Honus Wagner Video

 Saw this video of Honus Wagner with audio on Net54 and wanted to share it with you all.

I love seeing videos of old prewar stars and games in action.  Here's a video where they interview Honus Wagner and you get to hear him talk and see him take batting practice and do a bit of fielding.  I always imagined he had a strong German accent for whatever reason, but he really doesn't have one at all.

Wagner was considered one of the games greatest shortstops when he played.  He's known to the general public because of his famous T206 baseball card that consistently sells for more than a million dollars.  This generally makes the news every time it happens and spreads the mystique of Honus Wagner.  

But beyond the baseball card, Honus was a great player and a first ballot Hall of Famer.  He was known as The Flying Dutchman because of his speed and German heritage.  He won eight batting titles in his career.  That record has never been broken to this day (although it has been matched by Tony Gwynn).

Wagner debuted in baseball in 1897 and played until 1917.  He started with the Louisville Colonels and when the National League dropped four teams after the 1899 season, the owner of the team took Wagner to the Pittsburg Pirates the next year and Honus continued with Pittsburg though the end of his career.

I hope you enjoyed the video folks.  I thought it was really cool.

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

Mail Day...Again

I received several more packages in the mail today.

So I have been on a little buying spree lately and today was a good day at the mailbox.

First up is this quad relic Teixeira.

 

This is a 2007 UD Premier Remnants Quad Jersey.

 

I have another one of these that says MARK instead of 1B23 so it's cool to get another one that is a little different.  This card came not in a toploader, but in a penny sleeve between two pieces of cardboard.  Really?  Not even a toploader?  Oh well, at least it arrived safely.

 

Next up is an auto/jersey card of Teixeira.

 

 

This one is a 2003 SPx Young Stars.  I am a big fan of the auto/relic cards so it's nice to get another one.  This is numbered to 1295. It did come in a toploader.

 

Next is what?  Yes, another auto/jersey card of Teixeira.

 

 

This one is a 2004 Upper Deck SPX Swatch Supremacy and is numbered to 999. 

 

Next is a nice prewar pick up.

 

 

Another E98 HOFer in the form of a Johnny Evers PSA 1(MK).  Obviously the MK qualifier is for the W.G. stamped on the front and the star that was scratched into it as well.  I don't care about those things though.  I'm just glad to have it. 

 

I also received the following three cards in one puffy.

 

 

These are 1934-36 Batter Ups.  Nice poor condition ones like I like 'em. 

 

So that was my mail day today.  Not bad huh?  It's nice getting mail. 

 

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

1920s S-Unc Transfer Stamps Set

Here is a set you don't see everyday.

This set is believed to be issued around 1910s - 1920s due to the player choices used in the set.  There is a similar boxing set that depict scenes from the Jack Dempsey/Gene Tunney match of 1927.  I don't believe they are from the same set as these baseball subjects. 

Both the baseball and boxing sets have correct writing on the tops and reverse writing on the bottoms, but the boxing stamps have much more detail in the background and just don't look the same as the baseball set.

They appear to have been issued in panels of at least 8 stamps per panel in a 4x2 format.  See example below.

 

 

They include strip-like qualities as far as the artwork goes; crude drawings of the players.  Some of the images are obviously taken from known photos of the players.  The Ty Cobb, for example, is the same image as used on his W502. 

 

The backs are all blank and, I assume, can be licked and stuck to something, or applied like a temporary tattoo since the name is written in reverse at the bottom of each stamp.

 

Here are several other examples from the set.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure of a complete checklist but the choices of players was quite interesting.  I mean, Phil Todt was a decent first baseman for Boston but wasn't anything special. 

 

Our friends over at Prewarcards.com has the following checklist posted on their site.

1. Grover Alexander
2. Ty Cobb
3. Harry Heilmann
4. Rogers Hornsby
5. Bill Hunnefield
6. Ray Kremer
7. Walter Johnson
8. Leslie Mann
9. Bob O’Farrell
10. Edd Roush
11. Babe Ruth
12. Luke Sewell
13. George Sisler
14. Phil Todt
15. Dazzy Vance
16. Waner Brothers (Lloyd and Paul)
17. Cy Williams

Each of these players are depicted above (with the Cobb as part of the 8 stamp sheet).

 

I particularly like the full body poses more than the portraits, but that's a common thing for me when it comes to cards.  It look me many years to really appreciate the portraits in T206 but now I like them. 

 

There are several Hall of Famers in the selection shown above including Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Walter Johnson among others.

 

If you guys know any more details about this set let me know in the comments.  I really like this set and would love to learn more about it.

 

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

 



 

 



 

Important Card Focus: 1910 D380 Clement Bros. Ty Cobb

Here is a card that you should be familiar with if collecting prewar baseball cards.

This is a 1910 D380 Clement Bros. Bread Ty Cobb card.  It is considered one of Cobb's rarest cards out there.  I'm not sure of this, but I would think there are even more T206 Cobb with Cobb back examples than there are of this card. 

This set was issued only in Rochester, NY which explains some of the rarity.  There was a set issued in 1909 that only has eight Rochester players in the checklist.  Their portraits are inside an oval on the front of the card.  (One of these cards is on my Jersey City wantlist due to the player being pictured in his Jersey City uniform on the card). 

In 1910, Clement Bros. Bread issued another small set of cards that include twenty-four checklisted players with a mix of Rochester players and major leaguers.  There are five Hall of Famers in the set, Cobb being the key card.  The other HOFers are Chief Bender, Eddie Collins, Addie Joss and Joe Tinker.

One interesting feature of this card is the pose used is the same as the batting pose used for Cobb in the E90-1 American Caramel set.  Obviously, this one being in black and white however. 

Ty Cobb's name, position and team are identified at the bottom of the card.

The back of the card has an ad for Clement Bros. Bread, Clement's pies (22 kinds) and mentions that the Rochester team is included in the series of cards.

There has been a couple additions to the checklist since I last posted about this card in 2012. 

So if you're a prewar baseball card collector, then you should definitely know about this card.  It's an important card in this hobby.

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

From eBay to REA

Robert Edward Auctions (REA) recently completed their Spring 2018 Auction.

 

One of the highlights for me was an extremely rare backed T206 portrait of Ty Cobb with the red background.  The back of this card has the very elusive Broad Leaf 460 back.  This is considered the fourth most difficult back to find an example of out of thirty nine possible backs.

 



Image courtesy Robert Edward Auctions

The 460 refers to the number of subjects noted on the back of the card.  Some list 150, some list 350 and some list 460 (and there is mixtures of these as well).  Broad Leaf 350 cards are also very scarce and hard to find examples of but the 460 is more difficult. 

 

To put the rarity of this Cobb in perspective, there was only one previously known example of this particular front/back combo in the hobby before this one was discovered.  The gentleman who did find this example was out on a trip looking through items being sold at the house this card was in.  He knew it was an important card as he already had a T206 Ty Cobb red background in his personal collection, but didn't know this back was so rare. 

 

He decided to sell this Cobb, keeping his other example, and listed it on eBay.  When knowledgeable collectors began asking him about the card and people started talking about it possibly not being legit, he realized there was something more to this card than just the fact that it's a Cobb.  He pulled the listing and contacted REA.

Image courtesy Robert Edward Auctions

 

After speaking with the auction house he sent this Cobb card to their offices to be examined.  REA card experts all took a look at it and determined it was legit.  It was sent to SGC to be graded and authenticated and came back with the numerical grade of 10/1 poor.  There are several condition issues with this card including the very clear horizontal crease in the middle that contribute to this grade. 

 

There are now two of these amazing cards residing in SGC holders in the hobby.  The gentleman decided to consign this Cobb and several other cards he owned in the latest REA auction.  The Cobb opened at $25,000 and garnered 19 bids ending at $60,000.  I actually thought it would go for more considering what it is: A Ty Cobb red background, one of the most popular cards from the T206 set, the most popular tobacco set in the hobby, with one of the rarest backs possible, of which only two are now known. 

The latest sale of the T206 Cobb with Ty Cobb back in the last Heritage Auction realized $408,000.00.  Now I know, that one was graded PSA 3.5 and the Ty Cobb back is ranked tougher than the Broad Leaf 460, but I'm still surprised this BL460 didn't go for more money. 

What do you guys think? 

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



T206 John McGraw Printer's Scrap

I did a post years ago about some really cool printer's scrap cards where the backs were covered in test prints from various sets.

Here is another one that is on the same level as those ones were when it comes to color and amount of different test prints on the reverse.

This John McGraw card was obviously hand cut by someone during the period in which T206s were being produced.  These cards come from sheets that were used to test the printers and sometimes they would send the same sheet through multiple times.

When they did this, they created these sheets that have lots of messy backs and it appears that some folks didn't care about the back and cut out the cards to keep anyway.  These cards have gained in popularity over the years and this example sold for $5,036.  Obviously the multiple prints on the reverse is the reason for the high hammer price. 

The prints on the back are of Bradley and Manning as well as tests of two different advertising backs, Tolstoi and Piedmont. 

Here are some images of printer's scrap that I posted about before just for comparison.

 

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

Hans in Blue

After years of immersing myself in the vintage baseball card hobby, I feel like I can identify most cards by type. It isn't very often anymore that something shows up that I haven't ever seen before.

That said, I was pleasantly surprised when someone posted a picture of this Honus Wagner card on a the Net54 vintage card message board.

My first thought was that he was playing a joke on the board and he was good at Photoshop. However, after contacting the poster, he assured me that this was an uncatalogued Wagner card.

He had won it on eBay a while back and said it had originally sold in a Mastro Legendary Auctions in August 2004. At that time it was part of a larger lot of prewar cards. (A nice lot I must say). Check out the original auction listing here.

Apparently, there are only 2 examples of this card known at this time. I love finding out about a new card. It's even better when that card is of the caliber of a Wagner. Better yet? When there are only 2 copies known to exist!

I wanted to make sure to share this with anyone who follows my blog (I know I'm not posting as much as I should, but I'm glad some of you are still checking it out) because this is the sort of thing you need to know when you're serious about your hobby.

One of the two examples was labelled at one point as a "w-unc" by PSA. I assume they gave it the W label because it is blank backed, but from what I'm told, it's not much like a strip card other than the blank back.

The other known copy, sold in a Heritage Auction in April 2009 and resides in an SGC holder with the label, "C. 1910 E-Unc Candy". This makes a bit more sense to me than a W label. Check out the Heritage listing here.

This SGC example closed at $4,481.25 with the buyer's premium. I'm a bit surprised at this figure to be honest. I would have thought that such a rare Wagner would have brought a lot more than this. I guess maybe the fact that it isn't well known and doesn't have any advertising on it kept the price down, but seriously? Only two known and less than $5K?

I think with a little good press in the hobby and the right exposure, one of these babies could fetch a much better sum in a good auction.

I guess time will tell. Personally, I think it's an awesome card. Even if it doesn't have the most clear image or any advertising.

Well, enjoy the hobby all. It's a great one.

T206 Frank Chance Printer's Scrap

Printer's scraps are one of the many wonderful parts of the T206 phenomenon. Many collectors actively seek out these "mistakes", or "garbage" if you will. I mean, let's face it, these were never meant to be enjoyed by anyone when the printers were messing around and testing printing plates, or color passes or whatever. They were trash. And for some reason, someone at the printing factory decided to keep them.

I, personally, find them fascinating. It's too bad for me that they usually sell for quite a bit more than I can afford to pay.

Here is a very interesting example that recently sold on eBay. I was watching this card because I wanted to see what it was going to sell for in the end. I took into consideration the following things:

1. It is a Hall of Famer.

2. It is a popular card of said HOFer.

3. The card didn't make it to the final printing pass where the name, team caption would have been added.

4. There are not one, but two Cycle ad backs stamped on the front of the card.

5. One of the Cycle ads is printed backwards. (This is more likely the result of another sheet with Cycle backs being placed on top of this while the ink was still wet, called a 'wet sheet transfer')

Taking this into consideration, I was guessing it would sell for $300 - $400. I was a little surprised when it ended at $525.99 after 20 bids. That just goes to show you that these cards get a lot of action and when it's an important card thats involved, even in this condition, it will bring some good money.

In keeping with the topic of Printer's Scrap, I thought I would share a few pictures of other examples. I don't own any of these, they are just images that I have borrowed from various places.


These examples show the same cards, just repositioned in the second image to show how the back printing matches up suggesting that these cards were layed out in this manner on the uncut sheet that was being used by the printer to test his presses. I'm not sure why the sheet would then be cut into actual cards after that though.

This final example is perhaps my favorite back printing freak so far. This is the back of another card that has not only been printed with several other back advertisements, but also has a ghost image of Hall of Fame hurler Cy Young.

Take a close look at this mess of ink. There is an off center Piedmont back printed on it, resulting in a "four corners" style misprint. There is also the El Principe de Gales back printed both upside down and rightside up. Then the sheet went through for another printing with the Brown Old Mill southern league back, upside down. And the Cy Young image has the yellow process background layer printed. Now, if you turn the card around, you'll notice there is also another yellow process background that has been printed, only I can't confirm the player. I don't think it is Young though.

So this sheet went through the printer at least 4 times just for the ads to be printed. The Ghost image could be the result of a wet sheet transfer, but I like to think it was actually run through the printer and it was meant to be printed on the actual sheet.

The funny thing is that the other side of this card is a normally printed Southern Leaguer Mullaney, Jacksonville.

If you have scans of any other really amazing printer's scrap, please email them to me. I'd be interested in seeing them and I would post them in my blog if it's okay with you.