Greetings all. With all the talk of war, economy, dixie chicks, & the oscars - I feel the need to interject with a question concerning my American dream, the acquisition of money. So here's the deal: I have recently come into possession of a baseball card which I believe to have certain monetary value beyond what I can imagine (as I have no idea how much baseball cards are worth). It appears to be an original 'tobacco' card dated somewhere between 1909 & 1911 and of a player whom I have never heard of. It contains no statistics, just an advertisement for tobacco on the back of the card. I obtained the card from the goodwill of my grandmother who actually found it while rummaging through old family books, and the card fell out of its position as a bookmark. What I was wondering (and requesting) of the BBS family is if anyone knew of a sports memorabilia shop/person/collector/group that could assist me in determining the card's value. I live in Austin but the card itself is in Houston, so I could use resources in both cities. I would appreciate any and all help that any of you could provide. Thanks again. <i>-Turbo</i>
Is it Honus Wagner? If it is, it's not worth anything. Send it immediately to me so you won't be burdened with it any longer.
If you search for the card on ebay you might get an idea of the selling value. Book value is probably another 40-50% on top of that. If it's not on e-bay then just use beckett. I'm sure it's a nice card.
Make sure if you purchase a Beckett,it's a Beckett Vintage magazine.I don't think regular Becketts go back that far. Given the time frame you mentioned in your post,I'd guess it's a 1909 T206 or 1911 T205. I was fortunate enough to win a 1909 T206 from an on-line ballcard shop several years ago. My card has a picture of the player from the mid chest up,with a white border around it.The back has an advertisement for Piedmont Cigarettes.Most of the "commons" list for between $30-$75,with the high numbers at the end of the set listing at $75-$125.
Make sure the card doesn't get any more dings or bents then it already has. The better the condition, the higher the value. I'm not into vintage cards, but I recently bought the Steve Francis Game Jersey Patch from 99-00 numbered 3/25! How freakin cool is that. I'm guessing it has to be at least one of the top 3-5 rookie cards of Francis period. The seller on ebay barely had any feedbacks and only accepted money order. I took a chance and got it for a bargain.
I've got a Beckett subscription (comes in handy for my job). Tell me the player and card set, and I'll try to find you the price.
Alright for those of you who may be able to recognize the card, here is a complete description: edges on the front of the card are white/tan (hard to tell), the player's name is Sheckard, the team is the St. Louis Nat. (Nationals), the team name & player's name is written in blue, back of the card written in red, the text on the back reads Red Cross Tobacco, baseball series 100, designs factory No. 10 5th district, New Jersey. The card itself is in excellent condition for a card of that era; corners are in tact and the only blemish is a small wrinkle. Actually, I was able to find an image of the front of the card after some scrounging around on the net. Now there is a difference between this image and the card I possess. In this image the player looks exactly the same, but at the bottom it says Chicago, whereas my card says St. Louis Nat. In addition, I took some time to see when Mr. Sheckard played with St. Louis and it points to 1913, a year in which I believe he was traded to Cincinatti, because his statistics show that he played for both teams in 1913 - his last year in the majors. Again, any and all help is appreciated in identifying this card. <i>-Turbo</i>
The Chicago version sells on ebay for about $20. Looks like you won't be able to retire yet? On a sidenote, there probably is someone in this country who has a Honus Wagner stashed away and just doesn't realize how valuable it is.
Actually this one sounds like a T215-1 issued between 1910-12 which is MUCH more rare than the T206s that are out on ebay. They had a T215 out on ebay that was graded that sold for $700+ and your T215-1 is rarer than that one. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2716915263&category=31718 I would suggest you getting it graded if you are going to sell it as it will fetch a much higher price and authenticate the card. VS may be able to tell you but I can't find a good price for this card. Nice find though and Congrats. Maybe you should take your Grandmother out to dinner.
Oops - No edit. Actually the one on ebay is a T215 type 1 which may be the same as T215-1. Anyway, I do think it would be worth sending it off to be graded from PSA (don't go with another grading company on this one).
Man I wish I could edit. After more research - I'd say I was wrong. I pretty sure this is a T215 type 2 issued from 1912-13 not quite are rare as the type 1s but a rare card none the less.
On a related note, some guy brought in a winslow homer print on the antique road show. Only 100 copies. Minimum 30,000 to 50,000. Now that's a find.
According to Beckett, the card (Jimmy Sheckard) is a Red Cross T215 card issued between 1910-13. However, Beckett has two listed variations of the card. The one with card #68 is worth $120. The one with card #242 is worth only $12. Quite a bit of difference in terms of monetary value. Hope that helps.
