Your Information Resource for Vintage Baseball Cards
eNews Issue #40 (August 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. Two New Players Added to Clements Bros. Bread Checklist
3. Latest Updates to the OldCardboard.com Website
4. Vintage Sales Strong at National; Mastro 'Live' Sets Pace




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

August 2007

26Internet Heritage Monthly Sports Auction (see website for details).
29-31Phone/Internet Mastro Classic Collector Auction (see website for details).

September 2007

15Internet Memory Lane, Inc. (see website for details).
20Phone/Internet Barry Sloate Auction (see website for details).
28Phone/Internet 19th Century Only Auction (see website for details).


2. Two New Players Added to Clements Bros. Bread Checklist

D380 Clement Bros. Bread -- Three Recent Discoveries
A couple of closely related sets produced by Clement Bros. Bread of Rochester, New York have long challenged vintage collectors. Between the two sets, cards for only thirty players have been reported.

Over the past decade or so, several new players from the relatively scarce set have been discovered. And now the announce-ment of a new group of cards from the set by Robert Edward Auctions (REA) adds further to the D380 checklist. The recently discovered group, totaling some three dozen cards with duplicates, includes examples of several previously unlisted cards. These include "Dade" Lagoe (a local Rochester player), and two Major Leaguers: George Mullin of Detroit Tigers and Ed Sweeney who played eight seasons for the New York Highlanders (Yankees). Images of all three cards are shown above.

The two Clements Bros. Bread series are listed under a single entry in the American Card Catalog as set D380. However, over time, it was determined that two distinct versions of the D380 cards were produced.


1909 D380-1 Design

1910 D380 Design

Back (same for both sets)
Cards from the first subset, believed to be produced in 1909, are now designated as D380-1. Their design is distinct in that all of the player images are printed inside an oval frame (see example at far left).

All of the eight known players in the 1909 set were members of the local Rochester team--then a minor league franchise of the Eastern League. Several of the eight Rochester players from the D380-1 series are also found in the 1912 Canadian C46 minor league tobacco set issued three years later. By the time that the C46 set was produced, however, the Eastern League had been absorbed into the then newly formed International League.

The following year, an expanded set was produced by the same bakery. While local Rochester minor league players were again included, the 1910 issue was expanded to include a number of leading Major Leaguers of the period. In addition, the format for the 1910 set was changed from the oval to a rectangular image as shown in the above example. Although still not considered complete, the checklist for the 1910 set now contains cards for nearly two dozen players. This (chronologically) second Clement Bros. Bread set continues to follow the original designation in the American Card Catalog as set D380.

Both of the Clement Bros. Bread sets are printed in black and white with white borders. The labeling style is consistent for both sets with the player's last name, position and team printed at the bottom. As shown in the example, the backs are identical for all cards from both sets.

Summary information for both Clement Bros. Bread sets is found on the Old Cardboard website. The checklist has been updated based on these most recent Robert Edward Auctions discoveries and a gallery that includes both sets has been added. Thanks also to subscriber "JC" Clarke for providing images of several additional cards from the D380 series. As seen, the gallery is missing images for five known players. Any assistance from eNewsletter readers in helping to complete (or expand) this gallery will be much appreciated by all.



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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:
1916   D352   Morehouse Baking

Set Checklists have been added for:
1909/10   D380-1 & D380   Clement Bros. Bread

Set Galleries have been added for:
1909/10   D380-1 & D380   Clement Bros. Bread

There are now many thousands of card images on the Old Cardboard website. The list continues to grow, so check in often to check out the latest additions. We welcome and encourage feedback with checklist additions, card images, error corrections and suggestions. Please send all input to editor@oldcardboard.com.


4. Vintage Sales Strong at National; Mastro 'Live' Sets Pace

Most collectors seemed to find an abundance of vintage material at this year's annual National Sports Collectors Convention held earlier this month in Cleveland. From the activity and the material that we saw, vintage collecting is alive and well and continues to break new records.


1912 T215 Pirate Cig.
Matty

1912 Pirate Cig.
Back
Setting the pace at this year's event was the inaugural edition of a live auction held Friday evening by Mastro Auctions. Beginning with Lot #1 (a one-of-a-kind near set of Pirate's tobacco cards) through Lot #83 (an SGC "poor" graded copy of the renowned T206 card of Honus Wagner, bidding was strong and lively (better characterized as "bruttle" according to some bidders). The record breaking auction was held at Cleveland's downtown House of Blues club.

Overall, the auction sold $4.3 million in sports cards and memorabilia. It also raised over $20,000 for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, a charity geared toward providing a variety of services for cancer survivors.

The average lot price for the auction exceeded an awe inspiring $50,000, more than five times the average for lots in other auctions of high-end sports items.

The ultra-rare "Pirate" cards have long held a mystique for vintage card collectors. The set is a brand variation of one more commonly known as the T215 Red Cross tobacco issue in the American Card Catalog. It was distributed by Pirate brand cigarettes of Bristol and London, England. Although the fronts of the cards are the same for the two sets, the card backs of the British version simply display the image of a pack of cigarettes with the Pirate brand. Most collectors believe that the brand was distributed to U. S. and British servicemen in the South Pacific. They are rarely found in either the United States or in England.

The near set of 96 out of the 97 known players in the Pirate set (including five cards previously uncataloged in hobby checklists) is simply unprecedented. It was no doubt with these facts in mind that advanced collector and Old Cardboard subscriber Richard Masson bid an unprecedented $960,000 for the lot (including the buyers premium), making it easily the highest amount ever paid for a vintage baseball card set. Our hats off to Richard.


T206 Wagner (SGC 10 "Poor")
Bidding continued at a strong pace throughout the auction, right up to the final lot #83--the SGC 10-graded T206 card of Honus Wagner. While higher-grade "Wagners" have sold for much more, the $192,000 realized also pushed the record barrier. "The T206 Wagner is one of those pieces of sports history that transcends condition," according to Mastro president Doug Allen. "But still, a baseball card in poor condition going for nearly $200,000 is without question a hobby milestone."

Midway through the auction, Lot #52 (a recently discovered uncut box with four W555 cards still attached) also received exceptionally strong bidding. The discovery has been much discussed among vintage collectors and is described in some detail in the current issue of Old Cardboard magazine ("Century-Old Mystery Solved; New Questions Raised," Issue #12, Summer 2007, p. 8-10).

The W555 box was presented in the auction catalog with an estimated value of between $2,500 and $5,000. Not so. Active bidding moved the piece to a hammer price of $23,000 (with a 20 percent buyer premium, that's a sale price of $27,600). Not too shabby for an old cardboard box! Despite numerous bids from the auction floor, the winning bid was via telephone and remains unidentified, at least for now.

Additional lots of special interest to vintage collectors include a 1914 H813 Boston Garter card of Joe Jackson (Lot #2; sold for $204,000); a complete graded set of 1910-13 Turkey Red cabinets (Lot #6;sold for $66,000), a 1915 M101-4/5 Babe Ruth Rookie graded PSA-NM7 (Lot #33; sold for $57,000) and much more. Lot-by-lot details and hammer prices realized can be viewed on the Mastro website.


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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