Baseball cards featuring players from the 1919 Chicago White Sox team are not generally inexpensive. Collectors heavily pursue cards featuring the eight banned ‘Black Sox’ players and that demand has driven up prices over the years. Now, with the 100th anniversary of the famous team, their cards have never been more popular.
But while many of these cards are a bit on the pricey side, there are several bargains to be found out there. Here are five cards of the banned Black Sox players that can be bought without breaking the bank.
Eddie Cicotte T205
The T205 set is one of the most pre-war baseball card issues. So finding a Black Sox card in that set at a good price is difficult to pass up.
Cicotte is found in the gold border set and his card is cheaper than you might think. Printed in 1911, this card features Cicotte as a member of the Red Sox before his days in Chicago. Since he is an American League player in the set, his picture is a portrait issue.
Collectors can find decent copies of this card starting around $100. A PSA 2 recently sold on eBay even sold for less than that.
Shoeless Joe Jackson T202 Hassan Triple Folder
It’s hard to imagine that only a few years ago, this card was viewed as only a common and could be purchased starting around $50 in mid-grade shape. But once it was discovered that Shoeless Joe Jackson was on it, its value shot through the roof.
The T202 Hassan Triple Folder cards featured two individual cards on the end and a third panel in the middle that featured a real black and white image. Some of the subjects on the middle panels were not always identified. So for many years, collectors did not know that the middle part of the T202 card picturing Harry Lord and Lee Tannehill actually included Jackson as a baserunner. But a Net54 thread revealed Jackson as the unidentified player and that meant the card was suddenly worth a lot more.
Today, the card is much harder to find than it previously was as collectors have quickly begun adding it to their collection. And while it isn’t exactly cheap, it’s still a bargain compared to most of Jackson’s cards, which are mostly over $1,000. This card generally starts in the $300-$400 range.
Chick Gandil B18 Blanket
The 1914 B18 Blankets are a bit different than your traditional baseball card. But featuring real major leaguers and cataloged in the American Card Catalog, they are collected just like cards.
These ‘blankets’ are actually square pieces of fabric measuring approximately 5 1/4″ on all four sides. The feature a variety of color combination patterns and the set includes Chick Gandil, often viewed as a ringleader of the Black Sox scandal.
Gandil’s cards are typically not too cheap but his B18 blanket is an exception. Collectors can find this one starting at under $100 in decent condition. If you’re looking for more of a traditional card, try Gandil’s T206 on for size — that one usually starts around $125-$150.
Eddie Cicotte W516 Strip Card
Strip cards are often a good source for bargains so it’s not surprising we’ve got one on this list.
Cicotte is found in a few strip sets but his W516 card is a pretty cheap one. Of note is that Cicotte has more than one W516 card. That’s because there are five different W516 sets with minor variations and Cicotte is in all of them.
Like other strip cards, these have an image of the player on the front and are blank-backed. The cards are believed to have been issued in or around 1920-21 and, with Cicotte being banned after the 1920 season, these would have been printed about the time his career ended.
Collectors will find this hand-cut card in decent condition for under $100.
Buck Weaver M101-4/M101-5
Like Jackson, Weaver is incredibly popular with collectors. While he was one of the eight banned players, many baseball fans have been sympathetic to him as he was not believed to be one of the players paid to participate in the fix. Instead, Weaver knew about the fix but did not out the guilty players. Despite not being directly involved, Weaver was banned along with the rest.
Because Weaver is highly collected, his cards are usually not cheap ones. It is quite easy to pay more than $1,000 for one of his cards in mid-grade condition. But his 1916 M101-4 and M101-5 Mendelsohn cards are reasonable affordable compared to some of his other issues.
Some of the rarer M101-4 and M101-5 cards can be more expensive. But cards with blank backs or the Sporting News backs aren’t too bad by comparison. In mid-grade, those generally start around $400.
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