I have decided to potentially part with a few of these cards. I am not looking to sell them all and will decide (if there is interest) as to which ones I will keep for my own personal collection based on interest.
The word RARE gets thrown around a lot in this hobby but these cards are essentially one-of-a-kind at this point and RARE doesn't even really do them justice. These cards are possibly among the most beautiful (in my opinion) and rarest 20th century card sets ever made.
There was an extensive thread about these cards a few years back on the forum, please see here:
http://net54baseball.com/showthread....t=1939+unknown
As described in the original thread these all came out of a 1939 scrapbook that included an entire 1939 Cubs Team Issue set and many other period newspaper articles, ticket stubs, programs, etc. Everything in the scrapbook was from Chicago & dates specifically to the year 1939. These cards are apparently some sort of an uncatalogued set dating to 1939 (based on Bonura being issued w/ the Giants--his only year with the team) that were available in the Chicago area. I have personally given them the title of 1939 R-Uncat myself so they are not currently catalogued anywhere under that title. Every card here was soaked out of the scrapbook, with only the French exhibiting any damage--he has a paper pull on back that is not detached, all cards were soaked with no damage or evidence of having been soaked evident on front or back. All cards other from this series that have ever been found (other than the ones I have here) exhibit a pair of staple holes at top--probably due to the way they were issued. All but two of my cards are extremely thick cardboard, the Mize and Travis are on thinner paper stock, however they are all exactly the same size and from the same initial source. I still own the scrapbook these came from and the Bonura was never soaked from the page as evidence of where they came from.
These all appear to be pristine due to the fact that they were pasted into the book immediately after they were obtained, and not bouncing around in a shoebox for the last 70 years. Again, these are the only examples from this rare set that don't exhibit the staple holes evident on every other example that has ever been discovered. These are all 100% factory cut and all measure the same (shown here at roughly actual size), there is no indication that these were hand-cut.
I really don't mind if these don't sell and would be happy to keep them forever, that being said should I sell them these are the prices I would need to get for them (color in parenthesis refers to background color):
Zeke Bonura (Blue White) -still attached to the original scrapbook page (unsoaked)
$895
Rick Ferrell (Black) Hall of Famer
$1795
Larry French (Orange) paper pull on back
$825 Sale Pending
Stanley Hack (Purple White)
$895
Buddy Lewis (White) Faint crease on back
$895
Johnny Mize (Orange) Hall of Famer
$1995
Cecil Travis (Dark Blue)
$995
Again, keep in mind that I will be keeping some of these for myself and I reserve the right to choose which ones I keep based on any demand (I will keep one of the HOFers so if one sells the other will be kept in my personal collection)