Your Information Resource for Vintage Baseball Cards
  eNews Issue #153 (January 2017)       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. The Eighteen M101-4/5 Backs and Their Sponsors
3. Latest Additions to the OldCardboard.com Website
4. Team Checklists Now Published for Baseball Cards (1870-1975)
5. 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

January 2017

21Phone/Internet SCP Auctions Winter Premier (see website for details).
26Phone/Internet Giovanni Sports Auctions (see website for details).

February 2017

1Phone/Internet Clean Sweep Auctions (see website for details).
2Phone/Internet Sterling Sports Auctions (see website for details).
2Internet Sirius Sportscards (see website for details).
9Phone/Internet Huggins & Scott Auctions (see website for details).
10-12Houston, TX Houston Collectors Show (Tristar) (see website for details).
11Internet Brockelman Auctions (see website for details).
25-26Dallas, TX Heritage Platinum Night Sports Catalog Auction (website).


2. The Eighteen M101-4/5 Backs and Their Sponsors


M101-4 Front

Example M101-4 Back
It's now been eight years since long-time collectors and Old Cardboard readers Tim Newcomb and Todd Schultz authored an eight-page primer detailing the 1916 M101-4/5 "Sporting News" set (see OC Issue #16, Summer 2008). A side panel in that article briefly profiled each of the 18 sponsors for the set along with images of their advertising messages printed on the card backs.

Since that time, discoveries of small groups of cards from several of the more obscure subsets, along with newly uncovered facts about the sponsors represented on the card backs, have expanded the hobby's knowledge of the cards and the products they promoted.

Details of these new discoveries related to the card backs are provided in a much expanded article penned by Todd Schultz. The article, "M101-4 and M101-5 Advertising Backs: Curiosities and Scarcity," has been added in its entirety to the Reference Library section of the Old Cardboard website.

As a reminder, the M101-4/5 card sets were produced by Felix Mendelsohn, a Chicago-based printer and publisher who marketed the cards to a variety of businesses.

The black-and-white cards were numbered and labeled with the player's name, position and team on the front (see example above). Backs were then tailored to the specific message desired by each sponsor.


Ad in Altoona Tribune
Promoting M101-4 Set
Among the sponsor-related M101-4/5 discoveries uncovered by Schultz are several period newspaper advertisements promoting the set. A typical example is the ad shown at left as printed in the Altoona (PA) Tribune. Details of the promotion described in the ad can be more easily viewed by clicking on the image for an enlarged view.

As stated in the ad, "The First Twenty (20) Boys at the Tribune Office This Morning After 9 O'Clock Will Receive a Set of Twenty (20) Base Ball Pictures FREE." Further, a complete set of all 200 cards from the set were offered with the completion of two coupons "properly filled out."

It is not at all clear what was involved in filling out the form. And while the offer was targeted mostly to "boys," men could also participate in the promotion.


*   *   *   *   *   *   *


Note: A Set Profile for the M101-4/5 sets, along with complete Checklists and Galleries for both the card fronts (players) and the various sponsors featured on the card backs, can be accessed on the Old Cardboard website. Links to related eBay auctions and Google searches are also provided.


OC eNewsletter Sponsor


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:

Library Reference Files have been added for:
Team Checklists eBook by Mike Wheat (60MB download; please be patient)
M101-4 and M101-5 advertising backs: Curiosities and Scarcity article by Todd Schultz

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.

F-Cards
1916 Tango Eggs
1928 F50 Ice Cream
1935-41 Wheaties
1937/38 Dixie Lids
1952-54 Dixie Lids
1937 Kelloggs
1947-50 Hage's Dairy
1952 F272-3 Wheaties
Num Num Chips

M-Cards
Sporting News Record Book
M101-2 Sporting News
M101-5/4 Sporting News
M101-7 Sporting News
M113/4 Baseball Mag. Posters
M116 Sporting Life
M120 Det. Free Press
Blum's Bulletin Poster
M110 Sporting Life

(more custom searches
by major card group)



4. Team Checklists Now Published for Baseball Cards (1870-1975)


Cover to Team Checklists eBook
Veteran vintage collector and dealer Mike Wheat has recently published an online "book" containing interactive team checklists for virtually every baseball card produced from 1870 through 1975.

According to Wheat, the project had been in the planning stages for nearly 17 years and includes cards from all Major League franchises from both the 19th and 20th centuries. In addition, more that 100 minor league franchises are represented. In total, the checklists contains more than 60,000 entries.

Upon reflection, it becomes apparent to vintage collectors the magnitude of such a daunting project. Aside from the shear magnitude of organizing the data for 60 thousand entries, questions arise about how to classify many cards, such as how to handle multi-player cards (such as the 1935 Goudey 4-in-1 set or the Exhibit cards from throughout the 1930s, for example), or misidentified cards, etc.

Wheat addresses some of his methodology in his introductory comments to the book:

It is not always clear as to which team a player is depicted on a particular card. In these cases, I have established a hierarchy, as follows. If the card has a team designation printed on it, that’s the one we’ve generally used. For example, in 1960 Topps card # 77 shows Hank Foiles pictured in a Pittsburgh Pirates uniform, but the team designation at the bottom of the card lists “Kansas City Athletics”. Thus, Foiles’ card is included in the Kansas City Athletics section of this book. In some cases, two different affiliations can appear on the same card. In the 1952 Topps set, card number 248 pictures Frank Shea in a Yankees uniform. The Yankees team logo is also displayed on the front of the card. On the reverse, his team designation is Washington Senators, with further note that he was traded to that team in May, 1952. Therefore, Shea’s card is included in the Washington Senators section of this checklist.

In many of the pre-WWII issues, no team designation is listed on the card. In those cases, the uniform that the player is wearing is often the deciding factor. Unfortunately, it’s not always evident what uniform the player is wearing. In that event, any available evidence has been used to establish the player’s team. Quite frankly, sometimes an educated guess was the only available option, although I often tried to infer the manufacturer’s intent.

Cards depicting more than one player from more than one team are included in two (or more) sections. Setting the pace, each of four of the 1963 American League Leaders cards (card #s 2,4,6, and 8) depict players from five different teams, and therefore, those cards are listed in five different sections.

Although copyrighted, Mike has made his interactive eBook team checklists available for download to collectors free of charge. It can be downloaded from his website at mikewheatcards.com. The very large (60MB) file has also been added to the Reference Library section of the Old Cardboard website.

Kudos to Mike for sharing with the hobby the results of his 17 year project.


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

Bob Lemke, RIP.   We are saddened to report the passing of hobby stalwart Bob Lemke in early January at a hospital near his home in Central Pennsylvania. He was 65 years old. For nearly four decades, Bob played a leading role in the baseball card hobby. He helped launch the ground-breaking Baseball Cards Magazine in 1981, but is perhaps best known among vintage collectors for his role as Editor of the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards. Bob's presence will be missed by all in the hobby.


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.