Your Information Resource for Vintage Baseball Cards
eNews Issue #62 (June 2009)      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. Vintage Set Summary: 1926 M101-7 Sporting News Supplements 3. Latest Updates to the OldCardboard.com Website 4. PCL Zeenuts: from Z to Z in 25 Sets 5. News Briefs (A Digest of Recent Hobby Happenings) 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

June 2009
24-25	Phone/Internet	Legendary Auctions (see website for details).
July 2009
1	Phone/Internet	Clean Sweep Auctions (see website for details).
2	Phone/Internet	Collectible Classics Auction (CCANet2; see website for details).
9	Phone/Internet	Goodwin & Co. Auction Masterpieces XXII Auction (see website for details).
14	St. Louis (Live)	Hunt Auctions (see website for details).
16	Internet	19th Century Only Auction (see website for details).
23	Phone/Internet	Collectible Classics Auction (CCANet3; see website for details).
7/29-8/2	Cleveland, OH	National Sports Collectors Convention (see website for details).
31	Live/Phone	Legendary Live Sports Auction--Cleveland House of Blues (see website for details).

2. Vintage Set Summary: 1926 M101-7 Sporting News Supplements 1926 M101-7 Ruth with Blank Back When it comes to newspaper supplements, vintage collectors are probably most familiar with the classic M101-2 Sporting News series. The 100-supplement set was produced by The Sporting News over a five year span beginning 100 years ago this year (see "1909-13 M101-2 Sporting News: A Popular Set of 100 Supplements" by John Spano, Old Cardboard, Issue #15, Spring 2008, p. 19-26). A somewhat less known but still interesting series was produced more than a decade later by The Sporting News. It is now designated as set M101-7 in the American Card Catalog. The M101-7 set numbers just thirteen supplements. Of these, eleven depict individual players and measure about 7 inches wide by 10 inches tall. Two double-wide supplements display team photographs of the 1926 National League (Cardinals) and the American League (Yankees) pennant winners. The Cardinals subsequently won the World Series. All supplements are sepia-toned and printed on thin stock. The Sporting News logo along with each supplement's issue date is printed in the upper left corner. For supplements of individual players, the player's name and team are centered in the white border below the image (see Ruth example above). Both team supplements identify the first and last names of all players in the team photographs. 1926 M101-7 Ruth Promo 1926 M101-7 Ruth Promo Back The large majority of M101-7 backs are blank. However, one particularly interesting aspect of the set is that it includes printed back variations used to promote subscriptions to the newspaper (see Ruth example at left). Apparently, the St. Louis-based publisher, C. C. Spink & Son, had a few supplements left over after their late 1926-early 1927 newspaper distribution and decided that using them to promote new subscriptions may be the best way to reduce their stock. As seen from the example back, the promotion offered a free two-bladed pocket knife and "Six Assorted Baseball Pictures" as free bonuses along with a six-month subscription to the newspaper--all for the sum of $2.50. Don't we wish we could take advantage of that offer today! Several promotions were apparently held with different end dates, since space for hand stamped expiration dates was reserved on at least one variation of the printed back. The example shown here is hand stamped with an expiration date within ten days from "SEP 13 1927." It is not currently known if promotions were printed on the backs of supplements for all of the players in the set. However, supplements for some other players are known, along with slightly different ads printed in dark blue. It should also be noted that examples with advertising backs are the same width but about five-eights of an inch shorter than the much more common blank-backed supplements--no doubt the result of trimming the newspaper logo and the issue date from the top of the original printings. A Set Profile page for the M101-7 Sporting News supplements is provided on the Old Cardboard website. A corresponding set Checklist including the supplement issue dates and player teams, along with a full set Gallery, is also provided. 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 card galleries. Recent (past 30-40 days) additions include: Set Profiles have been added for: 1913  "E95/E96"  "Base Ball Series" Notebook Covers 1920  Peggy Popcorn Set Checklists have been added for: 1913  "E95/E96"  "Base Ball Series" Notebook Covers 1920  Peggy Popcorn Set Galleries have been added for: 1929   Philadelphia Inquirer Supplements Updating the website with checklists and full set galleries for additional vintage sets is an ongoing project, so check back 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. PCL Zeenuts: from Z to Z in 25 Sets Zeenut 25-set Run 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1933-36 1937-38 Beginning in 1911 and continuing uninterrupted for 28 years, the Collins-McCarthy Candy Company of San Francisco issued mostly annual sets of cards featuring Pacific Coast League (PCL) players. In total, nearly 4000 different cards were issued before production ended in 1938. The cards were inserted into boxes of the company's Zeenuts, Ruf-Neks and Home Run Kisses brands. It is the "Zeenut" brand, however, that provides the most popular name used for the cards by today's collectors. In 1913, the company's third year of producing baseball card sets, they began distributing the cards with a redeemable coupon printed across the bottom 1/2 inch of the card. Because most of the coupons were removed and used in the various promotions, it is estimated that now only a few percent of all surviving Zeenut cards still have the coupon attached. Rather that attempt here to checklist and display a gallery of images for each Zeenut card in each of the 25 Zeenut sets, a Set Features Summary and a Gallery of Sets showing an example from each annual set is provided. The Zeenut sets are listed in the American Card Catalog under two different numbers: E136 and E137. Although the distinction is not made in the ACC, the first four sets (1911-1914) are generally designated as E136, while all subsequent sets carry the E137 designation. Adding a little more to the classification confusion, the Zeenuts share the E136 designation with the Home Run Kisses set, a series of very similar design and also produced by Collins-McCarthy. A Set Profile page for all 25 Zeenut Sets is provided on the Old Cardboard website, along with a Summary of Set Features that includes the number of cards in each set, card size, a relative value premium, and other notes. In addition, a Gallery of Sets that displays all of the cards shown here is also provided. 5. News Briefs (A Digest of Recent Hobby Happenings) Philadelphia Caramel Details Documented.. Collector Erik Varon has completed several years of researching the history of the Philadelphia Caramel Company and will be publishing his findings soon in book length detail. As most vintage collectors are aware, the company produced two closely related baseball card sets, now designated as E95 and E96 in the American Card Catalog. We will be providing a full review of Veron's book in a future edition of this eNewsletter. Gum & Candy Wrapper Scans Needed. Longtime wrapper collector Jeff Schwarz has written a comprehensive review describing details of gum and candy wrappers that contained baseball cards in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. The articles are scheduled to be published in two parts in the next two issues of Old Cardboard magazine. Jeff's narrative describes well over 100 wrappers--all originally distributed over 50 years ago. To supplement the article, we will also be adding a Wrappers Section to the OldCardboard.com website that is planned to include both a Gallery and Checklist of all known wrappers of the period. However, we are missing a few obscure variations. If any of our readers have scans of the needed wrappers, please send to editor@oldcardboard.com so they can be added to both the article and the website. The needed scans are: (1) 1933 Goudey Sport Kings ("white sihlouette" variation), (2) 1933 Orbit Gum R308 (blue background), (3) 1948 Topps Magic Photo (5-cent) and (4) 1956 Topps Hocus Focus (1-cent). These may not all exist but have been reported and need to be verified. We (and the hobby) appreciate any scans that you can provide. 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.