Walter Johnson

Revisiting 1912 T202 Hassan Triple Folders – An Auction Snapshot From 1991

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Back in September 1991, goober’s auction catalog dedicated a full page to 1912 T202 Hassan Triple Folders, with estimated values that might surprise collectors today. Three decades later, I’m taking a look at what those values were back then—and how much they’ve changed in today’s market.

I’m presuming those card conditions are accurate; here’s an approximate comparison of each lot to the most recent sale on PSA’s Auction Prices Realized page (which isn’t as all-inclusive as it used to be but still a decent guide). And as for inflation, $1,000 in 1991 is approximately $2,314 today.

  • 1912 T202 Hassan Triple Folders #7 Street/Johnson $2000-2250; $7,500 PSA 8 in May 2020
  • 1912 T202 Hassan Triple Folders #8 Birmingham/Turner $2000-2200; $990 PSA 8 in May 2020
  • 1912 T202 Hassan Triple Folders #23 Speaker/Wood $700-800; $3,585 PSA 8 in May 2016
  • 1912 T202 Hassan Triple Folders #29a Mathewson/Devlin (Giants) $2250-2500; $3,120 PSA 7 in May 2000
  • 1912 T202 Hassan Triple Folders #29b Devlin (Rustlers)Mathewson $800-900; $6,751 PSA 8 in November 2017
  • 1912 T202 Hassan Triple Folders #29d Mathewson/Meyers $1000-1250; $7,800 PSA 8 in May 2020
  • 1912 T202 Hassan Triple Folders #35 Engle/Speaker $650-700; $1,596 PSA 8 in November 2019
  • 1912 T202 Hassan Triple Folders #39 Cobb/Moriarty $3250-3500; $18,600 PSA 8 in May 2020
  • 1912 T202 Hassan Triple Folders #48g Jennings/McGraw $750-800; $2,880 PSA 8 in April 2020
  • 1912 T202 Hassan Triple Folders #48h Mathewson/Meyers $$800-850; $4,920 PSA 8 in May 2020
  • 1912 T202 Hassan Triple Folders #50b Young/Kling $1000-1250; $6,060 PSA 8 in August 2017
  • 1912 T202 Hassan Triple Folders #75b Cobb/Moriarty $3250-3500; $23,330 PSA 8.5 in August 2018

Generally, the relative prices have held over the last 30 years; happy collecting!

Three 1914 Boston Garter Cards – Baker, Konetchy, and Johnson

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Richard Wolffers Auctions, Inc. offered three 1914 Boston Garter cards in their June 1993 auction and included these color photos of the Frank “Home Run” Baker and Walter Johnson cards.

The third card they included was #10 Ed Konetchy. Here are the B&W photos and lot descriptions for all three cards.

If you want to know more about the set, here’s how The Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards describes it:

The second of what are presumed to have been three annual issues by the George Frost Co., Boston, contains 12 cards. The colorful lithograph fronts have a player picture in front of a ballpark diagram. A large Boston-brand garter appears at the bottom. Baseball with the Boston Garter name appear in each upper corner. Black-and-white backs have a checklist for the set, career statistics for the player pictured and details of the cards’ availability. Retailers received one card per box of dozen garters and could write to the company to complete the set. About 4’’ x 8-1/4’’, they were intended to be displayed in shop windows.

A complete set of 12 would be nearly impossible to piece together today and would probably cost more than $1M. SGC has graded only 43 examples, while PSA has graded only two.