Tag: collecting

T206 Budget Series: Introduction (1/4)

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I’ve spent a lot of time lately delving into some pretty deep and obscure T206 topics.  So when a friend suggested I get back to basics, it sounded like a good idea.  In this series, I’ll give some advice to T206 collectors who are just getting started.  With this article, I’ll start by taking a look at some different approaches you can take when building a collection.  In the next article I will tackle the question, “If you had $100 to start a T206 collection, what would you buy?”  Parts three and four will address the same question, but with the $100 replaced by $500 and $1000.

Some Different Ways to Get Started:

  • Start with the Hall of Famers

This was advice I got when I first started to collect the set, and it served me well.  The idea is that when you get started, you don’t really know where the journey will take you.  You might get hooked, stay hooked for years, and complete the set.  Or you might lose interest at some point.  By buying Hall of Famers first, you make it easier to sell your cards and move on to something else if you decide to go that route.

  • Start with commons

Starting with commons has merit too.  You can build up a little stack of them quicker than if you were paying more for Hall of Famers.  Seeing your collection grow can give you some momentum to keep at it.

  • Start with one team, or city

In my opinion this is the ideal way to get your feet wet with the T206 set.  It also makes a ton of sense if you happen to be from (or have ties to) a city or town that is featured in the set.

  • Be an opportunist

This approach requires patience and a lot of research to make sure you understand the market.  If you wait for good deals and bid in a lot of auctions, you’ll eventually add some cards to your collection at great prices.  The downside is it will take longer to build the collection this way.

  • Buy some cards from a friend or trusted seller

Buying a group from a friend or someone you trust is probably the easiest way to get started these days (shout out to net54 and Tobacco Row as a couple of great places to buy).  The biggest benefit to doing it this way is that you can buy raw cards and feel comfortable that you are getting authentic T206s.  In my opinion, handling raw cards is imperative if you want to learn how to identify fakes, reprints, and altered cards as you progress in your journey with the set.  The only drawback to buying in this manner is that it kind of limits your ability to select which players and poses you’d most like to acquire, simply because you’ll only be able to choose from the cards that your friends or fellow forum members have for sale.

Some Important Decisions to Make Before Buying Anything:

  • What condition do you want your cards to be in?

This is among the most important things to figure out.  It’s not the end of the world if you buy a bunch of cards and then decide you wish they were in nicer (or worse) condition, but you’ll probably end up spending some time selling or trading them.  When I started my collection, I wanted cards in Fair/Good condition.  I got about 150 cards into my set before realizing that I preferred cards with a higher level of eye appeal.  Luckily for me, I enjoy selling and trading, so it didn’t bother me when I decided I wanted upgrade some of my initial purchases.  However, if selling a big stack of T206 commons doesn’t sound like fun to you, it’s smart to spend some time making sure you know what you want before you start buying.

I recommend choosing a condition range that works well with your budget.  I’d love to build a T206 set in EX and above, but I don’t have an extra $300,000 laying around, so attempting such a project would be an exercise in frustration.  It doesn’t hurt to do a little math before you get started.  Try and figure out how much you want to be spending on T206s each month, then look at roughly how much much it will cost to reach your collecting goals, and see how long it will take.  The right approach will be different for everyone, but as with any goal, you want to make sure yours is attainable.  If it’s too difficult, or it will take too long, you’re likely to get frustrated and lose interest.

  • Buy graded cards, raw cards, or a mix?

This is something you’ll want to consider before you make any purchases.  My advice would be to try and get comfortable with raw cards as quickly as you can.  Some collectors strictly buy graded cards, and that’s a perfectly fine approach if it feels right, but you’ll miss out on a lot of opportunities if you’re not willing to buy raw cards.  I’d estimate that around 25% of the cards in my collection were raw when I acquired them.

Stay tuned for the next three installments of this series:

Part 2 Sunday June 17th

Part 3 Sunday June 24th

Part 4 Sunday July 1st

On the Psychology of Collecting

These are some of the cards from my first try at collecting the entire T206 set

I’ve had a really busy last couple weeks with family stuff and haven’t been able to devote the amount of time that I normally do to the site.  I don’t have a new article ready to go for today, so I figured I would write a little blog post.  A recent post on net54baseball.com caught my attention.  Titled “Collecting: The Journey or the Destination?”,  it examined our motivations as collectors (click here to read it).  It’s a topic that I have thought a lot about and find quite fascinating.

About 7 years ago, when I got back into collecting, I asked myself a lot of questions about what I wanted to collect, and why.  I found a handful of T206 that I had acquired as a teenager and pretty much fell in love with them immediately.  I spent a lot of time researching the set online.  As I scrolled through posts on net54, I kept seeing incredible cards and collections posted by the members of the site.  I felt some jealousy, but mainly I felt discouraged.  I remember thinking, “Why should I even start collecting these cards, when I have no chance of ever having a collection like xxxxxxx on net54?”

As I was thinking about how I should proceed, I realized that I was feeling jealous and deflated just because of looking at some scans of cards online.  Then it occurred to me, “Do I even need to own the cards?  Why?  Could I just collect scans?”  If scans could make me jealous, maybe I could just assemble the greatest scan collection of all-time?  After some more thought, I decided that it really wasn’t about scans or what cards other people owned.  It’s about the connection to the game I love, and a bygone era.  The scan collecting idea was a little bit tongue-in-cheek, but I am an analytical person by nature, and I’m used to trying to look at something from all angles in order to understand it.  When you do that, collecting sure seems like an odd activity (especially when you look at it from the perspective of someone who doesn’t collect).  There is a lot of joking amongst collectors that we all have a touch OCD, and there is probably some truth to it.

It seems that most collectors are all about the hunt.  In other words, searching for the cards they want is what brings the most happiness and satisfaction.  It’s very common for someone to spend a long time putting together a set, only to sell it soon after in order to work on a new project.  A smaller percentage of collectors enjoy owning their cards more than searching for the cards they need.

When I first started collecting, I was all about the hunt.  I was working on a lower grade T206 set and was trying to complete it as quick as I could.  One day, I realized that approach was not working for me.  I was searching ebay for new cards every evening after work and placing some bids.  The problem was that on my desk, about a foot away from my mouse, were two bubble mailers.  I knew that the mailers contained a John McGraw finger in air in Fair condition and a Bob Groom in similar condition.  In the two weeks they had been sitting there, I hadn’t felt the inclination to open up the packages and look at them.  At that point I knew my priorities were not in line with what would actually make me happy.  I sold off the majority of the lower grade cards I had acquired just to check a card off my checklist and took a break.  I still loved T206, but I wanted to find a new focus that I would enjoy more.

This is one of my favorite cards in my current collection

 

For me, back collecting ended up being what I was I really passionate about.  Over time, as I built my new collection (I sold all but about 10 cards from that first collection, keeping the ones with sentimental value) I began to enjoy the actual owning of my cards more and more.  Now, I enjoy looking at my cards much more than searching for new ones (though I still enjoy that too).  In my opinion the reason for the change is threefold.  First, I made a point of trying to align my collecting focus with what actually appeals to me, rather than trying to collect the set in a way that may work for other people, but didn’t for me.  Second, I made a conscious effort to find ways to enjoy my collection more.  I researched the players, I dove into all the old threads on net54 to learn as much as I could about the set.  And most importantly, I spent more time enjoying the cards I already owned than I had in the past.  The third reason inevitably follows the first.  Over time, my collection improved and as it did, it was more fun to look through and enjoy.  I imagine this occurs with all new collectors.  It takes a little while before your collection feels substantial and exciting.  I imagine that advanced collectors with huge, impressive collections spend a lot more time enjoying the fruits of their labor than searching for new items.  That’s just a guess though.  Maybe some day I’ll find out.

Collecting T206: Choosing a Focus

t206 blog

Figuring out exactly how you want to approach the set is easier said than done.  It will most likely take some trial and error before you feel confident that you know what you want to collect.  That being said, it definitely can’t hurt to go into it with an idea of how you want to get started.  There are a ton of different ways to collect the T206 set.  Let’s take a look some of the more common approaches:

Collect all 518 (or 520) fronts:
This is pretty self-explanatory.  You pick a general condition preference, and work on getting one of each front.  Some people stop at 518 cards, and others make it 520 which includes the St. Louis variations of Demmitt and O’Hara.

Collect all of the Hall of Famers:
Also quite simple.  There are 76 cards in the T206 set that depict a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Most of us can’t afford a Plank or Wagner, so that drops the number to 74.

Collecting just one back:
Some people decide they just love the look of one particular back and try to get every card that was printed with it.  I have a friend who has a complete Polar Bear set and another who is getting pretty close on an entire Tolstoi set.

Collecting one team or city:
This is a great way to enjoy the set.  It makes a lot of sense if you are from or reside in one of the cities represented in the set.  Some collectors take it a step further and try to collect their favorite team with a variety of backs.

T206 EPDG Old Mill

Back collecting:
This can mean trying to find one copy of each back, or multiple copies of certain backs.  The common denominator for back collectors is that they tend to prefer the uncommon backs, sometimes to the point that they have little interest in common backs.

Collecting a player back run:
The idea is to take one pose, figure out all the possible backs that exist for it and try to acquire them all.  This can be a really fun way to collect and learn about the set.  One collector has an epic back run of the Cobb red portrait.  He has more than 20 different red Cobbs, all with different back advertisements.

Collecting a subset:
This is similar to collecting just one back, but deals with one specific series and/or factory number.  For example, a collector I know has a complete Sweet Caporal 350-460 factory 25 subset.T206 Frank Baker

Most of the time, a new collector will fall into one of these three categories:

  1. Just wants a few stars and/or notable players
  2. Wants to collect a team or city
  3. Wants to collect the entire set

Starting with a smaller goal can be a great way to get your feet wet and see what appeals to you.  However, if you plan to tackle The Monster in its entirety, know this:  Attempting to complete the set is a monumental task.  Most people who start never finish.  Completing the set requires a lot of money, patience and determination.  Perhaps more importantly, it requires that your focus remains constant.  I know quite a few collectors who set out to complete the set and and their focus never wavered.  For others (me included), the journey isn’t quite so smooth.

T206 blogWhen I began collecting the set, I wanted to complete it in right around Good Condition.  I got up to about 175 cards and then one day I realized that I was just plodding along, checking off cards on my checklist, but not really enjoying it.  What happened was I had started to be attracted to the tougher backs, but I couldn’t afford to buy any if I wanted to complete the set in the next 10 years.  My budget was pretty small and I was adding a common once a week or so. I felt like it was going to take me forever to complete the set, and I wasn’t enjoying the journey much.  Once I realized that my focus had changed, I sold off most of the commons and started over with a new plan.  Nowadays, I am mainly a back collector and I don’t have any plans to complete the set anytime soon.

A change in focus isn’t a bad thing.  After all, the only reason to collect anything is if you enjoy it.  If you ever find yourself losing interest in your collecting goals, take a little break.  Be aware that your wants may change as you learn more about the set and handle more cards.  It could be as simple as your condition preferences changing along the way.  It’s also possible that your collecting journey will take you to unexpected places.  When I first caught the T206 bug I thought the fronts of the cards were really cool and figured I’d try to get one of each.  I never expected that I would be collecting them based on the tobacco ads on the back.  I also never imagined I’d love it so much that I’d end up writing about the set and sharing the fun with other collectors.  But, here we are.