What a Deal!

Well, I'm pretty upset that I missed this one folks.

Actually, I'm more upset that I didn't put a snipe on it as I would've beat this winning bid for sure.

While perusing eBay last night I saw this card, and since I like to pick up beaters for cheap, I decided to take a closer look at the listing. As you can tell from the front, it's not much to get excited about.

However, after scrolling down into the listing, I noticed what makes this such a steal.

At first I thought there's no way this could be for real. I must be missing something here. But it all looked good.

The best part about this card is the back. It wasn't listed anywhere in the listing, but the back is a Red Cross back making this not a T206, but a T-215 instead. And, from what I can tell from the image, the caption at the bottom of the front is brown and not blue making this a Type I example, that's the more rare of the two if you're keeping track.

I'm certainly not an expert on these, but I know they are in damand and they command much more money than the same T206 pose in the same condition.

This one did sell for more than what it's common T206 counterpart would have, so I have to assume the bidder knew what he was looking at.

The closing price including shipping: $42.83

Nice job to someone out there. This is just another example of a good deal on eBay. Their out there if you just keep looking for them.

Enjoy the hobby all, it's a super duper one...

Mellomints Tin Bothers Me

This old tin for Mellomints candy was auctioned off in REA's 2004 auction and the description has always annoyed the crap out of me.

Every time I am flipping the old 2004 catalog and I see this tin I get a little more perturbed. The description reads in part:

If you think your Mello Mint collection is complete, think again! Offered is a circa 1910 Mello Mint tin, measuring 8 inches tall and 10 inches in diameter, designed to be used by candy stores to dispense the presumably very delicious Mello Mint treats.

While I can't argue that this particular tin did contain Mellomint treats, they were certainly not the same thing that is related to the rare E105 Mello Mint cards. They have nothing in common other than the similar name.

The cards were distributed with Mello-Mint (notice the hyphen and so "s" at the end) gum, not sugar confections as the tin advertises.

The backs of the cards have the logo of the gum pictured and it clearly states, "Smith's Mello-Mint, The Texas Gum" and it further clarifies that the card are, "wrapped with each 5¢ package of SMITH'S MELLO-MINT GUM". This seems pretty clear to me that these cards were never packaged in tins like the one pictured above and sold in the REA auction under the premise of being related to the cards.

How could this tin possibly be listed as it was in such a respectable auction house's catalog? That really annoys the hell out of me. What the hell?

Thoughts anyone?

Enjoy the hobby all...