The 1939 Detroit Tigers were a mostly forgettable team. After winning the 1935 World Series and recording back-to-back second place American League finishes, the Tigers quickly began to slip into mediocrity. The 1938 team stumbled to a fourth-place finish, replacing Hall of Famer Mickey Cochrane, who was the team's manager. In 1939, things were even worse. Even though the team … [Read more...]
Sample Cards Spread the Word About the Inaugural 1939 Play Ball Set
While Goudey dominated the baseball card landscape in the 1930s, a new competitor emerged at the end of the decade. Gum, Inc. produced its popular pre-war gum cards from 1939 through 1941. While their run was brief, the cards were extremely important as they were one of the few baseball card sets being produced during World War II. The 1939 set was also significant because, … [Read more...]
Rare 19th Century Kimball Champions Album Offered on eBay
Of the four major multi-sport 19th century champions tobacco card sets featuring baseball players (N28 Allen & Ginter, N29 Allen & Ginter, N162 Goodwin, and N184 Kimball), the N184 Kimball set is perhaps the least understood. With the trading cards distributed in cigarette packs came a special album you could order, depicting all of the athletes in the set. … [Read more...]
The Roaring 20s: A Look at Baseball Collecting 100 Years Ago
The turn of the calendar to 2020 really got me to thinking about baseball cards from the 1920s. It's hard to believe some of the issues from the era of Babe Ruth will be turning 100 over the next decade. The 1920s was really sort of a golden era for baseball. The sport had already achieved popularity thanks to the century's earliest stars like Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Nap … [Read more...]
1935 Detroit Free Press Supplements Put the Detroit Tigers in the News
In the mid 1930s, the Detroit Tigers rode a wave of success in the American League. From 1934 through 1937, the team never finished below second place in the American League and was one of the best teams in all of baseball. That four-year stretch was culminated with successful back to back trips to the World series in 1934 and 1935. In 1934, the Tigers narrowly lost the … [Read more...]
5 Key T206 Southern Leaguers
Among the many challenges of completing the T206 set is the subset of nearly 50 players from the Southern Leagues. The majority of these minor league players are not well known by collectors. Despite that, they are not necessarily cheap by comparison. While other low-grade T206 commons can be purchased starting around $20 or so, finding Southern Leaguer cards under $75 or $100 … [Read more...]
Family of Former Player Consigns Group of 19th Century Waldon Cabinets to Auction
A collection of rare 19th century baseball cabinet cards has been uncovered, with provenance dating back to a player from the era. Grey Flannel Auctions received the unique consignment of rare 1890 Waldon cabinets from the family of former baseball player Hardy Richardson. Richardson himself appears on some 19th century baseball cards as his career spanned a total of … [Read more...]
Ty Cobb Highlights 1908 Brush Automobile Postcard Set
While much of the focus in early 20th century card collecting is often on tobacco and caramel cards, another type of card was all the rage at the same time -- postcards. Many postcard sets (as well as a slew of individual postcards) were produced in the early 1900s. Even though many of those are generic issues not featuring actual players, a good many did include pictures of … [Read more...]
Mysteries Still Surround the Rare T217 Mono Cigarettes Set
The T217 Mono Cigarettes set is one of the rarest 20th century tobacco baseball card issues. Despite a relatively small checklist, completing this rare tobacco set is extremely difficult . And in the case of assembling a fully complete set, that may be impossible. About the T217 Mono Cigarettes Set If obscure baseball players is your thing, the T217 Mono Cigarettes set has … [Read more...]
5 Missing Stars from the 1933 DeLong Set
The 1933 DeLong set is one of the more popular issues for pre-war gum card collectors. The 1930s set features a really cool look with mostly black and white pictures of players against colorful backgrounds. If nothing else, they stand apart from other issues because of the aesthetics of the cards. While the Goudey sets were unmistakably king in the 1930s, sets like the 1933 … [Read more...]