Billy Meredith Rookies
 

For those of you who did not read through the Top Soccer cards thread, I promised to post some Billy Meredith cards. He was one of the first superstars. You can read more about him at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Meredith

With the cards. I consider his rookie card to be the 1901 "Meredith at Work" card. But the first time that you can see his face is on the 1902 Clarke & Son and WE & HO Will's cards. Those have both "regular" versions and some that were printed in violet for whatever reason The "violet" versions appear much less frequently. While all these cards are amazing, I believe that the three preferred Meredith cards are the 1907 Taddy, 1910 Cope's Clips (Blue cards), and the Cope's Solace card. So these are certainly the most valuable in the UK (which should know something about rarity and desirability). I think that they are most desired because of the scarcity of the issues themselves and aesthetics. So I would have have a problem putting any Meredith rookie on my Mt. Rushmore of soccer cards. When discussing UK cards, I would likely give preference to the Dixie Dean rookie or the George Best rookie.

All beautiful cards, thanks for sharing. Do you own them?

I don’t consider the 1901 a RC because it is a subset/action card, but it’s nice too. The Wills is my favorite aesthetically. And I’m a City fan so I prefer his early issues ;)

Yes Anish. All of the cards that I post are from my personal collection. I fully understand that you do not consider In-Action cards as rookies. That is fair enough. You are certainly entitled to your opinion and thoughts! Best, Al

Thanks for posting these.

My interest is football / soccer and my memorabilia collection is reasonable, albeit cards are not a part of my collection.

I’ve always thought that, if I did venture into cards, I would collect some of the Spanish issues from the 1920s and 1930s - beautiful cards from an important period of Spanish history and can generally be purchased for very low prices in relative terms.

I agree... I love many of the Spanish cards from the 1920s
 

And they have a number of great stars like Alcantara & Zamora. I will post some of those cards at some point. Good luck with your collecting!

Thank you - the good wishes are appreciated as I flew to Madrid today with the purpose of completing a (relatively) big transaction of Real Madrid memorabilia.

Real Madrid
 

Very cool! Any Di Stefano or Puskas items? If so, please post them!

Rookie card or not, I don't like the "Meredith at work" card. I prefer his 1902 issues instead. As for his best-looking card, I would have to go with the 1910 Cope's Clips.

Nice cards, Al.

Cope Clips Meredith
 

I mentioned that I would post this one, so here it is

That Wills SGC 8 is STUNNING! I have two copies, but they're both around VG.

Do you consider 1902 Wills (or Clarke's) to be the first football card set? I believe there are a few rugby cards in there, but they describe it as a "football" series unlike the other multi-sport sets from around that time.

Also, I see that PSA dates the Ogden's cards as 1902, so the Meredith "at work" may not precede the others.

Ogden's cards
 

There are earlier football cards, certainly. A complete dedicated set, I am unsure except perhaps the Guinea Gold. Personally, the Circus girl cards are my favorites, but that is all sports.

The Cohen Weenen set from 1897 is good (which includes Cricket and Jockeys). The Guinea Gold set from 1897 is mostly or just footballers, I think.

I see that the grading companies get a bit confused with the Ogden's and there are a ton of different sets. I try to use this site as much as possible to date and identify them. There are a bunch of sets that are just footballers and a bunch of "General Interest" ones.

https://cartophilic-info-exch.blogsp...r-leading.html

https://cartophilic-info-exch.blogsp...terest-95.html

This is the particular set and they do believe that 1902 is the right date for this one:

https://cartophilic-info-exch.blogsp...est-95-02.html

However, you can see that www.rookiesoccercards.com believe that this set (which also includes Steve Bloomer) Here is an excerpt:

"Ogden Tabs' General Interest Series C 1900. Often misdated as 1902, the 1900 dates is far more accurate due to the inclusion of John Goodall for Derby (Goodall left Derby in 1900)"

https://www.rookiesoccercards.com/bl...steve-834.html

Here is my favorite Circus Girl card (GO Smith).

Apologies for delay as only got round to fully sorting through photos of my most recent trip today.


I did not buy any items relating to Di Stefanie or Puskas. However, I spent quite a lot of time at the Bernabeu Stadium museum. Interestingly, there isn’t too much relating to Puskas on display but there is, of course, of Di Stefano and other Real Madrid greats through the years such as Gento of the same era and Juanito, the idol of the 1970s and 1980s.


Below are pictures I took of two items on display - an early Di Stefano identity card and, more importantly, his first ever contract entered into with Real Madrid in 1953. In football / soccer terms, I cannot instinctively think of a more important player contract given both his impact on Real Madrid’s position in European and World football and, also, the political controversy of this contract given he had initially signed for Barcelona until intervention by the Franco-led Spanish Government ultimately saw him go to Real instead.



http://<a href="https://ibb.co/jmuej...order="0"></a>




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Very Cool !!! Wow!!!
 

Those items are amazing!!