uncatalogues Mendelsohn M101 ruth-type

[nolemmings]

Larry, best of luck to you, especially since you say you are going to keep the card and not sell it. I will await the scans and look for others with more experience in the photography and printing areas to chime in, although I am handy with a loupe also.

It seems you recognize the leap of faith you are taking in assuming the card was a salesman's sample. First, there are no known instances of Mendelsohn using salesmen, although that hardly settles the matter. Still, his known marketing techniques--a mailer and ads in The Sporting News--cut against your hypothesis. The mailer contained six cards and TSN ads listed 15 players who were promoted and also showed a mockup of one--Derril Pratt. None of these identified Ruth. It seems unlikely Mendelsohn would send his minions out to promote Ruth while never even mentioning him in his other marketing materials.

Also, I cannot agree that a salesman's sample would not include a common player. Although my knowledge of salesman's samples for baseball cards is limited, I believe it routine for them to depict "commoners", as the sales pitch was the design of the card as much if not more than the player selection. In addition, I believe it more likely that during those times promotion would have centered on the recognized and established players, and not what you believe to be a rookie phenom. The Sporting News ads and mailer bear this out, with references to Alexander, Lajoie, Cobb, Johnson, Shoeless and Wagner--again, no mention of Ruth (or the up and comer Sisler for that matter, who would have had a greater Midwest connection for the Chicago-based Mendelsohn).

Finally, you reference a Thorpe you saw some years ago with a different cropping in a PSA holder. There was a Thorpe card as you describe debunked as a fake back in around 2003--a real embarrassment for PSA. Maybe you are thinking of that card.

Again I look forward to the scans, although I do not know if they will be of high enough resolution to adequately note the dot patterns. I still remain skeptical, particularly as you say your card contains the cropped photo known to exist on the fakes (why would he make such a minor change in cropping?) but of course that's just one guy's opinion.