Rethinking the rebuilt Howe McCormick collection

[Howe’s Hunter]

(Leon, if this needs to move to the B/S/T section, accept my apologies and please move it. Thanks)

With the discovery, subsequent sale and now breakup of the 950 card Howe McCormick lot in the recent Goldin auction, many from the board have reached out to ask what I’m going to do with what had been the rebuilt collection I’ve been working on for almost 20 years. Tonight, a friend made a suggestion that makes a lot of sense, so I’m going to give it a try.

Through research and just the process of the collection itself, it was apparent Howe kept every card he ever got. And I’ve been doing the same. But with the huge find, I knew I would never be able to get many, much less all of them.

But it was suggested tonight that one way of at least adding more cards to my collection might be by trading the duplicates of my HoFers and other sought after cards for larger numbers of the commons that are making their way to eBay now. Basically, trade an HoFer for three or four or five of the commons.

Trading information with Scott about what he got from Goldin and what I had collected, large amounts of duplicates were a shared trait. When it came down to it, I counted and found that in my collection of 395 cards, I had only 214 different cards. The rest were duplicates, with four copies of several cards. So the list of cards I have no copies of follows …

Ed Abbaticchio (Brown Sleeves)
Doc Adkins
Whitey Alperman
Red Ames (Hands at Chest)
Red Ames (Hands above Head)
John Anderson
Shad Barry
Jack Bastian
Johnny Bates
Harry Bay
Fred Beck
Beals Becker
Jake Beckley
George Bell (Hands above Head)
George Bell (Pitching Follow Through)
Chief Bender (Pitching, No Trees in Background)
Bill Bergen (Catching)
Lena Blackburne
Bill Bradley (with bat)
Roy Brashear
Al Bridwell (Portrait, With Cap)
George Browne (Washington)
Mordecai Brown (Chicago on Shirt)
Mordecai Brown (Portrait)
Al Burch (Fielding)
Fred Burchell
Bill Burns
Donie Bush
John Butler
Bobby Byrne
Billy Campbell
Charley Carr
Peter Cassidy
Frank Chance (Portrait, Yellow Background)
Bill Chappelle
Hal Chase (Holding Trophy)
Hal Chase (Portrait, Blue Background)
Bill Clancey
Josh Clarke
Bill Clymer
Ty Cobb (Portrait, Green Background)
Ty Cobb (Portrait, Red Background)
Ty Cobb (Bat off Shoulder)
Ty Cobb (Bat on Shoulder)
Cad Coles
Wid Conroy (With Bat)
Doc Crandall (Portrait, With Cap)
Sam Crawford (Throwing)
Sam Crawford (With Bat)
Dode Criss
Bill Dahlen (Boston)
Bill Dahlen (Brooklyn)
Harry Davis (Davis on Front)
Frank Delahanty
Jim Delahanty
Ray Demmitt (New York)
Rube Dessau
Art Devlin
Josh Devore
Mike Donlin (Fielding)
Mike Donlin (With Bat)
Jiggs Donohue
Mickey Doolan (Batting)
Patsy Dougherty (Arm in Air)
Tom Downey (Batting)
Tom Downey (Fielding)
Jerry Downs
Joe Doyle (N.Y. Nat'l,Hands Above Head)
Joe Doyle (Hands above Head)
Larry Doyle (With Bat)
Jean Dubuc
Hugh Duffy
Jack Dunn
Dick Egan
Kid Elberfeld (Washington, Portrait)
Roy Ellam
Steve Evans
Bob Ewing
Hobe Ferris
Lou Fiene (Portrait)
Russ Ford
Jerry Freeman
Art Fromme
John Ganzel
Harry Gasper
Peaches Graham
Dolly Gray
Ed Greminger
Clark Griffith (Batting)
Clark Griffith (Portrait)
Bob Groom
Tom Guiheen
Bob Hall
Bill Hallman
Jack Hannifin
Bill Hart
Jack Hayden
Charlie Hemphill
Buck Herzog (Boston)
Harry Hinchman
Dick Hoblitzell
Danny Hoffman
Izzy Hoffman
Solly Hofman
Harry Howell (Hand at Waist)
Miller Huggins (Hands at Mouth)
John Hummel
Jimmy Jackson
Walter Johnson (Portrait)
Ed Karger
J.F. Kiernan
Ed Killian (Portrait)
Rube Kissinger
Red Kleinow (Boston)
Red Kleinow (New York, Catching)
Jack Knight (Portrait)
Jack Knight (With Bat)
Otto Krueger
Nap Lajoie (With Bat)
Joe Lake (St. Louis, Ball in Hand)
Arlie Latham
Bill Lattimore
Jimmy Lavender
Tommy Leach (Bending Over)
Lefty Leifield (Batting)
Lefty Leifield (Pitching)
Harry Sentz (Lentz)
Harry Lord
Carl Lundgren (Kansas City)
Sherry Magee (Magie)
Sherry Magee (With Bat)
Billy Maloney
Rube Marquard (Pitching Follow-Through)
Doc Marshall
Christy Mathewson (Dark Cap)
Christy Mathewson (Portrait)
Al Mattern
John McAleese
George McBride
Moose McCormick
Pryor McElveen
Dan McGann
Jim McGinley
Iron Man McGinnity
Stoney McGlynn
John McGraw (Glove at Hip)
John McGraw (Portrait, No Cap)
John McGraw (Portrait, With Cap)
Matty McIntyre
George Merritt
Dots Miller
Bill Milligan
Fred Mitchell
Dan Moeller
Herbie Moran
Mike Mowrey
Danny Murphy (Batting)
Danny Murphy (Throwing)
Billy Nattress
Tom Needham
Rube Oldring (Batting)
Al Orth
Orval Overall (Hand Face Level)
Frank Owen
George Paige
Jim Pastorius
Billy Payne
George Perring
Francis (Big Jeff) Pfeffer
Jake Pfiester (Throwing)
Jimmy Phelan
Ollie Pickering
Eddie Plank
Phil Poland
Jack Powell
Ambrose Puttmann
Newt Randall
Bugs Raymond
Ed Reagan
Ed Reulbach (Glove Showing)
Ed Reulbach (No Glove Showing)
Bob Rhoads (Right Arm Extended)
Charlie Rhodes
Claude Ritchey
Lou Ritter
Ike Rockenfeld
Claude Rossman
Nap Rucker (Throwing)
Ray Ryan
Germany Schaefer (Washington)
George Schirm
Larry Schlafly
Admiral Schlei (Batting)
Boss Schmidt (Portrait)
Ossee Schreck
Wildfire Schulte (Back View)
Jim Scott
Cy Seymour (Portrait)
Cy Seymour (Throwing)
Spike Shannon
Shag Shaughnessy
Bill Shipke
Frank Smith (Chicago, White Cap)
Frank Smith (Chicago & Boston)
Happy Smith
Heinie Smith
Fred Snodgrass (Catching)
Tubby Spencer
Jake Stahl (Glove Shows)
Dolly Stark
Harry Steinfeldt (With Bat)
Jim Stephens
George Stone
Sam Strang
Gabby Street (Catching)
Gabby Street (Portrait)
Bill Sweeney
Jeff Sweeney
Jesse Tannehill
Lee Tannehill (Tannehill on Front)
Dummy Taylor
Tony Thebo
Woodie Thornton
Joe Tinker (Bat off Shoulder)
Joe Tinker (Bat on Shoulder)
Joe Tinker (Hands on Knees)
Terry Turner
Rube Waddell (Portrait)
Rube Waddell (Throwing)
Zack Wheat
Doc White (Pitching)
Doc White (Portrait)
Jack White
Kaiser Wilhelm (Hands at Chest)
Kaiser Wilhelm (With Bat)
Ed Willett
Ed Willett (Willetts)
Vic Willis (Portrait)
Vic Willis (Throwing)
Owen Wilson
Hooks Wiltse (Pitching)
Lucky Wright

The list of cards I would look to trade are as follows …

Mordecai Brown, Cubs on shirt
Frank Chance, Red Background Portrait (two copies)
Jimmy Collins, Minneapolis
Johnny Evers, Portrait (two copies)
Johnny Evers, Chicago on shirt
Addie Joss, Pitching (two copies)
Addie Joss, Portrait (three copies)
Nap Lajoie, Portrait
Nap Lajoe, Throwing
Christy Mathewson, White Cap
John McGraw, Finger in Air (two copies)

And then the big ones …

Carl Lundgren/Chicago (three copies)
Ed Foster with a Hindu Back

Basically, if interested, contact me and we’ll figure out whether we’re trading a HoFer for an HoFer straight up, or a HoFer for multiple commons. Scott will be listing more and more cards in the coming weeks, I would just be interested in knocking off as many commons to increase the number of cards in my collection now that so many are known and available.

The Foster card would probably take the most thought and largest trade as I know very few of them exist, they don’t come up often and for Hindu-backed Southern League collectors, it is very sought-after. But please contact me if you might be interested in making a trade by buying a couple cards off eBay from Scott to trade with me.

As always, thanks to everyone on the board for their support over the years. And to those that have reached out and have purchased cards from Scott to hold for me, we will get those deals completed. Soon. Thanks again.