Vintage Racing?

[Bored5000]

Cool postcard, Kin. Some of the early postcards showing the start of individual Indy 500s are neat and can be picked up for nearly nothing.

Did anyone on here pick up the T36 set at REA last night?

[Beansballcardblog]

I searched through the listings at one point where I thought any of the racing cards could be. Somehow I missed it. Do you have a link to it? I greatly dislike how I have trouble finding racing things on these sites.

Originally Posted by Bored5000

Cool postcard, Kin. Some of the early postcards showing the start of individual Indy 500s are neat and can be picked up for nearly nothing.

Did anyone on here pick up the T36 set at REA last night?

[Bored5000]

Originally Posted by wvu_class_of_2001

I searched through the listings at one point where I thought any of the racing cards could be. Somehow I missed it. Do you have a link to it? I greatly dislike how I have trouble finding racing things on these sites.

I am sorry you were not aware of the T36 complete set at auction in REA. There was a mention of it earlier in this thread. The T36 set (25 cards) was also grouped together with a complete set (50 cards) of T37 "automobiles." The lot sold for $960 with the buyer's premium included. I wish the T36s would have been offered as a stand-alone item, but that seemed like a decent price for the two complete sets. When REA has any racing cards, they are usually located near the end of the auction listings.

http://bid.robertedwardauctions.com/...e?itemid=40749

I know it isn't racing, but the the auction also had a lot that featured complete sets of the 1955 Topps "World of Wheels" cards and 1961 Topps "Sports Cars" cards. That lot sold for a little over $700 with the buyer's premium added in.

http://bid.robertedwardauctions.com/...e?itemid=40791

[Beansballcardblog]

Heck, who knows....maybe I did see it and forgot. It might have already been out of my price range and I forgot about it. I've definitely been searching old auctions just to see what they "go" for so that I can bank some money and be ready in the future.

Originally Posted by Bored5000

I am sorry you were not aware of the T36 complete set at auction in REA. There was a mention of it earlier in this thread. The T36 set (25 cards) was also grouped together with a complete set (50 cards) of T37 "automobiles." The lot sold for $960 with the buyer's premium included. I wish the T36s would have been offered as a stand-alone item, but that seemed like a decent price for the two complete sets. When REA has any racing cards, they are usually located near the end of the auction listings.

http://bid.robertedwardauctions.com/...e?itemid=40749

I know it isn't racing, but the the auction also had a lot that featured complete sets of the 1955 Topps "World of Wheels" cards and 1961 Topps "Sports Cars" cards. That lot sold for a little over $700 with the buyer's premium added in.

http://bid.robertedwardauctions.com/...e?itemid=40791

[Beansballcardblog]

Forgot to post this one a few days ago when it went up on the site.

Second T36 Post for a Second Place Finisher.

[Bored5000]

I was able to pick up two major cards in recent weeks -- both of the Lorenzen cards from the 1972 STP set. I wrote about those cards earlier in this thread, and the Lorenzen with car variety is arguably the holy grail of racing cards. Racing collector Jon Hardgrove over on the net54 non-sports forum has written in the past that the two Lorenzen cards are the rarest major American racing cards. In 26 years of collecting, Hardgrove had seen one example of the Lorenzen with car card and four examples of the Lorenzen portrait card.

The Lorenzen with car card is now the centerpiece of my collection. I was absolutely shocked when I saw the two cards go up for auction on eBay about a month ago, I put in a big snipe (for me) for the Lorenzen with car card and a smaller snipe for the portrait card. I won the auction for the "with car" card and lost the portrait card auction. The seller actually lives about 45 minutes from me, and I began exchanging PMs with him about where he found the cards and educating him about the set and how rare those cards are. I agreed to meet the seller and pick up the card rather than have him mail it.

Upon meeting the seller, I talked with him for a while about the set and how he found the cards. The seller is a long time seller on eBay and the Lorenzen cards were among a box of car stuff/racing stuff he bought for $40 at a live auction. The seller told me has had some decent finds before, but this was far and away the greatest "find" he has ever had.

The cards were included in a box of racing photographs from former Area Auto Racing News (a racing trade paper based in Trenton, N.J.) photographer Leroy Leibelsperger, who passed away in May of this year. The box also included numerous 1970s and 1980s photos of NASCAR Winston Cup drivers, which aren't worth much money.

The seller said he tried doing some research online for some information about the Lorenzen cards to see if they were worth anything, but could not find anything online about them. He then put them on eBay and instantly knew he had something special when people began sending him PMs wanting him to end the auction. One offer came in for $300 for both cards to end the auction ; another offer of $750 for both cards was also made.

The "find" included one of the Lorenzen with car cards and a small batch of the portrait variety. The cards look like they were put in a box in 1972 and have not been touched since then. Those were the only STP cards included in the box, so the original owner knew the Lorenzen cards were something special. The "with car" variety of the Lorenzen car is really the holy grail of racing cards, but I also bought one of the Lorenzen portrait cards from the seller even though I lost the initial auction.

I know 1972 is not old in terms of Net54 "finds," but it is amazing what pops up for sale once in a while when a collector passes away. Jon Hardgrove needed 26 years to find a Lorenzen with car card, and the seller that I bought a Richard Petty STP card from earlier this year had only seen one Lorenzen with car card in 20 years of searching.
PSA has graded only one of the Lorenzen with car cards and four of the Lorenzen portrait cards.

[Beansballcardblog]

Congratulations! I love all of the backstory as well. I don't know a ton about the STP cards, nor do I have any. One thing I love and hate at the same time about the old racing cards is that we don't know a ton about them. I know that I've read discussion about distribution of the STP cards and there's no difinitive answer, if I am correct.

Recently I bought a set of the 1960 Parkhurst Indianapolis Speedway Winners/Hawes Wax Indy/V338-2 (it goes by many names) set. I just can't seem to find out much about the history of the set, the distribution (though I know it was in pack form), or much of anything.

Every kind of collecting has it's own unique challenges. I envy the vintage baseball guys in that, while prices can be high, there is generally more knowledge about the cards and also more of them available than we have in racing.

Again, congratulations on the acquisition! Thank you so much for sharing!