2. Naxcom Vintage Invitational
| September 2004 | ||
| 3-6 | San Francisco | 17th Annual Labor Day Weekend Collectors Show (Contact: Tri-Star). |
| 10-11 | Internet |
Heritage Sports Collectibles  Signature Auction #701 (Contact:
Heritage Sports Collectibles
website). |
| 10-12 | Los Angeles |
The 21st West Coast Sports Collectors Expo (Contact: see
Naxcom
Trade Shows events page). |
| 13 | Internet | Opening: 1st Annual Naxcom
Vintage Invitational (Contact: see
Naxcom
website). |
| 17-19 | Philadelphia | 88th Philadelphia Sports Card and Memorabilia Show (Ft. Washington Expo Center). See EPSCC website for details. |
| 19-22 | Internet/eBay |
Henry Yee Auction (see Auction Listings; starts Sept.
12-15)
|
| 23 | Internet | Barry Sloate Auctions (see Barry Sloate Auctions website). |
| October 2004 | ||
| 4 | Laguna Niguel, CA | |
| 15 | Your Place | Date of Delivery for Issue #1 of Old Cardboard Magazine (Contact: Brett Hardeman). |
| 15-17 | Kansas City |
Tri-Star Show at Overland Park Intl. Trade Ctr.
(Contact: Tri-Star website).
|
designates an Old
Cardboard sponsor.Over the past several years, Naxcom.com has developed a marketplace for baseball and other sportscards patterned after Wall Street's securities exchange model. Here buyers and sellers come together to post "Bid" and "Ask" orders with the gap between the two prices narrowing until a deal is made. The innovative model has worked well for cards from the newer sets but for a variety of reasons has developed less quickly for vintage cards. To help jump-start the Naxcom marketplace for vintage cards, the company has announced a March-Madness style competition among leading vintage dealers. Called the Vintage Invitational, a pool of 32 dealers will complete this Fall to determine which vintage dealers can sell the most cards via the Naxcom model with a top prize of $10,000 awarded to the winner.
Naxcom defines vintage as anything before 1980, but has a category on their online marketplace for "Pre-1941." The promotion will benefit all "vintage" collectors in two ways: (1) the contest provides incentives for dealers to place their most competitive "Ask" prices and (2) the vintage buyer with the highest purchase total throughout the contest is rewarded with a $1000 grand prize.
Further details of the contest are provided at http://www.naxcom.com/New/2spots.html. A preliminary week-long qualifying contest begins this week (starting Monday, September 13-20) to fill the final two dealer spots in the 32-dealer roster. The Vintage Invitational main event begins September 27. We wish all dealers and buyers alike success in the contest.
 |
Please
note: Charter
subscriptions to Old Cardboard Magazine end on September 24. Become a Charter Subscriber today
at https://www.oldcardboard.com/subscriptions.asp and take advantage of our offer to send your
first issue
FREE! |
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Last month (August 17 to be exact marked one of the most incredible discoveries of N172 Old Judge cards in decades, if not ever. The cache of nearly 1500 cards from the popular 19th century set was uncovered in Oregon. After being stored in a dusty old briefcase for decades and nearly being tossed away last year, they were discovered by the descendents of the original owner and first reported to the hobby by California dealer David Levin.
Jay Miller, a recognized Old Judge specialist, is not aware of a larger single find of cards from the set. "What is interesting is what is not in it,” according to Miller, who notes that there are no "Spotted Ties or California League cards. The most interesting cards that ARE in the collection, he says, "are the new team variations for 19th century players Ryan (Philadelphia) and Burdick (Omaha). Until we see otherwise, each must be considered unique."
Matilda (now 93 years young) with dealer David Levin. The briefcase on the right was home
The following is an overview of the origins of the cards and how they were found:
The cards were originally collected by A. A. Koch (1877-1947). He turned ten years old in the year the cards were first issued in 1887. It is not known for sure, but believed that he assembled the collection during that period. Koch lived in the Washington, D. C. area until 1911 when he moved his family to Fresno, California shortly after his daughter Matilda was born.
When Koch died in 1947, Matilda was left with the cards unaware of their significance or value. In the 1970's, Matilda's husband Ted took enough interest in the cards to mount them in scrapbooks.
After Ted died in 1981, the cards, protected in a briefcase (see image), were moved into a tool shed outside Matilda's California home. They remained there for more than two decades until Matilda moved to Oregon last year to live with her daughter's family. At one point during the move she was asked what she wanted to do with the dirty old briefcase. Still unaware of its contents, she opted at first to leave it behind to make room for other "more useful" belongings in the limited space of the U-Haul used for the trip. Fortunately, however, the briefcase and its contents found its way into the "off-to-Oregon" pile and survived the move.
Upon arrival in Oregon the briefcase remained undisturbed for another year before anyone decided to take a look inside. Once discovered, the family conducted some Internet research and contacted California dealer David Levin to take a closer look. Levin soon did just that and has since purchased the cards from the family. More information about the set can be found on Levin's website at http://gfg.com/LLojfind/.
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for the nearly 1,500 N172 Old Judge cards, where they were protected for at least two decades.
5. G'me an "R" for Rittenhouse
Follow-up from Old
Cardboard eNews Issue #4 Set of the Month: We are still looking for
several remaining letters to complete the 70-year-old Rittenhouse Candy Co.
contest (see https://www.oldcardboard.com/e/e2/e285/e285.asp?cardsetID=774 for
details about the set and the card-back promotion). We have the "R"
and most other letters, but still need the letters A, E, H, N and
O. If you have cards with any of these backs, please send a scan to editor@oldcardboard.com. We will
post the missing letters to complete the puzzle. Thanks for your
input.
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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 before 1950.
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 the newly launched Old Cardboard Magazine, please visit the home page of the website at www.oldcardboard.com.