Recent Pick Up

 I recently won a lot in the last Love of the Game auction of a complete set (sort of) of 1946-49 American Nut & Chocolate pennants.

Just wanted to share this most recent acquisition with you all.  I placed a bid on this lot in the last Love of the Game auction and was pleasantly surprised it was enough to hold up over night after I went to bed.  

I already had a handful of mini pennants in my collection but I didn't have any of these ones.  This is basically a complete set of 16 pennants, one for each team in the majors at the time.  There are five variations bringing the actual total to 21 pennants and I may pursue those others in time.  But for now I'm content with the 16 I have.

The variations come in different color pennants, or a slightly different design for the team.  The teams with variations are the Dodgers, White Sox, Reds, Giants and Browns.  Trading Card Database (TCDb) has images of all the pennants except the Tigers variation, so I don't know what that one looks like.  

Here are the 16 I picked up.

They measure 1 3/4" by 4".  They came delivered from LOTG packaged in a couple really nice black frames with glass fronts and padding behind them ready for display.  Great job packing them by the way.  And very fast shipping.  

American Nut & Chocolate produced pins for each team as well that were packaged in boxes of candy with the pennants.  The treats were called Double Play and cost five cents a box.  

Years later, the company produced another 22 pennant set that included white pennants with a line drawing of a player along with a facsimile auto.  Those sets were sold for fifty cents back in 1950.  

Here are examples of the original Double Play box, both types of pennants and the pins.

I hope you enjoyed my latest pick up.  These are fun little pennants to collect and I'm hoping I eventually find some of the variations.

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

A Back Stamp Leads to a New Discovery for Me

 There are many many different stamps on the backs of T206s.

They range from images to dates to names or numbers.  I have an entire online project documenting these stamps.  I have known of one particular stamp for some time now, and have a few documented on my site, but I never knew anything about the person who stamped their name on the cards.

A recent post on Net54 mentioned this stamp and who the person was however.  Which led to a little more research and I was amazed at what I found out.

Here is the stamp I'm talking about. It reads:

L. KURZROK M.D.

9 E 96 ST. N.Y.C 28

As it turns out, Dr. Lawrence Kurzrok MD was a practicing physician in New York City for 41 years.  He retired to Longboat Key near Sarasota, FL in 1971 and passed away Feb 12, 1976. 

He was a specialist in obstetrics, gynecology and endocrinology and supervised the birth of over 10,000 babies.  

In the 1930's he ranked 10th nationally in tennis and won the Greater New York public courts title five times.  

He was a Navy Commander during WWII and received two battle stars.

All of this is amazing enough, but this is a vintage and prewar baseball card blog, so why am I going on about some doctor who stamped some cards?

Well, as it turns out, Dr. Kurzrok was a pioneer in card collecting and can be noted along with such names as Jefferson Burdick, Lionel Carter and Charles Bray.  He was the President of the Card Collectors Society of NY and often held meetings at his home located at the address stamped on his cards.

He would also meet in front of groups to discuss raising money for collecting clubs in high schools and colleges believing that collecting cards was a great way to learn about all sorts of things.  He one said:

 "The knowledge printed on these cards is so great you can't help but learn from them - You can learn anything from how to build a house or make a window frame to the names of the Kings of France."

The doctor had amassed a collection of over five million cards of all sorts of different subjects, but did state that his baseball cards were his favorite.  He had over 2,000 Old Judge cards at one point. 

After he passed away, Rob Lifson purchased the bulk of his collection and it has since been dispersed throughout the hobby.

Dr. Kurzrok was a pioneer I had never heard of before.  And I was fascinated to learn more about him.  He sounded like a really nice guy and someone I would've loved to have known.  

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

Starting a T205 Set

 I started thinking about what I want to collect these days and have landed on the T205 set.

This will be a long journey as there are many big names that I can't afford any time soon as well as several SPs and variations that cost a bit more than a common does.  

I've been working on the NY Giants subset for many years and have accumulated 15/22 (I'm not including the back variations that bring the true total of Giants to 24) of those so far.  In addition to those NY Giants cards, I also have eleven additional T205s bringing my grand total to 26 so far.  

There are 208 cards in a complete set.  However a master set is considered complete at 221 cards and even more when one considers the additional known errors.  I'll be focused on the 208 basic set for now.  After that maybe I'll expand to more cards.  

At 208 cards, it's not as large as the 524 card T206 set, but it poses quite a challenge of it's own.  There are 18 SPs in the set that are more difficult that regular cards.  Then there are a bunch of variations in the set as well.  

Some players, like in T206, have multiple cards in the set.  Hal Chase has three cards in the set and Eddie Collins and Roger Bresnahan have two cards each.  There are also twelve minor league cards in the set with HOFer Jimmy Collins being the key to those.  

There are three distinct styles of card in this set.  The National League cards have a portrait set against a colorful background and have a facsimile autograph at the bottom while the American League cards also have a portrait but it is set inside a diamond (either an infield or made up of bats) without a signature but rather a name plate or scroll at the bottom.  

Minor league player cards are some of the more beautiful cards in my opinion with several different variations in the design but all easily recognizable as a minor league card.  These have action shots as opposed to portraits.

American League                       National League                       Minor League

In many collector's opinion the T205 set is the nicest looking of all the early tobacco sets.  I chose the minor league subset as some of the five best looking sets of all time in a list I made back in 2020 here.

I'll keep ya'll updated on my progress on this set here on my blog.  I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I do.

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

Latest Pick Up

 Hey Guys and Gals!  I know it's been a while since I've posted anything here.  But I wanted to share my latest pick up.

Of course, it's another E98.  And I picked it up quite some time ago, but never posted it.  It's an Eddie Collins green background.

This brings my total for the set up to 26/30 and leaves me with needing a Cobb, Lajoie, Wagner and Young to complete the set.  I'm not likely to get a Cobb, Wagner or Young anytime soon, but have a line on a Lajoie that I may be able to afford.  

Young will be the last card I buy for this set as I can't stand the idea of paying Cy Young prices for an Irv Young card.  I always told myself I would never buy that card or any other Irv Young card that is selling as a Cy Young card.  

But, when I get down to just the Young, I might change my mind to complete the set.  We'll see.

Here is the composite image of my current set as it stands now.

I really like the randomness of the background colors in this image.  I only know of one collector who has completed the master set of 120 cards from this set.  That's each card in all four colors. Of course I'm not going for that craziness.

Which are your favorite background colors?  Blue is my favorite, then orange, then green, and lastly red.  I think that red is my least favorite because so many of the cards found in the Black Swamp Find were red backgrounds and that just killed them for me.  

Blues are the least available ones in my personal experience working on the set so I tried to pick up blue backgrounds as much as possible.  When I couldn't find a blue I would search our orange backgrounds. 

Well thanks for reading and I hope you are all doing well.

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

c. 1910 Frank "Home Run" Baker Cigar box and Matching Card

There are some pieces that I find extremely intriguing, and this pair fits that description.

It is well known that several ball players endorsed cigars and cigarettes even into the 1980's.  Some players loaned their name and likeness to these products, especially when it came to cigars at the beginning of the 20th century.  

Stars like Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb and Cy Young all had tobacco brands with their name and likeness attached to them.  

In this post I am focusing on a Frank "Home Run" Baker cigar product.  There appears to be more than one type of Frank Baker cigar box (as shown below) using the same image on the inside of the top, but with slightly different box labelling and design otherwise.

As you can see, the box on the left has FRANK BAKER on the front of the box and the one of the right says LONDRES GRANDE.  The box on the left also says Smoke FRANK BAKER Cigars inside the back of box.  Both, however, use the same image on the inside flip top when opened.  

What I really love about the Frank Baker cigars is this card that doesn't appear to be from any particular set, yet uses the same image as that used on the boxes.

The card has Baker's name and team in the caption at the bottom and measures approximately 1 1/2" x 2 1/2".  This particular card is currently for sale on eBay here at a $2,000 Buy It Now.  The seller claims it was once part of a pair of these cards, but that one of the two was lost or destroyed leaving just this one known now.  

Of course, there is no advertising or sponsor named on the card, so it is speculation that it is related to the cigars, but using the same image seems to indicate it is.  

As a side note, here is a cigar box I once owned from the sixties that was sponsored by Pedro Ramos.

So players were still lending their names and likenesses to cigar brands into at least the sixties.  I've never seen another Pedro Ramos box by the way.  Still bummed I sold it years ago.  

What are your thoughts about the Baker card being associated with the cigars?  

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

1930's Western Strip Cards

 I know, I know, it's not baseball cards but I like them anyway.

There is a little known western strip card set from the thirties (I believe) that includes one very cool card.  The cards have a smooth surface, almost glossy, and are of a thicker stock than most other strip cards from the twenties. 

The specific card from the set that I really covet is the Jim Thorpe card pictured below.  It shows Thorpe in his traditional Indian head dress and is not a sports related card at all. But, this is a western movies set so why would it be?

This same image is also used on some Exhibit cards in different colors.  I wrote about Thorpe cards here where you can see the Exhibits as well as several other cards of his. The cards are about the same size as other strip cards.  They have a thin color strip at the bottom of the card that matches the background color and the actor's name on the front as well.

I recently picked up three cards from the set and am actively looking for more.  Someday I'll land the Thorpe.  Here are the three that I found so far.

If you have any of these, please let me know, especially if you're willing to let them go.  

I can't find much info about this set anywhere, so I don't know how many cards are in the set or a checklist of cards.  If you have any further info, please share it with me.  

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

A Couple Recent Pick Ups

Recently picke up a couple new cards to share.

Not too long ago I wrote about the N165 Goodwin Games and Sports set from 1889 after I had picked up one of the four baseball subjects in the hset.  

Well, I was able to pick up another card from the set, the Hurdle Race card.  This one is a bit better condition that my baseball example.   Here is the new card.

I really like the design of these cards with the lady in front and the action scene behind her.  I listed the 50 cards in the set in my previous post here.  So I won't go into that detail again here.  

The other new pick up is a really nice E102 of Germany Scheafer.  This is a great horizontal pose card which I am really drawn to.  I've decided to collect horizontals again after many years of not focusing on them.  I had a modest collection of them a while ago and slowly sold most of them off over the years.  This one gets me back on track with that pursuit.  It's also my only E102 at this point.  So it's a nice typecard as well.

If you look closely enough you can see a printer's mark above Germany's head in the border as well.  This doesn't really add any value, but I think it's pretty cool.  Germany was known to be a bit of a jokester amongst his teammates during his playing days as well.  One well known shenanigan Scheafer took part in was when he stole second base attempting to get a throw from the catcher and allowing a double steal of home.  The catcher didn't throw the ball, so on the net pitch, Germany stole first base back again and tried it again on the next pitch.  History is a little unclear on whether it worked however.

I hope you liked my new pick ups and I hope to have some more for you soon.

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

What's Going on With T206 Prices?

 T206 prices seem to be on the rise as of late.

Anyone else notice this happening?  All across the board, T206 prices have been going crazy in my opinion.  Not only higher graded examples either, but even low grade commons are seeing a spike.

I haven't been in the market for T206s in a while, but now that I'm looking at them again, they are quite a bit higher that what I remember buying them for.  It wasn't that long ago that I was buying lower grade commons for $10 - $15 a piece, whereas now they are selling for $30 - $40 each.  You can still find a nice poor example for $20 but that's even inflated.

PSA 3 commons selling for $100?  Lower tier HOFers selling for multiple hundreds?  I'm not just talking about graded Cobbs selling for $5K plus, but the run of the mill T206 instead.

I'm seeing this on Facebook everywhere.  Forget about what delusional eBay sellers are asking for their cards as BINs and ridiculous starting bids.  Those are just stupid.  

Here's an example of a card sold on eBay.  This is a common Anderson, Providence in rough shape that sold for $52.00 including shipping.  How?  What's so special about this card?  It's a common back too.

Another example below shows a poor condition common that has a back stamp that sold for $64 including shipping.  I understand that back stamps are becoming more popular, but the paperloss on the front of this card should have devalued it considerable regardless of the back stamp. 

As a side note, I have added this back stamp to The Great T206 Back Stamp Project (Shameless plug).

These are just two examples of T206s that, to me, seem to have sold for crazy prices.  But I guess this is where we are with these cards these days.  

Will they ever come back down to reasonable prices? I don't know folks.  But my gut says they aren't going to come down much if at all.  T206s don't tend to go down in value over time.  They are certainly in an upswing right now and I feel like I should've bought more a few years ago.  I just can't bring myself to pay these prices of today.  

Not to fret however.  There are still other issues that I like that haven't yet exploded in price so I can still play in the prewar sandbox.  But I'm a little disappointed that T206 seems to be too far gone for me at the moment.  

I used to pay around $100 for low grade SGC HOFers (lower tier of course) and those are now going for $200 - $250.  I just can't do it.  I'm thinking of selling mine but I really like them and just can't do it.  There are a few things I'd like to but that I would be able to pick up if I did sell my T206s, but I'm just not ready yet.

So what about you?  Do you see this increase in prices like I do?  Are you selling during this time?

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

The Great T206 Back Stamp Project - Updates

 I've recently completed several updates to The Great T206 Back Stamp Project website.

If you haven't checked out my project where I document T206 back stamps, then you really should, especially if you collect prewar cards.  You can click here to visit the website and see the project.  

Basically, I document all the T206 back stamps I can find as well as all the ones that other collectors submit to the project.  Have you ever seen a T206 with a stamp on the back of it?  You can check my site to see if I have it documented yet, and if I don't you can send me a clear image of the stamp and I'll update the site.  

I like to give credit to anyone who participates by listing their name on my contributors page.  As of today I have 55 collectors who have assisted with my endeavor.  There are hundreds of examples documented so far with 65 individual pages that contain like stamps on each page where there are multiple examples of the same stamp.

All unique stamps are posted on the Main Gallery page, then when I have more than one of a particular stamp, I create a new page for that stamp and begin adding more as I find them.  As of today, there are 186 different stamps on the Main Gallery page.  

Several of the stamps have little write ups on their individual pages that collectors have submitted after they have researched the name in the stamp on their cards.  Some collectors are working on collecting multiples of the same stamp as well.

Personally, I collect the Purple Number back stamps like those shown above.  Most of the ones on my site are mine, but not all of them.  Another collector, Ed McCollum, collects all cards of Howe McCormick.  Ed currently has over 380 of Howe's old cards in his collection.  I was lucky enough to interview Ed a while back and that is posted on the Howe McCormick page of the project.

This has been a labor of love for over a decade now.  I started the project because I was really interested in T206s with back stamps and was collecting them when I started the project.  I've since sold off most of my stamps (except for my purple number ones) but still love to document them.

The project has gotten a little press over the years as well.  Sports Collectors Daily ran an article about me and the project back in 2008 which you can find here.  Wow, a lot has happened to the site since then!  And our friends over at PreWarCards.com ran an article in 2019 that you can find here.

If you have seen my project before, then one of the updates I did was to add larger images at the top of each page so the featured stamp can be read/seen easier.  Then I have all the examples below it four to a row.  This helps on many of the stamps where the smaller images were hard to see.  I also added several new pages and new examples on the Main Gallery.  

Let me know what you think of the project and, please, if you have any stamps that I don't already have documented please email thegreatt206backstampproject@gmail.com to send me an image.

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

The Babe and Sweet Lou Batting

 Boy, I wish I could've seen Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig batting........wait, WHAT!  I can see them batting?

Yup.  Here you go, a colorized video of the Babe and Sweet Lou taking batting practice and a little footage of them in action and together for the camera and fans.

I just had to share this when I saw it.  

It's so cool seeing Ruth's classic swing in motion and not a snapshot of the swing.  Same with Gehrig.  I love how Ruth starts with his feet close together and then give a nice stride when he's waiting for the pitch to arrive.  

These guys have several cards showing them in a batting pose and you can see those poses in the video.  Here are some of their cards showing them batting.

These two combined for 1,207 HRs, 4,209 RBIs, 4,062 Runs and 5,594 Hits.  Those are some impressive numbers folks.

Well, I hope you like the video.  

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

Briesch-Williams and The American Caramel Company

 Two distributors of caramel cards at the beginning of the 20th Century were The Briesch-Williams Co. and the American Caramel Co.

Breisch-Williams put out what we now call the E107 set from 1903-04.  This was the first major caramel set of the time and is a historical set that contains many of the first cards of the players depicted on the cards.  These cards are quite rare and finding examples from the set can be a challenge to even advanced collectors.

The American Caramel Co. put out several different sets circa 1910 including the very popular E90 set.  There are three types of E90s, but the type one set is one of the most collected of all caramel sets of the period.  

What do these two companies have in common?  It would appear the Briesch and Williams of the former company later became part of the latter company.  

I was very generously gifted this American Caramel Co. stock certificate a while back by a good friend of mine and I noticed something interesting one day while looking at it more closely.

The person receiving these shares is one Frederick G. W. Briesch and the secretary of the American Caramel Co. at the time of issuance was George W. Williams.  

Click to Enlarge

Frederick is named as the Briesch part of the company in the snippet below so we know that he is, in fact, the correct person of the Breisch-Willaims company.  I haven't been able to find definitive record that George W. Williams is the person for the Williams part however.  

Interestingly, also noted in the snippet above is mention of the Williams Caramel Co. which distributed the E103 set and the Oxford Confectionary Co. which distributed the E253 set.

It's not surprising that all of these companies are somehow related to one another as companies were bought out by one another to form larger companies of the day.  

Here are several examples of E107 cards for those not familiar with them.  There are three different types of backs for this set as well.  Advertised on some backs is the fact that there should be 150 different cards to be found.  To date, only 148 different players have been confirmed, however when team changes are taken into account there are actually more than 150 different cards.

Image courtesy OldCardboard.com

As you can see there is no print on the backs that name The Breisch-Williams Co. as the issuer of the cards, however the very rare overprint back has a stamp identifying them.  

Even with the images being black and white, these are striking cards.  All in portrait format, they use real photos instead of lithographs like so many other caramel cards.  Many of the images are also used again in later issues like T206.  

E90-1 did use colorful lithographs in contrast as well as a mix of action shots and portraits.

There are 122 checklisted cards in this set including variations.  Several short prints keep this set fairly tough to complete however as well as the inclusion of the Joe Jackson card which is quite expensive.  

Many consider this set as being the best looking of all the caramel sets of the time as well.  Personally, I love this set for the colorful images, variety and the players included.  

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

My HOMer: Jimmy "Toy Cannon" Wynn - 1967 Topps Punch Outs

 My Hall of Mediocrity (HOM) inductee was Jim Wynn and I have a nice little player collection (PC) of him so I wanted to share a card with you.

I wanted to share my PC of Jim Wynn with you so I'm going to post a card that's in the collection every now and then.  Some of these will be a little rare, some of them very common (pun intended) and some will be from the dreaded modern side of the hobby.  

The first card I wanted to share was this 1967 Topps Punch Out test card.  I have read that this set is one of the more rare Topps issues due to limited distribution.  I think they are not that rare, but maybe scarce would be a more accurate term as they can be found fairly easily for a type card.  Maybe if you're looking for a specific player it might be difficult.  Although you could just get lucky like I did and have one fall in your lap.

I was just searching Jim Wynn cards on eBay one day and there it was.  The condition is not very good as several of the punch outs have been punched and there is paper loss is the black area towards the bottom, but if you have read my blog for a little while then you know I'm not a condition freak.  So this card works for me just fine.

Cleaner unpunched example without the kind of paper loss that my card has can get expensive.  Especially higher graded examples.

Here is my Toy Cannon example from my PC shown to the right.

These are cool little cards.  They are larger than a standard Topps card but not as big as I thought they would be before I ever saw one in person.  They measure out at 2 1/2" x 4 2/3" and there are eighty six cards in the set.

There are also four variations in the set where the images of the player is different in each variation.  They are Matty Alou, Roberto Clemente, Mickey Mantle and Frank Robinson.  Of course it had to be Mantle, Clemente and Robinson right?  Figures.

The set includes some big names too.  In addition to the four variations there are names like Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax, Pete Rose and Willie Mays to name a few.

I believe putting together a complete set would be tough.  Trading Card Database (TCDb) is still missing images of both Matty Alou variations, Johnny Callison, Roberto Clemente (plain background variation), Donn Clendenon, Andy Etchebarren, Jim Fregosi, Tom Haller, Willie McCovey, Rick Reichardt, Mel Stottlemeyer, Tom Tresh and Bill White.  That's a decent number of missing images for a set this size.  I have to assume these players are tougher than the rest.

Click to Enlarge

The National League players came in black with red "National League" titles and the American League players came in red with black "American League" titles.  Here are two of the cards side by side as a reference.

The cards themselves were packaged in a long cello pack with three cards connected top to bottom with perforations between the cards.  You can see the perforations at the top of the Koufax card above.  The cello pack and an unseparated trio are shown below.

Image courtesy Mile High Card Co. Auctions

The cards all had the same backs which was where the instructions on how to play the game were.  It has a legend at the bottom that shows what the abbreviations on the backs of the tabs that you punch off the card showed.  Then you would move the runners around the bases as needed.  When a runner crossed home you recorded a run for your team.  

Click to Enlarge

These instructions are fairly simple and I would think the game was fairly easy to play and would actually be fun.  It sounds like it would be similar to playing the 1968 Topps Game cards.  You would need to set up a small baseball field and use something for runners to keep track of where your runners are on the bases during the inning.  When I was a kid I was the kind of kid that wouldn't have punched out the pieces and played the game.  I would have kept them in the best condition that I could.  

What would you guys do?  Play the game or keep the card original?  At least you can play the 1968 Topps Game cards without destroying them.  Do you have any of these in you collection?  Are you collecting the set?  Let me know your thoughts and answers in the comments below.

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

1889 Goodwin Games and Sports - N165

 The 1889 Goodwin Games and Sports set, designated N165 in the American Card Catalog (ACC) is a pretty cool 50 card set.

The N165 set includes 50 cards of several different games and sports.  They picture a portrait of a woman in front of a scene of the subject game or sport.  There are four baseball cards in the set and one football card.  The football card is one of the earliest cards issued featuring the sport.  

There are cards of bowling, boxing, cricket and lacrosse among others.  The baseball cards and football card are the most popular (not surprisingly) and they command the highest prices for cards in the set.  

I recently picked up an example of one of the baseball subjects (shown below).  The four different baseball cards feature a batter, pitcher, catcher and fielder.  I picked up the batter card.  It was not expensive but the condition is quite low so that may have had some influence on the price.  It was in an auction lot of three cards, the other two cards being N28 Allen & Ginter cards of boxer Jack Dempsey and a billiards player.

All of the cards in the set are horizontally laid out and they measure about 1 1/2" x 2 3/4".  They are cool little cards and it's a neat set to collect.  Even if you just go for the four baseball cards.  

The checklist is below.

1. Ancient Tournament
2. Archery
3. Baseball (batter)
4. Baseball (catcher)
5. Baseball (fielder)
6. Baseball (pitcher)
7. Bicycling
8. Billiards
9. Bowling
10. Boxing
11. Bull Fighting
12. Canoeing
13. Chariot Race
14. Club Swinging
15. Coasting
16. Coursing
17. Cricket
18. Curling
19. Dumbbell Raising
20. Fencing
21. Fishing
22. Football
23. Foot Race
24. Fox Hunt
25. Gladiators
26. Hand Ball
27. Hare and Hounds
28. High Jumping
29. Hurdle Race
30. Ice Yachting
31. Lacrosse
32. Lawn Tennis
33. Pedestrian Contest
34. Pigeon Shooting
35. Pistol Shooting
36. Pole Vaulting
37. Polo
38. Putting the Shot
39. Quoits
40. Roller Skating
41. Rowing
42. Running Race
43. Shuttlecock
44. Skating
45. Skittles
46. Snow Shoeing
47. Swimming
48. Throwing the Hammer
49. Tobogganing
50. Yachting

There is another piece that goes along with this set.  Goodwin put out an album, designated A38 in the ACC.  It has very colorful front and back covers (pictured below) and the pages have images of all 50 cards in the set.  A collector in 1889 could paste their cards in the album and try to complete the set with a very nice finished product when the album was completed.

Front Cover

Back Cover

Here are some pics of the other pages and the inside cover.

Inside Cover

The last page shown here is especially nice as it has a baseball scene on the page and includes the spot for the football card.  

The albums are tough to find complete and sometimes collectors will see individual pages when a complete album has been separated.  Also, people will sometimes cut the card images out of the pages and sell those.  Those cut outs will have the other side of the page as their backs instead of the checklist that is found on the actual cards so they are quite easy to identify.  

So that's about it for this set/  I find it to be a cool set.  I like the artwork and different assortment of sports and games.  The album is pretty cool too.  

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

1910 E98 Ty Cobb PSA 10 Gem Mint

 Leland's Auction, the Mint25 auction, has several great items in the small 25 lot auction.  But one card stands out to me.

With my affinity for the 1910 E98 set, I'd be remiss if I didn't post about this card.  I did a post about the E98 set here if you're interested to learn more about it.  

Here's a short version of that post:

E98 was issued in 1910 as a 30 card set.  The issuer is unknown even to this day as there is no name on the back of the cards.  The backs have a checklist and read, "This card is one of a set of the following 30 BALL PLAYERS" at the top with a checklist underneath.

Some cards can be found with an Old Put Cigar stamp on the back and this led to the set beings referred to as the Old Put set. but there is no evidence to support that this is an Old Put issued set.  An example of the Old Put stamp is shown to the left.

The set is loaded with Hall of Famers with 17 out the 30 players being enshrined in Cooperstown.  Some of the biggest stars of the day were included such as Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Cy Young and Christy Mathewson.

The other big news about this set is the Black Swamp Find of 2012.  Often referred to as BSF, the Black Swamp Find included hundreds of examples of E98s that were in superior condition to previously known cards.  Most of the cards graded out at 8, 9 and 10 levels.  

Well, here is one of those Gem Mint 10 examples.  A Ty Cobb with a red background.  This card is stunning.  Before the BSF, E98 was a tough set with cards commanding some good prices and not showing up for sale very often.  They were just more rare than most of the other E-card sets.  And certain color backgrounds were tougher to find than others.  

Then the BSF happened and the population of E98s grew considerably and their scarce status was changed to more of a commonly found issue.  Some collectors, myself included, like the pre-BSF cards more than the BSF cards even if they are in worse condition.  I just like the wear on a 112 year old card more than the pristine look of these PSA 10s.  How can a card this old be in such nice condition?  

Also, they pre-BSF cards are still as scarce as they were before the BSF so I consider them tough cards still.  Especially certain players like Vaughn and Coombs.  

But, even though I prefer the lower condition pre-BSF cards, I still think this PSA 10 Ty Cobb is stunning and should be shown off.  So here it is...

Image courtesy of Leland's Auction Mint25 Auction

Just look at the centering, the crisp white borders and the red that pops off the card.  It's a thing of beauty.  This card is being sold in the Leland's Mint25 Auction.  It is currently at $155,131 after nine bids with over 7 days left to go.  I'm curious what this will end at next week.  Only time will tell though.

This card must have been regraded as there is no mention of the Black Swamp Find on the PSA flip.  All the BSF cards that were graded have the Black Swamp Find pedigree named on the flip.  Also, this card is in a PSA slab that was not used in 2012, thus the regraded assumption.

Just for fun I want to share my E98 near set of 25 cards here.  I love this set and hope to complete it some day.  I know there are some that should be upgraded, but I don't care so much about condition.  That said, I am hoping to upgrade a few of them eventually.

Here are some closer pics of a few of them.

The Hal Chase above is an upgrade candidate, but I'll never trade or sell this one even if I do upgrade it.  I love that this was once owned by Lionel Carter so I won't get rid of it.  

What do you think about the E98 Anonymous Set of 30?  What are your favorite subjects/cards in the set?  

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

What Is The Hobby Becoming?

 The Hobby is becoming unrecognizable to me these days as people with seemingly unlimited funds are driving up prices for everything and collectors are getting priced out of the market.

I love the sportscard hobby, specifically prewar and postwar vintage baseball cards.  I dabble a little in the modern side of the hobby as well, but not very often and I don't spend a lot in that market.  But I'm a collector, and I'm pretty much priced out of a lot what I was chasing and picking up now.  

What happened in the last few years?  Well I'll tell you.  Investors.  Investors came in and started buying a few cards that they speculated would increase in value.  Then more investors saw the sportscard market as an investment opportunity and they started buying the same cards the early investors were buying.  Eventually enough investors came in and the competition for these cards began.

Once the demand got big enough, auction houses were selling cards at record prices all the time.  Many times the same card would be bought from one auction house and then a couple months later you'd see it in a different auction and it would sell for a new record price.

So this had an effect on the whole hobby and we saw prices rising for prewar cards and postwar vintage cards across the board.  Now, I reside in the low grade market and those cards are going up in price too.  Not as much as the higher grade cards but the effect has still influenced the low grade market.  For example, T206 commons in VG or less condition used to sell for $15 - 20 but now they command $30 - 40 easily.  And HOFers are seeing even greater increases.  Especially cards of Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth. Honus Wagner, etc.  These cards have gone up thousands of dollars in the last few years.  They are breaking records for sale prices on a monthly basis.

What does this mean for the average collector?  It means I can't buy the Hank Aaron RC or Ernie Banks RC to complete my 1954 Topps set any time soon.  Those are two cards that have spiked in value considerably and are now out of my reach completely.  I likely will not be able to finish my E98 set either since I still need Cobb, Wagner and Young.  Those are priced out of my range as well. (I also need Collins and Lajoie but I'll should be able to pick them up eventually.)

I'm reading about collectors everywhere being priced out of the market now.  Some of them are just calling it quits and getting out of the hobby altogether.   Others are changing their focus to other lesser priced sets and type cards.  These are sets that weren't very popular to begin with and haven't risen in price as much where a collector can still afford them.  Still some collectors are lowering their condition standards and are going after the lower grade cards.  This is why the lower grade market is being influenced by the whole investor debacle.  

I'm still buying when I find a good deal or I see something that's cool that is priced lower.  I think about selling in this market and waiting for the bubble to pop and prices to come back down a bit;  Then buy up some of the cards I sold at a lower price but I'm not a fan of selling my cards.  They are in my collection because I like them and I don't want to let them go.  But, the idea of getting some good money for these cards is a persistent and persuadable thing.

So is this bull market bubble going to pop one day and the investor will get out of sportscards and their seemingly unlimited funds will leave with them.  Thus taking the demand away and driving prices down across the board.  The collectors will be winning auction lots at lower and lower hammer prices as less money in the hobby means less bids and cards sell for less and less.  

I believe this is the case to be honest.  I think investors will get out of the hobby eventually and with their money gone it will result in lower prices for all segments of the hobby.  What do you think?  Put your answer in the comments and let folks know your thoughts on all this.  How has this changed your collecting?  I'd love to hear from some of you on this topic.

Enjoy the hobby.. it's an ever changing environment.