Recent Pick Ups

I've been getting a bunch of new stuff lately, both on the internet and from the last Philly Show. Is it still called the Philly Show by the way, really? Anyway, I really like that show even if some of the dealers complain about the table prices going up since Heritage started running it.

I'll try to get scans of all my new cards as well as other things, but my scanner isn't working right now. My old computer crashed and when we got a new one, we kept our old Dell printer/scanner and I can't get it to work yet with the new HP computer.

I do have images of these three new items however, and am happy to share them with you.

First up: Two new cards for my horizontal collection. These aren't baseball cards, but I really don't care. They are E77 American Caramel Co. "Prize Fighter Caramels".

I've been liking these horizontal boxing caramels more and more lately. I have a few of the "Scrappers" set from Philadelphia Caramel Co., so when these ones came up on eBay a little while ago I was excited to have a chance to pick up some examples from a different set.

After winning them, I checked out Adam Warshaw's site that identifies several of the many many different boxing issues and saw that he says that these are "very tough to find". Hey, that's cool and makes me even more happy to have them. I just hope I haven't misidentified them or something.

Okay, so the other card that I have an image of (for now) is an upgrade to one of my Jersey City C46's, John "Rube" Kissinger:

I am always excited to pick up another Jersey City card! I know what you're thinking, "This is an upgrade?" Yes, it's an upgrade.

My first one had some major paperloss on the sides of the front on both sides of his head and it has always bothered me. I picked the first one with the paperloss because I didn't have it yet and needed it. This one will someday be upgraded as well, but I'm very happy to have this one. I'm only missing Butler, Jones and Wells now to complete the 9 card subset.

There were recently a Butler and Jones on eBay but I didn't put my snipe high enough to win them. Them another Jones came up, but it was a little too nice and I knew my high bid wouldn't be enough, so I didn't get that one either. No problem, I'll get them someday.

Well, I know it's not much, only three new cards, but when I get my scanner back up and running, I'll get a lot of scans up for show.

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

Recent Pick Up

I am very excited about this pick up everyone!

On my Jersey City want list, there are a few cards that I am not too confident in my chances of ever picking up. At least not any time in the next several years. This is due to both rarity and cost.

If you follow my blog at all, you know that my budget as a collector is pathetic by most standards. I live on the hope that at some point in my future, I will have gotten far enough into my career that I will be able to really spend what I would like to on cards. Until then, I'm picking up beaters at best.

This is no exception. However, this is one of the cards on my wantlist that I never thought I would find, let alone find in a condition that I could afford and still look presentable.

I submit for your viewing enjoyment a T215 Red Cross Tobacco Billy Purtell of Jersey City. When you're done drooling, please keep reading. :)

This card also exists with the ultra rare Pirate back and, of course, I will be forever trying to find that one in comparible condition so that I may be able to afford it. To be honest, this one was a little out of my price range, but I couldn't let it go.

When else would I ever find one? Of all the Red Cross backs to show up for sale, how often is one specific common going to be the one offered? Know what I mean?

Now, I know what you're thinking, "But Andy, his jersey says Chicago, not Jersey City." And you are correct. But the caption reads Jersey City.

And that's all that matters when you're putting together a wantlist for a specific team right?

So, I'm very happy to have added this card to my collection recently. I'm not going to be beating this one for a while. I do have a lot of recent pick ups to post though. I haven't really shared any of my new cards in a long time, so I'll start posting some of them for you all soon.

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

New Pick-Ups - From Philly Show

Okay all, here are some pics of what I was able to pick up at the show last weekend.

I'm very excited about this first item as it knocks another Jersey City card off of my list. I've been wanting this T201 fairly bad for about a year now but just haven't found one that I really liked for a good price. This one was just right for me and I snatched it up from Clean Sweep the minute I saw it.

It's an example picturing William Abstien (1b) on the front and John Butler (c) when it's folded over. I've always heard that these are fairly thin fragile cards so I've been wanting to see for myself when I picked this card up. While it is thinner and more susceptible to creasing than other cards of the era that I am familiar with, it's not as thin as I had originally thought. I can see why there are a lot of examples with bad damage around the crease from being folded in the past though.

This being the only Jersey City card in the entire T201 set, I have finished this set's checklist. Woohoo!

Moving on...

Here is a new T206 with a back stamp. You'll be hearing a bit more about my fascination with these cards in an upcoming post, but now I'll say that I was quite happy to pick up this fine example ot Nichols.

As you can see there is a large H stamped on the reverse. It appears that the stamper wasn't pleased with his first attempt and decided to stamp another two times.

Next we have a couple more 1949 Remars, Loyd Christopher and Bud Foster. These cards are not exactly difficult to find, but I really like the fact that they represent the Oakland Oaks Pacific Coast League team of the late forties and early fifties. Plus the 1949 set has a nice card of Billy Martin and the '46 and '47 sets have Casey Stengel in them. I'm finding these cards fun to collect because they are so affordable and I can pick them up now then for something different than my usual pick-ups.

This last pick-up is very special to me.

I've been picking up cards with a certain type of back stamp for a while now and I was able to pick this one up from a very nice hobby veteran named Ted Zanidakis. He is very knowledgable when it comes to the T206 set in particular and has completed the set several times and handled thousands and thousands of T206's in his time in the hobby.

This Mike Powers example has a rare Hindu back with a purple number 42 stamped on it. I love T206's with these purple number stamps on them (again, more about this in an upcoming post). I've also always loved the Powers cards, so this is a happy addition to my collection.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my new pick-ups. I had a really great time at the show and hope to make it to many more in the future. I feel lucky to live close enough to drive to the show for a day and still make it home afterwards.

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

Jersey City Skeeters in Training

I grew up in New Jersey and I love this state. So when I first started learning about Prewar cards, I was thrilled to find that Jersey City had a minor league team that was represented in the T206 set. In fact, the first Prewar card I ever bought was a T206 Hannifan, Jersey City.

I am always looking to add to my Jersey City collection and was very excited to have found this original cabinet photo of a couple of players (or at least one player) from the Jersey City Skeeters in Bermuda. The mount is in terrible shape, but as you can see, the photo itself is mostly intact with just the top right corner affected by the damage.

I was fortunate enough to have added this item to my collection a while ago and wanted to share it with you all. It is one my favorite items in my collection to this point. If you can help me identify the people in the photo I would very much appreciate it.

Also, written on the mount is "Burmuda" which is why I said the photo was taken there. Did teams, and specifically minor league teams, travel to the islands for games or training back then? I need to put some time into researching this a bit.

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