Your Information Resource for Vintage Baseball Cards
  eNews Issue #132 (April 2015)       www.oldcardboard.com


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Welcome to Old Cardboard, the most complete reference resource for information about collecting vintage baseball cards and related memorabilia.  More information about this eNewsletter and its companion website and magazine are found at the bottom of this page.

Contents:
1. Updated Auction and Show Calendar
2. Set Profile: 1945-50 Remar Bread Oakland Oaks
3. Latest Additions to the OldCardboard.com Website
4. News Briefs (A Digest of Recent Hobby Happenings)


1. Updated Auction and Show Calendar

The following is a summary of vintage card events coming up in the next 30-45 days. For the most current listings on additional vintage card shows and auctions, see the Key Events Calendar on the Old Cardboard website.

Have an event that needs to be on the OC Calendar?
Email editor@oldcardboard.com.


OC eNewsletter Sponsor

April 2015

17-19SF, CA (Cow Palace) Tristar Collector Show (see website for details).
23Phone/Internet Collectible Classics Auction (see website for details).
25Phone/Internet Robert Edward Auctions (see website for details).
25Phone/Internet SCP Auctions (see website for details).
30Phone/Internet Giovanni Sports Auctions (see website for details).

May 2015

1-3White Plains, NY White Plains "Spring Fever" Show (see website for details).
2Phone/Internet Small Traditions Spring Premium Auction (see website for details).
6Phone/Internet Hunt Auctions (see website for details).
9Phone/Internet Goldin Auctions (see website for details).
13Phone/Internet Mile High Auction (see website for details).
14-16Dallas/Internet Heritage Signature Sports Collectibles Auction (see website for details).
21Phone/Internet Sterling Sports Auctions (see website for details).
29-31Houston 29th Annual Tristar Houston Summer Show (see website for details).


2. Set Profile: 1945-50 Remar Bread Oakland Oaks

For a period spanning six years from 1945-1950, Remar Bread issued baseball cards annually in support of the Oakland Oaks Pacific Coast League team. Collectively, the sets are listed in the American Card Catalog as set D317 (Remar Bread).

In 1945 and again in 1948, only a team card was produced. Cards for both years are very rare today. Sets with cards for individual players were issued for four years (1946, 1947, 1949 and 1950) of the six year span.

Card fronts from all sets were printed in black and white. Individual player cards each had the player's name, team and position printed in a white panel at the bottom.

An overview for identification and comparison of the six Remar card sets is provided below (click on images to enlarge/rotate):

1946-50 Remar Bread -- Overview of Sets
D317-0D317-1D317-2D317-3D317-4D317-5

Example Front
  (click to enlarge)

Example Back
  (click to enlarge)
Year1945/619461947 194819491950
Card Size (inches)3-5/8 x 4-7/82 x 32 x 3 3-1/4 x 5-1/22 x 32 x 3
Approx. Image Scale30%50%50% 30%50%50%
Team RepresentedOaks, PCLOaks, PCLOaks, PCL Oaks, PCLOaks, PCLOaks, PCL
Border around photo?nonono yesyesyes
Numbered set?n/ayesyes n/anono
Stat'n Listed on BacknoneKROWKROW -KLXKLX, KGO-TV
Colors Used on Backred/bluered/blueblue blackblueblue
Bread Brand in BackRemarRemarSunbeam -SunbeamSunbeam
# of Cards in Set1 (team)2325 1 (team)3227
Card Value
  (common; VG)
$800$7$7 $1200$7$7
Checklist
Gallery
Checklist
Gallery
TBA TBA

As seen from the table, the backs of the first two player-card series (1946-47) provided a brief player profile. For the last two series (1949-50), the bio profile was replaced with summary player statistics for the previous year. While keeping the same basic front design, the final two series (1949-50) added a narrow white border around the player image.

According to Bay Area collector and dealer Mark Macrae, "literally millions of Remar cards were printed and distributed throughout the East Bay area. Cards could be obtained by visiting the corner market and new players were added weekly. Stacks of cards were dropped off daily by the bread drivers and placed near the checkout counter and sometimes stacked near the bread itself. There was never a cost to them, nor was any purchase required. People were encouraged to take as many as they wanted. The cards were never placed inside the loaves of bread, nor were they 'attached' to the product."

Macrae also provided Old Cardboard with interesting additional perspective about each of the sets as well as the sets' sponsor, Remar Bread. Mark's extensive input is summarized below:

1945 Team Photo: Issued early in 1946, this postcard sized card depicts the 1945 Oakland Oaks Team. The final stats for the 1945 season are given on the reverse. The paper stock is similar to the 1946 individual player photos which they would release soon afterward. Players are identified on the front. The red loaf of Remar Bread is on the reverse, similar to the individual player cards. Distribution was clearly limited. This card was not documented until the 1970's, but now there are presently about 20 examples of this card known, most in the hands of collectors. Part of the scarcity may be attributed to the fact that only a few players from the 1945 team remained with the club in 1946.

1946 Oaks Players: Cards were issued each week. The first five cards were issued un-numbered while the remainder of set is numbered (#5 through 22), for a total of 23 cards issued. Cards can be distinguished by the red loaf of bread on the reverse. Billy Raimondi was the first individual player card issued (un-numbered), and generally shows up in lesser quantities than the other 22 cards in this set. Following Raimondi were un-numbered cards for Stewart, Scarsella, Pippen and Holder (in that order). The remainder of the series was released in numeric sequence.

1947 Oaks Players: All Cards are numbered. Those 1947 players that were featured in the 1946 set utilize the same photos as in 1946. Cards can be distinguished by blue printing on entire back and advertising for KROW radio.

1948 Team Photo: This postcard-sized card is printed on photo stock paper. The photo was never intended to be distributed publicly. It was part of a counter top display promoting a contest to win a free trip to the 1948 World Series and was only in the grocery stores for the month of July, 1948. It is estimated that fewer than 500 of these were ever made and that most of them were destroyed shortly following the end of the contest in July 1948. Most period collectors, including 50-year veteran collectors who grew up in nearby Berkeley, CA, did not remember the promotion, as Remar did not distribute baseball cards during that year and the kids were not as persistent in visiting the stores as they were the previous (and following) two years. The photo actually had to be cut from the display, therefore all examples in circulation should be classified as "trimmed" under current terminology. There are presently three examples known. The first once belonged to hobby pioneer Lionel Carter who acquired it during the 1940's from an unknown source and wrote about it in a Trader Speaks article back in March of 1973. The second example turned up during the mid-1980's and the third turned up in 2001. All three reside in long time collections and have never been offered through auction.

NOTE: Remar did not issue individual player cards during 1948. It is reported that Cookie Lavagetto insisted on a $50 royalty for the use of his picture, rather than the traditional $5 which was paid in earlier years. Remar balked, and ultimately shelved the player card set for 1948. Fortunately, by 1949 a compromise was reached and cards of individual players, including Lavagetto, were distributed once again.

1949 Oaks Players: All 32 cards are un-numbered. Cards from 1949 and 1950 are slightly larger in size than the earlier Remar player sets. Cards from 1949 feature blue printing on reverse and an ad for KLX Radio.

1950 Oaks Players: All 27 Cards in the set are un-numbered. All images are unique to the series. Backs are printed entirely in blue and can be distinguished by the 'KGO-TV' ad on the back.

Remar Bread: The name of the bakery was coined by bakery founder J. P. Rettenmayer, who used the first two, middle two and last letters from his name (REttenMAyeR) to establish the trademark. By 1930, Remar employed 150 workers, maintained a $400,000 annual payroll, produced 50,000 pounds of bread daily and used more than 10 million pounds of flour per year in its operation. In 1933, the company was sold to Peter Oluf Pedersen. Pedersen, along with his brother Axel, had owned other bakeries and a restaurant located in Oakland. They brought their baking experience along with a strong belief in civic responsibility. Within a short time, Remar would sponsor more than 100 youth baseball teams which were part of the Remar Juvenile Baseball League for area kids.

Player Checklists and Set Galleries for the 1946 and 1947 Remar Bread sets (see links above) have been added to the Old Cardboard website.


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3. Latest Additions to the OldCardboard.com Website

We are continually expanding the Old Cardboard website with more set profiles, checklists and card galleries. Recent (past 30-40 days) additions include:

Set Checklists have been added for:
1946   D317-1   Remar Bread
1947   D317-2   Remar Bread

Set Galleries have been added for:
1946   D317-1   Remar Bread
1947   D317-2   Remar Bread

Updating the website with checklists and full set galleries for additional vintage sets is an ongoing project, so check back often to check out the latest additions. There are now many thousands of card images on the website and the list continues to grow every month. We welcome and encourage feedback with checklist additions, card images, error corrections and suggestions. Please send all input to editor@oldcardboard.com.

Beyond the above pages recently added to the Old Cardboard website, we continue to expand and refine our eBay Custom Search Links to make finding vintage baseball cards on eBay easier than ever. The results of these searches are continuously changing, so check back often to find the most recent eBay listings. Samples of a few of these custom searches are provided below. Hundreds more are provided on the Set Profile pages throughout the Old Cardboard website.

N-Cards
1887 N28 Allen & Ginter
1888 N29 Allen & Ginter
N162 Goodwin Champions
N172 Old Judge
N184 Kimballs
1800s BB Trade Cards

D-Cards
D303/D304 General Baking
D305 Bond Bread
1946-50 D317 Remar Bread
1910 D322 Tip Top Bread
1947 D323 Tip Top Bread
1916-21 D350 Standard Biscuit

(more custom searches
by major card group)



4. News Briefs (A Digest of Recent Hobby Happenings)

Jimmy Claxton Postcard Discovered. A postcard picturing a team image of the 1914 Portland, Oregon "Hubbard Giants" Negro League Baseball Team has been recently reported. Significantly, the team image includes southpaw pitcher Jimmy Claxton, credited as the first African-American player to play in the Pacific Coast League (he pitched in 1916 for the Oakland Oaks). Claxton is also the first black player to be featured in an American baseball card set (the 1916 Zeenut series). The discovery of the postcard was reported on the Net54 Vintage Baseball Card Forum and can be viewed along with Claxton's Zeenut card on the Net54 website.

New Obak Discovery. A significant new discovery of 1909 and 1910 Obak cigarette cards was recently reported by Los Angeles vintage card dealer David Levin. Until recently, the owner of the cards was from Portland, Oregon and had inherited them from his grandfather. Of the 171 cards in the find, 113 were from the 1909 Obak set with the remaining 58 cards from the 1910 set. What makes the 1910 cards particularly interesting, according to Levin, is that nearly half of them (25 cards) were from the much scarcer "150 Subjects" subset. David can be reached at gfg@gfg.com.


Lyman and Brett Hardeman
Old Cardboard, LLC.

Old Cardboard, LLC. was established in December 2003, to help bring information on vintage baseball card collecting to the hobbyist.  Produced by collectors for collectors, this comprehensive resource consists of three components: (1) Old Cardboard Magazine, (2) a companion website at www.oldcardboard.com and (3) this eNewsletter. The Old Cardboard website contains more than 500 pages of descriptive reference information for baseball card sets produced fifty years ago or longer.  Each of these set summaries has a direct set-specific link to auctions and a similar link to 's powerful search engine for further research.  The website also includes a Show and Auction Calendar, an eBay Top 50 Vintage Sellers List, and much more.  As a result, the Old Cardboard website makes a great "Alt-tab" companion for vintage card shoppers and researchers.  Old Cardboard eNews provides current hobby news, upcoming shows and auctions, and updates to the website and the magazine.  It is published around the middle of each month.  For a FREE subscription to the eNewsletter, or for subscription information on Old Cardboard Magazine, please visit the website at www.oldcardboard.com.  If you find this information resource helpful, please tell your friends.  We need your support and your feedback. Thank you.