Your Information Resource for Vintage Baseball Cards
eNews Issue #33 (January 2007)      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. January Featured Set: 1928-31 R315 "Portraits and Action"
3. Latest Updates to the OldCardboard.com Website
4. Old Cardboard Magazine Rate Increase


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.


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January 2007

14Phone/Internet Lelands-Gaynor Auction (see website for details).
18Phone/Internet Mile High Card Company Auction (see website for details).
31Phone/Internet Clean Sweep Auctions (see website for details).
31Internet Heritage Sports Collectibles (see website for details).

February 2007

8Phone/Internet American Memorabilia Auction (see website for details).
9Phone/Internet CubanBaseballCards.com Auction (see website for details).
15Phone/Internet Goodwin & Co. "Masterpieces & Uncommon Commons XI" (website).
21-22Phone/Internet Mastro Classic Collector Auction (see website for details).
25Internet Heritage Sports Collectibles (see website for details).

2. Featured Set: 1929-30 R315 "Portraits and Action"

----------------- R315 Labeling Variations -----------------
Subset 1
(40 cards)

Player
name
& team
printed
in white
panel
Type A
Type B
Subset 2
(6 cards)

No white
panel;
name
and team
printed
inside
card image
Type C
Type D
No Printing
in Bottom Border		 Position & Team Printed
in Bottom Border
The baseball cards identified in the American Card Catalog as set R315 "Portraits and Action" were likely produced over a several year period from 1928-1931. The last edition of the ACC, printed in 1960, indicates that the anonymous set contained 36 cards. By 1982 when collector John Spalding wrote about the set in an article in The Trader Speaks (August, 1982, p. 3-4), the set checklist had been expanded to 46 cards. There have been no new cards added since that time.

As indicated by Spalding, the set is better viewed as two subsets, with one subset containing 40 cards (for convenience, we will refer to this as Subset 1) and the other containing six cards (Subset 2).

The format for the Subset 1 cards includes the player name and team nickname lettered inside a white panel always located in the lower left corner of the player image. The labeling is further separated into cards that contain no printing along the bottom border, and those that do. These two variations are shown as Type A and Type B in the examples at right. According to Spalding, all 40 cards in the subset are found in both Type A and Type B border-label formats.

Labeling for the six additional cards in Subset 2 is somewhat different in that the player name and team nickname are found in the lower portion of the image, but not in a white panel (see examples shown as Type C and Type D). Curiously, five of these six players were members of the White Sox club. By contrast, the 40-card subset contains players from ten different clubs, but without any players from the White Sox. The one player from Subset 2 that did not play with the White Sox was Harvey Hendick, who played for the Brooklyn Robins.

As with the Subset 1, cards in Subset 2 are found both with and without labeling in the bottom border. However, to the best of our knowledge, it remains unknown if each of the six players in Subset 2 are found with both border labeling variations. The known variations are noted in an R315 Player Checklist that has been recently added to the Old Cardboard website. We welcome feedback from any of our readers who can confirm knowledge of the variations noted with a question mark (?) in the checklist.

In addition to the variations described above, R315 cards are also found printed on thick yellow stock (see the Frank Frisch example below). This yellow-background variation is somewhat more scarce. Cards for players known to be printed on yellow stock are also noted in the R315 Player Checklist.

We have also added a full R315 Set Gallery of all 46 cards from the R315 set to the Old Cardboard website. As with most R315 checklists found in the hobby today, both subsets are combined into a single list sequenced by the players' last names. As seen, we need one card image (that of Harvey Hendrick) to complete the image gallery. We would welcome a scan of the Hendrick card from any of our readers and will promptly post it to the R315 gallery when we find one.

Although the American Card Catalog refers to the R315 set with the title "Portraits and Action," it is readily seen from the set Gallery that all but a handful of the cards in the set display full action poses. It can also be seen in the Gallery that with the exception of cards for only two players (Frank Frisch and Lou Gehrig), all of the cards in the set are printed in a vertical format.


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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:
1889   N228-3   Kinney Bros. Novelties
1935   Pebble Beach Clothier PCs
1951   R414-2   Topps Connie Mack All-Stars
1951   Wheaties Test Issue

Set Checklists have been added for:
1928-1931   R315   "Portraits and Action"
1935   Pebble Beach Clothier PCs
1951   R414-2   Topps Connie Mack All-Stars
1951   Wheaties Test Issue

Set Galleries have been added for:
1928-1931   R315   "Portraits and Action"
1935   Pebble Beach Clothier PCs
1951   R414-2   Topps Connie Mack All-Stars
1951   Wheaties Test Issue

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. Old Cardboard Magazine Rate Increase

It is with much regret that we must increase the subscription price for Old Cardboard magazine--from $23.50 to $27.50 per year. The increase is necessary, as our costs (driven by increases in both printing and mailing) have increased more than that amount, based on the budget that we developed in our pre-launch planning. The new rates will go into effect for all new annual subscriptions and renewal orders received after January 31.

The increase was triggered primarily by the poor experience that we have had with distribution via the USPS. In our initial planning, we anticipated distribution of the magazine using the USPS "standard pre-sort" (bulk) mailing. USPS guidelines (no guarantees) for such mailing is delivery within 7-10 days. According to plan, Issue #1 of Old Cardboard was distributed using this method but with very disappointing results. Although some magazines arrived at subscribers within the 7 to 10 day delivery guideline, many took as much as 2 to 4 weeks or even longer to process through the USPS system.

Despite the fact that we are a quarterly publication focused mainly on articles with long shelf life, we considered the delivery performance for USPS "standard pre-sort" unacceptable. As a result, we shipped issues #2 through #8 via first class mail at a considerably higher cost (about $1.83 vs. $0.70 per copy) than we originally anticipated.

Not wanting to raise our subscription rates, we again tried USPS bulk distribution for Issue #9, hoping for better results than with Issue #1. Unfortunately, the delivery was equally poor. We have also investigated the possibility of using USPS "periodical mail" but the distribution volumes and restrictions do not make this a feasible option either, at least for now. We have therefore decided to distribute Issue #10 and future issues via first class mail to all subscribers, resulting in the need to increase subscription rates.

Now for the good news: our cover price (from which the sale of all back issues is based) will remain unchanged. Further, we are committed to maintaining the same high standards of full-color quality and editorial content that have earned us the highest acclaim that we could hope for among our readers. In addition, we are confident that our new subscription rates can be maintained without further increases for the foreseeable future (at least several years; hopefully much longer).

Subscribers can still take advantage of the lower ($23.50) current subscription rate for all orders entered before January 31, 2007. All subscriptions or renewals can be ordered online from the Old Cardboard website. Alternatively, we can take credit card orders over the phone at 512-466-5372 or via old fashion "snail-mail" to Old Cardboard, 13506 Caldwell Dr., Austin, TX 78750.

We sincerely appreciate and need your continued support and thank all of our subscribers for making it possible for us to produce a magazine with such full-color quality for the vintage card collecting 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.

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