Your Information Resource for Vintage Baseball Cards
eNews( December 2004, Issue #8)                    www.oldcardboard.com

A warm Holiday Greetings to our vintage card collecting friends! 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. Sotheby's/SCP Auction
3. OC Magazine Issue #2 Details
4. Featured Set of the Month (T3 "Turkey Reds")
5. Give Old Cardboard for Christmas (A Reminder for Last Minute Shoppers)

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1.  Updated Auction and Show Calendar*

The following is a summary of vintage card events coming up in the next 30-45 days. For details on all upcoming vintage card shows and auctions, see the auction calendar on the Old Cardboard website.
December 2004
1 Internet Lelands auction (see Lelands website for details).
2 NYC/Sotheby's SportsCards Plus and Sotheby's "Babe Comes Home" auction (see SCP website for details.
3-5 Philadelphia 89th Philadelphia Sports Card and Memorabilia Show (Ft. Washington Expo Center). See EPSCC website for details.
9 Phone/Internet American Memorabilia Holiday Auction (See website for details).
9-10 Phone/Internet MastroNet Sports Premier Catalog Auction (see MastroNet Auctions for details).
January 2005
12-14 Internet/Phone Collectible Classics. See CCA Website for details.
27 Internet Bricol Sports Auction (Contact: see website for details).
28-30 Philadelphia Naxcom Philly Convention Center Show (Contact: see Naxcom Trade Shows events page).

* To add an auction or vintage show date to our calendar just send an email to editor@oldcardboard.com and we'll be happy to post it for you.   

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2. Sotheby's/SCP Auction

The bat that Babe Ruth used in 1923 to hit the first home run in the first game ever played at Yankee Stadium (see Old Cardboard, Issue #1, p. 27-28) sold in December for a cool $1,265,000. It was sold in New York City in a joint auction held by SportsCards Plus and Sotheby's. Hammer price at the auction was $1.1 million, to which a 15% buyer's premium was added.

The bat was purchased by rival auctioneer MastroNet on behalf of an undisclosed collector.

The Grand Opening at Yankee Stadium was one of Ruth's greatest days. In addition to a career highlight for Ruth, his home run was judged by the New York Times to be "the real baptism of Yankee Stadium." More than 74,000 fans packed the stadium--about 10,000 more than its seating capacity--in the largest crowd that had ever assembled to watch a baseball game. Twenty-five thousand more were turned away at the gates.   The festivities included pre-game march music led by the then 68-year-old legendary King of March, John Phillip Sousa.

After coming off of a slump season in 1922 due at least in part to excessive New York night life, the repentant Ruth commented to a reporter before the game that "I'd give a year of my life if I can hit a home run in this new park." He got his wish by slugging one of the most important and most dramatic home runs of his career.

All total the auction brought in $4.7 million in sales (the total of all items that sold including the buyer's premium). In addition to the bat and many other Babe Ruth items, the auction included a wide variety of items from the personal memorabilia collection of Hall of Famer and Dodger's great Pee Wee Reese.

Some two dozen baseball cards and card sets were also included in the auction. However, the most notable of these--a VG-EX example of the famous T206 Honus Wagner tobacco card--did not meet the consignor's reserve of $375,000.  The most notable baseball card that did sell was a PSA-graded "Mint-9" example of the #144 Ruth card from the 1933 Goudey set. Final price for the near-perfect example was $74,750.

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3. OC Magazine Issue #2 Details

The second issue of Old Cardboard is on track for delivery around the middle of January. We belive that the second issue is even better than the first, and hope that you agree. The articles contained in Issue #2 are:

  • Baseball in Wartime: A Tribute to Those Who Served thru WWI by Chris Stufflestreet (8 pages). Our cover feature this issue is dedicated to athletes from all sports that have served our country in wartime. The article is amply illustrated with vintage baseball cards and also includes individual images of Christy Mathewson, Grover Alexander, Branch Rickey and Hank Gowdy--each in his WWI military uniform).

  • 1935 Goudey "4-in-1's:" Solutions to all Nine Puzzle Backs by Frank Andrews (7 pages; a look at this popular mid-1930s set focusing on its "puzzle backs. All nine of the puzzles are "solved" and presented. Interestingly, it takes twice as many different cards (72) to complete the nine puzzles than it takes to complete the set of 36 card fronts).

  • 1912 S81 Helmar Silks: A Smooth Display of 25 Players by Lyman Hardeman (an overview of these most attractive but difficult to find premiums issued by Helmar brand cigarettes. A detailed checklist cross-references all of the cards from the S81 issue with the same poses found in the L1 "Leathers" and the T3 "Turkey Reds." The only known full sheet of S81 silks is also displayed).

  • Tracing the Origins of Baseball: The Earliest Bat and Ball Card by Frank Ceresi and Carol McMains (2-page summary of the most recent historical discoveries relating to the origins of baseball. Includes the image of a card now owned by Walter Johnson's grandson Hank Thomas and considered to be the earliest "bat and ball" card known).

  • Cobb on Ruth: "A Freak Hitter......Who Will Not Last Long" by Old Cardboard Staff (brief but tantalizing interview with Ty Cobb that was first published in the October 1920 issue of Physical Culture Magazine. During the interview, the Georgia Peach asserted that "Ruth is a freak hitter--but, more than that, he is a freak hitter that won't last long. Illustrated with contemporary images of Cobb (printed in the article itself) and of Ruth (from the June 26, 1920 issue of the Police Gazette).
These articles, together with an expanded "Editor's Notebook" and our regular "Collector's Dugout" column promise to make Issue #2 another "must read" for vintage collectors. If you have not already subscribed, there is still time to start your subscription with Issue #2 at https://www.oldcardboard.com/subscriptions.asp.

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4. Featured Set of the Month (T3 "Turkey Reds")

Our feature set for December is the T3 "Turkey Red" cigarette issue produced in 1910-11 by the American Tobacco Company. The popular premiums were printed in large cabined size format in very attractive full color lithography. The numbered set is featured on the Old Cardboard website along with a complete checklist.

We have also added a gallery of the images of all 100 baseball players in the set. The gallery can be accessed from the Turkey Red main set page at https://www.oldcardboard.com/t/t003/t3.asp?cardsetID=690. Enlarged images for each card in the set can also be viewed by simply clicking on the desired thumbnail image. Similar card galleries for other sets will also be added in the near future.

In addition to the Turkey Red advertising back shown on the website, the cabinet cards are found with four variations of "checklist" backs. Key differences in the checklist backs are are determined by which cards are checklisted (#1-75, #76-126, etc.), and whether or not the card back includes a redemption message at the bottom. Note that card numbers 51 through 76 are for non-baseball subjects (all boxers) and carry a separate listing (T9) in the American Card Catalog.

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5. Give Old Cardboard for Christmas (A Reminder for Last Minute Shoppers)

To the vintage baseball card collector, there is perhaps not a better gift idea than sending a one-year subscription of Old Cardboard Magazine. The recipient's first issue will be mailed via first class mail to arrive by January 15.  The gift will keep on coming throughout 2005 as a reminder of your thoughtfulness (and great wisdom).

To order a gift subscription, just use the printable form on the Old Cardboard website at http://www.oldcardboard.com/subscriptions.asp or process via PayPal in the same way as a regular subscription. Fill in the recipient's address in the PayPal "Ship To" field.

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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 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 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 newsletter, or for subscription information on the newly launched Old Cardboard Magazine, please visit the home page of the website at www.oldcardboard.com

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