1926 Sports Co. of America/Spalding - talk about/show/contribute your knowledge

[brianp-beme]

Hello all esoterican collectors out there. The listing of available baseball player cards in the over 200 card multi-sport set 1926 Sports Co. of America (sometimes referred to as 'Spalding') issue has differences in the various sources I have checked. Perhaps because the cards are relatively uncommon, but also perhaps due to an ad back variation as well as blank backed hand cut cards that are believed to be cut from promotional sheets, this set has a murky checklist. Here is a possible checklist that I was able to assemble from several sources, including the Sports Collectors Digest catalog (I have the 2009 edition), the prewarcard website, as well as both PSA and SGC sites:

Babe Adams
Grover Alexander
Nick Altrock
Dave Bancroft
Jesse Barnes
Oswald Bluege
Jim Bottomley
Max Carey
Ty Cobb
Mickey Cochrane
Eddie Collins
Stan Coveleskie *
Kiki Cuyler
Hank DeBerry
Jack Fournier
Goose Goslin
Charlie Grimm
Bucky Harris
Gabby Hartnett
Fred Hofmann
Rogers Hornsby
Waite Hoyt
Walter Johnson
Joe Judge
Willie Kamm
Tony Lazzeri
Rabbit Maranville
Fred Marberry
Rube Marquard
Stuffy McInnis
Speck Meadows
Babe Pinelli
Wally Pipp
Sam Rice
Emory Rigney
Dutch Reuther
Babe Ruth
Ray Schalk
Joe Sewell
Urban Shocker
Al Simmons
George Sisler
Tris Speaker
Pie Traynor
George Uhle
Paul Waner
Aaron Ward
Ken Williams
Glenn Wright
Emil Yde


Of these 50 cards, there a couple that fall in the murky 'do they/do they not exist' category, that I placed an '*' next to player on the above list:

Tris Speaker - Listed in the SCD catalog and on the PSA site in their set information, but prewarcards website does not list it. Neither PSA or SGC has listings for it in their pop reports. - Speaker confirmed within this thread by JLange.

Stan Covaleski - Listed in SCD catalog, PSA set info, and prewarcards website. Not in either PSA or SGC pop reports.

Neither card's image come up when doing a Google search, nor do I remember seeing them. I have found images of all of the other baseball players. Does anyone have either one of these, or have seen them?

Pictured below is an example from the set that has the most commonly seen biographical writeup back. And Bancroft has a fun writeup, being identified as peppery, cagey, effiecient, and to top it off, he is classified as a wizard.


Brian (also just to note, I was surprised how small these cards are when I first saw them in person...they are about 1-1/2" by 2-1/4")

[Section103]

Love the look of the series. They're rather small and also just seem extremely delicate. Always looking to upgrade this one.

[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by Section103

Love the look of the series. They're rather small and also just seem extremely delicate. Always looking to upgrade this one.

I agree, the photos are generally very crisp, similar to what is seen in the W503 set. Your Rigney is a great looking example of this sharp photography...in my opinion no need to upgrade yours (but that is my natural collecting reflex kicking in).


Brian

[ValKehl]

Being a dedicated collector of Sam Rice's cards, I have been looking forever for an example of Rice with the ad back. Has anyone ever seen one or know if one exists?

[JLange]

I have this scan of Tris Speaker I grabbed off the internet around 2004. I have him in my checklist / wantlist as a result. Sorry, not a great scan - the file size is only ~7kb, so doesn't really resize well. I am eager to learn the fate of the Coveleski card as well. I never had him on my Cleveland Baseball checklist, but by 1926 he would have been with Washington. I still hold out hope he's in the set, and that he is pictured with Cleveland, anyways.

[paul]

Val, I can confirm that the Sam Rice does exist with an ad back. I own one. Unfortunately, the back is severely damaged. See the scan.

Paul

[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by JLange

I have this scan of Tris Speaker I grabbed off the internet around 2004. I have him in my checklist / wantlist as a result. Sorry, not a great scan - the file size is only ~7kb, so doesn't really resize well. I am eager to learn the fate of the Coveleski card as well. I never had him on my Cleveland Baseball checklist, but by 1926 he would have been with Washington. I still hold out hope he's in the set, and that he is pictured with Cleveland, anyways.

Thanks Jason, that visual of the Speaker card narrows down the needs to be confirmed list to just Coveleski. And because you have helped out here, I am pulling for him to be pictured and identified with Cleveland.

Brian

[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by ValKehl

Being a dedicated collector of Sam Rice's cards, I have been looking forever for an example of Rice with the ad back. Has anyone ever seen one or know if one exists?

I love it when a card like Paul's Rice can confirm the existence of a card. I have a E270 Colgan's Tin Top card that is missing 95% of the back, except for the part on its back curved border script that contains the word 'Tin'.

I plan on creating a list of possibly confirmed ad and blank backs that I will add to this thread, just for fun and maybe extract some examples from folks on here.

Brian

[Brian Van Horn]

Brian,

Here is the page from PSA proving Stan exists in the set:

https://www.psacard.com/priceguide/b...champions/1086

[Jcosta19]

Looking for that Tony Lazzeri. I have been trying to find one for a long time if anyone comes across a copy.

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk

[brianp-beme]

Nice Walter cards Matt and Val. And thanks for the ad back visual Val...someday I will provide a scan of a blank back Spalding Sports Co. Champions (or whatever folks call them) card that I have.

For all you lovers of blank back scans, your time is coming near!


Brian

[topcat61]

I did a fairly lengthy article on the history of the set and the company's owner at historythoughcards.com

[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by topcat61

I did a fairly lengthy article on the history of the set and the company's owner at historythoughcards.com

Nice article! But I think the website is historythroughcards.com

I have quite a bit of information on this set that I can post. For a while, I was thinking of trying to complete this set but prices have jumped considerably over the last decade. I've got around 50 or so of them including all of the football ones as that's my primary collecting focus.

I can say that for football the checklists above are not correct. I am working on the master set of ad backs, bio backs, and blank backs for each football player and have quite a few not listed in the checklist. I am pretty certain that every card in the set has a blank backed version. Also a bio back version. The ad backs are a mystery to me as to whether all cards have these backs. They are much more difficult to find than the bio backs are.

jeff

[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by jefferyepayne

Nice article! But I think the website is historythroughcards.com

I have quite a bit of information on this set that I can post. For a while, I was thinking of trying to complete this set but prices have jumped considerably over the last decade. I've got around 50 or so of them including all of the football ones as that's my primary collecting focus.

I can say that for football the checklists above are not correct. I am working on the master set of ad backs, bio backs, and blank backs for each football player and have quite a few not listed in the checklist. I am pretty certain that every card in the set has a blank backed version. Also a bio back version. The ad backs are a mystery to me as to whether all cards have these backs. They are much more difficult to find than the bio backs are.

jeff

That was indeed a nice article, and if you have some info to share about the set, football or otherwise, please do. My checklist was just a jumping off point for others to add to.

Brian

[jefferyepayne]

Some additions to your checklist from the cards I have:

Baseball Blank Backs
Fred Hoffman - baseball
Rube Marquart - baseball

Non-baseball Ad-backs
Benny Friedman - football
Edgar Garbisch - football

Known Blank Backs
Peggy Flournoy - football
Homer Hazel - football
Walter Koppisch - football
Ed McGinley - football
Bo McMullen - football
Brick Muller - football
Swede Oberlander - football
Harry Stuhldreher - football
Eddie Tryon - football
Ed Weir - football
George Wilson - football

Known 1927 Copyright backs

Valentine Bialas - skating
Earl Sande - jockey