Story behind 1914 CJ Del Pratt?
 

What's the story behind the '14 Cracker Jack Del Pratt? I saw the card in legendary is already at $13k in a SGC 30 with 5 days left.

VERY difficult card to come by, Pete, in ANY condition.

Rumored the Pratt family owns a few copies tying up examples...no proof on that one.

It doesn't hurt that there are several board members (among others) who are very aggressively pursuing this set -- a perfect time for a key rarity to pop up for sale . . .

It is a VERY tough card to find and a VERY low population! Plus the 100 year anniversary is just around the corner.

I bet that there will be more action on that card before it ends.

I was lucky enough to pick mine up shortly after I started collecting the set!

Barry- great card. Your card should be the poster boy for "buy the card not the holder" a card with really nice eye appeal for a PSA 1.

seriously! there is nothing "poor" about that card, and I have seen hundreds of various cards graded higher that do not have close to the eye appeal of that card. really nice!

I'm just happy to have one in my collection:

Thanks tbob and Derek for the compliments. Actually the card looks nicer in person than it does in those images.



Brian, your Pratt ain't too shabby either. Great meeting you at the National!

My pleasure, Barry.

Del Pratt up for auction
 

I came to this site because I also was wondering what makes this card so rare. In case you're interested, I'm auctioning off a nice Del Pratt PSA3 on ebay right now with no reserve.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/180997576518...84.m1555.l2649

http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...Pratt_14_F.jpg
http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...Pratt_14_B.jpg

[QUOTE=cjackson70;1045135]I came to this site because I also was wondering what makes this card so rare. In case you're interested, I'm auctioning off a nice Del Pratt PSA3 on ebay right now with no reserve.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/180997576518...84.m1555.l2649


Welcome to the board......for future reference it's a no-no and against the rules to post things for sale in this main forum. No worries this time as it's your first post........ thanks ....and btw, what do you collect, if anything?



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Sorry for the solicitation. But this thread developed into a conversation showing interest in the auction value of this card. I provided a link and pictures of a current auction that seemed to flow with the interest shown by the people having the conversation on this thread. Your reply indicates that I was wrong. I apologize. Won't happen again.

I collect cards and cars.

Apology accepted.

Agreed, not a big deal. Good luck with the sale :)
And we still haven't seen a good explanation why Pratt is so scarce, only that he is?

Are other cards on the same printing sheet also rare? Probably not.
Maybe it was pulled from circulation because Del was an anti-Cracker Jack zealot like Honus Wagner was with smoking. He didn't want the kids eating all that delicious caramel.

You don't see this too often!
 

The population reports at PSA and SGC have exploded recently with rising populations, with many more raw cards coming out of the woodwork and getting graded, as well as cards being switched over from one grading company to another. About a year ago, when I last ran the numbers, there were 15 cards in the 1914 Cracker Jack set that had a COMBINED SGC AND PSA population of 15 cards or fewer. In fact, at that time, the combined population of the Del Pratt was 11 and the combined population of the Frank Owens card from the set was only 10! The picture below was taken during a brief period of time when I had 3 of the 10 graded Frank Owens cards in my possession!

Many of the cards in the set with ultra low populations (15 or fewer graded examples) are in the "second half" of the set (along with the Pratt) and certainly may have been on the same sheet.