Looking for Images of T226 Red Suns (Driscoll, Gans, Jeannette and Langford

[G1911]

Thank you Gentlemen - have them all now! If anyone has a nicer Langford image than the small part of a group photo from Heritage, I would be grateful. 50 .jpg's will have to suffice as a set for me.

Sure seems like Gans/Jeanette/Johnson/Langford are notably scarcer than the other cards.

[Exhibitman]

They definitely are, which is weird since cards of these guys are no more scarce than any other card in the other T sets. Were these a Southern-distributed issue? If so, maybe its smokers didn't care for cards of black guys and didn't save them?

[G1911]

I think it safe to assume it is a southern issue. The content of the baseball Red Suns heavily implies as such; and the cards are so tough that they certainly were not issued broadly. They must be a regional, presumably southern though I'm not sure factory location is much evidence of where the packs were actually shipped, sold and smoked.

Perhaps distribution was better than we think it was; it's possible cards were somewhat regional in another way, in that certain sets (some brands had multiple at the same time, like Hassan) or individual cards within a brand were targeted to specific buyer demographics. Perhaps the black fighters were targeted to black retail locations that simply happened to constitute less of the brand's purchaser base and vice versa.

I don't think it was a 'direct' racism of customers throwing out cards of black (if this was so, we would see it in other sets, which we do not seem to. Jack Johnson is even the solitary super print in T218 and I suspect T9 as well), or the companies not wanting to issue them (none of the ATC sets are denigrating in the vernacular in use in that actual time, from T118 to T218 to T220 and so on).

I suppose we will never know. I thought it might just be that they are more popular today; and so do not come to market as much, but it really seems to me that these cards are indeed SP's of some kind. Perhaps, also, it is coincidence and there are other SP's of unpopular fighters that we just haven't noticed because there are so few set collectors of T226.

I've found so little about this set over the years that there is little to be said about it beyond a physical description and images of the cards. My type card is a Mike Sullivan.

[Tao_Moko]

I've tinkered with T226 for about a decade and think there are certainly other SP's though not an abundance of any. Maybe I've seen Cross, Murphy and Sullivan more which could be completely coincidental. I always assumed that they were distributed along with T211 but that would have to be verified. If they were then they seem to be primarily if not exclusively distributed in the South. However, if this is truly the pack then they could have distributed in other regions. I've not seen Jeannette or Langford that I'm aware of. Bull West another I think might be more of an SP. According to Boxrec.com there's no Bull West mentioned so I'm not sure if he's a Bill, or other name from that era which is a short list. No appearance of any super prints.

[G1911]

Bull West is Billy West - it's the same image of Billy used on his T218.

EDIT: Disclaimer that this is not my card, just a scan I saved from somewhere for research

[Tao_Moko]

Originally Posted by G1911

Bull West is Billy West - it's the same image of Billy used on his T218.

EDIT: Disclaimer that this is not my card, just a scan I saved from somewhere for research

Well that was easy. Any thoughts on West being any tougher than the others?

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Tao_Moko

Well that was easy. Any thoughts on West being any tougher than the others?

I think I've only seen three West's? The Sullivans using a different crop of the same/almost the same photo makes them appear extra common. Gannon, Brown, Baldwin, Battling Nelson, Harry Stone may be less common. The cards are all so tough that it may be random chance giving this appearance though, and I'm sure others will differ here.

The baseball series was probably printed before mid-1910, as it is missing players from the Chattanooga club that played their first season in 1910. All other teams in the Southern Association are represented. The boxing series could be before or after that date. I would guess both are late 1909 or early 1910 issues, presumably one was issued and then the other instead of being concurrent, based on the series labelling. The baseball cards exist in greater numbers, I think.