Trading Cards Again

Remember trading cards when you were younger?  I do.  Unfortunately I don't know anyone anymore who collects cards like I do.

I took quite a break from the hobby in the last year and a half or so and I've been getting back into it more and more the last few months.  Hence the posts starting on my blog again.  Anyway, one of the things that I have gotten into recently is the idea of trading again.  I found some nice trading groups online and am hoping to make some new hobby pals and start trading to build some sets.

I put a new link in the right sidebar at the top of my blog that links to a website I set up just for trading.  If this is something you do, please check it out and hopefully we can trade something.  Anything.  I don't care too much at this point what I'm trading, I just want to get some good experience under my belt, meet a few people and maybe get into a trading group or two. 

I've decided to focus on sets I already had some cards for and that led to the following:

1. 1954 Topps
2. 1966 Topps
3. 1969 Deckle Edge
4. 1970-79 Topps
5. 1981 Topps

I've also put a few others on the list but these are my priorities for now.  Of course, I'm still very into prewar cards and would trade those as well, but my new site is more dedicated to postwar stuff. 

So come on guys and gals, let's trade something!

Enjoy the hobby all...it's a great one.

Things You Should Know :: '33 Goudey & Miller

Continuing with my posts on Things You Should Know about the prewar hobby, I'd like to talk about two cards from 1933 sets.  One of which was actually not even printed in 1933. 

I'm talking about the 1933 Goudey (R319) Napoleon Lajoie and the 1933 George C. Miller (R300) Ivy Miller cards.  Both of these cards are rare and the stories behind them are what you should know.  Let's begin with the Lajoie.

In 1933 Goudey created one of the best sets of the era.  The set has four Babe Ruths and two Lou Gehrigs in it.  Plus many other greats of the time.  But any kid trying to complete the set back in 1933 had one huge problem on their hands.  Card number 106 seemed impossible to find. And, in fact, it was impossible to find.  Goudey didn't make a card 106, so everyone had a hole in their set and would keep buying packs over and over again in vain trying to finish off their sets.

Some collectors were so upset that they mailed off letters to the Goudey offices in Boston requesting the missing card.  Well, Goudey must have gotten enough letters because when they produced the 1934 set, they included a card number 106 of Napoleon Lajoie and sent them to those people who asked for it.  Due to this method of distribution, the card is extremely rare today and is obviously the key card of the 1933 set.   Notice that the card has the same baseball scene in the background as is seen in the 1934 Goudey set.

The second card I want to discuss is the 1933 George C. Miller Ivy Andrews.  Unlike the Lajoie of the 1933 Goudey set, this card was actually available in packs.  It was advertised that a collector could send in a complete set of these cards in exchange for either and baseball, a glove or a ticket to a major league game.  They collector would get his cards back with a cancellation in the form or either diamond holes punched in them or the bottom of the card trimmed off.  This way, they could not be used a second time for redemption.

The company wanted to limit the number of prizes is was going to have to give out, so they severly shortprinted the Ivy Andrews card.  By doing so, they could sell a lot of cards without having to give away that many prizes.  It is because of this that so few Ivy Andrew cards exist today and when you do see one, it will likely be cancelled with the bottom of the card trimmed off.

These are two more cards you need to know if you're in the prewar baseball card hobby. 

I hope you enjoy my blog and if you have any ideas for topics you want to see, please let me know. 

Enjoy the hobby all...it's a wonderful one.

Prewar Hobby :: Things You Should Know

If you are going to be in the prewar baseball card hobby there are many things you should know. A broad knowledge of the hobby can only help you as you embark on your endeavor.

There are many collectors out there who have been in the hobby for years who may still not know anything about cards from sets that they don't collect. They may be extremely knowledgeable about the sets they do collect, and I think that is great, but when it comes to other sets they may not know a thing. I think it's always good to know as much as possible, even if you don't collect certain cards.

Before going any further, let me be clear by saying that I am not an expert in any prewar set. I do however know a decent amount about these cards in a broad sense. And I just wanted to share some of the basic stuff that you should know if you're going to collect prewar cards. Many of you may think this is all common knowledge and you may already know all of it, but this is more for those collectors who may be new to the hobby or just never heard of some of this stuff.

Let's begin with the 1909-11 T206 set, also know to collectors as "The Monster".  It's a big set at 524 cards.  I'm not going to get into too much detail here about this set as books have been written about it already.  I just want to touch on some of the main points.

Image courtesy OldCardboard.com

Many people consider their sets complete at 520 cards due to the difficulty in obtaining the last four cards conveniently known as "The Big Four".  These include the following:

1. Honus Wagner - The Holy Grail of baseball cards. This is a rare card and estimates vary regarding how many exist. For this post I will say there are around 50 of them out there.
2. Eddie Plank - Another rare card in the set.  I don't have an estimate for how many of these are out there.
3. Sherry Magee (Magie) error card - Magee's name was misspelled early on in the print run as Magie and was caught quickly and corrected.  The resulting error card is a tough one to come by, but not nearly as difficult as Wagner or Plank.
4. Joe Doyle, NY Nat'l - I did a post about this card in 2008, you can read it HERE.

Another fact you should know about the T206 set is that there are 16 different brands advertised on the reverse of the cards.  Not all fronts can be found with all the different backs however.  The sixteen brands are (in alphabetical order, not scarcity order):

Image courtesy T206baseball.com

1. American Beauty
2. Broad Leaf
3. Carolina Brights
4. Cycle
5. Drum
6. El Principe de Gales
7. Hindu
8. Lenox
9. Old Mill
10. Piedmont
11. Polar Bear
12. Sovereign
13. Sweet Caporal
14. Tolstoi
15. Ty Cobb
16. Uzit

There are currently debates in the hobby regarding whether or not the Ty Cobb back is really a T206 back and whether or not Coupon (mainly type 1) backs should be included as T206 cards.  One thing to know about the Ty Cobb back is that it is only found with a Ty Cobb Red Background Portrait front and it is always printed in green.  There are reprints out there with the ad printed in blue and these are always fake.

That's it for my first post about things you should know.  I'm going to have many more of these so hopefully you enjoyed it.  I look forward to getting back into my blog as I took quite some time off in the last year. 

Enjoy the hobby all...It's a great one.