Vintage Poll - How "Old" is Vintage?

[ranbethscards]

Everyday I see postings at trading sites, eBay, FaceBook Group Pages, etc. that talk about Vintage for sale/trade.

My question is... where do you put the "cut-off" for Vintage?

I have a problem with people listing 70-era Cards as Vintage, but lately have seen some postings of 80-era cards as Vintage (a 1984 card is 30 years old... !!!)

My personal preference is pre-1960, but have no problem seeing early 1960 cards listed as Vintage.

 

[CamaroDMD]

I think it totally depends on the person. For me, I consider cards 1989 and older as "vintage." I know that seems strange...as 1989 wasn't THAT long ago, but I feel this is also when a big change happened. After 1989, there was a balloon in product numbers and glossy cards became the norm. To me, 1989 was the end of those old school "paper" stock feeling cards. Of course, I was born in 1985...so my view might be a little skewed.

This is the line I draw for my personal "Vintage PC" (although I will admit a 1990 or two might sneak in at some point).

That said, I consider cards from the 1960s to be a different breed of their own.

 

[Mike]

My cutoff between the "good old days" and when I really stopped paying much attention to baseball is the 1981 strike. I have some cards that are after 1981, but I don't really get excited about them. I really enjoy going after some of the 70s cards, the stuff I remember from when I was a kid and really loved baseball.

Vintage is really just an arbitrary term that anyone can use and abuse to their own discretion. There's no hard-fast rule out there saying what should be and what shouldn't be called vintage.

The dictionary meaning is "a period in which something was made or was begun" and when you're talking about wine the term has a very specific meaning (the year the wine was made). So, if you wanted to be technical about it, all cards are of a specific vintage, some just older than others.

 

[erdoro]

Here's a perspective I was walking by two men mid 20's I'd say talking about his vintage 1992 crown vic car. Lol
For me vintage stopped in 1972 when series were harder to get.

 

[Leafsfan1967]

I think it totally depends on the person. For me, I consider cards 1989 and older as "vintage." I know that seems strange...as 1989 wasn't THAT long ago, but I feel this is also when a big change happened. After 1989, there was a balloon in product numbers and glossy cards became the norm. To me, 1989 was the end of those old school "paper" stock feeling cards. Of course, I was born in 1985...so my view might be a little skewed.

This is the line I draw for my personal "Vintage PC" (although I will admit a 1990 or two might sneak in at some point).

That said, I consider cards from the 1960s to be a different breed of their own.

I pretty much have the same perception as you, at least with hockey cards. 88-89 OPC is about the cutoff point for me in hockey, as 89-90, and on seems like when things started to change in the hockey hobby sector. For me, I associate vintage with antiques. If I'm not mistaken, an antique is considered anything over 25 years old, so my 88-89, and older mentality fits in there.

Having said that, I really don't think there's a right, and a wrong answer here, as everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and have a different view point. Why does there have to be a specific cutoff point, anyways? As each year passes by, that cutoff number would then be subject to change each year, wouldn't it?

The right answer could actually be as simple as anything as old as Randy should be considered vintage. Mystery solved!

 

[captkirk42]

Now I generally say "Pre-1980", I was a kid with the 70s cards so it is a little difficult to call those "vintage". I suppose 1970-1989 could be considered "neo-vintage" or "new vintage"?

Or you could follow the same idea as Comics and say anything before 1960 is "Golden Age" Vintage, 1961-1980 "Silver Age" and 1981-? "Bronze Age". Are we still in the Bronze Age?

A common belief (other than the "anything before I was born") is something is "vintage" if it is older than 20 years sometimes 25. I don't want to cause a bunch of heart attacks here but going by the 20-25 years guide (and the "anything made before I was born" for 20 somethings) the early "Junk Wax" cards and almost the entire era of those cards could start to be considered "vintage".