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Vintage-for-vintage

 
I've been watching with interest the reader numbers drop with each subsequent edition of the "best on-card element" series.

Part of this is typical, the longer a series lasts, the less interested people get -- at least for those who aren't really into the series.

But also I think this demonstrates how much readers are interested in vintage -- at least my readers anyway -- since the first three editions of the series covered the '50s, '60s and '70s.

But it's difficult to make all of my posts, or even the majority of my posts, about vintage cards. First, my interests go beyond vintage, even though vintage cards have my heart. Second, there are only so many vintage cards to go around -- there are simply fewer vintage cards, at least accessible vintage cards, than the gobs and gobs of cards manufacturers made from the late 1980s until now. Third, vintage cards are usually more expensive, some significantly so. I wish I had the money to show them more. I don't.
 
I think this holds true for almost every collector, and seems to be more the case with each passing year.
 
I don't transact in vintage as often as I once did with fellow bloggers. There simply aren't as many vintage-centric card bloggers around. A number of them don't care about vintage in the least (for the record, I don't get those collectors). But more often I think vintage cards are just off-limits for a lot of budgets, so bloggers move onto other things to talk about and collect.

"Vintage-for-vintage" trades, while never a common thing on the blogs, are pretty infrequent for me now. I'm lucky enough to receive vintage "gifts" sometimes, and then I panic because what if they want something back and I don't have a stockpile of vintage!

Fortunately there are still bloggers like Bo around who I can still count on for a good vintage-for-vintage trade.

Bo regularly shops for vintage lots on ebay -- something I should be doing -- and accumulated a smattering of dupes from 1970 Topps, a set I am trying to complete. I found a few he offered up and then he found some more for me!


Bo does not mind cards in the above kind of condition -- writing, creases and such -- I try to avoid them, so these guys will go into my '70 binder upside down, as I mentioned before a reminder to me to upgrade them. But it's nice to fill empty slots. Cards of any condition are better than empty slots.
 




But I'm not a big stickler -- how many times do you see graded cards on here? -- so these guys will hit the binder right-side-up and I may never upgrade.







All of these cards are wonderful, ideal shape and high numbers to boot! Good stuff. Billy Wynne has just two Topps cards and both of them are high numbers. I need to do a post on players who lived only in the high numbers (*scratches note to self*).
 


The capper. I didn't ask for this card, Bo threw it in! It's always a relief to get a '70s Rose card out of the way for set-builders.

I still need to send my end of vintage cards to Bo -- as usual, I hope there's enough vintage left in the extras box!

My guess is that I could turn up more vintage trades on TCDB, but this is not a big priority. I have my ways of finding vintage cards that I need.

Comments

Bo said…
Always happy to trade vintage cards with another blogger, or anyone else who reads your blog!
GTT said…
Nice. The #458 Rose has been one of the last 25 cards for my dad's set - I just got it Black Friday.
Old Cards said…
Glad to see you getting closer to completion of this great set. Also appreciate your continued posts about vintage.
Nick said…
I haven't done a ton of vintage-for-vintage trades myself - mostly stems from the fact that I don't have a ton of extra vintage, and a lot of what I still need are bigger names and/or high-numbers. Bo is one of the few people I've traded vintage to, and his returns never disappoint!
Jimetal7212 said…
I'm sure I have quite a few vintage that would fit quite nicely in your collection. I'm sitting on a bucketload of 61s and 63s for example. Funny thing is, I will happily trade vintage away, but will take anything in return. Value, not age.... Besides, I've been spoiled by a few great show dealers here in CT. Now if I could just find that darn '72 Orioles card to finish that set off....
bbcardz said…
Love those 1970 cards--especially the Jim Brewer card. Very nice to see that you're making some decent progress on completing that set. I'm down to just needing 64 cards myself but I'm more of a stickler regarding condition.
Anonymous said…
1970 is probably my least favorite Topps base set of the decade.
Fuji said…
As much as I love vintage... I haven't added a lot to my collection the past two years. But for the better half of a decade, I was obsessed with adding key vintage cards and sets to my collection. These days most of the vintage I really want is no longer within my hobby budget. It's nice that the hobby has started to soften. Maybe I'll start seeing some good bargains at card shows and flea markets again. Until then... I'll be patient.

P.S. Sweet Pete!
Billy Kingsley said…
The few people I've spoken to who aren't interested in vintage is because the people on the cards were retired before they started watching and they have no real connection to them.

I get it, I have no real connection to people who retired or died before I was even born, but I have a love of history, a thirst for knowledge and an obsessive personality so vintage is an ideal way for me to learn about what I missed.
night owl said…
I'm referring mostly to baseball card collectors who aren't interested in vintage. Baseball fans in general are more into history than any other sports fan, so it's weird that a baseball card collector wouldn't care about historic cards. ... I understand it to a point because I really don't care much about cards from before the 1940s. But I would definitely love to own those cards.
Nick Vossbrink said…
Vintage-vintage trades are great. But they require both trade bait and needlists that match up and that's hard to do. Is always a lot of fun when they work out though.
Jon said…
Bo and Johnny seem to be the go-to bloggers for vintage baseball card trading. I have a lot of vintage baseball cards to trade, there's just not a lot of folks who have what I want, and the condition I want it in, to trade with.
Matt said…
With my collection, I'm always afraid to do vintage for vintage because I don't trust my sense of what I would consider fair in terms of condition and value. I think that's why I've been enjoying my Time Travel Trading project - I'm regularly sending out vintage and not worrying about what I'm getting in return.
Unknown said…
"...I think vintage cards are just off-limits for a lot of budgets"
I don't really understand this unless its about collectors who will only buy NM or better. When I got back into the hobby 4 years ago I started collecting vintage because modern cards were too expensive. A new pack of cards was $5.99 to $9.99 where I live and I could get a mid-grade lot of 1960s cards for about a quarter per card. Vintage cards are more popular & pricey now but so are the new cards.
Stack22 said…
"Cards of any condition are better than empty slots."

Correct.
AdamE said…
As a team collector I am still mostly interested in vintage but I've been team collecting for so long the vintage I still need are all High Numbers and there aren't many people trading off their high number cards.