What's the rarest card you own?

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by phlflyer1

Hi Ryan,
The SCD article has a couple of different checklist additions in it. The Hornsby mentioned was from a different set. The part of the article about the additions to the 1910 All Star Baseball set starts in the middle column of the bottom part of the page and continues on the right column on the top of the page. The cards, like a handful of other "E" cards of the period, were cut from the sides of a candy box produced by Dockman & Sons (who was also one of the brands found on the backs of E92 cards). Since these were cut from the sides of a candy box, they are blank backed, but they are known to have been produced by Dockman & Sons as there are at least two complete boxes known to exist. I don't own either of the complete boxes but I'm adding images of one of the complete boxes that used to be owned by Lew Lipset. Here is the current known checklist of 24 cards in the set.

What an interesting set! So there were ballplayers on both sides of the box, right, two to the box? If one discovery of new ones expands the checklist by half, I guess there could have been many more players in the original issue. I've always wondered how things like this can be so rare. Anybody else have any of these? Perhaps these were test issues, or proofs, otherwise why aren't there more of them around? You'd think more than one kid would have kept the boxes to put other cards or stuff in. Wonder what the candy or gifts consisted of? And what's with the "privilege of opening and examining" on the flap? What's that supposed to mean? Last mystery: how in the world did Scott's two examples get graded so differently by SGC? A clearly hand-cut card gets a "5?" Wow! Overall, these are the coolest things I've seen in a long time.

[Leon]

Great thread and stuff shown. The rarest ones are great.

Some fun postcards.

[phlflyer1]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

What an interesting set! So there were ballplayers on both sides of the box, right, two to the box? If one discovery of new ones expands the checklist by half, I guess there could have been many more players in the original issue. I've always wondered how things like this can be so rare. Anybody else have any of these? Perhaps these were test issues, or proofs, otherwise why aren't there more of them around? You'd think more than one kid would have kept the boxes to put other cards or stuff in. Wonder what the candy or gifts consisted of? And what's with the "privilege of opening and examining" on the flap? What's that supposed to mean? Last mystery: how in the world did Scott's two examples get graded so differently by SGC? A clearly hand-cut card gets a "5?" Wow! Overall, these are the coolest things I've seen in a long time.

Hi Hank,

I'll try to keep my reply brief as I don't want to take up much more of the thread discussing this one particular set with all of the other great rarities being posted.

As Aaron mentioned, I wrote about the 1910 All Star Baseball set in Old Cardboard magazine issue #3 (thanks Aaron for posting the link!). There is a lot more detail to be found in that article than what I'm about to post in response. Feel free to PM me if you still have questions after this response or would like to discuss the set further.

Yes, there are two subjects per box (one on each side). Not only that, each of the known boxes consists of one subject from the American League and one from the National League at the same position. Of the known set checklist, there exists a pair of players for each position (1 AL, 1 NL) with two notable exceptions, four subjects listed as "Baserunners" (again split between the leagues), a manager for each league and Cobb and Wagner listed as "Batters".

The notable exceptions missing from the known checklist are a catcher for the AL and a second baseman for the NL. Other than that, I think that the known set of 24 subjects is fairly complete as the composition of one player from each league at a given position seems pretty intentional based upon the box design and the checklist of known subjects.

Why don't more examples exist from this or other candy box issues of the period such as Baseball Bats, J=K or Orange Borders? (BTW, nice Orange Border Wagner George!)

I would say that, for kids of the time, the candy was the main thing that they were interested in. I would imagine that in most cases the boxes were ripped open, the candy was consumed and the boxes discarded. Also, these candy issues were likely distributed in a much smaller region than most of the tobacco products of the era.

As far as why SGC choose to give the Cobb a numerical grade I have no idea. They were all cut from a candy box so really I would have expected it to be graded "Authentic" like almost all of the others were that I submitted from my set.

[ValKehl]

Hank, here's another example of a Dockman & Sons All Star Base-Ball card:

[DeanH3]

[Casey2296]

Beautiful cards Dean

[Exhibitman]

1949 Sommer & Kaufmann card signed by Lefty. A tough set to find at all, PSA has graded no Lefty cards from either S&K issue. I suspect this signed specimen is the only one in the world.



And just for s**ts and giggles, here'e the 1948:

[h2oya311]

I love early postcards of HOFers. I think these two early postcards of HOF umpire Bill McGowan would qualify as "rare". The first is likely one of a kind. I know of another example of the second, but still "rare" nonetheless.

Both were sent to presumed girlfriend Irene Seveier. The first is postmarked in 1915. The second is addressed to the same Irene, although McGowan got married to another woman in 1918, so I assume the second was sent before 1918, but who knows? The text on the back might suggest that he still had some feelings for Irene if issued after 1918.

I love that both of these were personally sent by Bill McGowan. He had very nice penmanship. Do these qualify as autographed items since both were signed "Bill" at the end???

[DeanH3]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

Beautiful cards Dean

Thank you Phil!

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by ValKehl

Hank, here's another example of a Dockman & Sons All Star Base-Ball card:

Very nice, Val! Any idea what the total pop of these cards and boxes is thought to be? Double digits, I would guess.

[gabrinus]

Great J=Ks guys!!...Jerry

[ValKehl]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

Very nice, Val! Any idea what the total pop of these cards and boxes is thought to be? Double digits, I would guess.

Hank, I have no idea as to what the total pop of the 1910 Dockman All Star Base-Ball candy boxes is.

As to the total pop of individual graded cards, PSA appears to have graded only 1 card from this set: https://www.psacard.com/pop/baseball...hand-cut/33252.

SGC's pop report is more difficult to navigate than PSA's, IMHO. I am unable to find the two SGC-graded cards that Scott showed in Post #211 of this thread anywhere in SGC's pop report. And, I can only find this one graded example in SGC's pop report: https://www.gosgc.com/pop-report/res...20Gum/Baseball Edited to add that this link apparently doesn't work, even though I copied the link from the SGC pop report page I was looking at. This one card I found in the SGC pop report is George Gibson.

[ValKehl]

Many real-photo, black & white sets were issued by different companies in 1916 using the same two sets of card, commonly referred to as the M101-4 and M101-5 sets. The cards from several of these sets are very scarce/rare. The following are my type cards, and while each is a 1-of-1 per the PSA & SGC pop reports, it would not surprise me if there are raw examples of some of these in collections.

[JLange]

Recently picked up what I believe to be my rarest Bob Feller collectible, a c1947 PC of Bob Feller, "-now pitching for Popsicle"

Its been 10yrs since I saw the last one of these up for sale.

[phlflyer1]

Originally Posted by ValKehl

Hank, I have no idea as to what the total pop of the 1910 Dockman All Star Base-Ball candy boxes is.

As to the total pop of individual graded cards, PSA appears to have graded only 1 card from this set: https://www.psacard.com/pop/baseball...hand-cut/33252.

SGC's pop report is more difficult to navigate than PSA's, IMHO. I am unable to find the two SGC-graded cards that Scott showed in Post #211 of this thread anywhere in SGC's pop report. And, I can only find this one graded example in SGC's pop report: https://www.gosgc.com/pop-report/res...20Gum/Baseball Edited to add that this link apparently doesn't work, even though I copied the link from the SGC pop report page I was looking at. This one card I found in the SGC pop report is George Gibson.

Hi Val,

Thanks for posting that info and for sharing your example from the set.

I haven't really paid much attention to SGC's new website since they got rid of their registry.

Sounds like they've lost data from their old pop reports as I had my whole set graded by SGC back at the 2005 national. In the old pop report, besides my set, I only ever remember them having graded maybe 2-3 other cards in total from the set.

[ctownboy]

I own some Star Player Candy cards and some Curtis Ireland Candy cards that have less than five on the pop reports. But for something different, I will post these cards.

1) A trimmed N175-2 (the rarer, larger size) Gypsy Queen card
2) Two cabinet cards of Yale Murphy. The first is from Pach Brothers when he was a senior at Yale. The second is from the Newboy series.

[ullmandds]

Incredible stuff out there!!! OMG that red sox ruth m101-6...incredible!!!! I think in my current collection my most rare cards reside in my miller run...these t216/d303 blank backs are 2 of 2 and i have both. my t216 VE miller is also likely 1/2.

[Hankphenom]

.

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by phlflyer1

Hi Hank, I'll try to keep my reply brief as I don't want to take up much more of the thread discussing this one particular set with all of the other great rarities being posted. As Aaron mentioned, I wrote about the 1910 All Star Baseball set in Old Cardboard magazine issue #3 (thanks Aaron for posting the link!).

Thanks, Scott, I would have liked to read the article, but the print is minuscule as presented by the link. My question about the rarity of these is rhetorical, I've always been amazed at how many vintage cards and memorabilia seem to have survived as one of a kind or one of very few--one of the things making the hobby so interesting. And you didn't say whether you have any idea what the "privilege of opening and examining" on the flap is supposed to mean?

[Kenny Cole]

A few more

[Kenny Cole]

Whoops! Got the wrong side of Delahanty.

[phlflyer1]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

Thanks, Scott, I would have liked to read the article, but the print is minuscule as presented by the link. My question about the rarity of these is rhetorical, I've always been amazed at how many vintage cards and memorabilia seem to have survived as one of a kind or one of very few--one of the things making the hobby so interesting. And you didn't say whether you have any idea what the "privilege of opening and examining" on the flap is supposed to mean?

Hi Hank,

As far as the "privilege of opening and examining" statement on the label, I have seen that terminology on other late 1800's early 1900's advertisements and products.

I've always taken it as a "legalese" term for once you've paid the cost of the item, its yours to open and examine/consume the contents.... but don't open
it unless you've paid for it. That may be oversimplifying it as I'm not a lawyer but I think that is what the term is generally for.

[benchod]

Great stuff Kenny and all,
Speaking of cards cut from candy boxes here's a pretty scarce Wagner with a famous portrait

[Aaron Seefeldt]

Originally Posted by benchod

Great stuff Kenny and all,
Speaking of cards cut from candy boxes here's a pretty scarce Wagner with a famous portrait

Love the Wagner, these are 1 of 1s with Matty & Needham being much more common - 1 of 2s...

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

I've always been amazed at how many vintage cards and memorabilia seem to have survived as one of a kind or one of very few--one of the things making the hobby so interesting.

That's the fun of it, having something unique or nearly so. I've been collecting oddball cards and premiums for decades for just that reason: so much more of a back story than a mainstream card. With that in mind, onto one of my favorite items:



I bought a collection of cards and ephemera at an antique fair. The dealer filled a showcase with stuff and wanted a set price for it, which I paid. But I had nothing to carry it in. He gave me the box that he got the collection in. It was really dirty and had all kinds of padding and crap in it, like old newspaper scraps, but beggars cannot be choosers.

One of my maxims when I buy a collection is to always take apart the packaging just in case something is hiding in there. So I started through the packing and junk at the box bottom and out tumbled three snap shots of Indians from 1948 or 1949, including this Satchel Paige. Finding something like that totally unexpected is just heaven for a collector-picker like me.

[GasHouseGang]

That's a great find. But if that's really a snapshot, it must have been someone with greater access than an average fan to have taken the photo on the field during warm-ups.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by GasHouseGang

That's a great find. But if that's really a snapshot, it must have been someone with greater access than an average fan to have taken the photo on the field during warm-ups.

It was the team photographer. the other two that came with it were used for team issued PCs.

[phlflyer1]

Craig and Aaron,

Great J=Ks!

I especially love the type II's where the players head was incorporated into part of the box tab.

Here are my two J=K examples... sadly "Rough" Bill Carrigan was decapitated somewhere along the way.

[Tim Kindler]

WOW!!! What beautiful cards in this thread!!!!!!............Really impressed with those ALL STAR BASE-BALL PACKAGES from Dockman & Sons belonging to Scott and Val!

Here are a couple of rare Old Put E98s

[gabrinus]

Cool Old Puts Tim...Jerry

[benge610]

Originally Posted by Tim Kindler

WOW!!! What beautiful cards in this thread!!!!!!............Really impressed with those ALL STAR BASE-BALL PACKAGES from Dockman & Sons belonging to Scott and Val!

Here are a couple of rare Old Put E98s

Second that Tim! (beautiful cards, ...)
I couldn't resist, after seeing the Old Puts; Here is a signed Fredericks CDV of "Old Put's"
(Gen. Isreal Putman, Rev. War hero) great grandson; in the era of when the Connecticut Tobacco Company was making the Old Put 5c. cigar. I love a good back story; still in progress.


Ben