Typical Zeenut Condition Issues

I feel the need to pontificate on Zeenuts for a bit.

Zeenuts are a great cards to collect.  They were produced of 25 years by the Collins-McCarthy company.  From the years 1911 through 1938 there were very nice cards produced of the Pacific Coast League teams and players.  I don't want to talk about how great they are in this post, but rather how they ended up the way they did all these years later.

Let's me honest with each other here, some of the Zeenuts are wonderful looking cards.  Especially the ones from 1918 with the red borders or the ones with original coupons still intact.  But I'm talking about the ones that are just beat to hell.  The ones that look like they went through the washing machine in your jeans pocket.  Take a look at these examples I'm found in less than 10 minutes of looking. 

 

 

 Believe it or not, these are typical condition cards for the later year Zeenuts.  I have no idea what kids were doing with these card back then.  Here are a few more examples.

 

Of course not all Zeenuts look like this.  But I see them all the time and just laugh.  What seriously happened to these things.

 

I have plenty of beaters in my collection and I love them.  But I really like these Zeenuts too.  I'll have to pick some up just to have them in hand.  Let's see some more just for fun.

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

1952 Topps Mantle PSA 9

A PSA 9 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle just sold in the recent Heritage Auction.

Heritage Auctions just sold a PSA 9 1952 Mickey Mantle for $2.88M including the buyer's premium.  This auction was very interesting as many wondered if the card would bring $3.5M or $4M.  The last super high end Mantle to sell at auction was a PSA 8.5 and that one sold for $1.135M. 

I had my doubts that the 9 would reach $4M and seemed to be in the minority on a popular message board.  Some were even saying they thought it would bring $5M.   I thought they were all crazy.  I was actually surprised it went for what it did.  I was thinking closer to $2.5M. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy for the seller that he got what he did. 

Now folks are wondering what one of the three PSA 10's would sell for if they went up for auction.  Some have said $6M, while others think that is too low.  What then?  $10M? 

Personally I think these estimates are crazy.  I don't think people were holding out for one of the 10's and didn't bid on this 9.5.  So then if a 10 were up for sale, why would they push it so much higher?

I'm sure it would go for more than the 9.5, but not that much more.  What do you guys think? 

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

Recent Pick Up

Another recent pick up to share...

Here is another recent pick up that I was lucky enough to get.  I've been slowly (very slowly to be honest) working on the E90-1 set and I recently picked up a couple new cards.  I used to own a copy of the Charley Hall card and sold it years ago.  I had it as part of my horizontals collection and wasn't really working on the E90-1 set when I owned it.  But I've always been upset about selling it.  So I was very happy to pick up this new example.

 

 

It's right in my condition ballpark.  I usually pick up low condition cards and this is another.  If you're looking for real high end stuff then this won't be the blog for you.  Sorry.  But I love these cards and love to share them with you. 

 

This puts me at 8 of the 120 in the set.  I have another card incoming but it's not here yet so I will share it when it gets here.  I'm having fun with this set guys. 

 

I hope you liked my new pick up.

 

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

A Recent Pick Up

I Recently picked up a new card in the Spring Love of the Game auction.

The Spring Love of the Game auction closed March 24th and they had a lot of great items.  From postcards (lots of postcards) to memorabilia to cards.  I saw several lots that I liked and followed throughout the auction.  Most of them were for caramel cards with the lot of horizontal 1909 Obaks in my sights as well. 

I placed my bid on the E98 Mordecai "Miner" Brown card pictured here and was lucky enough to have won it.  It was fun following the auction and anxiously wondering if my max bid would hold or not.

The under bidder pushed my bid up my max but it held out and in the end I became the new owner of this beautiful card. 

This is my third E98 and my second HOFer from the set.  I never thought I would be collecting this set.  Years ago it was priced way out of my range, but I always liked it.  The prices for most caramels has come down a bit in the last five or so years and some of these cards can be picked up at more modest levels now.

I'm still not sure if I'm actually going to collect the set or just pick up a few cards that I like.  Time will tell I guess.

I also have the Fred Clarke and Hal Chase.  Both of them have the same green background as this Three Finger Brown example.  My Chase is from the Lionel Carter collection.  It's in poor condition (really poor to be honest) but I love it because it has the Carter pedigree on the SGC flip.  I'll likely do a post with those cards in the future so keep an eye out for that.

I hope you like my new E98 as much as I do. 

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

A New Post After All These Years

Well, hello everyone.  It's been a long time since I posted anything on this blog but my wife has encouraged me to start posting again so here I am.  Nothing very interesting in this post, just a welcome back to myself.  Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with the ol' blog again.  See ya.

A Very Generous Gift

I was recently the recipient of a very generous gift.

 A couple days ago, I opened the mail to find a package for me from another collector.  I said, "hmm, what is this?"  Upon opening it I found a T206 Frank Chance!  But to make this card even more special, it has a double back stamp on it! 

I was floored when I saw the card. 

There truly are great people in this hobby.  People to help out other collectors just to help.  With no expectation of anything in return.  Think about this the next time you are looking at some old cards that you wouldn't mind setting go from your collection.  Pull out a bunch of them and send them to a friend for nothing.  Just to help with their wantlist.

I'll be paying this gesture forward for a long time to come.  And I sinerely thank the collector who sent this to me.

 

 

 

Thanks a lot for looking.

 

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

 

 

 



 

More Recent Pickups

Here are some more new cards that I have picked up in the last couple months.

I know it's been a while since my last post.  Sorry about that.  I've been pretty busy with other things the last couple months.  Anyway, I was able to pick up some more stuff in that period.  Here are some of the things I was able to snag...

First up isn't baseball but I just thought this uncut strip was pretty cool.  It doesn't fit my collection really so I'm planning on selling it at some point.  I just wanted to have it for a while since I thought it was cool.  It's an uncut strip of 5 W529 boxing cards.  There are 10 cards in the set including a Jack Dempsey. 

I was able to pick up this nice T207 McLean SGC 35 at a decent price so I figured I would pick him up as well. 

 

Now for my favorite recent pick ups.  Three new HOFers for my permanent collection.  I've wanted the Marquard and Foxx for a long time. 

 

 

 

 

I hope you like the new cards I was able to pick up.  I'm very happy with them.

 

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