Recent Pick Ups

 Three great new pickups for me recently.

As some of you already know, I collect certain stamped back T206s.  These purple number back stamps rarely seem to show up and when they do, I always try to get them.  Well, a fellow collector recently reached out to me because he was selling off some of his stamped cards.  He had a couple of the purple number stamps and he knew I collected these specific stamps.  

We came together on price and I landed these two beauties.

These stamps are usually accompanied by pencil writing on them including other numbers and scribbles.  I have no idea what the numbers mean and have never been able to decipher any patterns with them.  

I don't know what the writing means in relation to the purple numbers either.  I just assume the numbers are the order in which they were acquired by the collector that stamped them way back when.  They are not stamped in alphabetical order so they aren't organized that way.  

The highest number I've seen so far is 122.  I have no idea how high the stamps go other than that.

The other pick up is this W565 panel of Schwartz and Stribling.  I needed the Stribling for my set, but there is no way I'm cutting this panel apart just to have a single of him.  This will remain a nicely cut panel.

I wrote about this set recently here.  There are only five boxers in the set and I am now missing just the Benny Leonard for completion of the boxers.  They don't show up that often, but I'll find my Leonard for a fair price someday.  I was pretty excited to have gotten this panel.

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

1910 E-Unc Diamond Border Set

 I believe I've posted about some of these cards in the past, but here we go...

This is another one of my favorite sets from the 1910 era.  Very little is known about these cards so I, of course, don't have much to add to the knowledge that is already available.  

These are paper thin "cards" that have been catalogued as E-Unc.  A generic term which means that they are believed to be associated with candy distribution somehow (hence the E designation) and are uncatalogued (hence the Unc.).  

There is a small checklist of known players, six in total, all Hall of Famers.  They are:

1. Cobb
2. Collins
3. Evers
4. Mathewson
5. Wagner
6. Young

That checklist is one I found from many years ago and I am not sure if any others have been found since then.  

They are found is three different levels of being cut from whatever they were cut from.  Yes, they are hand cut as well.  They are either cut down to the size of a standard caramel card, cut out with a diamond shape behind the card, or cut into almost a square with the card in the middle, the diamond shape and the full background with four baseballs in each corner.  

These interesting cards are either printed in a red or blue tint with off-white backgrounds.  It is believed (I don't know if it has been proven) that all cards are found in both colors.

Images are easily found online, except for the Collins, which I have not found to date.

Here are the cards, in varying completeness, in alphabetical order.

Ty Cobb w/ diamond background.

Johnny Evers cut down to card size.

Christy Mathewson w/ diamond background.

 

Honus Wagner cut down to card size.

Cy (Irv) Young cut down to card size.

Notice that all the poses are either that of the subjects' E93 or E98 card except for that of Cy Young, which is his E97 pose.  

Also note that the person pictured on the Cy Young card is that of Irv Young and not Cy.  I point this out because I hate when Cy Young cards picturing Irv Young are considered Cy Young cards in the hobby.  These cards should not be considered Cy Young cards in my opinion.  But that's a post for another day I suppose.  

I did mention that there is a third level of being cut from whatever these cards were cut from and that third level is that of having the full background with four baseballs in the corners.  Here is an image of the Mathewson with this cut.

This is the inspiration for this post.  I found this image recently and found it fantastic in it's completeness.  

It has been speculated that these were actually cut from notebooks.  This image tells us that there was a bit more to the source of the cards than just the card and the diamond background.  This card does not have borders on it, so it very well could have been cut from something even larger and a notebook cover would not be out of the question.  

I'd love to see a notebook with these "cards" on the cover, uncut, to finally answer the question of where they came from.  

Let me know if you've ever seen a Collins from this set, or any subject not listed above.  

I hope you enjoy these as much as I do.

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

Blown Away by Generosity

 A very good collector friend of mine recently sent me some cards.

He has sent me cards in the past, some very cool ones that I wouldn't have had a chance to get otherwise for a long time.  I've traded with him and sent him cards to help him out too.  That's what we do.  That's one of the best parts of our hobby.  Helping others with their needs.

I went to mailbox the other day and saw a small priority mail box in it.  When I saw who it was from, I suspected he may have sent me a card that he showed me recently that I thought was cool.  And to be honest, I was hoping he didn't send that card because it would've been too much.  I couldn't repay him for that and would feel bad that he sent it.

Well, I got inside and sat down to open the package.  When I saw it was some post war vintage I was relieved that it wasn't that card.  I pulled the cards out and started to flip through them to see what I got.  Below is an image of the contents of the package.  I was more and more blown away the more I flipped through the cards.  

This guy is nuts!  Hall of Famer after Hall of Famer.  I saw the cards in order from top left to bottom right.  When I got to the Marichal RC I couldn't believe it.  Then the 1956s started and I saw Ford, Hodges, the Duke, then a friggin' Koufax!  What?!  Then I slid him out of the way and saw the Ted Williams and was floored.  My jaw dropped and hit the floor.  It's in such nice shape too.  They all are.  

I called him the next day to thank him and chat about cards in general.  I couldn't express my thanks enough.  This is something that the hobby needs more of guys.  I can't repay him for these cards and he knows it.  But he doesn't care about getting anything in return.  He is just happy to have helped me in this way and to see my excitement.  So I'll pay it forward on my end and help some of my other hobby friends or some random collector I meet online somewhere.  I'll send cards out to others who need them if I have them.  It's like hobby Karma.  What goes around comes around.  It's generosity.  It's kindness.  It's helping others.  Not expecting something in return, but just to help.  Just to pass it forward.  Try it and see how it feels to give someone something they need out of the blue.  It's a great feeling.

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

Red Sun and Cabinet Photos

 I recently picked up a 1910 T226 Red Sun boxer and a couple of c. 1910 baseball cabinet photos.

The T226 Red Sun boxing set is a rare set of 50 cards that show up infrequently.  I was lucky to happen across one for sale recently and pulled the trigger rather quickly to add this type card to my collection.  

According to PreWarCards.com they were not widely distributed and were therefore not printed in large quantities resulting in their not being readily available today.

The set incudes Jack Johnson but the card that I would like the most from the set is the Abe Attell.  Someday I will land that card.  The one I did get is this Battling Nelson one.  I'm not disappointed to have Nelson at all, I'm just saying that I also really want the Attell.  I've added images of the Jack Johnson and Abe Attell below my Nelson.

The card has a nice front with no creases and minimal edge wear to the olive border.  The back is also clean which is a plus since the Red Sun back is an amazing looking back and collectors want to be able to see the Red Sun design nice and clearly.  It also looks great in the black SGC slab, I think.  

The other two items I picked up are these super cool c. 1910 era baseball cabinet photos.

While they are both a bit faded, you can clearly see the images of two baseball players in uniform with both wearing their glove on their left hand.  The mounts are in great shape too which is always nice on an old cabinet photo.  

I only have two other prewar era cabinet photos; one is a team picture and the other is of a Jersey City Skeeters player.  The Skeeters cabinet mentions the player is at a training camp.  It shows one player sanding up clearly wearing a Jersey City uniform while another player sits on a bench in front of him with a uniform that can't be identified.

This is the image on the Jersey City cabinet that is cropped to show just the photo.  The mount is heavily damaged but the image is clean.  The playing standing in the middle of the photo is wearing the Jersey City logo on his uniform.  

  

Here is the team photo cabinet that I have.  It has a nice clean image and the mount has some damage, but it isn't too bad and doesn't affect the photo at all.

These two new photos will make great companions to those others that I already had when I finally have a place to display them.  

Do you have any T226s or old prewar era cabinets?  Do you like them?  Let me know in the comments.

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

1928 W565 Strip Card Set

 I recently picked up three 1928 W565 Strip Cards of boxing subjects.

The W565 set is a set of 50 subjects with fronts printed in either red or black with blank backs that are dark blue in color.  They are smaller than your average strip card at only 1" by 2" and were printed on sheets of 25 with five rows of five cards each.

There was one sheet printed in red and one sheet printed in black.  The black sheet includes the clubs and spades cards and the red sheet contains the hearts and diamonds.

The set includes a total of nine sports subjects with four baseball players (including Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Tony Lazzeri and Al Simmons) and five boxers.  The rest of the subjects are mostly made up of actors and actresses with the great Charlie Chaplin being the key actor.  Then there is a seemingly random inclusion of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit as well.  There are other subjects that make up the remaining cards in the set ranging from an aviator to a horse.

The actor and actress cards have playing card designs with each subject looking like a playing card with the image of the subject in the center of the card in a frame that is in the design of the suit of the card it is on.  Benny Leonard, one of the boxers, is also printed on a playing card as the four of clubs on the black sheet.  The other four boxers are not printed in a playing card design, they have an image of the boxer with his name and other info below the image.

W565 is not actually listed in the American Card Catalog (ACC) and the set name was not given to these cards by Jefferson Burdick, the author of the ACC and one of the, if not the most, important hobby pioneer in all of card collecting.  

For those who are counting, there are obviously only 40 playing cards which means a collector cannot complete a full set of playing cards as they would need 52 different cards to do so.  For some reason, the manufacturer of this set printed two cards twice with different subjects.  Causing even more cards to be missing than 12.  There are 14 missing cards to complete the full playing card deck. The breakdown of available cards is below as well as an image of the two sheets.

Clubs: (missing 3, 8, 10)

1. Ace
2. 2
3. 2 (w/ different subject)
4. 4
5. 5
6. 6
7. 7
8. 9
9. Jack
10. Queen
11. King
12. King (w/ different subject)

Spades: (missing 3, 7, 9, 10, King)

1. Ace
2. 2
3. 4
4. 5
5. 6
6. 8
7. Jack
8. Queen

Hearts: (missing 3, 5, Queen)

1. Ace
2. 2
3. 4
4. 6
5. 7
6. 8
7. 9
8. 10
9. Jack
10. King

Diamonds: (missing Ace, 3, Jack)

1. 2
2. 4
3. 5
4. 6
5. 7
6. 8
7. 9
8. 10
9. Queen
10. King

Image courtesy of OldCardboard.com

I recently picked up three of the five boxers and I'm searching for the other two.  They don't seem to come up very often so it might take me a little while to find them, but that's the best part of the hobby isn't it?  The hunt, the journey, the pursuit?  

Here are the three I picked up.

The other two boxers that I need are Benny Leonard and Young Stribling.  

I'd love to have one of the baseball subjects but they are usually out of my price range. Especially the Lou Gehrig card.  But I will be very happy to complete the five boxers subset of this issue.  

What do you all think about this set.  Do you like them, do you collect them, do you not like them?

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

More Recent Pick Ups

 I recently picked up some more cards in the last Collect Auctions tobacco only auction.

Just three this time, but two that I needed and one that is a dupe and upgrade.  This was an interesting auction as there were hundreds of lots that had multiple examples of the same card.  In other words, there would be five or six lots of the same card, maybe in different grades but still the same card.  This ended up being great for bidders but possibly not as good for consignors.  

I originally bid on quite a few lots just to get my initial bids in so I would have the option of bidding during extended bidding, but was outbid on almost everything by the end.  I ultimately ended up with these three winners.

First up is an upgrade of my T205 Barger Full B variation.  

This is a really nice PSA 1 example considering the back doesn't appear to have much, if any, damage and the front is clean as well.  My only dilemma with this one is whether or not I should crack it.  My other T205s are all raw and I'd like to keep them all that way.  But it's also a dupe and my other one isn't really that bad.  So I may just keep this one in the PSA 1 slab and consider the other one part of the set I'm working on.  This one might be good for a trade down the line like it is.

The next one I picked up is a new one for my NY Giants team set.  I'm considering the team set complete at 22 cards.  This is the only variation that I'm doing for the team set.  The Otis Crandall comes with the T in Otis either crossed or not crossed.  Since this is a variation on the front of the card, and I will eventually display the team set by the fronts, I am considering it necessary for the team set.  This is the T not crossed variation.

I assume the reason for the Authentic grade is the major paper loss on the reverse, but I'm not sure.  And, since I'm eventually displaying these from the front, I don't care about the paper loss on the back.

As a side note on the other variations, there is a variation on the reverse of the Arlie Latham card where it either identifies him as A Latham or WA Latham on the back.  Also, the Christy Mathewson has a back variation where all the cards with the Cycle cigarettes ad on the back has his losses incorrectly noted as only 1 loss instead of 11.  I'm not considering either of these two to be part of my team set when completed.

With the addition of this T not crossed Crandall, I am at 18 of the 22 needed.  I am still missing Marquard, Mathewson, Merkle and Bugsy Raymond.  The Marquard and Mathewson are the two HOFers and will cost me a little more, the Raymond is a short print that will cost me a bit more and the Merkle is an easy one that I just haven't picked up yet.

The last card I picked up is this beauty.  The T207 John Ferry.  Why John Ferry you may be asking?  Well, I collect Jersey City Skeeter prewar cards and this card talks about John's stint with the Skeeters in 1910 in the bio on the back.  I know this is a little stretch to include in my Jersey City team collection, but there aren't that many Jersey City cards to begin with, so I'm including all I can get in my checklist.

I have my Jersey City team checklist in the right border of my blog with all the cards that I consider part of the team set listed.  The ones I have are crossed out while the ones I still need are not.  Some of those are 1 of 1's and I will likely never own them, but they are listed to keep the list complete.  I mean, a T215 Pirate back?  Really.  Like I'll ever see that one let alone own it.  Right.

So, those are some of my newer pick ups.  I hope you enjoyed them.  I know I do!

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

New Auction Wins

 I recently received my auction winnings from The Collector Connection March 2023 Auction. 

The Collector Connection is a great smaller auction house that specializes in lesser grade, lower priced cards and memorabilia.  These types of auctions are perfect for me as I don't have the budget to compete with the bidders in a major auction house like Robert Edward Auctions (REA).  

Don't get me wrong, The Collector Connection has some great featured items in their offerings, but the majority of their auctions are more in my league so I really like checking out what they have to offer.

I was checking out the auction with only a few days left in the auction and I put a bunch of little lots in my watchlist.  Then after going through the whole auction, I went back to my watchlist and chose a few lots to place bids on.

I then went on to something else and completely forgot about the auction until really late at night.  I was still up around 1:00am so I grabbed my computer and checked the results of the auction.  I found that I had won all four lots that I placed high bids on!  Nice.  I paid right after I received the invoice and waited for my winnings to arrive.

Then I forgot about them again.  A couple of nights ago my family was watching some tv at night and there was a knock on our front door.  We all looked at each other and said, "who would be coming to our door this late?".  I got up from my chair and checked the door.  There was nobody there.  Then I looiked around the front porch and noticed a couple of small packages were left on our table we have on the porch.  I brought them in and saw that one of them was for my wife, and the other one had a return address and name that I recognized.

It was the owner of The Collector Connection's name.  Then, of course, I remembered that I was waiting for my auction winnings.  The mailman had delivered the two packages to the wrong address, and one of my neighbors who had received them, brought them over to our house to deliver them to us.

Here is what I won in the auction.

I won a lot of five autographed 1980 Topps baseball cards.  I'm very slowly accumulating signed 1980 Topps and building the set with signed cards.

I also won a lot of two 1951 Topps Red Backs.  I bid on these win a low bid and then thought to check my want list to see if I already had thenn or if I needed them.  Turns out I already have both of them so these two are going into the dupes box.

Then I won two lots of 1970's Topps Football RCs.  There a several vintage football card RCs that I have been wanting for some time now so when I saw these two for decent prices I bid on them.  One is a 1973 Ken Stabler RC and the other is a 1975 Dan Fouts RC.  

I'm watching and bidding on some lots in other auctions right now.  I'll let you know how they go and if I win anything else, I'll post it here.

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

Recent Pick Up

 I recently picked up another 1921 W516-1 Becker Prize Back example!

I try to pick these up whenever I see them as long as they are reasonably priced.  I saw this one on eBay the other day and put a snipe on it.  It was ending while I was going to be working so I couldn't watch it end and snipe it myself.  

When I checked back the next night I saw I had won it and I was very excited to add another example to my collection.  It's a dupe for me, but I'll pick these up no matter if I have it or not.  

Here is the Doyle that I picked up.

If you've never seen these cards before, the back reads,

Save your tablet fronts and win a prize

L.A. Becker

I've always assumed that L.A. Becker was a teacher who would give these cards out to his/her students to remind them or some sort of game or something where they could win a prize for turning in their tablet fronts when they were done filling out their tablets in class.

Maybe they also turned these cards back into the teacher with their tablets.  Maybe they got to keep them.  Either way, how did they survive all these years?  How many could have been made in total?  I can only imagine there were not too many created by Becker.  The cards came in 10 card strips to the teacher would have had to buy these from a store and cut them up and written the notes on the backs of each card.  

And only one 10 card strip was used for these.  All the known examples are from the same 10 card strip checklist.  Here are the ones I have so far (less the two dupes).

There is an example of Peckinpaugh that has been confirmed but I have never seen one.  And the last two players that were on the strip that have not been confirmed are Ring and Kauf.  If you have one of those two with the Becker back please let me know.  I would love to see them.

I get excited every time I see these.  I know of one other collector who picks these up as well and he has like 25 or more of them so far.  He has the Peckinpaugh and has also never seen the Ring or Kauf with this back.

If you have any of these please contact me.  If you want to sell or trade what you have I would be interested in chatting with you.  

What do you think about these cards?  Do you like them too?  Let me know guys.

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

Recent Pick Ups

 Well, It's been a while since I posted anything.  And I apologize for that guys.  I've been extremely busy in life the last few months and my blog had to go on the back burner for a while.

So what have I been up to lately?  I've been slowly picking up some things but mainly working on my low grade T205 set.  I always liked the set, but it never really grabbed me until a few months ago.  I started grabbing low grade commons of cards I liked.

What I really enjoy about them is the color, especially when they are all pictured together.  I've put together the image below with some of my newer acquisitions.

I've always liked the Bates with the pink background and was thrilled to get the Wiltse one ear variation.  He goes in my NY Giants team set as well as my low grade set.  

These are all rough of course, but that's how I like them.  The colors still look great together.

I'm only up to 44 cards in the set so far but I'm enjoying the quest.  

What have you guys been working on lately?  

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