Dave Whipple's T206 Collection

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Posted By: Trae R.

Does Dave hang around these parts anymore? I was looking through his set images on my hard drive tonight and noticed many of his look "pack fresh" with the foil wrapper lines across the back of most of his cards. I would just like to learn more about how he accumulated his collection as I am sure there's an interesting story behind it, unfortunately I do not have his contact information.

Thanks

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Posted By: Scott B.

Interesting. Do you mind to post some of those pics?

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Posted By: Trae R.

Sure thing, Scott. Pardon my reply without delivering but I will put some scans up in the next day or two. I will pick out some of the more impressive specimens.

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Posted By: DaveW

Trea,

I'm still around, mostly lurking.

The original set has a history that you wouldn't believe if you read it on ebay.

Most of my wife's great uncles were all ball players. This was in Fredericksburg, VA. Their last names were all Gouldman. One of the uncles was a banker and either arranged for or self financed the building of a baseball field, Gouldman field. One of the uncles supposedly was a pitcher for Virginia Tech during his college years. I have more details (such as names) and hope someday to find out more about them and the league where they played.

To get to the cards: All of these guys smoked, and Piedmont was their brand. They collected the T206 cards into one collection. At some point, they all ended up together, and were stored in the attic of one. Yes, in a trunk. Sometime in the 70's my father-in-law visited his uncle and asked about the cards. He retreived them from the trunk in the attic, took them home, and put them into vinyl protective sheets and into a notebook.

After his death in the 90's, the notebook kicked around the house of my mother-in-law. In early 2004, she moved west to be near her daughter, and me, too. As we helped her unpack, she handed me the notebook and told me I should have it. It contained 500+ T206's, 45 T205's and 12 T210s. Of the T206's there were 419 different cards. None of the real rare cards, but who can complain.

I think the idea was that I would figure out how to sell these, but I started buying the missing cards, much to my wife's dismay. I have completed the near set, missing the rarest 6 cards. Three of these just sold on Huggins & Scott, but I didn't bid.

I'd love to hear from anyone who know of any history of baseball in the Fredericksburg area, and Gouldman field in particular.

Here's a few pics with samples of the lines on the backs:

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Posted By: peter ullman

wow dave...sweet!

pete in mn

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Posted By: JK

Dave,

Great looking cards - do you have a website to display your cards? I'd love to see more, particularly some HOFers.

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Posted By: Trae R.

Dave, I really appreciate you taking the time to tell this story!
I knew it had to be a cool one.

Thank you

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Posted By: Sean

Great story Dave. Makes me wish my great grandpa smoked.

I had always assumed that the lines like those on the back of cards were from the old photo albums that had the sticky residue to hold the photo and the plastic sheet over the top to protect them.

Sean BH

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

DAVE W

Great story, thanks for sharing it with us. I have a question for you....about a year ago I acquired an
original T206 collection that was originally from a small border town in the Carolina's. This collection,
consisting of 400+ cards, all with Piedmont backs. Except the 26 Southern Leaguers, which were all
the usual Old Mill backs.

So, I am wondering if your collection was similar in make-up to this one that I acquired ?

TED Z

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Posted By: Bill Stone

Dave --Thanks for sharing --I am curious about the 12 -T210 cards --were they Series 2 cards? I think it would be interesting to see the distribution of those cards. Thanks

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Posted By: DaveW

Several questions were asked, here's some answers:

I don't have a web site, but have been thinking about it. That doesn't move too quickly, though. I'll post some HOF pic here, though.

A comment on card quality: The HOF cards seem to have been passed around more than the commons or minor leagues, so they are in worse quality as a class. Too bad. The Southern League cards were all Piedmonts, not Old Mill. Being Minor league, they end up being some of my better cards. Of the original set, there were only 4 Old Mills, the only back other than Piedmont.

The T210s are all series 2 (VA league). One of these I ended up giving to Ben only to have it stolen. So, he got another.

Here's some HOF cards: