingDutchman]

Originally Posted by oplum29

amen to your post brother!

My boy Joe Montana has one rookie, like it or not. that's it, one. some of these dudes, who will never play in an NFL game, have 20-30 different rookies, autos, patches, plates, die cuts, blah blah blah, it's crazy.

also, i completely agree on your #2-3 post.

Lots of good and interesting stories/perspectives so far! It has always been interesting to me to hear people's mindset about how they approach various decisions.

[oplum29]

i honestly never collected vintage cards, just because they were before my time.

but i love baseball and baseball cards, and so that love turned into the all-time greats and eventually, vintage cards.

there's so much history, it's fun.

i know i posted a story on a different thread of a T206 card i found on eBay, where the player was a manager for a team that played against the Cleveland Naps and Nap Lajoie. the manager hated Ty Cobb, so his team conspired to give Nap as many hits as possible to win the batting title, it was such a cool little story to hear about.

go watch Ken Burns' Baseball, which is fantastic, and you really learn a lot of the old-timers, it's awesome. so that love for me, turned into collecting T206, T205, T213, and other vintage baseball players and cards.

[hauntedcomputer]

I collect vintage basketball because of scarcity and interest in the history of the game.
Bonuses include not wasting money gambling on boxes, not having to track which parallel is which, and a reasonable chance as a speculative asset over the long run.

[IgnatiusJReilly]

This is a great question. I collect vintage for a few different reasons, but the big ones are as follows:

1. I love the connection to the history of the game. Guys like Cobb, Ruth, Gehrig, Jackie, Ted, Mickey, Willie, and so many others loom so large in baseball and American history. Having a physical connection to them through a card that has literally been passed along for decades is so cool.

2. The art. I collect mostly 1956 and earlier for vintage and I just love the art and design of these early cards. It’s cool that they are little paintings based on photos instead of just photos. Plus the design of the cards speaks to me.

3. Eye appeal. I like how vintage collecting is super fun when focusing on eye appeal over numerical grade. Modern cards are all about getting a nine or a ten and everything else is forgotten. The expectation is that every card is perfect. In vintage, there are no accessible cards in those grades and you can focus on finding cards that appeal to you. You can get a 3 that looks like a 6! While some of the populations can be large, the number that actually look good for the grade can be super hard to find. I’m vintage, this 3 or that 3 can be way different and have much different values.

4. The community. The community is more about appreciating the cards and the game and less about gambling and making money. People actually root for one another and help each other out.

5. Scarcity. This is similar to the eye appeal point, but while most of these cards were highly produced, very few in good condition survive until today and most high eye appeal cards don’t pop up often. It’s not like a 100 different color parallels that are each /100 (which is still 10,000 cards that are basically the same except for a different border!). Manufactured rarity is super lame.

6. These cards are like having your own museum. You show a random person a Jackie Robinson card and they can appreciate it. Try doing the same with a Bobby Witt Jr. These cards actually mean something.


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[oplum29]

one of my favorite things to do, is read.

and what's cool is reading baseball books about players from different eras of the game, like when i read a Joe DiMaggio book, it brings up guys like Tony Lazzeri, Lou Bourdeau, Vince and Dom DiMaggio, Bob Feller, Ted Williams, Charlie Keller, guys like that, and all of a sudden, you're interested in those players.

when they mention how for example, Bourdeau beat out DiMaggio for the MVP race, then you start searching up league MVPs, and now you're checking out who the heck is Hal Newhouser, things like that.

it's good stuff

[gmoney328]

Originally Posted by oplum29

one of my favorite things to do, is read.

and what's cool is reading baseball books about players from different eras of the game, like when i read a Joe DiMaggio book, it brings up guys like Tony Lazzeri, Lou Bourdeau, Vince and Dom DiMaggio, Bob Feller, Ted Williams, Charlie Keller, guys like that, and all of a sudden, you're interested in those players.

when they mention how for example, Bourdeau beat out DiMaggio for the MVP race, then you start searching up league MVPs, and now you're checking out who the heck is Hal Newhouser, things like that.

it's good stuff

It's an easy wormhole to get completely lost in, for sure.

[pawpawdiv9]

Originally Posted by IgnatiusJReilly

This is a great question. I collect vintage for a few different reasons, but the big ones are as follows:

1. I love the connection to the history of the game. Guys like Cobb, Ruth, Gehrig, Jackie, Ted, Mickey, Willie, and so many others loom so large in baseball and American history. Having a physical connection to them through a card that has literally been passed along for decades is so cool.

2. The art. I collect mostly 1956 and earlier for vintage and I just love the art and design of these early cards. It’s cool that they are little paintings based on photos instead of just photos. Plus the design of the cards speaks to me.

3. Eye appeal. I like how vintage collecting is super fun when focusing on eye appeal over numerical grade. Modern cards are all about getting a nine or a ten and everything else is forgotten. The expectation is that every card is perfect. In vintage, there are no accessible cards in those grades and you can focus on finding cards that appeal to you. You can get a 3 that looks like a 6! While some of the populations can be large, the number that actually look good for the grade can be super hard to find. I’m vintage, this 3 or that 3 can be way different and have much different values.

4. The community. The community is more about appreciating the cards and the game and less about gambling and making money. People actually root for one another and help each other out.

5. Scarcity. This is similar to the eye appeal point, but while most of these cards were highly produced, very few in good condition survive until today and most high eye appeal cards don’t pop up often. It’s not like a 100 different color parallels that are each /100 (which is still 10,000 cards that are basically the same except for a different border!). Manufactured rarity is super lame.

6. These cards are like having your own museum. You show a random person a Jackie Robinson card and they can appreciate it. Try doing the same with a Bobby Witt Jr. These cards actually mean something.


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Most what this guy said^^^^
then, i am not married, and i can do whatever i wanna do with my money

[no10pin]

I got into baseball very young because of my dad. We used to go to Royals games all the time, and I can still see the player pictures made out of light bulbs on the scoreboard from when I was 6-7 years old.

He was a kid when the A's were in KC, and he told me a lot of stories about being a fan of what was essentially the Yankees farm team. When I got into cards in 1980ish, he would always buy vintage cards for me for my birthday & Christmas.

His favorite things to buy were old KC A's players and multi-player cards of HOFers. After I had been collecting for several years, one of his work friends that we used to go to games with found his childhood collection, and he had several Mantles. I helped him price and sell them at a show, and he gave me his '58 Mantle All-Star as a payment.

My collection has changed/grown/turned over several times in the past 40 years, but the vintage cards my dad bought me and that '58 Mantle have been the one constant for the entire time. It's definitely the reason that I wanted to buy better and better vintage cards as my financial situation changed, and it always reminds me of those days going to games with my dad and his friends.

My dad passed away 9 years ago, and I still think about those days all the time. When I was a teenager and we didn't get along all the time, baseball was always a way to get us talking again.

There are times that I consider dumping pretty much everything and getting out, but if I ever do, those beat up 50s/60s commons of Norm Siebern, Bob Cerv, Harry Suitcase Simpson and Jerry Lumpe will be the last cards I own.

[vonhayes]

This is an amazing topic. I guess I like how history repeats itself over and over and vintage cards serve as just a reminder of that. How many times have we seen the story of Tony Conigliario play out where a promising career was cut short bc of injury? Or cheating scandals, whether it be Jimmy Ring, Pete Rose, or Sammy Sosa? Companies like Fleer and Leaf appear and then disappear and then reappear many years later. Is Panini (currently) not having the rights to use MLB logos on their cards really that different from 1960 Fleer or Leaf not having a Mickey Mantle card? It doesn’t matter if the card is serial numbered, chrome, or is a refractor because as David Bowie once said, “It the same old thing, in brand new drag, comes sweeping into view” And with vintage cards you can see it repeating itself - and it’s really cool


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[Jerseyramfan]

I am new to this board and I am very happy to have found it. I started collecting vintage about 2 years ago and I am sorry it has taken me this long to figure it out. I have been collecting since I was a teen but as luck would have it I grew up in the junk wax era. I guess a light bulb went off in my head when the prices for modern was just getting out of hand and on top of that I started to lose the love of a modern rookie card knowing that across the companies there can be hundreds of them. With let's say a 1950 Lou Groza there are two and to me that felt special.

Vintage may not be as flashy or blingy but I feel like I have something rare and in the end I collect what I personally like regardless of any future investment gains or losses.

[preakness]

It reminds me of my late dad

Also I'm into very old chicks. Maybe my vintage collection will appeal to the blue haired broads

[oplum29]

Originally Posted by vonhayes

This is an amazing topic. I guess I like how history repeats itself over and over and vintage cards serve as just a reminder of that. How many times have we seen the story of Tony Conigliario play out where a promising career was cut short bc of injury? Or cheating scandals, whether it be Jimmy Ring, Pete Rose, or Sammy Sosa? Companies like Fleer and Leaf appear and then disappear and then reappear many years later. Is Panini (currently) not having the rights to use MLB logos on their cards really that different from 1960 Fleer or Leaf not having a Mickey Mantle card? It doesn’t matter if the card is serial numbered, chrome, or is a refractor because as David Bowie once said, “It the same old thing, in brand new drag, comes sweeping into view” And with vintage cards you can see it repeating itself - and it’s really cool


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this post reminded me of Beckett Vintage magazine, if you guys ever have a chance to pick up an issue, do it, they are fantastic, way way way better than regular current Beckett issues, these BV magazines are awesome.