Your "White Whale" .... and will you land it ??

[Seven]

Originally Posted by Arazi4442

James, you’re right. I’m as positive as I can be there is no “card” of Rogan so have been hoping for some sort of postcard or type 1 photo, like you said. I remember a couple of Type 1s in a Hunt Auction but they were photos in street clothes.

I'm going to eventually have to settle for a Type 1 of Josh Gibson, it's most likely the only way I'll ever have him in my collection.

[Leon]

Great stuff, guys. My white whale, when I was trying for a complete prewar type set was a D355. As my collection was being sold, the only one I knew of came up for auction. It went for about 5k. Had I still had my collection I would have doubled that number for it. Currently, I have no white whale, just a lot of cool (to me) cards.. I always like the weird stuff.. So when something weird comes up for sale, I am interested.

[Exhibitman]

Al, I am green with envy over that Alifa. I realize it isn't the earliest Pele but I think it is the nicest looking of the early issues.

As long as we're showing the White Whales, my cousin's signed 1951 Ringside:



I was really thrilled to snag that one. It pairs nicely with the 1951 Topps Ringside contract I got from the Topps Vault:



And this White Whale:

[aljurgela]

very cool... love the sentimental items....

[Schlesinj]

IMG_6613.jpg

Height of my collecting life.

[Topnotchsy]

Not sure whether one can have multiple 'white whales' but I have a few items that fit that.

• I have been building a collection that chronicles Jackie Robinson's career pre-1947. I have something for almost every notable stop, but have never been able to acquire anything from the 1941 Honolulu Bears, and continue to search for something. I've only ever seen one ticket from Jackie's time there. (Crazy fact: Jackie left Hawaii 2 days before Pearl Harbor).
• Integration - In the offseason between 1945-1946, the Dodgers signed 4 black players. Jackie and Johnny Wright signed to play for the AAA Montreal Royals. Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe signed and would play for the Nashua Dodgers. But initially, that was not the team they signed to play for. Branch Rickey had them sign with the Danville Dodgers. But after signing, Rickey was informed that that the team was not ready to integrate, and a few weeks later, they signed a new agreement to play in Nashua. I have Campanella's 1946 contract for Danville and Nashua. I have been able to acquire Newcombe's Nashua contract. But I have never even seen a picture of Newcombe's contract to play in Danville and I think that it would be the final piece to tell that story.
• I have been collecting lineup cards for many years and have had the chance to buy some incredibly cool ones. I have MLB debuts of significant players, milestone games, World Series games etc. In my years of collecting I have found lineup cards with Gehrig, DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Mays, Aaron etc. One player that I have not found is a lineup card with Babe Ruth in the lineup. In fact, the only one I have ever seen was from the 1933 All-Star game and sold for $120,000. Lineup cards from the early 1930's exist (I have found images online from lineup cards as far back as 1931) so there is no obvious reason a lineup with Ruth in it should not exist. Would be an absolute white whale for me.

[Leon]

Interesting white whales. Good luck.

Originally Posted by Topnotchsy

Not sure whether one can have multiple 'white whales' but I have a few items that fit that.

• I have been building a collection that chronicles Jackie Robinson's career pre-1947. I have something for almost every notable stop, but have never been able to acquire anything from the 1941 Honolulu Bears, and continue to search for something. I've only ever seen one ticket from Jackie's time there. (Crazy fact: Jackie left Hawaii 2 days before Pearl Harbor).
• Integration - In the offseason between 1945-1946, the Dodgers signed 4 black players. Jackie and Johnny Wright signed to play for the AAA Montreal Royals. Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe signed and would play for the Nashua Dodgers. But initially, that was not the team they signed to play for. Branch Rickey had them sign with the Danville Dodgers. But after signing, Rickey was informed that that the team was not ready to integrate, and a few weeks later, they signed a new agreement to play in Nashua. I have Campanella's 1946 contract for Danville and Nashua. I have been able to acquire Newcombe's Nashua contract. But I have never even seen a picture of Newcombe's contract to play in Danville and I think that it would be the final piece to tell that story.
• I have been collecting lineup cards for many years and have had the chance to buy some incredibly cool ones. I have MLB debuts of significant players, milestone games, World Series games etc. In my years of collecting I have found lineup cards with Gehrig, DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Mays, Aaron etc. One player that I have not found is a lineup card with Babe Ruth in the lineup. In fact, the only one I have ever seen was from the 1933 All-Star game and sold for $120,000. Lineup cards from the early 1930's exist (I have found images online from lineup cards as far back as 1931) so there is no obvious reason a lineup with Ruth in it should not exist. Would be an absolute white whale for me.

[Epps]

This exact card. Have been underbidder twice on it and would love to finally complete the chase. If anyone knows the owner, I would love to speak with them!

Zeenut McMullin.jpg

[Topnotchsy]

Originally Posted by Leon

Interesting white whales. Good luck.

Thanks. I tend to go down very long rabbit holes and my collection niches and white whales reflect that.

If you don't mind indulging me, a Whale that I actually did acquire recently is a perfect example. It is at the nexus of my WWII baseball collection and my Integration Collection.

In September 1945, after Germany had surrendered, the troops played a tournament in Europe that culimated with the GI World Series, a 5 game series which was split between Soldier Field in Nurmberg, Germany, and Reims, France.

In that tournament, the OISE team was integrated and included two future Hall of Famers, Leon Day and Willard Brown.

The OISE team won the series, and Day pitched well.

Programs from that series are (not surprisingly) exceedingly rare. I'm not sure if 10 have seen the light of day in the past 20 years. But one consistency about all of them was that they were unscored. And the kicker is that none of the players are listed in the program, so without it being scored, there is no indication of the historical aspect of the Integrated team, no mention of 2 future HOFers etc.

After years of pursuing this item, and acquiring almost ever copy I came across (became a bit of an obsession and I bought 3-4 of them over the years), a copy showed up that was scored from one of the games. Even better, it was scored from Game 2, which Leon Day started and won in Nurmberg.

It's not everyone's cup of tea but for me the combination of the game being played at a stadium previously used for Axis Power rallies (I'm avoiding terms that may get flagged), and was integrated a month before Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson.

There's a lot more to the story, but this was definitely a whale for me. I don't believe the Hall of Fame even has a copy of the program, or anything else tied to the series, though they do have a nice article about it online. This may also represent the only documentation of a detailed account of what happened in the game.