What Card is your White Whale?

[timn1]

This past month, in a larger lot, this guy showed up - Hal Carlson, who died midway through the 1930 season and was presumably pulled from the set.

After almost 20 years of collecting the set, I had begun to doubt his existence. No records in VCP, no population at SGC, no scans to be found - but there he is!!



Now on the next white whale...

[brass_rat]

Originally Posted by timn1

This past month, in a larger lot, this guy showed up - Hal Carlson, who died midway through the 1930 season and was presumably pulled from the set.

After almost 20 years of collecting the set, I had begun to doubt his existence. No records in VCP, no population at SGC, no scans to be found - but there he is!!



Now on the next white whale...

Congrats, Tim! Can you share how you came across this card? Your post ended with a cliffhanger...

(I guess you said a larger lot, but how long did you have to wait to get it after seeing it, etc)

[timn1]

had a large lot of Blue Ribbons - their writeup didn't feature the rarity of Carlson. The lucky thing is that I was traveling at the time and only noticed the auction on the final day, at which point I jumped in with both feet - one more day and I would have lost out.

Originally Posted by brass_rat

Congrats, Tim! Can you share how you came across this card? Your post ended with a cliffhanger...

(I guess you said a larger lot, but how long did you have to wait to get it after seeing it, etc)

[brass_rat]

Originally Posted by timn1

had a large lot of Blue Ribbons - their writeup didn't feature the rarity of Carlson. The lucky thing is that I was traveling at the time and only noticed the auction on the final day, at which point I jumped in with both feet - one more day and I would have lost out.

That's always a great feeling when things work out! Happy for you!

Steve

[oldjudge]

For those looking for Old Judge Brooklyn minis I have listed three in the BST thread. They are not cheap, but if you are looking for a whale these are cheap on a per pound basis. I apologize for the horizontal scans.

[Golfcollector]

Any Sam Crawford that I currently don't own....

[bigred1]

I know it is kind of boring, but recently picked up 1952 Mathews PSA2.5, still need Jackie and Mickey. I intend to get a decent Jackie at some point, but I think the 52 Mick may be elusive, unless I hit the lottery, then I will feel complete. Unfortunately I dont play the lottery so the chances are not real good.

[ValKehl]

Originally Posted by Golfcollector

Any Sam Crawford that I currently don't own....

Similar to what Dave said in the above post, for me it's any Sam Rice card I currently don't own. More specifically, these two Rice cards: 1922 Keating Candy and 1922 Witmor Candy Type 2 (vertical back). The pop reports show that one example of each has been graded. I'm even willing to pay a finder's fee to learn where these two cards reside so that I could at least, hopefully, obtain photocopies of them.

[timn1]

For the good wishes. So what are your whales anyway?

Originally Posted by brass_rat

That's always a great feeling when things work out! Happy for you!

Steve

[Mungo Hungo]

A 1998 Bryan Braves Kerry Ligtenberg, the full-sized, non-perforated version. I'm probably the only person looking for the card, which means that there's not a lot of motivation for anyone to put it up on eBay, etc.

But Ligtenberg owner, if you're listening, please get it out there. I'll pay good money for a card no one else cares about. I have a self-defined set of about 10,000 cards, and that card is the only one I'm missing...

[egri]

Any of the signed 1953 Topps I still need, but especially the three that I've never seen before: Howie Fox, Vern Bickford, and Bill Norman. According to PSA/DNA's population report, they're out there, I just haven't found them yet.

[brass_rat]

Originally Posted by timn1

For the good wishes. So what are your whales anyway?

Good question!

D303 Mothers' Bread Bressler and Lajoie

As I detailed in this thread (namely, posts 4 and 7), I think Bressler probably exists and Lajoie may exist.

While I'd love to obtain them, I would just as much like to see my pose prediction on Bressler to be shown to be true.

https://net54baseball.com/showthread.php?p=1959830

[Shankweather]

1903 Breisch Williams Frank Chance. One of my favorite players, and just an impossible card to find in any grade.

[benge610]

Originally Posted by timn1

This past month, in a larger lot, this guy showed up - Hal Carlson, who died midway through the 1930 season and was presumably pulled from the set.

After almost 20 years of collecting the set, I had begun to doubt his existence. No records in VCP, no population at SGC, no scans to be found - but there he is!!



Now on the next white whale...

That's awesome Tim.
Such a cool find (lot) in more ways than one.
Such gratitude from this end as well.
I love this stuff.

Ben

"I love baseball history backstory; especially when it involves cards."

[fkm_bky]

White whale #1 - T206 Herzog Boston w Uzit back. 1 exists.

White whale #2 - T206 Green Cobb. Plenty available but my pockets aren’t that deep yet. Building towards it though.

Bill

[Casey2296]

Current white whales include:
Red Cross back
HM Taylor Cobb
Rare E-card backs
Bender white cap T216 mild & sweet, extra mild, Mino, and Mello.

The bigger issue is outfitting my Whaling Ship with plenty of harpoons when these unicorns appear.

[atx840]

I was very fortunate to have landed one of my whales earlier this year. The other would be a clean 150 series T206 Plank.

[benge610]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

Current white whales include:
Red Cross back
HM Taylor Cobb
Rare E-card backs
Bender white cap T216 mild & sweet, extra mild, Mino, and Mello.

The bigger issue is outfitting my Whaling Ship with plenty of harpoons when these unicorns appear.

Ha! Phil,
the closest I'll get to a Red Cross now;
gotta dig into the Actresses.

Back to your intent, I had a Griffith (bat) Red Cross years ago and sold it; I knew it was a toughie but thought more about $$$ back then; funny thing, I bought it at a larger show (prolly 30 yrs ago); asked to look at the dealer's stack of lesser condition tobacco cards that he had rubber banded together in a lower corner of his display case; skimming through and seeing the usuals (incl. HOFer's); tossed the Griffith out and handed the stack back while offering him $60 on the Griffith. Deal. Ah, ... the good ol' days.





Ben

"I love baseball history backstory; especially when it involves cards."

[Rich Falvo]

I'd really like to lay my hands on a T206 Jimmy Lavender Cycle back, but really any card I don't have for my Providence team set would be nice.

[Fred]

Metaphorically, I have MANY white whales, now.

In the past, the cards were available, tough to find but attainable. Now most are beyond my means and are truly "white whales" in that sense.

Oh yeah, by the way Leon, I'm still looking for a mini OJ. Probably going to put that on my white whale list now, also...