1914 Cracker Jack from REA Marketplace

[JJ McGraw]

Recently , I participated in last weekends REA auction and scored some nice items, which I will post here after they arrive.
The other day, REA sent me an email about their Marketplace that was now up and running. I’m assuming it’s items that did not sell, but you all would know that better than me. There were 5 Cracker Jack cards for sale…..all WWWAAAAYYYY out of my league…but one. And it was a 1914. With the pricing on 1914’s I’ve seen lately, I never thought I’d ever get one again as I have been buying 1915’s this new year. But there it was, staring me in the face. It also said you could make an offer, which I did, then a little back and forth for a couple of days. I finally accepted the offer tonight. First,I read a little on the internet about him and found him to be a really interesting playing with a 9 year major league career….which included playing for St Louis in the Federal League both years. So, I added Bob Groom , who pitched a no hitter on May 6, 1917 to my CJ collection . He rounds off the 1914 number of cards to 10( all the other 9 were bought years ago, Evers, McGraw ,etc). The 1915’s definitely outnumber the ‘14’s, but it was neat to add one more to that column.
And I’ve said this before, I love cards with character and this card has it in spades…..caramel stains, some previous owner writing the word “pitcher” below his picture,and then some light pencil writing on the back on the line between the bio info and the printing info.
I’d like to acquire some more 1914’s, but these opportunities at this price don’t seem to happen very much at all. Never say never……….
Also, as a teaser…..two of the items I won last week are 1915 cards and one I was searching for since last year. The other was , as we say here in South Texas, just plain “ pelon”.