Your Information Resource for Vintage Baseball Cards
eNews Issue #36 (April 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. Baseball Currency Discovery Brings Set Count Total to Eight
3. Latest Updates to the OldCardboard.com Website
4. Deadball Stars: A Vintage Homerun for SABR



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

April 2007

12Phone/Internet Memory Lane Auction (see website for details).
25-27Phone/Internet Mastro "Classic Collector Auction" (see website for details).
26Phone/Internet Historic Auctions (see website for details).
26Phone/Internet American Memorabilia Auction (see website for details).
28Phone/Internet Robert Edward Auctions (see website for details).
28-29Phone/Internet Heritage Sports Collectibles Signature Auction (see website for details).

May 2007

5Phone/Internet Heritage Catalog Auction (see website for details).
11Phone/Internet CubanBaseballCards.com Auction (see website for details).
17Phone/Internet Goodwin & Company Auction (see website for details).
17Phone/Internet Historic Auctions (see website for details).


2. Baseball Currency Discovery Brings Set Count Total to Eight


Newly Discovered 1888 St. Louis Baseball Currency (Front and Back)
A new addition to the Baseball Currency set issued in the late 1880's has been recently discovered.

The newly found piece features the 1888 St. Louis Nationals. It brings to eight the total number of different note designs known for the set. Previously, seven different team-date combinations were known to the hobby.

St. Louis has always been the rarest of the three teams found in the series (the other two teams being Detroit and Chicago). In addition, a rare note depicting an "all-star" team in 1893 has been known.

Previous to the discovery of this latest example, only the 1887 St. Louis team was known to exist. This is the first 1888 St. Louis note ever reported.

The seven previously known team-date combinations are detailed in an article by Jerry Spillman and printed in Issue #1 of Old Cardboard magazine. Summary information on the set (along with an updated checklist and gallery that includes this new discovery) can be viewed on the Baseball Currency page of the Old Cardboard website.

The 1888 St. Louis currency note will be auctioned in the Robert Edward Auctions (REA) Spring 2007 event ending Saturday, April 28.

The note was recently discovered tucked in an old book by a non-collector in Oklahoma. According to Rob Lifson, president of REA, "this just goes to show that there is always the potential for exciting new collecting finds, even in the most unlikely places, and even from important nineteenth-century issues."

The known examples from the set were sponsored by a number of different merchants over a period of several years. The fronts of the advertising pieces feature portraits of the team owner or manager on the left side with the date of issue printed in the center of the note.

St. Louis Nationals owner Chris Von der Ahe, a full-length image of the Wiman Trophy, and advertising for "London and Paris Misfit Parlors." This St. Louis merchant is also a new addition to the baseball currency "census."

The reverse of the recently discovered note depicts portraits of ten members of the powerhouse St. Louis Nationals and includes manager-player and now Hall-of-Famer Charles Comiskey. The ten player portraits on the 1888 note include several player changes from the 1887 note. Most notable are the very unusual (and unique to the series) presentations of Jocko Milligan and Chippy McGarr as generic silhouettes, apparently because actual likeness portraits were not available. Both of these players were new additions to the St. Louis roster in 1888.

Hall of Famer Tommy McCarthy is also a new addition to the 1888 note, having just joined St. Louis from Philadelphia. The other team members are Latham, King, Lyons, Boyle, Robinson, and O'Neill.



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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:
1887-93   Baseball Currency (reflects new find)
1908   Brush Auto Tigers
1934   Tigers Team Cards

Set Checklists have been added for:
1887-93   Baseball Currency (checklist expansion)
1908   Brush Auto Postcards

Set Galleries have been added for:
1887-93   Baseball Currency (gallery expansion)
1908   Brush Auto Postcards

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. Deadball Stars: A Vintage Homerun for SABR

Three years after publication of the first of this two-volume series which profiled players from the National League, the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and Potomac Books have now released a companion volume, Deadball Stars of the American League. Totaling some 800 pages and 400 photographs, the two volumes are an invaluable resource for vintage collectors that are researching major league teams and players of the deadball era (1901-1919).

Together, the two 8-1/2 by 11 inch volumes provide detailed biographical profiles for each of more than 250 players, umpires and leading league officials. Each volume is organized with a leading chapter covering the league followed by chapters for each of the eight teams in the league. For example, the American League volume provides profiles for league umpires Tommy Connolly, Silk O'Loughlin, Billy Evans as well as league president Ban Johnson and vice-president Charles Somers.

The meat of each volume, however, is contained in each of the eight "team" chapters. Following a uniform format, each chapter first graphs the team's win-loss performance for each of the 19 years of the deadball era (example shown is for the Boston Red Sox of the American League). In addition, an "all-era" team with selections for each player position is plotted on a representative field, as well as batting and pitching statistics for team leaders and a year-by-year "typical" team lineup. An all-era team example is also shown here for the Red Sox. A one-to-four page profile for each of about fifteen to twenty players for each team is then presented and amply illustrated. Autographs are also displayed for each of the 250-plus subjects in the two volumes.

Although following a consistent format, the authors vary for each biographical profile and the editors for each of the two volumes are different. All contributors, however, are members of the Deadball Era Committee of SABR and collectively have spent many decades in researching the players profiled. Vintage collector and newscaster Keith Olbermann, a SABR member since 1984, contributed the Foreword for each volume.

For obvious reasons, the two volumes should be acquired together even though they were published several years apart. The page numbering for the most recent volume (Deadball Stars of the American League) picks up where where the first volume leaves off. The second volume also contains an index for the combined two-volume companion series.

The references are available at most bookstores or can be ordered directly from Potomac Books, Inc., 22841 Quicksilver Drive, Dulles, Virginia 20166. Retail price is $24.95 for each volume. Note: Potomac Books is currently offering a 30% discount ($17.47 each volume) for these and other baseball-related titles if ordered from the Potomac Books website before May 31 (click on the "Web Specials" link at the top of their home page). Both volumes are also available at discounted prices from Amazon.com.


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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