Scot - I don't disagree or take any offense to your comments; it's an interesting discussion. Nor do I want to take away from your really nice missing red card. I wouldn't mind having it in my collection.
I have no clue for sure whether the glue on the reverse of mine was in fact what removed some of the ink on my cards or if the ink was missing in the first place, especially on the Oakes - nobody will know for sure.
I've seen plenty of examples of Downey with a red belt and a white or not-as-red cincinnati on his shirt. My personal opinion is that this Downey is one of those that lacked the red on the shirt before being placed into an album. Again, we'll never know.
There are two things that I find interesting with the two cards I displayed:
1) There appears to have been a massive amount of glue on the back of both of these cards. They might have been owned by the same person and pasted in the same album at one point. I believe because there was so much glue and it seemed to have been spread across the entire back of the card, the overall colors seem more dull. However, I will say both cards, at least in person, appear dirty on the front. One day I might soak them to see if the front improves.
2) For two cards once pasted into albums, they sure are beat to hell, unlike your card. I wonder if they were beat up prior to album insertion or removed and 'played' with. I've also noticed the tops of both display similar wear patterns. Now that I think of it, one of my other missing red colors, below, clearly was once in an album, yet is beat up and has a similar top edge.
Sorry for the large scan:
Good luck with the sale. You've got a real beauty of a card and I dig the white lettering. All the best.