The sponsor’s name is a familiar one to vintage card collectors but there’s an air of mystery to the 1910 era Sweet Caporal Hockey postcards. And who doesn’t love rare cards with a little intrigue?
Collectors got a look at 44 of the 45 cards in the fresh to the hobby set at the Love of the Game Auctions booth at the National Sports Collectors Convention. The cards feature pro hockey players who predate the NHL by several years and include a string of early legends like George Vezina.
The cards are striking in their simplicity but for hockey and tobacco card collectors, it’s like seeing the Mona Lisa.
“A lot of Canadian collectors are coming by,” Love of the Game’s Andrew Aronstein told SC Daily. “They’re very excited about the set many of many of whom have never even seen a single example, so their minds are blown when they see the quantity and the quality of these cards. And even collectors that don’t know hockey are coming by and checking them out, because they’re so unique.”
The cards measure 3 5/16 inches wide by 5 3/8 inches high and were printed in Britain for distribution in Canada. While they’ve traditionally been referred to as a 1910 issue, they were actually handed out in 1911.
“When this set is found in the wild, it’s complete. Several of them have been found with in the possession of a family of the players that are in the set. That was the case with this set.”
So does that mean they were handed out as a goodwill gesture by the tobacco company, maybe in hopes of getting them to light up with the company? No one seems to know for certain, but there’s no disputing their scarcity.
There are a grand total of ten Veniza postcards that have been graded by PSA and SGC. That pales in comparison to the 298 copies of his iconic 1911-12 C55 Imperial Tobacco rookie card. There are no publicly recorded sales of individual Vezina postcards in any grade. The current bid on the Vezina card, a PSA 4, is $27,500 but will certainly go much higher.
“A lot of collectors are familiar with the C55 tobacco size hockey cards, and all the images in this set mirror those cards,” Aronstein said. “And in several cases, the artist has taken some liberties. He’s changed the poses the players a little bit. But if you compare the cards, you can see that the C55s are based on the photos in this set.”
Twenty-three of the players in the set are now in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
The last complete set sold for a six-figure price. Aronstein says LOTG’s consignor kept one of the 45 cards so the set being offered isn’t quite complete.
“So we’re giving collectors the opportunity to bid on these, card by card, and it’s especially exciting for the George Vezina example, because there are no public, publicly recorded sales.”
Bidding runs through August 9.
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