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Picked these up last week in an online auction that I stumbled upon. The Polo Grounds with John McGraw and the Home of the Giants are unused. The Valentines Day and Municipal Stadium postcards are postally used and dated 1910 and 1934, respectfully.

What a cool RPPC team postcard! I love the backdrops that some of these studios used. Roush (back row, middle) looks so young.

Just was given this nice rppc of Nebraska players...dont know if this was an all-star team or what...any Nebraska experts out there are free to chime in

Looks like probably a barnstorming or all star type game filled with players from the Nebraska State League and the Western League in 1912. The player third from right with the antelope on his uniform is a Lincoln player. Lincoln played their home games at Antelope Park. Too bad he is looking down or I may have been able to identify him. Ty Cobb's brother Paul played on that 1912 team.

Rick, here is the companion piece to your Walk-Overs team shot. Nice to see the 1909 postmark on yours. Looks like different uniforms, but the same backdrop.

Attachment 494859

As you may know Jim, this postcard image was used in the famous “Glory of Their Times” book by Ritter.

Indeed it was Derek. It was also used a a cover for this book.

Attachment 494908

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Thank you Dan, that was the uniform I couldnt really pinpoint.

The bats and glove could just be props - notice the extra set of cleats in front of Ed.

Couple of Yankee Stadium postcards that I picked up a few months ago.

Here is a nice one I found recently

https://photos.imageevent.com/joejo2...ize/img597.jpghttps://photos.imageevent.com/joejo2...ize/img598.jpg

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That is amazing!

1910 Hopkins Bros Champion Postcard featuring Hall of Famer JL Wilkinson

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...wg&oe=6202AE6A
https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...og&oe=620288CA

I just picked up this graded Eastern Exhibit PC to complement the raw example with an Exhibit Supply overprint that I've had in my collection for years.

Lot 632 Description: Lot of (13) baseball team photo postcards from 1906-1948
 

If anyone on the board won this lot last evening in the Hunt Auction, nice pickup. If you plan on selling some of them off I am interested in the 1909 WI Badgers tour of Japan card.

Big-time card of the Big Train, Val, congratulations!

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Jeez, Rick. How many of these postcards did you buy from me? Either directly or through my consignments through LOTG? Glad to see them shared here again...

I had one other team PC of the Washington POM team w/ McKechnie. That one was trimmed almost exactly the same and was also produce by Record Publishing Co. Not mine any longer, but figured I'd share since you showed the other "composite" version of the PC I once owned:

https://photos.imageevent.com/derekg...l%20_sold_.jpg

I also used to own this one...same image, different trimming:

https://photos.imageevent.com/derekg..._%20_sold_.jpg

I still think your vertically oriented composite photo is the best of the available "earliest" McKechnie postcards is the best.

Dihigo
 

Happy to have added this one recently.

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Unfortunately not
 

Rick,

Unfortunately, it's not that early. I wish. 1940ish Veracruz team

Here's one from the 19' aughts, some time before 1908 (postmarked 11/3/1907). One of the reasons I like postcards that have actually been mailed is for the stamp and dated postmark on back.

Locke, Ca. team. 1908

New York Highlanders........

Perhaps "Hippo" Vaughn can tell us what, if anything, Scotsman wear under their kilts.

A few of mine I'm picked up over the years...

Yes, I am this far off the beaten path:

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Great THread and some really fantastic Postcard.

Amazing how many are collected and amazing how many are now so collectible and prices surging on them

Here is my contribution to this thread

Do you know what year that pacific coast league Los Angeles postcard is? And what does the back look like? Thanks for sharing

Awesome show stopper card Jeffrey!!!!!

J.D. McCarthy baseball postcards
 

For anyone who's interested, I just uploaded a gallery of my J.D. McCarthy postcards, along with an intro detailing my attempts to date the cards using the various reverse styles found on McCarthy postcards over the years.

I'm copying the intro below, and here's the link to the gallery. (Scroll down past the text to see the actual cards):

https://imageevent.com/willallison/mccarthy

I'm always looking to buy or trade for McCarthy postcards. Thanks for any input! Will Allison


AN INTRODUCTION TO J. D. MCCARTHY BASEBALL POSTCARDS

J. D. McCarthy was a prolific photographer based in the northern suburbs of Detroit, first in Royal Oak and then in Oak Park. In addition to photographing baseball players for Topps, McCarthy produced photos and postcards of athletes in multiple sports including baseball, basketball, football, hockey, and horse racing.

McCarthy is best known for his baseball postcards, which he produced from roughly 1950 to 1980, and which were commissioned by the ballplayers themselves to be used in filling autograph and fan-mail requests. (Yes, once upon a time, players cared enough about their fans to personally foot the bill for these postcards, which they then gave away for free, often autographed.) McCarthy also sold his postcards directly to collectors. The unnumbered, undated cards sometimes included facsimile autographs or ad copy promoting a player’s business interests, such as Nellie Fox Bowl, Don Drysdale’s Dugout restaurant, and Gaylord Perry’s Balestra Pontiac dealership.

In addition to photgraphing most stars of the day, McCarthy photographed many players who never made the big leagues. According to Bob Lemke, former editor of Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards, “...McCarthy had hundreds of photos of players in major league uniforms that never actually played in the bigs. Many of his photos were shot at spring training when prospects were up with the big club before being returned to the minors or hanging up their spikes.” As a result, his postcards comprise many obscure players.

McCarthy reportedly liked to approach his prospective customers (i.e., players) during their very first appearance in spring training, so his postcards also comprise a number of rookie cards, including Sparky Anderson, Luis Aparicio, Jim Bunning, Orlando Cepeda, Roberto Clemente, Don Drysdale, Rollie Fingers, Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, Jim Kaat, Al Kaline, Roger Maris, Minnie Minoso, Thurman Munson, Ron Santo, Willie Stargell, Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Billy Williams, and many others.

McCarthy also had many repeat customers, producing multiple poses of some players throughout their careers. For instance, he issued no fewer than eight poses of Don Drysdale, seven poses of Mickey Mantle (including group shots with Stan Musial and Roger Maris), six poses of Ron Santo, five poses of Willie Mays, four poses of Billy Williams, three poses of Ted Williams, and so on. Many poses can be found with multiple reverse styles, indicating separate orders placed over the years.

DATING MCCARTHY POSTCARDS

Dating McCarthy postcards can be tricky, unless there’s a legible postmark, but even a postmark doesn’t necessarily establish the year of issue, as some players answered fan mail with postcards they ordered years earlier. In most cases, though, a date (or date range) can usually be determined by cross-referencing variables such as the postmark (if there is one), the player’s tenure with a given team, and the uniform style. (“Dressed to the Nines,” a baseball uniform database, is available on the Baseball Hall of Fame’s website. See link below.)

After collecting McCarthy postcards for a few years, I began to wonder if the cards could also be dated by using the reverse style. After studying hundreds of McCarthy postcards, I assembled a taxonomy of thirteen different reverse styles (see gallery) used by McCarthy over the years. By comparing scores of postmarked examples, I was able to determine a date range for each style. This taxonomy is an ongoing project, subject to revision based on newly discovered postmarked examples.

Postcards featuring the Type 12 reverse are the most difficult to date for a couple of reasons. First, McCarthy used this style longer than any other, from approximately 1966 to 1980, about fifteen years.* (No other reverse style was used for more than six years.) Second, by the early 1970s, more players were mailing their postcards inside envelopes, so the cards themselves bear no postmarks. The latest Type 12 postmarked examples I’ve seen are from 1972 (not counting a Willie Stargell card postmarked in Cooperstown on his HOF induction day in 1988).

MY COLLECTION

I began collecting McCarthy baseball postcards around 2010, focusing mainly on Hall of Famers, stars, and semistars. According to Bob Lemke, McCarthy created images of more than a thousand baseball players. In the 1980s, a collector named Rich Suen attempted to create a checklist, though I’ve never seen the checklist or sought it out, as one thing I enjoy about collecting McCarthy PCs is discovering cards that I didn’t know existed.

I also enjoy the challenge. Though there are usually hundreds of McCarthy postcards for sale on eBay at any given time, the majority of them are quite rare, especially compared to their readily available Topps and Bowman counterparts. There are some poses that I’ve seen only once or twice since 2010. Furthermore, the number of McCarthy cards on eBay speaks more to the number of different cards he produced than to the scarcity of individual cards.

I also appreciate the affordability of McCarthy postcards. Some cards sell for hundreds (in 2021, a 1955 Roberto Clemente fetched $460 on eBay), but sales rarely exceed $100, and most can be had for $10 to $50.

So why are McCarthy postcards not more popular and expensive? I think there are two primary reasons. First, collectors tend to prefer cards that have been checklisted, and the only extant McCarthy checklist is not readily available.

Second, collectors increasingly prefer cards that can be submitted to a third-party grader, but as of this writing, PSA will not grade McCarthy postcards—perhaps because it has long been rumored that after the photographer’s death in the 1980s, his negatives were used to produce reprints.

A WORD ON REPRINTS

Even if the reprint rumor is true, a survey of cards available on the marketplace strongly suggests that the vast majority of McCarthy postcards were never reprinted. The cards are almost never offered in bulk (a recent lot of one hundred Bucky Dent cards being a rare exception), and many of the most desirable players and poses—the ones that would actually be worth reprinting—are too scarce to have been reprinted.

In the end, it just wouldn’t have made sense to go to the trouble of reprinting cards that traditionally did not fetch much of a premium.

In more than ten years of collecting McCarthy postcards, I have encountered reprints exactly once. They were printed on flimsy, non-glossy stock with a different type of ink than McCarthy used. In short, they were easy to spot as fakes—so easy that the seller, not a McCarthy collector, billed them as probable reprints when he offered them on eBay. I bought the seller’s whole inventory of fakes in order to take them off the market.**

*Type 12 was the first and only reverse type to include a zip code. Initially, I assumed Type 12 cards dated from 1963, when zip codes were first introduced in the U.S. However, the earliest postmarked example I’ve seen is from 1966. It’s possible that McCarthy and his printer were exhausting their supply of Type 8, 9, and 10 reverses before switching to Type 12.

**The small hoard comprised between five and ninety copies each of one basketball player (Rick Barry) and ten baseball players: Luis Aparicio (two poses), Whitey Ford, Ralph Kiner, Harvey Kuenn, Fred Lasher, Willie McCovey, Minnie Minoso, Duke Snider, Hoyt Wilhelm, and Early Wynn. All of the reprints featured the Type 10 reverse, which was used by McCarthy from 1963-1965, but as far as I know, he never produced any of these particular poses with a Type 10 reverse except for Duke Snider, whose reprint features a transposed reverse. For purposes of comparison, I have included the reprints (except for Rick Barry and Fred Lasher) in my gallery.

What a great website Will and a super resource for McCarthy postacrds. Thanks for sharing. a good trivia question would be how many HOFers have been issued by McCarthy

Thanks for taking a look, Jay!

New member here with a few postcards I didn't see posted yet. Lots of great old postcards I've never seen!

Wow ! Just wow .

Welcome to the board and love your Cobb Exhibits!

+1 Agree
Welcome aboard and those are great looking cards

He’s not old. Not poppin a plug of tobacco. Not worth $3M. Just a down and dirty ball player.

Sacramento Senators CA I believe Early 1910s (Not certain).
Love that genuine Desert backdrop.

"Hello old sport, and how would you like a big fat trout?'
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...dd14ed89be.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...12c48d7e2d.jpg

My only PC and just for laughs.

Not sure what to think .
 

Will it fit in my CD player ?

Cooperstown Hall of Fame 78 Phonograph Flexi-Disk Postcard .

You can hear it online , easy to look up .

Attachment 535965

Attachment 535966

I knew Zanadakis was a car collector but didn't realize he worked on airplanes too...

Happy to keep this thread going. So fun to go through and see so many incredible images. Also love the many side stories along the way.

Here's my humble group. (Sorry for any repeats!)

Attachment 536167Attachment 536168

Attachment 536169Attachment 536170

Attachment 536171Attachment 536172

Attachment 536173Attachment 536174

Attachment 536175Attachment 536176

Attachment 536177Attachment 536178

Monte DuPont

Brooks with a young fan.
Love the post-a-photo back, Haven't seen many like it. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...073e1a705f.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...8710127d32.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...dbf1eaa03b.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...b5f8f635ac.jpg

Attachment 536280
Ruth

Very nice Ruth. Here is another, recently acquired

Great add Ryan. I had eyes on that as well. I love it.

Couple of my most baseball related Billy Sunday postcards.

Mailed from mount oliver (inside pittsburgh) the day after the 1909 World Series. While a mailman for 20 years I never saw anything like it. Not worth anything, just different!

some new pickups ...have had the rabbit for a while, I think...

Saw the costume one for sale and contemplated getting it very much. Great addition!

Recent pickups
 

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Guess I am a hoarder, had three now back to two, this is the newest one.

New arrival. A little beat up on the corners but still a nice image.

Briggs Stadium. Postmarked 1955

Hard to follow some of your precious cards, but here's a V.O. Hammon 1915 South Side postmarked in 1919. Weird that it says 1931 on back but it's postmarked earlier. I don't know what the 1931 is.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...cd07ddb4ce.jpg

Tyrus!!! Bottom 5 are postcards


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is probably my favorite piece in my Johnny Antonelli player collection. It is actually larger than a typical postcard, coming in at around 5 x 7. It is my understanding there are versions featuring Bill Rigney, Tommy Henrich, and some guy named Willie Mays.

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DTx4d7VEr...JAKB_Front.jpg
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fshsGsUKw.../JAKB_Back.jpg

Some of these are postmarked 1908

Those are great Doug. Never seen them before.

Two new arrivals today; Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds. Both postally unused.

The Polo Grounds one is a bit worn around the edges and I already had a black ink version, but how can you let a vintage postcard with John McGraw pass by you without buying it?

Here’s a few.

This just arrived. Looking for info on this team if anyone knows anything.

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Daubert is credited with 392 sacrifice hits, but between 1908 and 1925 a fly ball that allowed a runner to score was considered a sacrifice hit (just like a successful bunt); there was no separate statistic for sacrifice flies. Daubert was certainly a good bunter, but his record for sacrifice hits is not directly comparable to the records for players after 1925.

Just curious - What are your opinions on postal cancellations on the post cards?

I like seeing the date/city where the post card was used. What' really nice are cancellations for different dates with baseball historical significance.

Does anybody know how widespread "fake" cancellations are? This is the part that sucks - you find a neat niche and somebody has to figure out a way to capitalize on it and screw things up.

What's the best way to try to determine if a postal cancellation is "faked"?

Perhaps I should just start a new thread on that topic. Holy cow - I didn't realize this thread is over 1750 posts - wow!

Postmark on Postcards
 

Good question - I like a postmark because it can identify the team, give you a starting point for research, and help justify the results.

Forgery schemes are for profit - the postmark and the stamp add nostalgia, but as far as value, I can't recall seeing a postmarked card grading higher than - "Authentic" - "1" or "1.5" by any grading company - probably because this feature could be faked and/or is not part of the original card. Those seem to be the automatic "default" grades for mailed cards.

In our hobby, the higher the grade, the higher the value - thus, it makes more sense not to postmark or add writing to a postcard.

Where I could see something like this being done, are for historic events - like a postcard of the Titanic being mailed the day of departure... I would guess those are the postcards that should be scrutinized most.

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I'm not saying that it isn't Grimes (3rd from left, back row), but I'm having a hard time seeing how his face changed so much from 1912, when he was with the Austin Bills, to 1913 with Chattanooga. Also, Grimes was only 5'10" tall, and with some guys on the roster standing at 6'2"-6'5" (per statscrew), I would argue that it's one of those guys and not Grimes. Perhaps one of the other fellows is Grimes? Or perhaps he missed the day of the photo shoot? See below for an early image of Grimes with the 1912 Austin Bills:

I'd have to agree with Derek on this one. I do not recognize Grimes amongst the group.

Furthermore, this post card shows the Lookouts schedule on the reverse which means that it was created prior to the beginning of the season.

https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/burleigh-grimes/

But this article on sabr.org tells us that:

"(Grimes) started the 1913 season with the Ottumwa (Iowa) Packers of the Central Association, where he was so effective that the Detroit Tigers purchased his contract for $400. After a week the Tigers shipped Grimes to Class A Chattanooga without his ever having put on a Detroit uniform."

Which means that Grimes would not have been present for a pre season photoshoot.

+1

That image was surely taken before the 1913 season started and before Grimes was sent from Ottumwa to Chattanooga.

Here’s a couple of Arkansas cards.

Walter Johnson pitched in that ballpark.