1887 Tobin Lithos, Color and B&W
 

Just starting to look at these, the ones with the named players. Seems like the black and white would qualify as not just "scarce" but "rare", right? Are they much coveted? Seem, for this type, pretty cool...

The black and white are scarcer, and definitely in demand, but some collectors like the aesthetics of the colored ones. They're all good, and you can put together a master set of both series.

There are lot of "goofy" early card issues, and I'm not crazy about the aesthetics of most, and few use real players, so if people like the looks of these Tobins then I guess that is a giant plus. Many other issues seem to be frowned on as "cartoon" cards....but but not these?

All comic trade cards depict caricatures of ballplayers. They are not meant to be accurate portraits, like baseball cards. So I guess they are an acquired taste. Not everybody likes them. I always did, because I felt the art work on many was quite good. Take 'em or leave 'em.

But these are caricatures of actual players, whereas other Tobin and trade issues are generic, or at least not noted as to what (if any) player they were based on.

And logically it makes sense why the B&W were printed in much lesser quantities. It wasn't much earlier where trade cards and color printing were produced on such an economically accessible scale. And the masses liked the color. So even though it was cheaper for B&W cards, advertisers actually got more "bang for their buck" using color.

FWIW, I'm interested in off-condition copies of these.

tobins
 

There is also a third set of tobins much rarer than the first two. A few samples in the scan below.

Not sure which ones you are referring to as the most scarce....

The very bottom two in that photo are EXTREMELY scarce. The King Kelly is the most common on that set. There are 9 known in the set at this point, but you have to wonder if there is a 10th. I have only seen one or two of each example over the past 15-20 years.

tobin
 

The rare set I was referring to has the number 149 in the lower left corner. There are nine known in the set. See samples below.

Several were uncataloged up until the past few years. Here are examples of the 9 known.

Aren't the B & W with players' names also super scarce?

They are much tougher to find than the color versions, but not nearly as scarce as these other black and whites.

I'm going to forward the thread
 

to someone that has been trying to continue and correct Keetz's work (I have a recent copy) - he's my go to guy for something like this as he's been doing trade cards since before "I" was born - and that was quite a few days before yesterday - I'll report back after I speak to him and go to my guides/notes to hopefully see what can be added or simply confirmed to the list. I actively collected Base Ball trade cards (and others) for a few years. Just returned from an 18 hour long and successful session at the casino and poker room - don't expect anything before the weekend :-)

trade card guide
 

OK. I spoke with my friend Ron and while he hasn't been marketing this new edition (12/12) - he's agreed to make copies available at a fair price to net54 members. Knowledge is power. It's a 29 page guide listing Frank Keetz and Ron Schieber as authors. It contains COLOR pictures of the cards and includes many updates from the last published Keetz guide. There is NOT a price "guide" rather just a simply presented complete listing of the known baseball trade cards by style and category and accompanied by at least one color picture for identification
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As for the Tobin sets above - confirmed at 10/10/9.................

he can be contacted at:
madmoney@neo.rr.com