Quote:
Originally Posted by Exhibitman
The boxing set is a 1910 issue. The Jeffries image:
is based on a post-training portrait of Jeff ca. June 1910.
The boxing cards have definite levels of scarcity. The four black fighters are rare, whether short printed or not saved is impossible to say, but anyone I know who has assembled the set has had those as the roughest to find.
I don't know the baseball set (i know of it but don't follow it) so I don't know how tough the boxing issue is in comparison. My purely unscientific observation is that the issue is scarce: you can find a type card pretty readily but finding a specific fighter may be a challenge and the black guys are very, very hard to find at all. |
Thanks for this, that would strongly suggest the baseball set was issued first then, if the boxing must be a late 1910 or later issue.
The Baseball set of 75 does not appear to have SP cards within it, as far as I have seen. The players who appeared in T206 are more commonly collected, but I don’t think exist in lesser quantity.
The boxing cards seem to be in abnormally great condition. The % of examples that appear to be in VG/EX-Mint seems, unscientifically, to be unusually high from what comes to market. There’s quite a few slabbed 6+ examples for a southern (Louisiana?) regional from 1910. Makes me wonder if many of these came from one source and that’s why some cards are extra difficult?
I don’t think it is likely that most of the collectors of this set in c. 1910 were just racists who threw images of blacks away, as this effect is seen in 0 other sports or non-sports sets of the period. If this was the reason, it should be reflected elsewhere and is not.
The reason is probably lost to time, as the evidence suggests it is not this, it is not likely to be the set size (American Lithography was set up to produce sets in multiples of 25, even if we still have a poor understanding of the sheet layouts), etc.
It’s possible the effect is partly, though I suspect not entirely, that cards of black fighters from this period are more popular than cards of similarly talented white fighters today (check the sold prices). Jack Johnson’s 2 cards are the most commonly seen T218, but his rare Tolstoi back very rarely comes to market compared to most of the others. The tougher material of these guys are more collected, and some are ‘stuck’ in long term collections, I think.