So who's going to pony up for Pete Hill?

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Posted By: Chad

If you went to the owner of the card--not Ryan, btw--and tried to deal for the card, 200K is the minimum you'd have to pay, I'd guess. I'm sure he's just as happy with keeping the card as he'd be with selling it. There are only 2 Pete Hill cards extant, and only one copy of each card and this Cabanas card is by far the better of the two.

As for rather having Cobbs, Mattys, Ruths, etc., we each have our own obsessions. I'd rather have the Pete Hill. It's a great card as it represents not only the coming explosion of baseball in Latin America, but also the card is emblematic of the series when black players proved they were every bit as talented as their white counterparts. The Cabanas set was issued to commemorate the Tigers tour of Cuba and Jose Mendez, Pete Hill and Bruce Petway starred for the Cuban team that gave the Tigers all they could handle. In fact, after the series, Cobb swore he'd never again play against black players and he never did. It was a crucial series in the history of baseball and that there are cards of it is a small miracle, IMO. This isn't to knock Cobb cards or Matty cards--my T205 and T206 Mattys are two of my favorite cards and I'd never part with them and I'd really love to have a V100 Cobb if I can ever save up the scratch--but I'm just trying to give some idea about why the 200k asking price isn't insane. And I haven't even mentioned that Pete Hill was a great player, one of the early black superstars along with Louis Santop and Home Run Johnson and a mainstay on the Chicago American Giants, the New York Yankees of the nascent Negro Leagues and also the barnstorming circuit at the time. Hell, if the Hill were my card, I'd want more than 200k for it.

--Chad