"SWIFT" E-card back stamp

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Posted By: Bruce Babcock

These are both E104s. Has anybody ever seen a back stamp like this on any card? I posted this scan on a previous T208 thread but I think it got lost there. I have no idea what or where Swift is, but it's on 23rd Street somewhere.

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Posted By: Robert A

Bruce,
I just traded for an e104 with a board member.
I think? it has a stamp like that, but won't know until I receive it.
robert a

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Posted By: Bill Cornell

I bought the E104 below through a Hunt's auction 3 or 4 years ago. It's changed hands since then - I last saw it in one of the 19thCenturyOnly auctions, I think. Looks like Swift was to E104's as Gilliam Squires was to Obaks.

Bill

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Posted By: Robert A

I hope that one day some of these stamps reveal something about the issue.

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Posted By: Scott Forrest

is that a baseball fan named "Swift" decided to use his E102 collection as address cards - inexpensive and kind of novel.

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Posted By: brian p

This one just looks like a collector's stamp. Like the Gilliam Squires cards, about all it tells us is that at one time it was owned by someone named 'Swift'.

Brian

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Posted By: Robert

Even if Swift was just a collector, it could still reveal something about the issue. For example, I'd like to know if there was a good deal of e104s in a certain region of the country.

Also, I've never seen the stamp on any other issue.
It seems unlikely that a collector would only have/stamp e104s.
robert

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Posted By: Scott Forrest

Do all of your business cards have a similar look and feel to one another? He might very well have consumed other products that had different cards enclosed, but maybe he decided to keep those "un-stamped" and dump all the E104's as business cards. It's also possible that the other cards in his collection already had ads stamped on the back (if he was even a collector - perhaps he was just a consumer of the product).

I don't think there's anything at all strange about this.

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Posted By: Bill Cornell

I'd like to know if there was a good deal of e104s in a certain region of the country.

Philadelphia, at least the e104-1's, which show only A's players. Mr. Swift was probably a local.

I'm with Scott on this one.

Bill

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Posted By: Scott Forrest

I'm using my return address stamp to properly mark all of my blank-backed vintage cards...then I'm going to eat my copy of Spiderman #1.

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Posted By: Robert A

Scott.
The business card theory is new and interesting. If you look at the stamp on the left with the goofy characters, it looks more like a kid messing around than a business card. I've seen that same stamp before on another e104. But, I hear you. It's probably the case that a person continued to consume the product giving the cards to his kid rather than using them as business cards.

Bill,
Philadelphia also seems logical. However some collectors think the e90-3 "chicago" set was issued in northern cal. due to the fact that large groups of e90-3s have been found there.

Why california, probably for spring training goers.

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Posted By: Bill Cornell

Robert -

I've heard that E90-3-in-CA theory before... I'm skeptical. It would make it the only ML player set from CA other than Texas Tommy (& I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong on that) and it's full of... Cubs and White Sox? Not sure that those teams trained out West.

When I used to find E cards at smaller N.E. shows, most of them were E94's, E97's and E98's, all of which came from Cambridge factories. They hadn't strayed far from home.

Swift, Squires and the "Toy Town" bandit are now minor hobby legends.

Bill

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Posted By: Robert

Just because the set celebrates the champion A's doesn't mean it was issued in Philly or Tip-Top D322s and e90-2s in Pittsburg, does it?.<br />I guess tip tops were from pitt. Were e90-2s from Pitt?

I figure this was more of a promotional thing like Sports Illustrated advertising their cheezy plaques or hats of the World Champion Patriots.
Ok...that was a horrible analogy.
robert

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Posted By: Robert A

I saw a vintage "Bradley's Toy Town Post Office" game on ebay.
Has anyone seen this game before? Does it come with that stamp?

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Posted By: Mark Macrae

Bill, E-90-3 cards were DEFINITELY marketed in Northern California, along with the other two types of E90's. I've been personally involved with several "Outside the hobby" finds in the last 30 plus years of digging in Northern Cal. One of the first questions I ask sellers is where the cards came from. If they are from the same family that originally collected the cards, I inquire further as to their family history. Several years ago, longtime Chicago based hobbyist Don Steinbach visited me & we discussed the E90-3 cards. Don recalled his largest find of those cards turned up in Northern California when he & Pat Quinn used to do buying trips in this region back in the late 70's. In addition several other major league sets were marketed in Northern California prior to the 30's, including Gypsy Queens, Kimballs, Colgans Chips, American Caramel- E-120, 121,125, Exhibits, Goudeys. Even local companies marketed major league sets including Cardinet Candy in Oakland (Texas Tommy), Henry Johnson in Alameda (E-121 style), and Collins McCarthy of San Francisco (E-135) The West Coast market was primarily interested in players that they could relate to on a daily basis (I.e. Pacific Coast League players) but the region was far from ignored as far as major league issues were concerned

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Posted By: Patrick McMenemy

I purchased my Ira Thomas E104 w/World's Champion Logo from David Festberg about 7-8 years ago, and it has this Swift stamp as well.

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Posted By: jamie

there'a 244 w. 23rd st in new york and philly

the new york address is both an apartment building and apparently it also harbors a store called Ninety Nine Cents Creations

244 W 23rd St
New York, NY 10011
Main Phone: 212-627-2983

on a crapshoot, you could always give them a ring and ask if they know the history of the building

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Posted By: Scott Forrest

Found this on the internet:

Dinner at 2 PM . The regulation Xmas dinner of the hotel Nagle -- not as good though as it used to be on 12th Street. I did not partake of the wine, and cannot tell how good it was. At 5 PM went to 244 West 23rd to dine with Mrs. Harrison and Maud. There I did eat! First oysters on half shell -- soup -- Roast Turkey with sausage trimmings -- Plum pudding &c &c. Then went to shop at 7. A quiet but very pleasant day. Considering I could not see my children, I do not think I could have spent the day more to my satisfaction.

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Posted By: Bob

One of the advantageous of being a SABR member is access to GeritageQuest which has online records of many years of the US Census, 1910 included. The youngest male Swift I could find in Philly or NYC was an Ira Swift who was 16 and lived in Ward 16 of Manhattan NYC. Not sure where ward 16 is/was. Would be interesting if it included 23rd St. Ira was a message boy and his father was a tailor in a department store.

Probably not him, 16 is a little old, but kinda fun.

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Posted By: Ray

found a census website where someone lived on West 28th Street Brooklyn, 16th ward.

This may help too:

http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Ward/1903.ward.Bklyn.html

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Posted By: warshawlaw

As I recall, both teams did train in the SoCal area early in the 20th Century. I know for a fact that once Wrigley bought the Cubs, they trained on Santa Catalina Island off the LA coast (Wrigley owned the island too). There are some nice PCs of the Cubs training on the island. I want to say that the Sox trained in the Palm Springs area, but I may be off on that one.

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Posted By: Bob

I think the 16th ward in Brooklyn is a diferent entity from the 16th ward in Manhattan.

As of July, 1901 the 16th Ward in Manhattan's boundaries were

16th Ward ....
Bounded south by W. 14th st.;
west by North River;
north by W. 26th st.;
east by 6th av.

244 West 23rd street would be in the 16th ward Manhattan