Photo checklist of 1886 H812 New York Base Ball Club

[orator1]

Barry, have you seen any of these cards before during your years in the business - and if so how long ago?
I'm trying to get an idea of how rare they really are.

Eight cards appear on several checklists, so is it safe to assume they have all been verified to exist?

[barrysloate]

Paul- I've virtually never seen any. Perhaps only the one pictured in the Encyclopedia of Baseball Cards, and that's it. They are extremely rare.

[Leon]

I think this H812 set is one of the rarest 19th century sets there is. I used to own the Welch when I was still doing the 1800's cards. I think I remember that most of them are known but all but 2-3 have the bottoms trimmed off of them. I think there might have been a group of them on ebay one time.....but again, all of the bottom ads were cut off. IF they weren't on ebay, I at least know there was a group of 6-7 somewhere that I remember....

[orator1]

I just checked Lipset's Encyclopedia of Baseball Cards and the card pictured is the Welch above. When he described the H812 set only 3 poses were known at the time: Welch, Deasley, and Ewing.

[E93]

Originally Posted by orator1

Eight cards appear on several checklists, so is it safe to assume they have all been verified to exist?

I would NOT assume they exist just because they appear on a checklist. It only takes one careless checklister to assume they must have made cards for the whole team and put them all on the list. Then others copy that list with the assumption that the guy before him verified them. I would go with Lew's list of three and wait for verification on any others. This is a potential issue with other very rare sets as well like N167.
JimB

[felada]

there was a group of about five cards that sold in an REA auction a long time ago. All were trimmed.

[E93]

Do you remember which REA auction it was?
JimB

[barrysloate]

I tried several different searches on REA's website and nothing came up.

[mzm55]

According to my notes, in REA's 1995 auction, a complete set of eight H812s were sold. All were trimmed. I don't have my catalog at hand as I'm away from home at school. Maybe someone else can confirm that this is correct.

[barrysloate]

Lot 776 of REA's 1995 auction was indeed a group of eight H812. The lot included: Ewing, Ward, Keefe, Welch, Richardson, Gillespie, Deasly, and O'Rourke. All were trimmed down to the portrait and shoulders only. The lot realized $4144.