T206 Oakes "White Team Letters"

[sreader3]

Hi Jason,

First of all, thanks for the robust discussion.

On your cards (which I think are cool and don't mean to denigrate), all of the colors--red, blue green, yellow, etc.--seem more or less equally faded whereas on my card there is no fading at all. The color differences on my card are of kind, not degree, and relate strictly to one color: Red.

Here are some of the particular differences:

1. Most standard issue Oakes cards (but not all--and the standard issue Oakes I have shown in this post is in the minority group) have a noticeable brush of red on his right cheek; this card doesn't.
2. Standard issue Oakes cards have a deep orange background; this card has a lighter orange (or deep yellow) background (note: orange - red = yellow).
3. Standard issue Oakes cards have bold red team lettering; this one has snowy white team lettering.

It would be a very neat trick to (intentionally or by accident) have removed the red ink from this card after-the-fact (including dissembling the red ink from the yellow ink in the background) without otherwise disturbing the color scheme, without creating signs of surface wear and while retaining the vibrancy of this card.

A final note: On a standard issue Oakes, the red ink applied to the team letters slightly spills over onto the blue jersey and creates the impression of a dark purple outline around the team letters. This card shows no evidence of that outline, which is consistent with a failure to apply red ink in the printing process. (See close-up scans of team lettering above).

Scot

[t206blogcom]

Scot - I don't disagree or take any offense to your comments; it's an interesting discussion. Nor do I want to take away from your really nice missing red card. I wouldn't mind having it in my collection.

I have no clue for sure whether the glue on the reverse of mine was in fact what removed some of the ink on my cards or if the ink was missing in the first place, especially on the Oakes - nobody will know for sure.

I've seen plenty of examples of Downey with a red belt and a white or not-as-red cincinnati on his shirt. My personal opinion is that this Downey is one of those that lacked the red on the shirt before being placed into an album. Again, we'll never know.

There are two things that I find interesting with the two cards I displayed:

1) There appears to have been a massive amount of glue on the back of both of these cards. They might have been owned by the same person and pasted in the same album at one point. I believe because there was so much glue and it seemed to have been spread across the entire back of the card, the overall colors seem more dull. However, I will say both cards, at least in person, appear dirty on the front. One day I might soak them to see if the front improves.

2) For two cards once pasted into albums, they sure are beat to hell, unlike your card. I wonder if they were beat up prior to album insertion or removed and 'played' with. I've also noticed the tops of both display similar wear patterns. Now that I think of it, one of my other missing red colors, below, clearly was once in an album, yet is beat up and has a similar top edge.

Sorry for the large scan:


Good luck with the sale. You've got a real beauty of a card and I dig the white lettering. All the best.

[sreader3]

Jason,

Thanks for the insightful comments.

All,

After a day of fielding PMs with wildly disparate views and info I am inclined to consign the card to an auction house and let the market decide what it's worth.

Thanks to all who inquired.

Scot