Editor’s Notes: June 2021

Posted on June 1, 2021 by Pre-War Cards

Each month, content gets updated on the Pre-War Cards site. However, while you see the regular articles that are posted, plenty of stuff is always being added behind the scenes. Much of this has to do with the updating of set descriptions and checklists in the database and each month, I’ll be posting to alert you to stuff that has been added or updated from the previous month.

Here are the items added/updated from the past month.

Just here for a monthly check-in — don’t mind me. Wanted to get to one of these since I missed the one for last month.

What’s new lately, folks? Eh, lots of bits and pieces here and there. Lately, the Honus Wagner T206 card broke its own record. Oh, and after a decision was forthcoming, the National appears like it’s going to be on for this summer (more on that a little later). That makes sense given that card shows all over the country are essentially back. But mostly, the ‘news’ to me is what’s happening with current prices, which are still setting records left and right.

While there’s been a bit of a dip in a lot of modern cards with the market on some stuff slowly coming back to earth, I haven’t observed the same sort of ‘correction’ with pre-war stuff. I’m still buying just as much and seeing prices remain just as high in this space. If there’s any sort of a dropoff with pre-war cards, frankly, I’d love to see where. Things are not only staying high but other things, like Jesse Owens cards, non-sports cards, and other stuff that has gone relatively unnoticed for years is still going up. Ditto for the really big names in baseball like Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb. Been seeing bumps on Cy Young and Honus Wagner stuff, too. Even low-grade Cobb green background T206 cards are basically around $3,500-$4,500 as a starting point. Everything I’ve been buying — set fillers, individual cards, etc., all seems to be remaining quite healthy. That, of course, is good for our collections and bad for buying.

What will be interesting is to see where things are, say, by the end of this year. I know of some collectors (particularly of older stuff) getting out of the hobby as folks start cashing out due to the high prices. The market will never be ‘flooded’ per se, just because most of the earlier stuff, save for more common issues like T206 and 1933 Goudey, is by comparison, quite rare. But if prices are just as healthy by the end of the year, that could be indicative of these new prices for pre-war cards being here to stay.

Regarding the site, a little bit of good news and a little bit of bad news. Bad news first. I haven’t gotten a chance to start the new page additions I spoke of a while back, which will include other sports cards (aside from the four major sports covered here already — baseball, basketball, football, hockey, golf, boxing, tennis, and wrestling) that are listed in the American Card Catalog. The good news is that I have added many other new sets to the site and made some checklist additions that you’ll find below. The other new sets will get added. I’ve already begun work on them and hopefully will have those up in the next month or two.

Last note before signing off — be sure to check out our sponsor, CSG, if you’re looking for third party grading.

New Sets Added

Set Updates

Added the full 1,520-card checklist for the 1898-1922 Felix Potin Chocolate Cards
Added the full 374-card checklist for the 1888-89 N173 Old Judge Cabinet Cards