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.

 



 

 



 

Hans in Blue shows up on eBay

Years ago I posted about the c. 1910 E-Unc Honus Wagner (Blue Caption) card.

Back then it was the first I had seen the card and I was fascinated by it.  It still remains my favorite Wagner card.  It appears the set is also known as the Blue Caption set and there are a few known examples.  The checklist is not complete as so few are known and the background of the set is a mystery.

Well, I was just scrolling through eBay and there it was, a Blue Caption Wagner for sale!  Then I looked at the price...$25,000.00 plus $200.00 shipping.  Don't get me started on asking $200 for shipping when you're asking $25K for a card (I feel like shipping and insurance should be included in a $25K purchase). 

When this card sold in Heritage 10 years ago it sold for $4,481.25.  Well, not this exact card, but the other known example which was an SGC 10 example.  Is this SGC 20 (from the Richard Egan collection) worth $20K more?  I don't think so, but I could be wrong. 

I figured I would show the SGC 10 as well as a comparison.  Note: these are the only two examples known at this time.

 

I really wish I knew more about the set so I could give you some background.  But all I have to offer are a couple more scans of cards from the set.  Here are the Bridwell and McCormick cards.

 

 

Notice the extra large borders on this Bridwell example.  It almost looks hand cut to me.  

 

 



The McCormick has a couple large borders as well and some stray red printing.  Both have terrible quality images, but the same blue font for the name and team.

If you have any scans of any other players I'd love to get them if you would share them with me.  Please let me know if you do. 

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.

REA Spring 2019 Auction

The 2019 Robert Edward Auctions Spring Auction is now open for bidding and I wanted to share a few of my favorite items with you.

I've gone through the cards that interest me in the current REA auction and pulled a bunch of cards (and a photo) that are some of my favorites.  Lets start with the photo shall we.

This is an original Type 1 photo of Negro League legend Josh Gibson that was used for his 1950-51 Toleteros rookie card.  I'm including an image of the actual card (also in the auction) for comparison.

 

 

Here is the 1893 Just So Jesse Burkett Rookie.  This card is interesting in that is has been restored, but it is so rare (2 known) that it doesn't really matter.   When it was originally discovered it was just the photo part of the card. The entire mount was missing.  The owner found a different Just So of an actress card and had professional restoration done attaching the original photo to the actress mount.

 



 



I don't necessarily collect 19th century cards, but I do like a lot of them.  I particularly like the N172 Old Judge Mike "King" Kelly cards.  Here are two nice examples side by side.  An SGC 6 and SGC 3.5.  I actually like the image on the 3.5 more than on the 6. 

 

Another awesome 19th century set is the 1887 N175 Gypsy Queen set.  They are more rare than their Old Judge counterparts.  I like the Gypsy Queen logo at the top of the cards.  This example is a really nice one as it is a horizontal, two player and HOF card all in one.  It features HOFer Tim Keefe with his teammate Danny Richardson.  It has a nice strong image as well which is another big plus for these cards.

 

 





Now let's move on to the 20th century and the prewar cards that I like in the auction. 

This one would fit right in to my collection as it is a nice low grade card.  I still won't win it, but I'd love to own it.  The 1911 E94 Hans Wagner gold background version.  I'm drawn to the gold versions of this set. 

 

Another set that is related to the E94s is the M131 Baltimore News Newsboys set.  This set uses the same images and checklist as E94 but all the cards have the blue background.  They also have additional type on the reverses that say "The Baltimore News Newsboys Series" at the top.  Here are the four examples in the auction.  Click the image to enlarge it.

 

 

 

My favorite Ty Cobb card, the 1909 E102 Anonymous issue.  The pose with Cobb leaning on his bat and the striking background color make for and amazing card in my opinion.

 

 

Well, let's get to the more common (or not really) T206s.  First up would be a couple southern leaguer Dutch Revelle cards that would be a great start to a back run for someone.  First, the blank back example.

 

 

Then the uber rare Brown Old Mill example.  What?!  Talk about a rare card.

 

 

Also, one of my favorite HOF poses is the Clarke Griffith with bat and this particular example has the rare Cycle 460 back.  This back seems to be a bit more rare than it is given credit for at the present time.  And I happen to like it quite a bit. 

 

 

Last but not least are a couple of my favorite Zeenut cards.  First is a very historically important and rare card of Jimmy Claxton.  This 1916 Zeenut is the first American issued baseball card featuring a black player.  It was a great timing of events that resulted in the issuing of this card as Jimmy was only with the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League for one week in 1916.  That week just happened to be the week that the Zeenut photographer was with the team taking pictures and he got a shot of Claxton that eventually made it on the featured card.  This is not the most well known card in the hobby, but has great significance making it a favorite of mine.

 

 

The next Zeenut that is one of my favorites is the 1922 card of legendary athlete Jim Thorpe.  This is one of only a few cards of Thorpe from his playing days and his only card featuring him in the Pacific Coast League.  He is pictured with the Portland Beavers. 

 

 

Well, there you have it folks.  Some of my pics to showcase some of my favorite cards in the current REA Spring auction.  Here is a link to the auction so you can peruse the offerings yourself.  REA Link.  I highly recommend taking a look at the auction, even if you don't plan to bid you'll see some amazing items.  Now, I just focused on the cards portion of the auction, but there is amazing memorabilia as well if you're into that stuff. 

 

Let me know what your favorites are.  I'd be interested to see what I missed.

 

Enjoy the hobby all...it's an amazing one.















A Brooklyn Mini Surfaces

A Brooklyn Mini N172 Old Judge is up for auction in the current Love of the Game Auction.

Brooklyn Mini's are very rare N172 Old Judges and don't show up for sale very often.  I am always excited when I see one and there is one up for sale in the current Love of the Game Auction that runs for another 7 days. 

I wrote about the Brooklyn Mini's and how they were made years ago in this post.  All of the mini's are of Brooklyn players and they are all photos that were taken outdoors.  Basically the photographer was closer when taking these photos than other photographers who took photos for the N172 cards.  So when they Brooklyn photos were cropped to fit into the composites for the final card layouts they were smaller than the others.  If this sounds confusing, then read the old post and it will be more clear. 



Image courtesy Love of the Game Auctions

Not all Brooklyn cards are minis however.  If they were all in the same composite then they were all the same size and ended up as regular size final cards.  Again, read the old post for more clarity.  Also, sometimes you'll find some Brooklyn cards that have team changes, so the photo is still the same, but the team is not Brooklyn.  So, not all outdoor photos have a Brooklyn team designation. 

Here is the link to the auction in Love of the Game.  The card is currently at $600 before the buyer's premium.  I'm anxious to see what the final price will be.  The same card sold for $780 in Love of the Game's January 31, 2016 auction.  I would love to see it eclipse that final price this time around.  I really think these mini's are under appreciated and I feel like this should be worth more even though it is graded SGC Authentic and not a numerical grade.  

After all, another example of the O'Brien mini, though not this example and also graded SGC Authentic, sold in Goodwin's auction in 2014 for $1,309 including the BP. 

Anyway, I really like these little gems and just wanted to share this auction with you so you can see one.  I hope you like it as much as I do.

Enjoy the hobby all...it's not a mini one.

A Big Four on eBay

Well you don't see this all the time where one of the Big 4 shows up on eBay.

There is currently an Eddie Plank T206 listed on eBay that is in a PSA 1 holder.  Here is a link to the listing.

 

The seller, brigandicoinsandcollectibles, has it listed as a Buy It Now (BIN) for $59,500.00 or best offer.  One thing I really like about this listing is that the seller is offering free shipping. 

For some reason I'm always a little annoyed when someone is selling a high dollar card and they want an additional $10 shipping.

I understand both sides, the seller doesn't need to eat the cost of shipping and insurance, but I also just think that if a buyer is willing to shell out thousands of dollars for a card then the least the seller can do is cover the shipping. 

This PSA 1 card was sold in 2015 for $24,000 and the last PSA 1 sold for $36,500 in 2016.  I would imagine the asking price on this one this time is a little high but the seller is hoping for a reasonable offer to come in.

While T206 Planks are rare, they do show up for sale in auctions regularly, just in better condition that a PSA 1.  It is a very desirable card and this one will certainly sell.

My estimate is around $45,000 - $47,000 for an offer that would be accepted.  Is that low?  Maybe, but it's still a nice jump from the last sale of a 1 and that crease right through his face will hurt the final sale.

In any case, it's exciting to see an authentic Plank show up on eBay.  I consider (as do many) the Plank to be right behind the Wagner in the listing of the Big Four T206s.  I feel like the Magie error is three and the Doyle is four.  Even though the Doyle is the rarest and most difficult to find of all four, I think it's behind the other three when ranking these cards. 

People don't really know why the Plank is so difficult even to this day.  Some say the plate was broken early in the print run and was just never replaced so only so many of them were ever printed.  Others think it may be something similar to the Wagner theory that he didn't agree with his image being used to promote tobacco when children were collecting the cards.

Whatever the reason, he is a tough card to find.  So let's see where this one ends up folks.

Enjoy the hobby everyone...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.



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.

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.

What a Deal!

Well, I'm pretty upset that I missed this one folks.

Actually, I'm more upset that I didn't put a snipe on it as I would've beat this winning bid for sure.

While perusing eBay last night I saw this card, and since I like to pick up beaters for cheap, I decided to take a closer look at the listing. As you can tell from the front, it's not much to get excited about.

However, after scrolling down into the listing, I noticed what makes this such a steal.

At first I thought there's no way this could be for real. I must be missing something here. But it all looked good.

The best part about this card is the back. It wasn't listed anywhere in the listing, but the back is a Red Cross back making this not a T206, but a T-215 instead. And, from what I can tell from the image, the caption at the bottom of the front is brown and not blue making this a Type I example, that's the more rare of the two if you're keeping track.

I'm certainly not an expert on these, but I know they are in damand and they command much more money than the same T206 pose in the same condition.

This one did sell for more than what it's common T206 counterpart would have, so I have to assume the bidder knew what he was looking at.

The closing price including shipping: $42.83

Nice job to someone out there. This is just another example of a good deal on eBay. Their out there if you just keep looking for them.

Enjoy the hobby all, it's a super duper one...

One "Big Four" Deserves Another

Our friends over at Sports Collectors Daily have just posted a story about another of the "Big Four" cards from the T206 set, the Doyle Nat'l error card.

I just can't rob their story, so here's the link to their story.

I did want to mention, however, that this is one of the many bits of hobby knowledge that you should really have if you are going to be taking part in the vintage baseball card hobby.

Some unscrupulous sellers might try to pass of the several other Doyle cards that say Nat'l on them as the very and coveted error version. Below is a little visual for you.

Notice that all three of these Doyle cards have the same caption at the bottom: DOYLE, N.Y. NAT'L.

Some beginning collectors may have heard of the super rare Doyle error that says Nat'l on it and be fooled by one of these cards. Now look at the more common version of the Doyle that has an error.

Notice that this version does not have the NAT'L after the N.Y.

This is the common version. Feel free to try to find the error out there in the hobby somewhere. Really. I mean it. Good luck. Let me know if you ever find it. Ever.

The late great Larry Fritsch, one of the great hobby veterans, the first full time mail order dealer spent years looking at hundreds, if not thousands, of Doyle's in search of one before he found a single example. And that was before the rest of the hobby was privy to the fact that it was an error. In other words, nobody else was seeking it or keeping it from him because they thought the one they had was rare. It just doesn't show up anywhere.

I'm very excited to see this one is going to be auctioned off in an upcoming REA auction. I can't wait to see what it brings when the hammer drops.

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

T206 Magie on eBay

One of the Big4 is currently listed on eBay and at $11,000.00 it still hasn't reached the reserve.

The T206 Sherry Magie (Magee) error card is one of the hardest cards to acquire in the T206 set and cards of this stature are not usually put on the auction block of eBay but someone has decided to roll the dice with this one.

There are several reprints of the top dog, Honus Wagner, on eBay everyday and occasionally there is a reprint Magie, but this one is the real deal. This example has been graded PSA3 VG and it does look nice.

I know of one sale for a PSA1 at $7,900.00 (at least that was the asking price and it has been declared sold) and that one had a very nice front. What brought the grade down was paperloss on the reverse. That's not a big deal to me.

I'll be very interested to see if this one meets reserve and at what level the final bids will reach.

Enjoy the Hobby....

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.

The Beckett T206 Wagner

The Beckett Wagner is just one of 546 new T206's to enter the hobby from a new find that came from a non-collector who had inherited the cards years ago.

The Wagner, along with the other cards from the find, are currently up for sale in the Robert Edward Auctions Spring auction. I have to agree with REA when they state that this is a very attractive low grade example of this hobby gem. I have a particular soft spot for cards that are beat up pretty good. I like to know that they were enjoyed long ago, that someone handled them and showed to friends, carried them around with them, had a bunch of them in a box and they all got banged up over the years.

This card is a great beater as far as I'm concerned. It has evenly rounded corners and even some creasing and a bit of paperloss, but the image is bold and vibrant with a great background color. Even Hans' rosy cheeks are clear in this image.

We all know this is the "Holy Grail" of baseball cards and that it has legendary status, and most people outside the hobby (I assume) attribute this to the rarity of the card. There are, however, a great deal of cards that are more rare that the T206 Honus Wagner card. In fact, there are many Wagner cards that are more rare than this one. But, this Wagner is from the greatest of pre-war baseball card sets; the T206 White Border set. I am not trying to argue that this is not a rare card though. People have different opinions about how to define "rare" when talking about baseball cards. But with around 50 examples estimated to exist of this card, let's call it rare for now.

In the not so distant past this card would bring headlines when it would become available for sale. The Gretzky/McNall Wagner would get national headlines (okay, maybe not headlines, but at least national coverage) when it came up for sale each time. But right now, as I type this, there are TWO of them up for auction at the same time! Simply amazing! The example pictured above is being sold in the Robert Edward Auctions Spring 2008 Auction and the second example, an SGC10 example, is being sold in the Heritage Auction.

But wait, this gets better. The uncataloged Joe Jackson card pictured to the left is quite rare as well. In fact, in Mastro Auctions, Inc. current auction catalog they say that "just two examples, in total, are known to exist". I would say that is pretty rare. This example is the exact one that Mastro is offering up right now.

Well, if in fact there are only two examples known to exist then you can see them both right now. The other one is currently for sale in the same REA auction mentioned above. Regarding the card's rarity, REA says in their catalog that the one they are offering is "the only example of this card we have ever seen".

This is amazing folks. This is one of the things that I love about this hobby. Most people can not afford the T206 Wagner, and a lot of people can not afford one of the Joe Jacksons here, but we can all enjoy them because of these auction houses and the internet.

I have no idea what this Jackson will end up at when the bidding ends, but we all know it will be nowhere near either of the two Wagners being offered. And I don't think that is a surprise to anybody. I guess rarity isn't the only thing that puts value on a card.

I, for one, am very interested to see where the hammer falls with these four cards. Not to mention all the other amazing items in these auctions. There are even three T206 Magie Errors being offered just in REA alone. And Heritage has three of the four biggies from the T206 set, Wagner, Plank and Magie.

Enjoy the hobby everyone. It really is a wonderful place to spend some time.