Mission Complete - 1911 Pacific Coast Biscuit D311 set
 

Whew! This one took some doing - a lot of effort and a ton of patience that I normally don't possess in my collecting endeavors. Aaaaand maybe about 10 years. Aaaaaand, maybe I gave up 2-3 times before now.... But it's done finally. I've completed some difficult projects - e103 complete set, 09 Obak complete set, e98 Master set of Commons, t204 set of commons... and I think I can honestly say that this was the most difficult out of any of them by far. There's really about 6-8 cards in the set that are insanely difficult, such as some of those Sacramento players. And there's another 2-4 that only seem to come around once every decade and you end up having to buy a complete set just to get the final couple that you need (which, sadly, is exactly what I did.) Hey, anybody need any d311s? I've got dupes!

This set really, really does NOT get enough love from collectors. It may be because it's a minor league set or it could be because the cards really are not readily available, but if bright, colorful and unique poses are what you look for in a card, this is really the set for you!

Below are a few scans. I've had some people ask me about oddities from this set and yes, they exist but they're exceedingly scarce as I've really only seen 3 oddities TOTAL. I think the set is pretty "clean" from a printing standpoint as they're very few errors in this or the d310 set. Mark Macrae always used to tell me about the "bluegrass" variations (cards missing the green color pass so the normally green grass appears blue) that you might see once a decade. Myself, I've only seen two. I also have a Danzig with an interesting Overprint on the back. Scans of the Overprint as well as a bluegrass Van Buren are below.

One interesting aspect about the set that it has in common with the 1909 Obak set is the large number of handcut cards the set has. I'd say 40-50% of the total 09 Obaks I've seen have been handcut and are easily identified by their "Frameless" backs. There aren't nearly that many handcut examples from the d311 set, but you do see some with some real "hack-job" type cuts. Occasionally you'll even see one that has oversized borders. I have a couple like that and included a scan of one of them, another Van Buren below.



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Congrats! Job well done!

Outstanding Brian-what a tough set!

Congrats...love this set myself!Beautiful colors and design.I enjoy reading posts on collectors who have shall we say gone off the beaten path to collect and eventually complete less mainstream sets.What i love is you truly need patience and discipline to find many of the cards.Post some more pics and what drew you to this set?What caused you to stop then restart?
Scott

D311 cheers from a D310'er
 

Great job Brian...we have seen your posts for years on the BST for these cards. Being a PCL collector, I know you had quite the challenge to complete this set. These cards are certainly underappreciated gems. I have been working on its brother set D310, which I love just as much, for over 15 years, and may never complete it, but it is encouraging that patience might just get the job done...eventually.

Brian

Brian, you are a better man than me. I just sold off all but two of mine, just couldn't do it. Glad to see you get it!

congrats on a tough set !!

Congratulations on completing such a tough set!

Congratulations, Brian!

Do you have a favorite card, pose, or player in the set?

Cheers,
Steve

Whoa. That's a challenging one! Congrats!

I love those cards - I latched onto one about ten years ago, quite by accident (it was in a lot of T206s), and really loved the colors. I couldn't imagine trying to put together the set.

-Al

Thanks for the kind words everyone! To respond to a few comments -

Scott - Well, I kept giving up largely because I'd acquire the itch to go after a new set and sometimes the long-term projects get sacrificed for shorter-term goals. I really need to learn to develop more patience in our hobby here :)

Brian - I've given thought to doing the d310s myself at some point....how far along are you? Heritage had a VERY nice group of these. Something like 51 out of 72 and they went cheap!

Steve - I'm an "oddity" guy so my favorite is the blue Van Buren in the scan. It's also a handcut/possible scrap card. Actually, this card is in my top 5 favorites that I own from any set :)

Congratulations Brian, that's one of my favorite sets!

Andy

Congrats, Brian! Such a great looking set. I really like the overprint.

Congrats Brian!
 

Congrats Brian!

The D311 set is a tough set to complete. The pastel colors are very nice.

I picked up my lone example, and I was surprised by just how small the cards are compared to the D310 Pacific Coast Biscuit cards.

Patrick

Those are simply beautiful cards. Congratulations on finishing this one off!

Congrats Brian!!


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Congrats!!!

Nice work Brian - very fitting that you managed to fit a few oddballs in there too!

Quite an accomplishment! Congrats, Brian!

Congrats Brian. One of my favorite pre war cards. Those are just pure eye candy!

Ricky Y

Great job, Brian - congrats!