I suppose they may meet yours, though - and it could certainly be argued that when Topps lost their exclusivity and Donruss and Fleer flooded into the void in the early 80s, well, those cards are definitely not vintage. For me, though - especially now that I'm back into collecting - anything from 1972 Topps and working backward from there counts. I'm actually quite floored that there are cards from the 50s and 60s still very much in circulation, and are still very affordable. I mean, really affordable if it's a tiny bit beat up and common. Whenever I get a common card from the 50s and 60s, I'm incredibly psyched about it. I don't care who the guy is - it's just a delight to have his card in my collection.
I honestly don't have very many vintage cards in my collection right now, outside of the 1971 and 1972 Topps sets I'm starting to build, and all those Seattle Pilots cards from '69 and '70. I know that eventually getting the cards of guys from this era whom I collect - Willie McCovey and Frank Robinson, to say nothing of Willie Mays - is going to be a bit of an expensive slog, and I may never get there. That's okay. Until, then, I'll snap up any and all vintage commons that I can get for next-to-nothing, or in trades, or whatnot. It sure beats going after 1989 Donruss, don't it?
Nice pickups! I've really gotten into old, beat-up vintage too.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think vintage is defined differently by every collector. The '78 set you mentioned is my birth year set, and I definitely consider that one vintage.
ReplyDeleteI am the same way. Any old stuff is welcome. And pre 73 is about my cutoff.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm wondering where the cut-off should be. Ha.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I caught the Johnny Cash reference.
DeleteMy personal cutoff is 1980. Anything before that is vintage to me. I think part of it has to do with the floodgates opening during the 80's... me starting to collect in 1981... and Topps losing their monopoly the same year. Plus in regards to designs the 70's sets (even the late 70's stuff) gives off an older vibe compared to the early 80's stuff.
ReplyDeleteYeah, there's a real grey area. Anything from 1981 on--from when Donruss and Fleer joined the game--is clearly not vintage. Anything from 1969 or before is clearly vintage. That leaves the 1970s and maybe 1980 as debatable. As much as I like and have fond memories of the latter half of that, I certainly get the argument against them being vintage. I mean, *I* completed the 1980 Topps set last year (in fact, I have every nationally-distributed baseball card Topps made that year), and I'm no vintage set collector, you know? But 1969 does seem a little early as a cut off. Maybe 1973 should be the last year of vintage, because it was the last set Topps issued in series (until the modern introduction of "Series 2")? But you'll never have every one in the hobby agree, and that's OK.
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