How close was Howe McCormick to having a complete T206 set? Not very close, really.

[Howe’s Hunter]

NEW COPY APRIL 1, 2025

Taking a cue from Brian’s suggestion, finally went through the binder and found the best example of both stamps on the brands they can be found on.

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The more tradition stamp is on either Piedmont, Old Mill or Hindu backed cards. The more unusual Saturday Evening Post stamp has only been seen in green and uses his first name Urich and middle initial H. I’ve only seen 13 examples of that, with David Brooks having the one I don’t have. And I’ve not seen that green stamp on a Hindu backed cards. Yet.

If you have or see one of the 105 I’m missing, please let me know.



BACK TO THE ORIGINAL POST

When the Goldin lot of 950+ cards came to light, it ruined my aspirations of rebuilding Howe’s collection of cards that he had stamped between 1909 and 1911. So with the nudge from Paul Mifsud, I changed my goal from having every McCormick-stamped card to having one of every McCormick stamped card.

Having gathered 395 cards in the 20+ years before the auction in late September and knowing of another 42 cards that I had found but not been able to acquire, I thought there was the possibility Howe might have come close to a complete set. Once Scott Gross started going through the 950 or so cards, we found out Howe wasn’t really that close. And some of the cards he was missing were quite a surprise.

Since the McCormick Howe General Store didn’t sell Polar Bear tobacco, that knocked a set down to 523. Going through my 395 cards, I had only 214 individual cards and 185 duplicates. Of the 42 others I knew about, there were only five that I didn’t already have or know about. And as Scott started going through all the cards, and the dupes, between the 1,412 known cards, there were only 429 known individual cards. 94 cards short of a complete set as Howe could have collected it.

And some of those 94 cards are surprising. Out if 1,412 know examples, no Moose McCormick at all. How does a kid named McCormick with 1,412 cards not have a single cards of the only player in the set with the same name as him?

The Hindu-backed Ed Foster card is considered a tough card to find. But between my collection, Scott’s lot from Goldin and another example from an auction in 2007, Howe had seven Ed Foster cards with a Hindu back.

But not a single Shaughnessy of any back type.

No Tinkers with or without a bat.

So while Howe had quite the collection, it wasn’t a very complete collection.

The list below are the cards I am now short of of having a complete T206 collection with Howe McCormick’s stamp on the back. The cards marked with an * are cards that Scott found and sold from the Goldin lot (before I got my act together and had sold enough of my dupes to start purchasing from Scott). The cards with an + are the six I knew about for the last several years. The remaining 94 cards with no mark have no known examples.

Doc Adkins*
Whitey Alperman*
Red Ames (Hands above Head)
Jack Bastian*
Jake Beckley
George Bell (Pitching Follow Through)*
Chief Bender (Pitching, No Trees in Background)
Bill Bradley (with bat)
Al Bridwell (Portrait, With Cap)
George Browne (Washington)
Mordecai Brown (Chicago on Shirt)
Charley Carr*
Hal Chase (Holding Trophy)
Hal Chase (Portrait, Blue Background)
Ty Cobb (Portrait, Green Background)*
Ty Cobb (Portrait, Red Background)*
Ty Cobb (Bat of Shoulder)*
Ty Cobb (Bat on Shoulder)*
Sam Crawford (Throwing)
Sam Crawford (With Bat)
Dode Criss*
Bill Dahlen (Brooklyn)
Harry Davis (Davis on Front)
Josh Devore
Mike Donlin (With Bat)
Wild Bill Donovan (throwing)
Mickey Doolan (Batting)
Patsy Dougherty (Arm in Air)
Tom Downey (Batting)
Joe Doyle (N.Y. Nat'l,Hands Above Head)
Joe Doyle (Hands above Head)
Larry Doyle (With Bat)
Hugh Duffy
Kid Elberfeld (Washington, Portrait)
Lou Fiene (Portrait)*
Russ Ford
Clark Griffith (Batting)
Bob Hall*
Buck Herzog (Boston)
Dick Hoblitzell
Danny Hoffman
Harry Howell (Hand at Waist)
John Hummel
Jimmy Jackson*
Red Kleinow (Boston)
Red Kleinow (New York, Catching)
Nap Lajoie (With Bat)
Joe Lake (St. Louis, Ball in Hand)
Arlie Latham
Tommy Leach (Bending Over)
Lefty Leifield (Batting)
Lefty Leifield (Pitching)*
Harry Lord*
Sherry Magee (Magie)
Sherry Magee (With Bat)
Rube Manning (Pitching)
Rube Marquard (Pitching Follow-Through)
Christy Mathewson (Dark Cap)
Christy Mathewson (Portrait)*
Moose McCormick
Iron Man McGinnity
John McGraw (Glove at Hip)
John McGraw (Portrait, With Cap)
Matty McIntyre
Tom Needham
Rube Oldring (Batting)
Orval Overall (Hand Face Level)
Jim Pastorius
Billy Payne
Jake Pfiester (Throwing)
Eddie Plank
Phil Poland
Jack Powell
Ambrose Puttmann*
Ed Reagan*
Ed Reulbach (Glove Showing)
Ed Reulbach (No Glove Showing)
Bob Rhodes (Right Arm Extended)
Nap Rucker (Throwing)*
Wildfire Schulte (Back View)
Cy Seymour (Throwing)
Shag Shaughnessy
Frank Smith (Chicago, White Cap)
Frank Smith (Chicago & Boston)
Happy Smith
Fred Snodgrass (Catching)
Jake Stahl (Glove Shows)
Harry Steinfeldt (With Bat)
George Stone*
Gabby Street (Catching)
Gabby Street (Portrait)*
Jeff Sweeney
Jesse Tannehill*
Lee Tannehill (Tannehill on Front)
Joe Tinker (Bat off Shoulder)
Joe Tinker (Bat on Shoulder)
Joe Tinker (Hands on Knees)*
Terry Turner*
Rube Waddell (Portrait)
Rube Waddell (Throwing)
Honus Wagner*
Zack Wheat
Doc White (Pitching)
Vic Willis (Throwing)*
Hooks Wiltse (Pitching)

So as I try and build a complete set, if you have any of these cards on the list with Howe’s stamp that you would be interested in letting go, please let me know. Still looking for Howe’s cards, just not every card with Howe’s stamp.

Thanks to everyone for their support of my project over the past 20 years, especially in the last several months when my goal hit a rough patch.