How rare are ROSE Postcards

[garymc]

I saved up my savings and sold my truck, I built up a little bankroll and than went hunting for some Rose's.
I can't find any , in any conditions?
How rare are these post cards............





https://www.flickr.com/photos/151843924@N04/albums

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

I had 7 in my last pre war auction most had less than 10 known examples

[Baseball Rarities]

PC760 Rose Co. postcards are much rarer than most collectors realize. Finding a type card is easy due to the large number of subjects in the set, but the search for a specific player could take a lifetime.

The Rose Co. produced postcards of 192 different players in the summer of 1908 - exactly 12 subjects for each of the 16 Major League teams. Generally, each team was represented with a player at each position along with four starting pitchers. There are a few variations and several players were added, but the "main" set consists of these 192 cards. All of the major stars from 1908 are included - Cobb, Wagner, Johnson, Mathewson, Young, Lajoie, Plank, etc.

Not to confuse the issue, but they also produced a 14 card set of the Minor League Scranton team, which included Moonlight Graham.

I follow the populations pretty closely (both graded and raw) and my last tally accounted for about 500 total examples of these 192 cards. The individual populations vary quite a bit. Many of the postcards have only a single surviving example. Most of the cards are in the 1-4 range.

Wagner is the most plentiful card. The combined SGC and PSA pop reports show 14 total examples, but I think that there are several duplicates in that number. There are about 10 Mathewsons known. The next easiest cards are Cobb, Lajoie and Chance, all with about 7 known examples. Huggins and Wallace are the scarcest HOFers. I only know of 1 example of each.

Since the collector could pick which player he wanted to purchase. it would make sense that the stars of the days were generally chosen more often than the lesser known players. There are obviously outliers, like Cy Young who is very rare, but, for the most part, it is the obscure players of the time who are extremely rare.

Here is one of my favorite cards, the Major League rookie of Walter Johnson. I believe that there ar 3 or 4 known examples.

[mrreality68]

That is great info Kevin thanks for sharing.

[Casey2296]

Love the RPC's, some of the most beautiful cards ever produced, and every card needs a thread...
_

[Rhotchkiss]

Kevin is the authority on Rose Co and I have little to add other than finding a Rose Co PC (any PC) is not hard - they are certainly around and Rose Co PCs come up for sale often. However, finding a specific Rose Co PC can be near impossible. As mentioned, Wagner is the most populous and there are only 14 examples on a the combined pop report and some are cross-overs (although I a sure there are some ungraded out there as well).

I love the Rose Co PCs. First, they are gorgeous. Second, they have many of the same Horner pics as the more classic T206, E90-1 and/or CJ cards. Third, the set has so many HOFers - I am not sure any set has more. Fourth, it has a Moonlight Graham, which is perhaps my favorite card. Here are my Rose Co's

[Fred]

They'll become more scarce when other collectors get the bug to collect'em. Mo scarce = mo $$$

[MuncieNolePAZ]

Originally Posted by Rhotchkiss

Kevin is the authority on Rose Co and I have little to add other than finding a Rose Co PC (any PC) is not hard - they are certainly around and Rose Co PCs come up for sale often. However, finding a specific Rose Co PC can be near impossible. As mentioned, Wagner is the most populous and there are only 14 examples on a the combined pop report and some are cross-overs (although I a sure there are some ungraded out there as well).

I love the Rose Co PCs. First, they are gorgeous. Second, they have many of the same Horner pics as the more classic T206, E90-1 and/or CJ cards. Third, the set has so many HOFers - I am not sure any set has more. Fourth, it has a Moonlight Graham, which is perhaps my favorite card. Here are my Rose Co's

If you build it... Nice cards Ryan. I had no idea Moonlight Graham had any cards. That is really cool.

Chad

[joejo20]

There is one Lou Criger on the SGC pop report but I have never seen an image of the card. It must be quite rare if not even an image of the card can be found online! Joe


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[Baseball Rarities]

Originally Posted by joejo20

There is one Lou Criger on the SGC pop report but I have never seen an image of the card. It must be quite rare if not even an image of the card can be found online! Joe

Here is Criger. It is the only known example as far as I know.

It is postmarked from Oregon of all places.

[joejo20]

Ask and ye shall receive! What an awesome card and thanks for sharing. Joe

Originally Posted by Baseball Rarities

Here is Criger. It is the only known example as far as I know.

It is postmarked from Oregon of all places.

[sb1]

One of the small group I have...

On a semi-related note, and perhaps Kevin will have a better idea, What is the ratio of postally used versus never posted?? 1 in 10, 1 in 20?

[Baseball Rarities]

Originally Posted by sb1

One of the small group I have...

On a semi-related note, and perhaps Kevin will have a better idea, What is the ratio of postally used versus never posted?? 1 in 10, 1 in 20?

Great postcard Scott. Keeler is definitely one of the toughies in the set. For some reason, NY AL players are generally very difficult subjects.

My guess is that around 10% of Rose postcards have been postally used. Maybe a little more.

[mrreality68]

Here is my 1 and only Contribution to these PC's

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by mrreality68

Here is my 1 and only Contribution to these PC's

Eye-popping!

[obcmac]

Tough to follow these guys...but since no one has mentioned ad backs yet, here is mine.

[Rhotchkiss]

The add backs are awesome. Hi Mac, how goes?

[pbspelly]

As others have mentioned, finding one is not hard, but finding a specific one is quite difficult. I was only looking for one player (Sullivan) and ended up probably overpaying by a fair amount to get it at auction. Another board member actually contacted me afterwards and basically asked why I bid as high as I did, but when there are only three or four of them out there, you can't always wait around for a fair deal. And, of course, somebody was bidding against me, so apparently someone else was also willing to pay more than what was, at the time, the generally understood market value for it.

[garymc]

I had to trade another Rose and some money for this one.........

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Awesome pick up Gary, congrats!

[Rhotchkiss]

Great PC Gary! Congrats

[robertsmithnocure]

Congratulations on the pickup Gary. I am not sure if I have ever seen a Chesbro before.