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!