Some Nice Little Gems in Love of the Game Auctions

The current Love of the Game Auction has a lot of great items in it.

But there are a couple of lots that are really interesting to me.  I'm watching these items to see where they will end up and may bid on one of them as well.

The first really cool item I found is this T209 of B.E. Thompson.

This is a classic card from this set and actually doesn't feature a baseball player at all, but what some believe to be a farmer named Benjamin Thompson who supplied tobacco to Erwin-Nadal who then used his tobacco in the production of Contentnea Cigarettes.

Usually this card stands out simply due to the image of the "Uncle Sam" on the front, but this one is special for another reason altogether.

Most T209s exhibit an ad on the reverse for Contentnea Cigarettes in a very nice looking ad.  However this particular card has a slightly different back to it. 

While most all other backs feature the straight ad for the cigarettes, the back of this card says, "Be sure and save B.E. Thompson's picture.  Ask your dealer about it.  Contentnea Cigarettes." 

Some say this lends credence to the idea that this particular card could have been saved and redeemed for a prize.  What prize you ask?  Possibly the album that was produced for the set.  And in that album there was a full page dedicated to this card itself.

This is a rarely seen card and it being of the B.E. Thompson front it is highly desirable.  We'll see where this one ends up at the end of the auction.

I've always wanted an example of the Thompson and this would certainly be the one I would want.  Even in the poor condition it's in.

I've been picking up a few T205s recently and slowly working on that set, so the second item from Love of the Game that really caught my fancy was this blank backed Ed Reulbach with a handwritten bio on the reverse.  This card is just super cool. 

Maybe it's because I'm into T206s with back stamps, but whatever the reason I find this card fascinating. 

 

I am really drawn to prewar cards that have period writing or stamps on them and this one is just awesome.  First, the card is blank backed, which by itself if really cool.  But then to know that some kid 100 years ago scribbled out a bio for Reulbach takes it to the next level. 

 

It's not easy to read the bio at all, so I'm not going to try to translate it for you here.  You can enlarge the image and try to read it yourself.

 

Any way, this is another one that I'm watching closely and may bid on before too long. 

 

Take a look at the current auction at Love of the Game.  See if there is anything that you can't live without.  Like I said, they have a lot of cool stuff to look through.  I just picked out a couple of the non-featured items that caught my eye.  See what you can find.

 

Enjoy the hobby all...it's a great one.