A Couple More E98s Added

 In the last few months I've added a couple new E98s that I haven't previously shared and I want to share them here along with my newest composite of my partial set.

These are two great additions for sure.  First up is a Chrisy Mathewson example.  It's not in the best of shape, but it's one of my favorite cards in the set.  Here is it is...

The really cool thing about this card is the back overprint on the front showing the checklist from the reverse of the card.  I love the unique pose of this card that is not found in other caramel sets off the era.  

Next up is the the very nice example of the Big Ed Walsh from the set.  This is supposedly a tough card in the set and I was trilled to get a copy of it as well.  He is my Walsh example.

Not only am I happy to have a Walsh in my set, but it's an orange background too.  Orange and Blue are my two favorite back colors.  The image is very clear as well.  These two card put me at 25 of the 30 cards in the set.  I've put together the latest composite of my set below.  I'm only missing the Cobb, Wagner, Young, Lajoie and Collins for completion.  

I'll likely get a Lajoie and Collins but the Cobb, Wagner and Young are a little out of my price range right now, so they will have to wait a bit.

Here's the latest composite.

I think the blend of different back colors make the set really pop and look great.  Of course there are some upgrade I will pursue at one time, but right now I love this partial set.  

I hope you are enjoying my E98 journey as much as I have been.

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

New Instagram Account

 Feels kinda stupid, but wanted to llet you all know I started an Instagram account to show my cards.

About a month ago I started an Instagram account to share my collection or prewar and vintage cards.  My handle is @CobbSpikedMeTrades.  Check it out and follow me if you have an account.  Here are some cards I've shared so far.

I'm sharing a variety of cards from different eras.  So check it out and follow me.

If you don't have an instagram account then sign up for one.  It's easy and it's a great place to see some cards.  You can follow a bunch of other collectors that show their cards too.

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

Recent Pick Ups

 Mail Day!  My buddy Phil dealt me six more E98 including an upgrade and a couple Myers.

I'm about as close as I'm going to get to completing the E98 set now.  I just picked up four new players, and upgrade and a dupe.  

I've got all the commons at this point and ten of the HOFers.  Of the remaining HOFers I should be able to get the Lajoie and the Collins, but I don't see me getting the Cobb, Wagner, Young, Mathewson or Walsh any time soon.  Walsh is a tough card in the set, so while I may be able to afford him, he'll be tough to find in my price range.

So, here are the new pick ups...

First off is my Joe Tinker upgrade.  My other one can be seen in past posts where I showed my progress and it was full of paperloss on the front.

If you look closely you can see the overprint of the back on the front of this one.  If this was a T206 that would be really special, but I'm not sure if it is as special on an E98.  I think it is of course. 

Next up are the two Chief Meyers cards I picked up.  Obviously one red and one orange.  The red is the keeper for the set as the orange is skinned meaning the back is missing.  

Then another tough common from the set, the Tenney.  I'm really liking the blue background cards from this set.  The orange and blue are my favorites.  

Then another toughie, and another blue one.  The Coombs.  This one may be a little trimmed, but it counts all the same.

And last but not least is Hall of Famer Hughie Jennings.  This makes number twenty three in my set.

Here is the set as it stands today.  I'm very happy with it and would like to still upgrade a few including the Chase.  But, I'm not going to part with the Chase I have as it's a perfect terrible condition Lionel Carter example.

I think the different colors in this set look great together all mixed up like this.  My current favorites are the Brown, Clarke, Vaughn and Mack.  

I hope you enjoyed following my E98 journey as much as I have.

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

Custom Cards with Tanner Jones

 Custom Cards are nothing new to the hobby, but what Tanner Jones does is simply spectacular.

What do you do if you want a card of your favorite player that doesn't exist?  Or if you want a custom
card of your son or daughter.  You have a custom card made of course.  And there seems to be no better place to get one than to go to Tanner Jones from Texas.  His work is nothing short of amazing.

Tanner creates game used/relic cards, cut autograph cards, refractors even booklets.  

One of Tanner's favorite subjects is his favorite player, Jose Canseco.  Here is a custom triple booklet he created of Canseco.

As you can see, his work looks very professional.  Here is another angle of the same card.

I had an opportunity to speak to Tanner recently and get some insight into his work.

How did you learn how to make custom cards?

== Trial and error ... and a LOT of it!  I reached out to many custom card creators and no one really wanted to say much, so like a mad scientist, I spent hours upon hours, and countless dollars trying things.   

How long does it take to produce a custom?

== It really all depends upon the custom.   

How/Why did you start making customs?

== I started creating customs because my favorite player Jose Canseco didn't have any new cards when I first got into heavily collecting him as an adult.  I thought not having a base 2010/11/12/13 Topps card of him was a travesty!

How often do you make them?

== It really all depends.  If I'm inspired to, I will crack open photoshop and start creating something.   

Is it a job or just a hobby?

== It is just a hobby. 

Do you get requests from collectors?

== I do!  

What do you need from the customer to make the card?

== Mainly the relics to be used, along with a picture and text.  For example, I just did jumbo relics for a guy recently who sent me some of his old cleats he wore playing softball.  Another sent me relics from their wedding.  Still another sent me a cut signature from a check of their dad.

Cleats Customs

Do you have a waiting list?

== It really depends upon when someone reaches me.   

How do you create prizm/refractor like cards?

== That would probably require a tutorial to say, but to be brief, it takes printing on something clear, then sticking shiny paper behind it.  

What do you collect?

== Jose Canseco cards, high end low grade high eye appeal vintage, super key silver age comics, and custom transformers :)  

How long have you been collecting?

== I first got into the hobby in 1989, and it was my life for a few years, then I got back into it in 2006 or so, and haven't looked back! 

You had an amazing Jose Canseco collection.  What did you do with that?

== I sold off 99% of it, kept a few, and realized I still wanted to collect him, just not go after everything.  Since then, I've invested my money into vintage, comics, and have even bought out a few Canseco supercollectors! 

Do you still collect Canseco today?

== I do!  Just the super special ones.  I'm much more selective nowadays :)  

Where/How do you print your cards?

== Here is a tutorial I put together! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrVt4__mwcQ 

How does someone commission a card from you?

== They just ask me by emailing me at tanmanbaseballfan@gmail.com 

What's your favorite custom card you've done for someone else?

== Oh, man.  That's tough!  Here are a few of my favorites for my collection, though:  Custom Canseco nameplate set (Jose wore each jersey, and signed each letter ... 7 teams / 7 letters), a triple booklet with a jumbo patch, bat barrel, glove and shoe, a few cabinet cards, and finally, a card made completely out of a piece of his game used bat.  Oh, and a card with me and him on the front with a video screen showing a video.   

Are you trained in art or are you self-taught?

== Self taught!  I love all things design.  

Confessions of a Baseball Card Addict:

   - What's your book about?

== It is about my journey in cardboard.  I am never short on words describing all the things I've experienced in this hobby.  

   - Where can someone get a copy?

== Here: https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Baseball-Addict-Tanner-Jones/dp/1731198469/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8  - or they can reach out to me tanmanbaseballfan@gmail.com if they want a signed copy.  

   - What was it like writing a book?

== It was a labor of love.  It was never about selling it (though I'm happy people are buying and loving it!) Writing a book was always a bucket list item for me.   

What's your website where people can see your work?

== www.tanmanbaseballfan.com - I don't have a gallery really, but they are showcased throughout my articles I write.  I will also post them on Twitter @tanmanbbfan  

Well, there you have it folks.  A little closer look at Tanner Jones and his hobby of creating custom cards.  Please check out his book, his website and check him out on Twitter.  If you have an idea for a custom card you'd like done, feel free to email him as well.

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

New Pee Wee Reese Piece

 I recently pick up this cool piece for my collection

This is a Perez-Steele T3 style cards of Pee Wee Reese that is autographed and slabbed in an SGC slab with JSA Authentication.

I'm really excited about this one.  It's sort of stupid, but I've been wanting an SGC slab this size for a long time and have been looking at T3s lately. But when a friend of mine came into a bunch of Pee Wee Reese autographed items, and this was one of the items in the lot, I had to have it.  

I originally thought someone bought it and I missed out, but it turned out it was still available and I jumped on it.  It arrived today and I couldn't be happier with it.

Pee Wee was a leader and set the example of accepting Jackie Robinson on the Dodgers team and treating him with respect and like an equal.  He was a really good man and great ballplayer.  He was inducted into the baseball HOF in 1984 and passed away in 1999.  He was a great man.

As you can see it has a very nice signature across the bottom of the image and it present really well with the black borders of the SGC slab.  

Well, this was today's mail day, so I hope you like it.

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

Set Review: 1933 E285 Rittenhouse Candy Co

They was a very interesting set produced in 1933 but the Rittenhouse Candy Co designated E285 in the ACC.

This set has 52 cards in it and each card has a playing card style front with the photo of the player in the center.  The back of the cards have a letter printed on them.  The letters that are supposed to be on the backs are R, I, T, E, N, H, O, U, S, C, A, D & Y.  This makes it possible to spell out RITTENHOUSE CANDY CO which was a candy company out of Philadelphia.  If a kid was able to spell that out they could redeem a prize.

Well, as was the case with several sets from the era, some of the letters were harder to come by thereby making it very difficult to redeem cards for prizes.  To this day, I don't believe anyone has spelled out the entire thing.  

Below is a look at an almost complete spelling courtesy of OldCardboard.com.

Image Courtesy OldCardboard.com

As you can see the H and O are missing.  Those should be very tough letters to find.  I can only image kids in 1933 going crazy trying to get those letters and buying more and more candy in an effort to complete the words.  They must have been so frustrated.

There was also an instuctions back that listed the prizes (show here).

The prizes were as follows:

Fielder's Glove
First Base Mitt
Big League Ball
Skates
Air Rifle
Pearl Knife

This back is harder to find than a letter back.  Apparently there are also some backs with numbers on them and these are extremely difficult to find.  Some people believe the cards with numbers were a separate issue of these cards.

I have one example from this set. it is Dib Williams and he is picture below.  You can see how the cards were designed here with the playing card and center photo.  

These are small cards measuring only 1 7/16 by 2 1/4 inches.  They are made of cardboard stock that is fairly strong but could bend or crease easily.  There is only a small white border at the top and bottom of the card with the right and left sides cut right to image.  You will see examples that are trimmed to have the top and bottom borders missing. These ones are less desirable and can be had for much lower prices than non-trimmed versions.  

The cards can come in three colors: Red, Green and Blue.  There are two Babe Ruths in the set those being the Ace of Spades and the King of Clubs.  There are several other HOFers in the set as well.

Here is an image of three cards showing the three different colors.

Image courtesy OldCardboard.Com

These cards a scarce but completing a set is doable.  There have been several collectors who have done it.  I have no intentions of going for the set, I'm perfectly content with my one type card from this set.  I may pick up more, but only if the price is right and I just happen upon it.  I had two of the trimmed versions but gave them away to other collector friends of mine and kept my untrimmed version.

I highly recommend pick one up even as just a type card as they are really cool little cards.  I think you will like it if you do.

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

Babe Ruth in Action

Here is a very neat video of the 1920 Yankees vs. Cleveland at League Park.

It features a young Babe Ruth among others, including Tris Speaker, in wonderful action shots.  They used great technology of the day to film several scenes in slow motion using high speed cameras to slow down the speed.  You'll be able to see the Babe's swing perfectly.

The images of the crowds outside the park are really something with everyone in suits and hats.  And the boys chasing one of Ruth's home run balls that went out of the stadium and into a yard across the street.  

The announcer of the starting batteries using a megaphone to shout up to the crowd is very different from today's PA systems and jumbo screens with video and stats of the players.  

The whole style of play is different than today's game, not surprisingly.  The way pitchers throw to the way batters swing.  

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

Recent Pick Ups - More E98s

 I recently won a lot of E98s in the latest Collect Auction that raises my number in the set to 19 out of 30.

I won four cards, but only needed three of them for my set, so I ended up with one dupe.  I'm very excited with these three new cards.

The first one is Hall of Famer Chief Bender.

This is the only HOFer in the lot, but it's not my favorite of the lot.  The next card is my favorite, the orange Vaughn pictured below.

The E98 Vaughn in a tough card in this set, perhaps the toughest of the commons and I'm very excited that it is an orange example as I really like the orange backgrounds in this set.  This card was where the value laid in this lot.  

The last card I needed for my set was this green McLean.  I used to have a McLean but traded it to a friend who needed it for his set a while back. I'm glad to have one back now.

  

The last card in the lot was this orange Mullin.  Coincidentally the Mullin I already have is also an orange one but it is a nicer example than this one.  This card will be available for sale or trade in the event you're looking for one.  Just let me know.

Here is the new image of all my E98s as the set sits now.  I think they look great with the three blues that I recently picked up as well.  I'm hoping to upgrade my Tinker as well as (hopefully) land a Nap Lajoie in the near future.  I'll update you when/if that happens of course.

Thanks for sharing in my E98 journey everyone.  I'm really enjoying these cards a lot.  

Enjoy the hobby all...I am.

Howe McCormick T206 Back Stamp Collector

 As some of you may know I have an online project documenting T206 back stamps.

I've posted about this before, but for those of you who are newer to my blog, I have a project documenting all of the different T206 back stamps that I can.  It is called The Great T206 Back Stamp Project.  Catchy right?  

Well, one of the stamps that I have documented on the site is from a collector named Howe McCormick.  I don't have that many of his stamps pictured on my website, but there is a collector out there that has hundreds of them.  His name is Ed McCollum.  And I had the wonderful opportunity to talk to Ed recently.

Here is what I learned.

Ed got his first baseball cards back in 1972 when his grandfather bought him a pack at the local grocery store and he was hooked from that moment.  He didn't see his first tobacco card until 1989 when he stumbled on a T206 Ty Cobb Red Portrait at an antique store while shopping with his wife.  He started collecting prewar cards after that.  

First he decided to get a few T206s which then led to more and then more.  He focused on getting one of each of the back advertisements (minus the Ty Cobb back) which he accomplished.  Then he got all the six horizontal cards.  Then some of the rarer cards in the set.  But, after 19 years of collecting, he felt stuck at 220 cards and felt he wasn't going to complete the set so he decided to refocus how he collected.  This led to an idea.

"One of the first cards I got when trying to collect all the backs was a Hindu backed card that, when it arrived, had this rubber stamping on the back from Howe McCormick, 500 W. Main St., Gainesville, Fla. (Back in 1991, you bought cards from listings in trade magazines and didn't have a way of checking what you were really getting until it arrived.) Fast forward almost 15 years, and one night while browsing through eBay to try and find a card I could afford to bid on, there was another card with the same rubber stamp on it. I thought it might be kind of cool to have two, purchased 15 years apart, with several thousand miles between the two places I purchased them from. A couple years later was when I decided I had to focus my collection, and I thought "Why not see how many cards this guy stamped and how many I can find?" So it just took off from there."

Ed sold off all his other cards after refocusing on Howe's collection and the quest began.  As of today, he has reassembled and incredible 383 cards of Howe's original collection.  When asked where he gets all of them, Ed explains,

"In the beginning, most came from eBay. As time has gone on, the cards may still come from eBay, but there are so many people who have seen my posts on net54 that look for the cards for me also. A card will show up in an auction, I’ll get five or ten emails about it. Someone is visiting a local card show, sees a card with Howe’s stamp on it, and I get a text message. More than a handful have come from collectors who may not have ever paid that much attention to the back of their cards, but when going through them will notice one or two have the stamp, will contact me and reunite them with the others."

Ed can also shed some light on Howe himself.

"Ulric Howe McCormick was born on July 31, 1895 in Alachua county Florida.  His father and uncle owned a market (groceries/tobacco) at 500 West Main Street in Gainesville, and both families lived above the market. He lived there until after his service in WWI, when census data shows he married in 1926 and had a child two years later.

I’ve been lucky enough to have been in contact with two individuals who knew Howe, one is his second cousin who until recently still lived in the Gainesville area, and the other a gentleman who met his daughter during her career on Broadway and stayed friends with her until her death. Both have been able to fill in a lot of the information about Howe that I wouldn’t have known otherwise.

The cards were collected from smokers who bought the cigarettes at the market, but didn’t want the cards. No one has been able to provide any information about why he stamped the cards, but there are two different stamps. The main one has his name and address in two lines, and appears in black or brown, or some faded version of that. The other version has his information on three lines, and uses his first name, middle initial and lists him as an agent for the Saturday Evening Post. The six of that version I have found are all in a very faded green color.

Howe was quite proud of his collection, and like to show it to the friend of his daughter’s every time he went to visit Howe and his wife in Florida. He tells me Howe had three boxes of cards, larger than shoe boxes, filled with the cards. But sometime between 1968 and 1974, when they moved from the house they had lived in most of their adult lives into a smaller place, Howe sold all but 12 of the cards that he wanted to keep. The friend remembers the name of one of those 12 cards quite well, but it disappeared soon after his death in July 1976 and hasn’t shown up since.

The second cousin was able to give me several scans of Howe as a child (guessing between the ages of six and nine?) and I was also able to find online two photos of him from the 1913 yearbook from his sophomore year in high school, where he was a trombone player in the school orchestra."

He has about 200 different cards with the stamp and several doubles, triples and as many as five examples of the Joss pitching pose with the stamp.  Ed also keeps track of cards he knows of but doesn't own and he knows of 36 examples that are out there in other collections.  He even has scans of several of the cards he knows of but doesn't own just in case he picks it up later he can take it off his known examples list.

When asked what the best part of collecting this way has been, Ed says,

"The friendships made with other collectors, all but one of which I’ve never met face to face. Since 2007, when I started truly rebuilding Howe’s collection, there have been more than 200 collectors who have contacted me about what I’m doing, or offered to help. Of those, there are at least 50 who I hear from three or four times a year, even if it isn’t about cards, but just checking to see how we are all doing. People who started out as an eBay handle or a user name on a card chat site have now become people I know their names, about their families, their collections, sometimes what the weather is like that day where they live. Quite often, we have nothing in common other than the love of old pieces of cardboard. But that is all it takes to be friends. And I really appreciate that."

Ed's focus is still to acquire as many of these stamps as he can and continue to reassemble Howe's original collection.  If you have one of these or know of one, please reach out to him at:

Ed@edmccollum.com

I'd like to thank Ed for answering my questions.  Below is an example of one of Howe's stamped T206s.

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

Recent Pick Ups and I'm Back (Hopefully)

 Hey guys and gals, sorry I went dark for so long.  I just wanted to come back with some recent pick ups and show my E98s.

I recently picked up a couple more e98s from a fellow collector who is helping me build my set.  He is working on the e98 master set of all 30 cards in all four colors and is so close it's amazing.  

So without further ado...

First up is this orange background Dahlen.  I'm really drawn to the orange backgrounds for some reason, I just really like the look of these.  

Here's a closer shot of him...

Next up is HOFer John McGraw also with the orange background.

This is a really clean 1.5 as you can see. Great image and color on this one.  Here's a close up.

So for those of you who may not be familiar with this set, it has 30 cards in the set and they come in four different color backgrounds: Orange, Red, Green and Blue.  It is considered and "anonymous" set as no there is no ad on the back that mentions a distributor.  Here is an example of the back of the card.

As you can see, a collector long ago used this back as a checklist of what he had and it appears he completed the set.  I kind of like this example for this reason.  But also apparent is the missing distributor name.  Hence the anonymous part of the name of this set.

Also included in this set is a stamp that appears on some of the backs that reads, "OLD PUT 5 ct. CIGAR".  

The "Old Put" cards carry a premium when sold as they are fairly rare.  

I wrote a little more about this set a couple years ago here if you feel like reading that post as well.  It goes into a little more detail.

In that previous post I only had five cards from the set but since then I've added a few more.  Here is where my set sits right now.  As you can see, I don't have any blue backgrounds at this point.  I do have a couple blues coming in though and will post those in the next few days when they arrive.

I could certainly upgrade my orange Tinker and the green Chase will also be upgraded some day, but that one is a Lionel Carter card so I'll be keeping it when I eventually upgrade it.  

I hope you enjoyed my latest post in five months.  I hope to get back to the blog going forward.

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