As Usual, I Want Your Input

As some of you know, I've been doing a little cardboard soul-searching lately. The initial excitement wore off and I've been hopelessly floating in the card collecting doldrums.

I received many comments, emails and phone calls. Brian posted about my quandary in an attempt to convince me to keep my cards (thank you, sir). Mark was kind enough to email me, then offer advice to spice up my cardboard love life, and then email me again just to make sure I was okay.

I am okay, friends. But I definitely have discovered that interest in building certain parts of my collection have...waned.  For instance, my Nelson Cruz PC, once the primary focus of my attention, has become almost a non-factor. However, I have figured out where my interest does lie: Bowman.

I understand that many of you don't care for Bowman. However, the first product I purchased when jumping back into the collecting world was 2012 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects. I loved that set. Unfortunately, I was not sure which direction I wanted to go with my collection, so I didn't build that set. I'm hoping to do so in the future.

When Bowman dropped this year, I was extremely excited. I bought a jumbo box and a hobby box. I'm sorting now, but I should have a needs list up soon.

Anyway, back to the moral of this story. As I mentioned above, Mark made some suggestions to help me out of my rut. One of those was to put together a vintage set. If you read Mark's blog or if you've ever talked to him, you know that by "vintage," he means early 1900's. 

I'm down with this idea. However, I have no idea which set to collect. So here's what I'm looking for: a set that isn't overly expensive (believe it or not, I don't have an infinite supply of cash), semi-easily available, and a set that has some type of historical value (my BA in History demands it). So, do any of you have any input?

Also, a post from Greg Z. earlier today sparked my interest in something else. One of the cards in his card show loot was a '51 Thurman Tucker. If you have been with me since the beginning, you might recall a post I had about this card:

Tucker is my cousin. He and my grandfather were very close; I still remember stories my grandfather would tell me as a kid about "Monk" (as he was known by family members - I have no idea why). 

Anyway, the card got me to thinking about that set. It is undoubtedly one of the most iconic sets of baseball cards ever made, probably for the Mantle card that was part of it. I love the set. I love it's irregular size compared to today's cards. The thing I love about it most, however, is the image type: I love that they are all essentially works of art, not photographs. 

So I decided that I am going to build a second vintage set. Something from the '50s...clearly I can't afford to build the '51 set - I don't think I could ever afford a Mantle - and the inability to complete a set would drive me nuts. So, my next thought was the 1950 Bowman set. Does anyone have experience with this set? If so, tell me about your journey so far to build it. Easy? Difficult? Costly? I want to know!