Were T215 Pirates distributed?

[ullmandds]

some of mine.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by ullmandds

some of mine.

t206 and pirates cards, very nice.

[ullmandds]

[Sean]

Originally Posted by ullmandds

some of mine.

Pete, these are great cards. I've never seen them before.
Since they are not graded, can I assume that they are not included in any Pop Report?

[ullmandds]

Nope...they are unknown til now!

[DixieBaseball]

Originally Posted by ullmandds

Nope...they are unknown til now!

Pete - Those are awesome! Would love to hear the back story on these unknown treasures... You also mentioned "some of mine"... Please don't leave me hanging... I want to see more if you got em!
I also like the subtle differences on the reverse as well.

Great thread... Argghhhhhh....

[ullmandds]

April Fools...as Leon pointed out...they are t206's...the pirate backs are from oriental character pirate cards...of which I have a bunch!!!!

Just messin' with some of you! Sorry!!!!!

[wolf441]

Maybe a dumb question, but has anyone done research/been to the Philippines in search of these cards? It's been mentioned in the thread that for the cards to have survived, they would have had to make it back to the US in a soldiers footlocker, etc..., but wouldn't soldiers regularly trade goods like cigarettes and chocolate bars with locals for other goods that they needed/wanted? If that was the case, most of the cards would have likely been discarded as pictures of US baseball players would not have meant anything to Filipinos. But perhaps some of the cards may have been saved and are still in the country. My dad was stationed in Manila during WWII, but I never really asked him about the people or country while he was alive.

[Sean]

Originally Posted by ullmandds

April Fools...as Leon pointed out...they are t206's...the pirate backs are from oriental character pirate cards...of which I have a bunch!!!!

Just messin' with some of you! Sorry!!!!!

They could have passed for T215s. But the creases on the fronts and "backs" didn't line match.
Also, Leon gave it away.

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

Originally Posted by Sean

They could have passed for T215s. But the creases on the fronts and "backs" didn't line match.

I noticed that too.

[ctownboy]

Steve,

Good idea but, in my opionion, probably wouldn't find very many cards, if any.

My reasons why;

1) If the cards were printed in England and given to US soldiers who went to the Philippines and then the cards were left there you have to wonder how well known baseball was in the Philippines 100 years ago. Even if well known, you have to wonder how many people would have actively collected the cards there.

2) Even if there were some people who collected the cards, after 100 years in a place that is hot, humid and prone to typhoons and floods, how many of the limited supply of cards would remain?

Think about Coupon cigarette cards here in the US. Many, if not most, were printed here in the US and distributed around the Louisiana area. Now think about how many of those that remain.

It is probable that many multiples of those were printed, compared to Pirate cigarettes, and distributed here, where baseball was well known, popular and the cards were collected. Yet because of the humidity and the weather, Coupon cards are harder to find than T206's.

Any way, just my thoughts, I could be very wrong. There could be a guy in the Philippines who has thousands of Pirate cigarette baseball cards squirreled away.....

David