Whats Your Most Interesting Card?

[Blunder19]

Not necessarily your favorite... the card you own, that has the most interesting/unique story behind it..

Love hearing these...

Mine is the Taft T206.. I bought a card that has a presidential campaign sticker on it from 1909. It says "TAFT meet us at Wilmington"... Through research I found Taft visited Wilmington in 1909 and the article talks about children in the streets gathering to see TAFT.. while I have no proof... I believe that this sticker was applied during his day there in Wilmington.

American History + American Past Time = Awesome!
Share your most interesting Card....

[CW]

Nice start to the thread, Jamie -- always enjoy seeing that card.

This card just happened to be one of my favorites, and I was recently able to learn a little bit more about its back story, with much thanks going to board member (and hobby friend) Dean H.

This 1914 Cracker Jack Cobb card was originally auctioned off in Hunt's 2007 Live Auction during the DHL All-Star Fanfest. Dean was kind enough to send me copies of the auction catalog for the Cracker Jack offerings, and the group had the following introduction. I did not buy this card from the Hunt auction, and I was always amazed that my low grade Cobb had no caramel stains.



After seeing that this collection originated from one place, and that none of the 1914 Cracker Jacks in the auction had staining, it led me to believe that this is a 1914 CJ that never saw the inside of a Cracker Jack box...

[DeanH3]

That is such an awesome card Chuck. One of my regrets is not going after one of those in Hunt's auction. I'm glad I could help shed some light on the cards background.

The only card I have with any kind of back story is my T205 Cobb. I bought it from a board member and he let me know that his father acquired it from the original owner who I believe lived in Ohio.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Hell of a nice 3, Chuck.

[cyseymour]

Here is my most interesting card. Not a fascinating story about how I won it (REA), but it was originally from Billy Sunday's personal collection. So, it has cool provenance. It's nice to think that players back then were also willing to keep baseball cards as keepsakes.

[warrior1978]

My first pre-war purchase. Bought it unslabbed on Ebay around 2002 while serving in Kosovo. Years later I sold the card only to reacquire it from Hal Lewis in a trade for a Cobb Bat Off EPDG.

[Exhibitman]

This card accompanied the 1910 Polo Grounds passes that the Giants issued and is from the estate of sportswriter and boxing HOFer Bert Sugar, who wrote the Sports Collectors Bible as well:

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Hell of a nice 3, Chuck.

should be a 5!!

[CW]

Originally Posted by DeanH3

That is such an awesome card Chuck. One of my regrets is not going after one of those in Hunt's auction. I'm glad I could help shed some light on the cards background.

Thanks, Dean, Peter, and Leon. I wish I would've known about that auction, although 2007 wasn't a point in my life when I could spend that kind of money on a card, so I would've had to take out a loan. Quite an impressive group of Cobbs, to say the least (just noticed the writeup mentions 11 Cobbs, but the catalog only pictured 10). Here is my Cobb with his brothers (I only own one of these). Notice they all had the same printing issue along the top border....

[Peter_Spaeth]

OK I feel sick now.

[npa589]

Were they graded in that auction?

Other than feeling sick, when I saw all of those Cobbs --- I was utterly speechless. Not really sure what to say. Straight from the factory...gee whiz.

[z28jd]

I think the story that goes along with this card is a little interesting. I won an ebay lot of 25 T206 cards for $375 back in the early days, a couple HOF'ers, nothing too big though, paid what I thought was market value. The auction had no back scans, so when I got this card, I wasn't expecting it. At the time, my dad was actually mad, he saw the lot first and said they should have said something about this card being miscut like that. I didn't know if it had any value(It was around 1999) but I thought it was cool and had no intentions of selling it, but wanted to know about the value.

I asked T206museum and they said that it added no value to the card, but offered me "$30-40" for it, just because it was neat. I then went on the mastronet board(anyone else remember that?) and asked about value. I got offers right away for $400, $700, $800 and two that would top any other offers. Quite a difference from a neat miscut with no added value.

Two years later, someone on ebay, John Billingsley, not sure if he is still around, found a group of them in an old collection. I didn't know it was a group, but offered $600 for the one he told me about. He listed it on ebay anyway, I won it for $601. So he wrote me and said he had two others I could have for the same price. $1800 total.

So for this group, I paid $1815, but at the beginning, didn't know what I had, was extremely low-balled by t206museum and ended up with four cards that I can piece together and they make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Thanks to the original ebay seller for not posting back scans and John Billingsley, wherever you are, for selling me the rest. I made a fair offer and ended up with the other cards. I said $600 and thought it was fair, because the original is a HOF'er(Davis), the other(condition unknown to me at the time) was a common.

The original one is the bottom left, though it is technically the top right one, because this scan is upside down to show detail better

[e107collector]

Chuck,

Those Cobb's look very impressive all together! Great accomplishment!

Tony

[CW]

z28jd, that's a GREAT story to go along with the cards!

Nate, they were all offered by Hunt already graded in the auction.

Tony, oh how I wish those were all my cards, but I was at least fortunate to get one a few years later on eBay.

Cool cards, everyone!

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by CW

Thanks, Dean, Peter, and Leon. I wish I would've known about that auction, although 2007 wasn't a point in my life when I could spend that kind of money on a card, so I would've had to take out a loan. Quite an impressive group of Cobbs, to say the least (just noticed the writeup mentions 11 Cobbs, but the catalog only pictured 10). Here is my Cobb with his brothers (I only own one of these). Notice they all had the same printing issue along the top border....

I remember this auction well; I ended up getting my own 1914 Cobb CJ in SGC 60 a year later. One thing I recalled about all the Cobbs above is that they had the same area of bleeding of the red top into the white border on every single card. And it appeared that they were all graded at the same time. Very strange.

[oldjudge]

Cy-I can add a little to the history of the Kelly portrait. At one time it was in the Keith Mitchell collection. Keith was a pioneer in studying the Old Judge set. He worked with Buck Barker and others during the earliest studies of the set. Most importantly, Keith was one of the nicest people I ever met in the hobby, free with information and always very supportive. He was from Bettendorf Iowa and was a big Billy Sunday fan. I believe he got the card directly from the Sunday family and it was one of his favorite possessions.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by calvindog

I remember this auction well; I ended up getting my own 1914 Cobb CJ in SGC 60 a year later. One thing I recalled about all the Cobbs above is that they had the same area of bleeding of the red top into the white border on every single card. And it appeared that they were all graded at the same time. Very strange.

One heck of a submission. Must have been before I wanted one. Damn.

[cyseymour]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Cy-I can add a little to the history of the Kelly portrait. At one time it was in the Keith Mitchell collection. Keith was a pioneer in studying the Old Judge set. He worked with Buck Barker and others during the earliest studies of the set. Most importantly, Keith was one of the nicest people I ever met in the hobby, free with information and always very supportive. He was from Bettendorf Iowa and was a big Billy Sunday fan. I believe he got the card directly from the Sunday family and it was one of his favorite possessions.

Thank you, Jay, it is great to hear more about the history of the card - and the collector. The card came with some literature from Keith as well as the Sunday family, describing its provenance. Glad to hear that Keith was such a nice guy, and that it was one of his favorite items; it certainly is one of mine.

[brianp-beme]

Not card but cards, and not high dollar but still neat. A while back on ebay I won a complete set of 50 of the Red Lajoie Game cards along with the playing board. It arrived in a non-original but vintage box, and the seller (most likely a non-collector) left a note that he found these cards around 20-25 years ago while "dumpster diving".

I imagine a lot of us (myself included) have actually dreamt of finding some vintage cards in a similiar fashion.

Brian

[Sean]

Originally Posted by z28jd

I think the story that goes along with this card is a little interesting. I won an ebay lot of 25 T206 cards for $375 back in the early days, a couple HOF'ers, nothing too big though, paid what I thought was market value. The auction had no back scans, so when I got this card, I wasn't expecting it. At the time, my dad was actually mad, he saw the lot first and said they should have said something about this card being miscut like that. I didn't know if it had any value(It was around 1999) but I thought it was cool and had no intentions of selling it, but wanted to know about the value.

I asked T206museum and they said that it added no value to the card, but offered me "$30-40" for it, just because it was neat. I then went on the mastronet board(anyone else remember that?) and asked about value. I got offers right away for $400, $700, $800 and two that would top any other offers. Quite a difference from a neat miscut with no added value.

Two years later, someone on ebay, John Billingsley, not sure if he is still around, found a group of them in an old collection. I didn't know it was a group, but offered $600 for the one he told me about. He listed it on ebay anyway, I won it for $601. So he wrote me and said he had two others I could have for the same price. $1800 total.

So for this group, I paid $1815, but at the beginning, didn't know what I had, was extremely low-balled by t206museum and ended up with four cards that I can piece together and they make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Thanks to the original ebay seller for not posting back scans and John Billingsley, wherever you are, for selling me the rest. I made a fair offer and ended up with the other cards. I said $600 and thought it was fair, because the original is a HOF'er(Davis), the other(condition unknown to me at the time) was a common.

The original one is the bottom left, though it is technically the top right one, because this scan is upside down to show detail better

The cards look great, but can you show us the fronts?
By the way, the part about your dad reminds me of thr time I bought a T206 Unglaub without any name on it. When I showed it to my step-mom and pointed out the missing name, she said "Are you going to return it?"
And while I'm babbling on, is it pronounced "un-glob" or "oon-glob".

[z28jd]

Originally Posted by Sean

The cards look great, but can you show us the fronts?
By the way, the part about your dad reminds me of thr time I bought a T206 Unglaub without any name on it. When I showed it to my step-mom and pointed out the missing name, she said "Are you going to return it?"
And while I'm babbling on, is it pronounced "un-glob" or "oon-glob".

Here are the fronts. As you can sort of tell from the scans, the other three besides Davis are beauties, no creases or flaws except some slightly dinged corners. The collection he sold has some real nice cards in it, though no other miscuts of any kind that I remember.
I think the second pronunciation is correct, at least that is what I've been saying

[T206Collector]

Signed by Leifield, stamped by Burdick -- if this card had any more provenance it would star in its own Dos Equis commercial. Stay thirsty, my friends...

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by calvindog

I remember this auction well; I ended up getting my own 1914 Cobb CJ in SGC 60 a year later. One thing I recalled about all the Cobbs above is that they had the same area of bleeding of the red top into the white border on every single card. And it appeared that they were all graded at the same time. Very strange.

Jeff that is very strange. How to explain ten cards with exactly the same printing quirk that doesnt seem to be on any other 14 cobb from quick research? The explanation that comes immediately to mind isnt good of course but maybe there are other theories.

[CW]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Jeff that is very strange. How to explain ten cards with exactly the same printing quirk that doesnt seem to be on any other 14 cobb from quick research? The explanation that comes immediately to mind isnt good of course but maybe there are other theories.

I referenced this printing issue in my post with all the Cobbs together. While it is strange (or for this thread, interesting) to see this issue with every card, it is not uncommon to see the same printing flaw across multiple cards -- this happens many times in the hobby.

Also, while not common, it is also not the first time I've seen the red ink bleed into the border of a Cracker Jack card. I could not find any images with a quick search, but I did see this anomaly mentioned in this article.

Andy Montero, another passionate Cracker Jack collector, agrees. He adds that the red background on the card fronts sometimes bleeds into the lighter colored borders. The most common condition issue, however, is staining from being packaged with the caramel snack.

[calvindog]

Chuck, for what it's worth, the cards looked good to me and I really have not much doubt about it. The peculiarity for me was the identical printing flaw in every card in those lots -- which all had been graded at the same time as well. Strange.

[Bpm0014]

One of my more interesting cards. Ambrose Puttman. I was told last week at the Pittsburgh show that it indeed does look like a factory mistake that somehow slipped through the cracks. I'm still unsure, but I'll go with it...

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by CW

I referenced this printing issue in my post with all the Cobbs together. While it is strange (or for this thread, interesting) to see this issue with every card, it is not uncommon to see the same printing flaw across multiple cards -- this happens many times in the hobby.

Also, while not common, it is also not the first time I've seen the red ink bleed into the border of a Cracker Jack card. I could not find any images with a quick search, but I did see this anomaly mentioned in this article.

Do we know if the other CJs in the collection had the same issue?

[ephus]

I think this one is pretty interesting. Dockman and Sons produced cards of boats, soldiers, animals, and baseball players. If you look at the back of this card, you see a checklist for animals.




When you turn the card over, you would expect to see a lion, zebra or a monkey. You would be very surprised to see what is there.....Honus Wagner.



PS, the T205 Cobb from the first part of the thread, I sold it to you several years ago. It's nice to know you still remember the story. It is a beautiful card.

[DeanH3]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Do we know if the other CJ's in the collection had the same issue?

Peter - Here are some of the other cards from that auction. I son't see the same bleeding on the other cards but what is interesting is how the WaJo's have the same green dot on them.

Chuck - there is the missing 11th Cobb. Lot 541.

Ephus - Way cool Wagner there. And yep, I still remember the story. I thought then, and still do, that it was pretty cool to know that I was the 2nd or 3rd owner of a card.

Here are some pics

[Hankphenom]

Here's mine:

[CW]

Originally Posted by calvindog

Chuck, for what it's worth, the cards looked good to me and I really have not much doubt about it. The peculiarity for me was the identical printing flaw in every card in those lots -- which all had been graded at the same time as well. Strange.

Originally Posted by DeanH3

Chuck - there is the missing 11th Cobb. Lot 541.

Very cool, thanks -- also interesting to see that green dot you mentioned on the WaJos. We should've probably started a new thread so this one doesn't keep getting interrupted but I'll leave one last comment here, similar to what I just sent Peter in a PM...

I did check the images of the other cards, and none of them have bleeding into the border. You will note that none of them have any staining whatsoever. This can hardly be a coincidence. My guess is that someone associated with the factory which printed these cards was able to sneak some out the back door before they were shipped off to CJ to be inserted into boxes (something similar to what occurred with the Black Swamp find). In other words, the cards are uncirculated.

Obviously I am biased because I own one of the cards, but I don't think we should automatically assume something nefarious is going on (ie. the cards are counterfeit). It would be incredibly difficult to fake 1914 CJs, especially with the paper they used. It also seems that IF someone was trying to hide something shady, they wouldn't submit all the Cobbs at once, which would surely raise eyebrows at SGC and put the cards under more scrutiny.

Regardless, it's an interesting card!

We now resume to your regularly scheduled thread about interesting cards....

[brianp-beme]

It looks more like evidence at a crime scene...perhaps they can test for DNA and hopefully corner the perp.

Brian

Originally Posted by Bpm0014

One of my more interesting cards. Ambrose Puttman. I was told last week at the Pittsburgh show that it indeed does look like a factory mistake that somehow slipped through the cracks. I'm still unsure, but I'll go with it...

[brianp-beme]

Thanks Dean for posting some of the other Cracker Jack lots...although I don't collect CJ's, I somehow, a few years apart from one another, ended up with both the Comiskey and Bender from lot 541. Neat to know the story behind them.

Brian

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by CW

Very cool, thanks -- also interesting to see that green dot you mentioned on the WaJos. We should've probably started a new thread so this one doesn't keep getting interrupted but I'll leave one last comment here, similar to what I just sent Peter in a PM...

I did check the images of the other cards, and none of them have bleeding into the border. You will note that none of them have any staining whatsoever. This can hardly be a coincidence. My guess is that someone associated with the factory which printed these cards was able to sneak some out the back door before they were shipped off to CJ to be inserted into boxes (something similar to what occurred with the Black Swamp find). In other words, the cards are uncirculated.

Obviously I am biased because I own one of the cards, but I don't think we should automatically assume something nefarious is going on (ie. the cards are counterfeit). It would be incredibly difficult to fake 1914 CJs, especially with the paper they used. It also seems that IF someone was trying to hide something shady, they wouldn't submit all the Cobbs at once, which would surely raise eyebrows at SGC and put the cards under more scrutiny.

Regardless, it's an interesting card!

We now resume to your regularly scheduled thread about interesting cards....

Chuck, I agree with this. And in your PM when you drew the comparison to 70s uniform print defects, that also rang true. I think the initial surprise is that we're not used to seeing such a thing on prewar cards and, in particular, CJs. And also good point about them being graded together and sold together. I'd love to know what happened with this group, very frustrating that we'll never know with any certainty. Bottom line: Peter still doesn't have a CJ Cobb

[CW]

Originally Posted by calvindog

Bottom line: Peter still doesn't have a CJ Cobb

Sometimes when you type "LOL" you really do LOL.

This was one of those times.

(and it wasn't at Peter, it was with him)

[Peter_Spaeth]

Yep, still looking.

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Yep, still looking.

I remember letting all 11 of those Cobbs slip by me...it was all on the phone via Hunt...one Cobb after another...I never thought I'd see another.

[DaClyde]

Mine would now be my 1994 Chiba Lotte Marines menko of Hensley Meulens (and attached rest of set).

http://clydes-stalecards.blogspot.co...ko-jcm-25.html

[mrvster]

and to think one of F scottys would wind up with me

[Hal Kaplan]

Originally Posted by CW

Very cool, thanks -- also interesting to see that green dot you mentioned on the WaJos. We should've probably started a new thread so this one doesn't keep getting interrupted but I'll leave one last comment here, similar to what I just sent Peter in a PM...

I did check the images of the other cards, and none of them have bleeding into the border. You will note that none of them have any staining whatsoever. This can hardly be a coincidence. My guess is that someone associated with the factory which printed these cards was able to sneak some out the back door before they were shipped off to CJ to be inserted into boxes (something similar to what occurred with the Black Swamp find). In other words, the cards are uncirculated.

Obviously I am biased because I own one of the cards, but I don't think we should automatically assume something nefarious is going on (ie. the cards are counterfeit). It would be incredibly difficult to fake 1914 CJs, especially with the paper they used. It also seems that IF someone was trying to hide something shady, they wouldn't submit all the Cobbs at once, which would surely raise eyebrows at SGC and put the cards under more scrutiny.

Regardless, it's an interesting card!

We now resume to your regularly scheduled thread about interesting cards....

E145s were also issued as complete sets directly from CJ, according to the back of this advertising poster:

http://www.robertedwardauctions.com/auction/2009/1.html

I also remember an auction of one of these sets a few years ago, almost all of the cards were in extremely high grade, many the highest graded examples.

[Runscott]

The only items I own that have interesting stories behind them are photographs and equipment. But to me, this is my most interesting card:

[Yankeefan51]

Four base hits PSA 6
Just So SGC 80
Chicago Federal League Team Issued Card only one known




Bruce Dorskind
America's Toughest Want List
bdorskind@dorskindgroup.com

[Runscott]

Wanted to add: Jamie, that campaign sticker on the back of your card is really great. That's the kind of stuff that really spices up the set.

[joeadcock]

Bruce
Can we see the Chicage Federal League Team issued card?

[uffda51]

Got this from Joe's son Bob about 15 years ago. Pretty cool to meet Smokey Joe's relative.

[cfc1909]

very cool Bruce

[uffda51]

Still trying to determine if the author is a relative. Got this from Barry Sloate some years ago. 1840s or 50s, I think. Right, Barry?