[Sébastien]

Monday on Ebay I bought 3 Mexican cards of Sylvio Garcia, Alfred Pinkston and Burnis “Wild Bill” Wright from the set identified as the 1959 La Aficion En El Beisbol. Personally, I was not really attracted to the Dihigo, Dandridge and Gibson cards. Not only because in 1959 they were no longer active players, but because in my view we tend to exaggerate the status of these players simply based on the fact that they are enshrined in Cooperstown and, as a consequence, their cards are often overpriced. At the same time, great players that will most likely never be elected to the Hall of Fame are underestimated. For example, who can tell me without doubt that Dandridge was a better infielder than Sylvio Garcia, Perucho Cepeda, Milito Navarro or Sammy Bankhead. As for Gibson, I have the impression that he was primarily a slugger and have my own doubts on his overall skills behind the plate as a catcher. Therefore, even if I have enough money, instead of collecting items of Gibson I would by far prefer by collecting cards of amazing catchers and managers like Julio Rojo and Quincy Trouppe. My points here is not to say that I would not purchase cards of Gibson or Dihigo, but I would never take a shot on suspect cards for these players. However, I decided to take a chance for the cards of Garcia, Pinkston and Wright despite my doubts on the authenticity. I was also interested by the card of Alonzo Perry, but I was outbid in the last seconds by the guy who purchased the Dihigo, Dandridge and Gibson cards.

Despite my doubts, I finally decided to pull the trigger on these cards based on the following considerations. First of all, to this day, most Mexican issues are largely unknown and very scarce, therefore, the fact than none of us know these cards is not a surprise. However, the claim that they belong to a set issued by La Aficion makes sense. La Aficion is an old Mexican sports paper still distributed nowadays, it has recently been purchased by Grupo Milenio. The fact that cards are paper cuts is not suspect but consistent with the time, actually most latin cards from the 40’s and 50’s are paper cuts and they are not less valuable because of that. For example, would any one disregard a card of Buck O’Neil from the 1946-47 Almanaque Deportivo?

Many of you refer to Dominican issues from the 50’s in order to make assessment on the authenticity of the Mexican cards in question. To be honest, I do not see the point. The quality of pictures on many vintage Dominican cards is in fact pretty low, much lower than the pictures we can see on the present Mexican cards. It seems to me that, unlike Dominican issues from the early 50’s and Mexican issues from the late 50’s, Dominican cards from the late 50’s and early 60’s are not paper cards, but cardboard cuts. Moreover, Dominican and Mexican cards are usually not the same size, the Dominican cards part of my collection issued in 1950 are paper cuts the same size as the Puerto Rican Toleteros or Denia. In my view, the fact that the Mexican cards in question measure 1.25” x 1.60” is just another indication that they might be authentic. In December 2015, I purchased a Mexican card of Leon Kellman from a set identified by the seller as 1958 Ases Y Estrellas Del Beisbol (which still need to be authenticated): the dimensions of that card are also 1.25” x 1.60”. Indeed, it is quite small, but not as small as some Cuban issues like Mallorquina. Obviously, there is no relation between the size and the value of a card. How much one would agree to pay for a Mallorquina card of Larry Brown?

The second reason why I was interested in these cards is related to the players represented in this set. Before this auction, I have never expected to get a vintage card of Burnis “Wild Bill” Wright, also a legendary Negro Leaguer. Like a friend says: collecting old latin baseball cards is a lotery, you never know what you will get. My maximum bid for Wright’s card was $300, and I got it for the ridiculous price of $30, seriously! Can you imagine how much such a unique item may worth if authenticated and graded by professionals. I also got a card of Sylvio Garcia, one of my favourites, and believe me I would never let a vintage card of him away. Seriously, have you seen the picture of him on the card, it is just awesome, he looks like a bum ball player straighten out of Rikers Island. But to be honest I was very surprised that it sold for a higher price than the Dihigo and Dandridge cards. At these prices, I should have tried to get these cards as well. Finally, I also got a potential vintage and unique Mexican card of the giant outfielder Al Pinkston, this guy from New Orleans was one the most predominant players in Mexico during the 50’s, it might be a tremendous addition to my collection if authentic.

I will definitely send these cards to SGC for authentification, but so far in my view, they are not that suspect. In any cases, if they are not authentic, I will just send them back to the seller and rely on Ebay protection in order to get refund. Before I purchased the cards, I asked myself a question: If still alive, what would Richard Merkin have done, let potentially unique cards Negro Leaguers away? I don’t think so, he would take a chance and act like a predatory collector with crazy bids. I am afraid some of you missed an opportunity, do you remember the 1945 Mexican Album sold on ebay few years ago? I am very confident that these cards are authentic, but I will contain my enthusiasm until the cards are authenticated by SGC. Before that moment it would be highly appreciated to have opinions from expert collectors like Al Jurgela (also a fan of Pinkston), Cesar Lopez and Ryan Christoff.