T212 Obak visual checklist

[jason.1969]

I put together a visual checklist for the 1909-11 T212 Obak Los Angeles Angels. Collecting one card per player in the set now translates to a single card per column, 27 in all. There are also some fun observations from laying the cards out this way.

The uniforms change each year. White in 1909, gray in 1910, and navy blue for 1911 newcomers.
The trippy streak backgrounds appear only in 1911. Not sure if this holds for other teams as well, but could signal the hiring of a new (and awesome!) artist.
This layout is helpful in knowing which players only have cards in the much tougher 1909 series. Luckily for me, there is only one Angel in this category.
Finally, as is well known to Obak collectors already, the layout affirms the use of repeated artwork for players common to the 1910 and 1911 issues, provided they stayed on the same team.

At the moment, I have 19 players and a good lead on a 20th. Has been a very fun pursuit, particularly for a kid from L.A.



Am also putting together one for my other hometown team, the Vernon Tigers. With 5 players in the 1909-only category, this will be a tougher one for me to collect.

[brianp-beme]

Nice Jason, a great way to visually identify the changes/duplicate images in the whole series.

Here are not quite as neat horizontally arranged scans of all the players that appeared in all 3 sets AND had 3 different images used (because player changed teams between 1910 and 1911 sets). A couple of these six players (N. Brashear and Coy) happen to be with Vernon in the 1909 and 1910 sets.

Brian

[jason.1969]

Very cool! Had never seen those together like that. Here is a team change where the artists didn’t work quite as hard.

[molenick]

Love the research and your way of collecting and displaying these cards. They used to be a bit overlooked, now I think people are paying more attention to them. Here are a few of mine.

[jason.1969]

Wow, those are lookers! And Baum was one of the top pitchers in PCL history. Spider Baum…almost sounds like the sticky stuff the league cracked down on!


Jason
Twitter: @heavyj28

[brianp-beme]

Definitely the Castlleton did not really change artwork, just had a good cropping and recolorization.

Since we are dealing with the fantastic sets that are Obak, don't forget about the 40 1910 cards with '150 Subjects' on back. A few interesting (for us type of vintage collecting human beings) observations:

The 40 cards consists of players from only the 6 PCL teams (Los Angeles, Oakland, Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco and Vernon) and none from the four NWL teams that were included in the more commonly seen 175 Subjects series. There are 10 San Francisco players featured, while the other 5 teams each have 6 players included.

As far as I know most of these 40 cards have the same fronts as seen in the 175 Subjects grouping, but at least one, possibly more (any help with this out there?) that feature modified artwork. Here is the one I know about - the 175 Subjects Mundorff on the left, and the 150 Subjects on the right (note that his name is incorrectly spelled Mundorf):

obak1910mundorff175.jpgobak1910mundorf150 001.jpg

Because of the Mundorf 150 Subjects card having his name incorrect, I would think the 150 Subjects were issued before the 175 Subjects cards.


As far as Jason's quest is concerned, he does have 12 additional possibilities (6 150 Subjects for Los Angeles, 6 150 Subjects for Vernon) to make his LA and Vernon 'one Obak card for each player' dreams come true.


Brian

Originally Posted by jason.1969

Very cool! Had never seen those together like that. Here is a team change where the artists didn’t work quite as hard.