Here’s the Frank Nagy 1909-11 T206 Honus Wagner as presented in MastroNet’s Sporst Auctions of Distinction in December 2005. GAI noted the card’s lineage on the reverse flip.
The card’s description in the catalog was pretty fluffy, which I’m not sure is ever really needed for cards of this magnitude. It sold for $456,057.
In a 2007 article about Nagy, Sports Collectors Digest shared that Nagy got the Wagner from Preston Orem in the early 1960s for $100. The T206Resource and net54 board members report that the card is now slabbed via SGC at a 1/2 grade lower of 3.
To add a bit of “Hobby Library” flair to this post, Nagy featured the card on the cover of the November-December 1962 issue of The Sport Hobbyist.
I’m a huge fan of salesman samples, and here’s a unique one from the 1952 Topps release that I found in Ron Oser Enterprises’ April 2000 catalog.
This one is interesting because it was once complete, but the owner cut the three cards into “singles” a long time ago. The fronts include Eddie Joost, Willie Jones, and Gordon Goldsberry. When the cards are fitted together, you can see the copy on the back pretty clearly.
It wasn’t uncommon for folks to cut up salesman samples, as someone just (May 23, 2024) sold this salesman sample single of Mel Parnell on eBay for $173.26.
I know I’ve been promising it for a while, but I am still working on a long-form (magazine-like) piece on salesman samples. But it might now be the second one I release. Stand by!
In August 2003, Mastro sold these seven 1954 Bowman baseball five-cent wax packs that originated from the famous Paris, Tennesse find, which I’ll detail in a future post.
Six of the GAI authenticated and encapsulated packs were graded NM+ 7.5, and one was graded NM 7.
If you want to add one of these packs to your collection today, it’ll be pretty expensive. BBCE Auctions sold a PSA 9-graded pack for $7588 in November 2023 and a PSA 7-graded pack for $3445 in April 2024.
This 1910 T212 Obak uncut sheet has 76 of 175 different subjects in the year’s release of Pacific Coast League Northwestern League players.
Mastro auctioned off this example in November 2000 and wrote that it features players from five of the PCL teams (no reps for Vernon) and Spokane only from the NWL. There are 46 different players depicted, with 30 of those appearing twice. Also, the format, with borders on the left and right, demonstrates that a single line from Obak’s production sheet was 19 cards. They went on to say that because the issue has 175 cards, they couldn’t rationalize any configuration with duplicate images, where 19 cards horizontally are compatible with 175 different ones in the set. They concluded this was bad news for Obak collectors since it suggests imbalances in production quantities within the issue.
Overall, the piece measured 10 1/2” x 28” and was production-ready. All the cards stated “175 subjects” on the back. The front of the sheet has a few creases, and about a dozen cards toward the right have mild spot toning, making the overall condition Gd to Vg.
Since that sale, a few more Obak uncut sheets have surfaced. In the Spring of 2010, REA sold the following 1909 T212 Obak Complete Set Uncut Sheet for $5875.
They wrote that the 76-card 1909 set is the first of the three annual T212 baseball cards from Obak Cigarettes and are by far the rarest. They mentioned having seen the 1910 Obak sheet and said it was interesting that the one-year-later sheet also had 76 cards, which, in addition to the 1909 Obak issue having precisely that number of cards in the set, suggests that this is a complete sheet exactly as printed. This was also a final process sheet with backs fully printed, but it also had a few imperfections. They advertised the sheet’s dimensions as 11 1/8” x 27 3/4”.
Next, in September 2021, Huggins & Scott sold this 1911 T212 Obak Full Uncut Sheet of 179 cards for $18,800.
They wrote, “With a challenging slate of games often approaching two hundred per season, the combatants of the early twentieth century Pacific Coast and Northwestern Leagues were some of the most colorful and hardworking personalities in the game. Capturing twelve teams and dozens of future major leaguers, the 1911 T212 Obak series featured western minor leaguers in what is often considered the most attractive baseball series issued during the tobacco card era. In April 2010, our Northern California-based consignor uncovered an incredible keepsake in his personal belongings. Three decades prior, a business associate gave our consignor several items from his father’s collection. A former employee of the Schmidt Lithography Company of San Francisco, these personal effects included advertising images, illustrations and a neatly folded sheet of baseball cards inserted into a manila 15×10 envelope. Measuring 31 x 23-1/2”, the offered 1911 T212 Obak full uncut sheet of (179) cards is likely unique and the largest baseball cigarette uncut sheet known in the hobby. While similar sheets (likely partial) of the 1909 series (76 cards) and 1910 edition (76 cards) have sold through competing auction houses, this (179) card galley overwhelms all others known. The interesting configuration includes (8) 21-card vertical rows and a single 11-card horizontal arrangement at the bottom of the sheet. Among the (88) different players, (85) players have two cards each, while a trio of players are displayed three times.”
Hopefully, sharing these three sheets can help some smarter folks about pre-war cards piece together a bit more of the T212 story.
For more about Obak cards, check out this summary from prewarcards.
Here’s an item you don’t see come up for sale very often: a 1950s Star-Cal Decal Counter Display. It was produced by Meyercord Company of Chicago starting in 1952 for paint and hardware stores.
This September 2000 auction lot consisted of the large 13″ x 21″ dealer display, the envelope in which it was originally packaged, and seven smaller envelopes with four single-player decals and three two-player decals still packaged inside.
The players are Jackie Robinson, Monte Irvin, Rich Ashburn, Red Schoendienst, plus Snider/Roe, Jansen/Maglie, and Hodges/Reese pairings.
This display board still had its folding back stand fully attached and unused. Apart from some localized wear on the lower left corner, it was described as being in near-mint condition with the decals in EX-MT to NR-MT condition with some surface wrinkling. The red envelopes showed handling and mild edge and corner wear.
About a decade later, REA sold the following pair of displays in the spring of 2009 for $2,115, with one featuring New York Giants players and the other featuring Boston Red Sox players.
And another decade later Heritage sold one with Yankees players for $4920 in December 2019.
In terms of the back, Heritage wrote, “Comes wrapped in clear plastic (original?) and a cardboard stiffener. Back has tape and double faces tape remnants.”
Unfortunately, most of the photos in Sotheby’s Important Baseball Cards and Sports Memorabilia auction catalog from March 1993 are B&W, but this group of 1068 assorted T206 White Border Cigarette Cards still looks pretty awesome.
You don’t see lots like these often these days, especially since this one included 124 Hall of Famers. The lot contained various manufacturers, but mostly Piedmont and Sweet Caporal brands. Sotheby’s said no cards were less than Vg, and as a lot, the overall grade would be at least Ex, with more than 200 cards in at least NrMt or better condition. Their estimate was $25-30k.
How many of you still use dry cleaners? And those of you who do, how many of you save the hanger bags? Well, here’s one that survived in someone’s closet for over fifty years!
It’s a circa 1953 Spic and Span Dry Cleaners Pictorial Shirt Covering. The Milwaukee-based dry cleaning company had a licensing agreement with the local Braves team from at least 1953 to 1957.
The auction lot for the shirt covering described the bag as containing 12 different portrait sketches of popular players of the Milwaukee Braves, including Warren Spahn. They wrote that the portraits on the bag are 12 of the 13 known Warmuth designs that went into the company’s 1954 card set, so they felt comfortable placing the bag’s date of issue.
