New Discovery - The super rare N-300 Mayo Mini

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Posted By: Bruce Babcock

A forerunner of the Topps 1975 Mini cards by 80 years, the Mayo folks test marketed a mini version of their popular tobacco cards in 1895. My grandfather owned one of these rare gems and I recently discovered it in a pocket of the suit he was buried in. I'm selling it now to raise money for my sister's tatto removal surgery. I don't know anything about cards but it has been graded 5-Excellent by a professional grading company. Acceptable forms of payment - gold bullion, uncut diammonds only - NO PAYPAL!!! BIN $1,000.000.00 ebay handle - cutshort@nobody'sperfect.net



It's interesting that the folks who graded this card identified it as a Mayo when the advertising that MAKES it a Mayo has been removed. It's also interesting that the same folks who can detect "evidence of trimming" in cards that appear to measure perfectly, and who can reject cards as "altered" for seemingly imperceptable tampering, and who can parse the distinction between an "9" and a "10," failed to notice that this card measures about 15% short. Apparently this is within acceptable tolerances for the issue. It's too bad that there are no reference books in the hobby which contain photos and measurements of the various issues. Oh, wait. There ARE such books. Lot's of them. I guess there is more to a reference book than simply owning it. One must actually OPEN it to find it useful.

I saved this scan from some long forgotten auction some time ago. It's one of my personal favorites of the grading misadventures I've seen. Maybe you've seen it before but I couldn't resist. It's easy (and fun) to pick on the grading companies but they tend to bring it on themselves.