Your Information Resource for Vintage Baseball Cards
  eNews Issue #148 (August 2016)       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. Jefferson Burdick's Earliest Articles Predate the ACC
3. Latest Additions to the OldCardboard.com Website


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.


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August 2016

4Phone/Internet Sterling Sports Auctions (see website for details).
10-11Phone/Internet Clean Sweep Auctions (see website for details).
11Phone/Internet Huggins & Scott Auctions (see website for details).
12Phone/Internet Goodwin & Co. Auction (see website for details).
13Phone/Internet Goldin Auctions (see website for details).
18Phone/Internet Mile High Auction (see website for details).
18-21White Plains, NY White Plains Sports Card Show (see website for details).
20San Leandro, CA San Francisco Bay Area Show (see web page for details)
20Phone/Internet SCP Auctions Mid-Summer Classic (see website for details).
24Phone/Internet Hunt Auctions (see website for details).
27Phone/Internet Small Traditions Summer Premium Auction (see website for details).
27-28Dallas, TX Heritage Signature Sports Collectibles Auction (see website for details).
28Internet Only Wheatland Auction Services (see website for details).

September 2016

8-10Long Beach, CA Long Beach Expo (see website for details).
9Internet Bagger's Auctions (see website for details).
23-25King of Prussia, PA Philly Show (see website for details).


2. Jefferson Burdick's Earliest Articles Predate the ACC

Hobby pioneer Jefferson Burdick is best known for his work in the cataloging of collectible cards (both sports and non-sports) in the American Card Catalog (ACC). Many hobbyists today, however, are unaware of his earliest contributions to the hobby.

Pre-dating the publication of the first edition of his ACC in 1939, Burdick penned eight articles about card collecting that were published in Hobbies magazine. The covers for the issues containing his articles are displayed below.

December 1935                   January 1936                     March 1936                           May 1937    
      July 1937                         August 1937                   September 1937                     June 1938    

Hobbies magazine was subtitled at the time as "The Magazine for Collectors." A browse through its pages reveal considerable insight about the more popular collectibles in the 1930s and the virtually non-exsistant role of card collecting among hobbyists of the period.

The magazine's major sections include numerous articles about stamps, coins, antiques, firearms, Indian relics and even rocks and minerals. Aside from Burdick's several articles which were generally relagated to a column or two near the back of the issue, there is no mention of card collecting in either the articles or the advertising messages.

Also very revealing is Burdick's knowledge and perspective of the fledgling card collecting hobby and the evolving methods that he used to identify some of the sets with which we are familiar today.

Burdick at first broadly classified cards either by style or size, with the Old Style being generally nineteenth century cards and the New Style representing mostly twentieth century tobacco issues. Cards were further classified into those of extra-large, large, medium and small sizes. In referring to New Style sets in the March, 1936 issue of Hobbies, Burdick wrote:

I am listing according to the size of the card although some sets seem to fall on a middle ground difficult to classify.

The first size are comprised of extra-large cards about 6 x 8 inches. These were obtained in exchange for a certain number of coupons or gift slips which came with the cigarettes. I have heard of the following sets:

Hamilton King girls (25)     [later listed as set T7 in the American Card Catalog]
    Turkish Trophies and Helmars
Kink Series (20)    
    Tales of Turkish Trophies
Actresses     [later cataloged as set T1]
    Turkish Trophies
College Series (25) (possibly 50)     [later cataloged as set T6]
    Murad
Baseball Players (100)     [later cataloged as set T3 in the ACC]
    Turkey Red, Fez, Old Mill
Prizefighters (26)     [later cataloged as set T9; also included in set T3 in the ACC]
    Turkey Red, Fez, Old Mill
Burdick went on to classify "large" cards ("approximately 2-1/2 by 3-1/4") into about 30 different sets that he numbered from Set A to Set DD. Of particular interest to vintage baseball card collectors today is Set X ("Baseball Folders, triple, Hassan") which later evolved into set T202 in the ACC, and Set Y ("Baseball Folders, double, Fatima") known to today's collectors as Set T200. Other "large" card sets are classified as Set Z ("Baseball Teams (photos), Fatima") known today as Set 200 and Set AA ("Champions, Honest Long Cut, 2-1/4 by 3-5/8") which he later cataloged as Set T227.

Of the 17 "Medium" size card sets ("approximately 2 by 2-5/8") listed by Burdick, only one features baseball players. It is Set Pm ("Baseball players, Ramly, TTT"), later cataloged as Set T204 in the ACC.

"Small" card sets ("approximately 1-1/2 by 3-3/4") include:

Set Ps ("Baseball players, (400) gold framed cards, Hassan, Sweet Caporal, Cycle, Polar Bear"),
    now set T205
Set Qs ("Baseball Champions 1910, Fireside"), now set T208
Set Rs ("Baseball players (brown background) Napoleon, Broadleaf") now set T207
Burdick also included in his "small cards" list Set Ss ("Baseball players (white framed cards) Sweet Caporal, Cycle, Soverign, Polar Bear, Old Mill and several candy and gum sets of similar designs"). This of course is now best known as the set T206, along with other unnamed E-series cards.

Finally, Burdick placed Set Ts ("Domino baseball disks, Sweet Caporal") onto his "small cards" list. He later cataloged the disks in the American Card Catalog as set PX7.

Although Burdick's classifications evolved substantially between the time he penned the articles for Hobbies magazine and the final edition of the ACC, many of the fundamentals remained. For example the T3s are still listed in the "Extra Large Sizes" category in the ACC, although smaller sized cards were merged and re-grouped as "General Issues," "Sports Issues," "Novelty Issues," etc. in the catalog.

As an added service to Old Cardboard readers, we have prepared a compilation of the full text of all eight of Burdick's articles printed in Hobbies magazine. All eight articles are packaged into a single PDF document complete with the cover image for each issue. The PDF has been posted to the Reference Library section of the Old Cardboard website. It can also be accessed directly by selecting this link. We believe that it will be of considerable interest to all vintage card collectors.

Note: while Burdick's articles in Hobbies magazine were truly groundbreaking, they did not include the first known articles relating to the card collecting hobby. The first known article about collectible cards was published in the May 4, 1929 issue of The New Yorker magazine. A detailed description (including a full reproduction) of that article, originally written by Arthur H. Folwell and titled "A New York Childhood," is provided in Issue #32 (Spring 2015) of Old Cardboard magazine.


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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:

As noted in the article above, a PDF file has been developed that includes a compilation of all eight of Jefferson Burdick's articles printed in Hobbies magazine during the mid-to-late 1930s. The PDF has been posted to the Reference Library section of the Old Cardboard website.

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, images of cards missing from our galleries, error corrections and suggestions. Please send all feedback 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.

T-Cards (Cont.)
T209 Contentnea
1910 T210 Old Mill
T212 Obak
T213 Coupon
T222 Fatima (Player)
T332 Helmar Stamps
1952-55 Red Man Tobacco

W-Cards (Exhibits)
1921-28 (W461)
PC-Back Exhibits
1929-38 W463 ("4-on-1s")
1939-46 W462 Salutations
1948 HOF Series
1922 "Eastern" Exhibits
1961 Wrigley Field

(more custom searches
by major card group)





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.