Two New Sovereign Collection "Finds"
 

I always love these kinds of stories so I thought I would share my own little bit of good fortune.

I recently was able to purchase a large group of t206 cards from a dealer-friend of mine in the Rochester NY area. He had been sitting on these cards for over a year... much of that time was him waiting for them to be graded by PSA (and SGC)....he didn't want to sell to me until he had everyone of them back from grading....

Both collections were purchased by him about 18 months ago. Two separate acquaintences of his found out he was a card dealer, and presented him with these collections. Both owners had these collections passed down from their grandfathers back in the 70s or 80s when they passed. Their grandfathers were both the original owners who collected these in 1909-1911.

The first collection, has ~50 t206, and ~25 t205...and all but 3-4 were sovereign backs. My friend had them all graded by sgc and most were 3-4s...very well preserved! joss and lajoie portraits were the highlights, but about 10 hofs altogether.

The second collection was another great story...guy had just left them in his safe for 40+ years, and they were ALL t206...about 300 of them and 70% sovereign. This group however was entirely glued and/or taped into a scrapbook album. My friend had a colleague who was experienced in soaking so apparently they soaked them all and removed them from the scrapbook. Many came out great, but many had some paper loss and many had tape remnants still as well. He sent every one of them to PSA last year, hence the delay. I would have coached him not to bother with psa for some of the damaged cards, as many came back as AUTH and PSA1. Highlights were cobb bat on, wajo port, evers port, evers cubs, chance port, matty white cap and port, young bare hands, waddell port, etc. 42 hofers all sovs.

I have offered some offbacks for sale, but they were ones i had already...i have not yet made any of these collections generally available, but i will eventually.

You just never know what connections will be found. And i am SURE there are many many more tobacco-era collections just sitting in granchildren's safes.

That's great that these old collections continue to be discovered. I would be amazed if I was ever offered anything older than the 1970's! Got any pictures?