Your Information Resource for Vintage Baseball Cards
eNews Issue #31 (November 2006)      www.oldcardboard.com

Please Note: If images are not loading in this email, click here. 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 Saga of Solly Mishkin 3. Latest Updates to the OldCardboard.com Website 4. T4 Obak Checklist Expands 5. For Christmas, Think Vintage 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 Show and Auction Calendar on the Old Cardboard website.

OC eNewsletter Sponsor

November 2006
16	Phone	Barry Sloate Auction (see website for details).
19	Phone/Internet	Lelands-Gaynor Internet Only Auction (see website for details).
21	Phone/Internet	Prestige Collectibles Auction #29 (see website for details).
27	Internet	Heritage Internet Auction (see website for details).
30	Phone/Internet	SCP Auctions/Sotheby's (see website for details).
December 2006
1-3	Reading, PA	Philadelphia Sports Card & Memorabilia Show (see website for details).
6	Phone/Internet	Grey Flannel Auction (see website for details).
6-8	Phone/Internet	Mastro Auctions (see website for details).
7	Phone/Internet	Clean Sweep Auctions (see website for details).
7	Phone/Internet	Mile High Card Company (see website for details).
9	Phone/Internet	Heritage Signature Auction (see website for details).
14	Phone/Internet	American Memorabilia (see website for details).
14	Phone/Internet	Memory Lane, Inc. (see website for details).
26	Internet	Heritage Internet Auction (see website for details).

2. The Saga of Solly Mishkin (contributed by Old Cardboard subscriber Adam Warshaw) You have to love the internet for what it brings to this hobby. Every so often I stumble onto a card of a player who catches my interest and I see what I can find out about him. Years ago, it was an all but impossible task. Today, however, with the vast array of information on the internet, a researcher can chase down leads and learn all about a player’s life in a few hours. I found one such player recently, Solomon "Solly" Mishkin. I saw a 1928 Zeenut on Ebay of "Mishkin," whom the seller had further identified as Sol Mishkin--a distinctly Jewish name. "Sol Mishkin," I thought. No reference I’d seen for Jewish ballplayers listed him, and I soon determined that there were no records of his being in the majors as a player. Obviously, he was a career minor leaguer. The only information I had at that point was that he had certainly played in the PCL with the Seals, since he is on the Zeenut card. The normally blank card back did give me a little more information, stating in vintage handwritten ink that for 1930, Sol Mishkin played first base and hit .287 with 28 doubles, 15 triples and 2 homers. By digging for more information about Mishkin, I learned that he was a Los Angeles resident and is featured as a professional baseball player in the Hollywood High School list of famous alumni. Hollywood and the neighboring Fairfax area produced a number of Jewish professional athletes, most notably for Los Angeles fans Larry and Norm Sherry, the brother battery of the 1959 Dodgers. Apparently Solomon Mishkin was an earlier product of the Los Angeles public high schools in the Hollywood area, which led me to think it very likely that he was a heretofore unacknowledged Jewish ballplayer with a Zeenut card. Hollywood High’s web site states that Mishkin played for the New York Giants, but I’ve not located any references to substantiate that claim. From Hollywood High, Sol moved east to Occidental College, in Eagle Rock, an area of Los Angeles northeast of Hollywood. He was a star on campus from 1925-1927. According to Oxy’s online baseball hall of fame: "Outstanding left handed hitter and perfect fielding first baseman for the Tigers. He led his teams in hitting, extra base hits, and total hits all three years that he played varsity. During his career at Oxy he hit .500 and went on to play professionally for the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. In his first professional at bat he hit a Home Run." The college honored Mishkin in 1987 with its Auld Lang Syne Award, which goes to alumni for "loyalty to Occidental College and the principle for which it stands." I wasn’t able to confirm the first-at-bat-home-run story, but as noted, Mishkin was picked up by the Seals for the 1928 season. According to a January 16, 1928 newspaper account in the San Francisco Examiner: "George Putman, the robust fork man of the Seals, whose sensitive fingers are ever feeling the pulse of his public, has long hankered for a Jewish baseball star and now he has two of them. Solomon Mishkin of Los Angeles, whose inexhaustible supply of paprika challenged the attention of fans, and Syd Cohen of Texas, the fastest thing in the Border territory with the exception of the rum-runners, will take the field this season for the city’s baseball team." Cohen’s 1928 Zeenut is well-known and well-chased among collectors of Jewish baseball player cards. Apparently, Mishkin’s should be as well. As a player, Mishkin fit the Mark Grace model of first baseman: no power. In 1928 Mishkin played 82 games at first base for the Seals, batting .274 with 13 doubles, 1 triple, 2 homers and 28 RBI. Apparently, Mishkin played for the Seals for at least three years, since the card I got has 1930 stats on it. Despite decent batting averages in the so-called fourth major league, the light-hitting Mishkin did not make the show. I do not know when Solly Mishkin finally hung up his spikes. I was able to learn that after his playing career was over, Mishkin went into a lifelong career coaching and managing. The year 1946 saw Mishkin managing the Amsterdam (NY) Rugmakers [really!] of the Class C Canadian-American League to a record of 61-58, good for fourth place. In 1947, under Mishkin’s guidance the Rugmakers finished only 1-½ games out of the playoffs, in third place with a record of 73-67. The best pitcher on Mishkin’s team, despite his 9-10 record, was Lew Burdette. Mishkin went on to manage college ball and must have been pretty good at the college game; in 1977 he was inducted as a coach into the City College of New York Athletic Hall of Fame. From what I was able to glean, Solly Mishkin died in 1996. As for his cards, the 1928 Zeenut is the only one I’ve been able to find although there might be some obscure low minors team issue kicking around out there. OC eNewsletter Sponsor 3. Latest Updates to the OldCardboard.com Website We are continually expanding the Old Cardboard website with more set profiles, checklists and set galleries. Recent (past 30-40 days) additions include: Set Profiles have been added or significantly expanded for: 1907   Newark Evening World Supplements 1908   Our Home Team Foldout Postcards Set Checklists have been added for: 1907   PC778   Morgan Stationery "Red Belts" 1911   T4   Obak Premiums Set Galleries have been added for: 1907   PC778   Morgan Stationery "Red Belts" We continue to update the website with checklists and full set galleries for additional vintage issues, so check in often to check out the latest additions. There are now many thousands of card images on the Old Cardboard website and the list continues to grow. We welcome and encourage feedback with checklist additions, card images, error corrections and suggestions. Please send all input to editor@oldcardboard.com. 4. T4 Obak Checklist Expands Long considered to be the most obscure of the large-format tobacco sets, the 1911 T4 Obak cabinet size cards were distributed as premiums in exchange for 50 coupons found in Obak brand cigarettes. At least in theory, the set contains 175 players--all members of the Pacific Coast and North-Western Leagues--as listed on the back of each coupon. In practice, however, only about one-third of the players identified on the coupon (or about sixty cards) had until recently been verified to exist by today's collectors. Thanks to a recent discovery of twenty cards from the T4 series, the checklist of known cards can now be expanded by about nine players. The twenty cards from the recent discovery are being sold by SCP Auctions/Sotheby's in an Internet auction that closes November 30. Each card is being sold individually in twenty separate auction lots. The showcase card is the key to the set--that of then San Francisco star Buck Weaver, later banned from baseball for his cameo role in the Black Sox Scandal of 1919. Weaver is featured in the example card shown at right. Details for all lots can be found on the SCP Auctions website. The Obak premiums are unnumbered and have no labeling printed on the card front or back. The sepia toned player image is pictured inside a 3-1/2 by 5 inch oval frame on a 5 x 7 inch card. In 1986, when Lew Lipset published his landmark Encyclopedia of Baseball Cards, only 29 player cards had then been documented for the T4 set. Including the recent find, the set checklist has now grown to seventy cards. To reflect these additions, an updated T4 checklist has been posted on the Old Cardboard website. Further changes are expected in the checklist for the Obak premiums as new players are discovered and reported. Any input from our readers about the set and the checklist is welcome. All changes will be promptly posted for all to share. Please send comments and further updates for the checklist to editor@oldcardboard.com. 5. For Christmas, Think Vintage We can't think of a better gift for you to give your vintage collector buddies (unless you have a stash of T-Cards laying around). With a gift subscription to Old Cardboard magazine, your friends will be reminded of your good deed at least four times during the year. And that doesn't include the countless times they will refer to it throughout the year and for many years to come. Your support will also help us to continue to publish the best full-color articles written by the most respected authors in the hobby today. The easiest way to order (PayPal does not accommodate orders with shipping to third party addresses) is to call Brett (our Subscriptions Manager) at 512-466-5372. Order before Christmas and your friend(s) will receive their first issue beginning with Issue #10 in January 2007. We appreciate your support for Old Cardboard and wish you Happy Vintage Collecting for 2007. 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. 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