T206 Christy Mathewson

I've got the itch...again. I've been looking at my vintage stuff a lot lately. This T-206 Mathewson (brown cap/Old Mill back) is the coolest card I own. At one time a long time ago, before I had a family and worried about stuff like saving for kids college educations, I went to card shows looking for tobacco cards in decent shape. Prices then were no where near what they are now. Graded cards were around but I paid no attention.

I'm not sure what I had hoped to do except buy as many as I could afford. I knew damn well I wasn't going to complete any of the sets! I just got a kick out of holding a card that some kid had held seven decades before. I bought this Christy Mathewson, one card each of Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers and Frank Chance. And I tracked down the nine Baltimore Oriole minor leaguers included. I expanded to some other tobacco cards, mostly the gorgeous T-205 Gold Borders.

But eventually I could no longer justify spending that kind of money even though the prices then were very reasonable (I bought most of the Baltimore cards as a package for maybe $30 or $40). But with the sale of the Wagner card in the news I got to thinking about how I enjoyed obtaining these beauties and how much easier it would be now with eBay to add a few.

So I'm on a quest. I've got my eyes on a few 1895 Mayo Cut Plug cards on eBay now that, while far from pristine, look acceptable and are at a decent price of are listed with the 'make on offer' option. I'll see what I come up with. I like having a project.