The launch is still about six weeks away, but Robert Edward Auctions is offering a sneak peek of some of the rare cards it plans to offer in its annual Spring Catalog. The list includes one of the hobby’s rarest T206 variations, a 1910 Joe Jackson Old Mill Tobacco card and a 1933 Goudey uncut sheet with three Babe Ruth cards and a Lou Gehrig.
The huge catalog, which usually offers well over 1,000 different lots, will ship on April 1 with the auction closing date set for April 25.
The red-bordered Old Mill Jackson card features him as a minor leaguer in New Orleans after his trade from Philadelphia. It is the only tobacco card of Joe Jackson, and one of the very few cards of Jackson ever issued. The SGC 40 is one of the best Old Mill Jackson cards in existence. The card hasn’t been offered since 2006, selling at that time for $116,000. Since that time, an SGC 50 VG-EX example sold privately for $300,000; and in 2011, REA sold a PSA 3.5 VG+ Jackson for $199,500.
One of only 13 examples believed to exist, the T206 Ty Cobb with a Ty Cobb Tobacco advertisement on back is also among the hobby’s most rare and valuable cards. REA will offer an SGC 30 example of the card, which was distributed for only a brief time in association with a tobacco endorsed by the Hall of Famer, but apparently not inside cigarette packages as was the case with the look-alike T206 cards of the same era.
A survivor from the Goudey’s landmark 1933 gum card issue, the 
uncut sheet carries 24 cards including three of the four Ruth cards in the set as well as one of the two Gehrigs. The production sheet includes cards numbered from 144 to 165. One of only three 1933 Goudey sheets known to exist, it helps explain the mystery of the 1933 Goudey Lajoie, which was held out of production. The full-length post of Ruth batting appears twice on the sheet, taking the place of the Lajoie, which was later mailed to collectors inquiring of the whereabouts of card #106.
Frederick Foto was a northern California photography studio and the Ruth card it distributed as part of a larger set in 1921 is on a list of cards that are far more scarce than the famed T206 Honus Wagner. That may be an understatement, with only five examples believed known. The photo labels Ruth as a Yankee put he’s shown in his Red Sox uniform from a couple of years earlier, making it one of Ruth’s first cards picturing him as a member of the New York club.
Some new to market rarities will have pre-War collectors talking. One is an 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings Team CDV featuring members of the first recognized professional team. REA officials say it was recently found by a non-collecting family while going through and organizing an accumulation of old family possessions. Buried among hundreds of old family photos, it is coming to auction for the first time.
The other discovery is an 1879 Chicago White Stockings team cabinet featuring Cap Anson and Al Spalding. The card was created in conjunction with their barnstorming trip to the western states in the fall of that year and carries that notation on the front. The formal studio photograph pictures the club posing together in uniform during a stop in San Francisco. Featuring members of the Sox and other players acquired for the tour, the Chicago team made stops in Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada before a series of games in northern California in November.
An 1879 Boston Team Composite Cabinet with baseball pioneer Harry Wright among the head shots featured on the front, a T206 Eddie Plank graded SGC 35 and a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rated SGC 80 (EX/NM) are also among the vintage cardboard that will be up for grabs.
Memorabilia collectors can expect to see a 1930s era Babe Ruth autographed baseball and other signed balls from a collection of 500 home run hitters and a 1979 Thurman Munson New York Yankees game-worn uniform with provenance from the Munson family.
More information will be available shortly at RobertEdwardAuctions.com.
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