1913 Zeenut with coupon.
 

New to this site, and hoping for some input on a purchase that I made list night. Picked up a 1913 Zeenut, Venice Tigers Paul Meloan, with coupon. Pretty sure I overpaid in a big way, especially since the card hasn't been graded yet.

Had started a Zeenut Venice collection a few years back, but ran into serious health problems, and was forced to sell most of what I had. Grew up in Venice during the 60's and 70's, so there was an emotional aspect to last nights purchase.

Anyway, handed over $800 for the card. Is it a great Zeenut, or was I just "nuts"?

Thanks so much!

Welcome!

If you are happy with the card, that's all there is to say about it. Welcome, and congrats on the pickup.

Zeenuts with coupons are a strange, mysterious beast. They're exceedingly rare as a general concept. More broadly, it is the 1913-1922 timeframe that are especially rare. Some years more than others, but the early year Zee's are tougher to find with tabs remaining.

Yours is in nice condition, which is great. We can debate valuation, but I don't think anyone would debate the card is worth a couple of hundred dollars.

1913s are the first year Zeenuts had the coupon on the bottom. Although they're somewhat easier to find than 1914s or 1916s, they're still really tough, and I think they're in higher demand because they're a "first". The 1913s and 1915s both had small finds of tabbed cards over the past two or three decades.

It's a great Zeenut, welcome to the club. There's a handful of collecting types when it comes to Zeenut collectors:

• Those with a team focus

• Those who collect star/HOF players

• Those who try to collect them all (you'll hate yourself if you try!)

• Those who collect type cards from each year. Leon had a nice run of Zeenut w/tabs from all the available years. Even one example per year is really tough to complete - took me about 4-5 years to accomplish that

Here's one of the 1913's I have in my collection:
http://photos.imageevent.com/ltsgall...chmidtPSA2.jpg

Going to focus on Venice and the L.A Angels. Being on a pretty strict budget, need to take my time and try to gain more knowledge. Thanks very much for the feedback!

That couponed 1913 Zeenut is a peach. I wouldn't worry about what you paid. I spent that and a bit more for a virgin 1932 Prince Oana. It's an expensive hobby. Love the card, never looked back.
http://photos.imageevent.com/kawika_...20_coupon_.jpg

Welcome to Net54. I collect cards of all the players who were on the 1924 Washington Senators World Series Championship team. Several of the players are "Joe Nobodies" that had very short MLB careers. A few of them also played in the PCL and have Zeenut cards. This 1932 Zeenut of Paul Zahniser is the only Zeenut I have with a tab - I probably overpaid for it, but I'm THRILLED to have it, despite its rough condition. I've never seen a Zeenut with tab (1923, 1924, or 1933) of Earl McNeely, who knocked in the winning run in the 12th inning of the 7th game of the 1924 W.S. to make WaJo the winning pitcher in relief, but hopefully I'll get lucky and stumble across one some day!

I'll say it, you did overpay for the card, you can get them in the $300-400 range, when you can find them. That said, so what? It is a great card, and good luck finding another of the same player. I have over paid for many of the cards I really love. When it is a special card, which yours is, I always figure the only way I overpaid is if I spent more than I could really afford, like if I spent money that I need for necessities. So enjoy it, and don't worry about the cost. I am a huge fan of Zeenuts, and that card has been on my watch list on e-bay for a while now.

A little high on the price but most Venice players in 1913 are really hard to find so I would put retail in the $400-600 range but who cares, I have overpaid for a lot of Zeenuts in my collection because you just have to take what you can get sometimes.

I have only 2 from 1913 w/ coupons...
http://www.starsofthediamond.com/13zeeheilman.jpg http://www.starsofthediamond.com/13zeedillon.jpg

Thanks everyone!
 

Thanks everyone for the encouragement and feedback.

If I could ask one more question. As you can see, the card hasn't been graded. And I've never gone through the process of having it done. While searching for cards, it did seem that more Zeenuts were graded by SGC than by PSA. One "better" than the other, higher quality...or more a matter of personal preference?

I think you will find most Zeenut collectors don't grade the cards. With yours, if you plan to keep it for a long time, it does not need to be graded. It is real, and quite nice. That is all I would need to know.

Thanks Ed! Yea, it's a long term keeper!

Great looking cards!
 

Beautiful cards! And thank you for the pricing guidance.

Hi, I think your card would be a 3.5 to a 4.5 by PSA, presuming the rough card surface issues are common to that set. As to the PSA vs. SGC question, there are many threads on the subject that you can search for on Google.

It's normally a personal preference, but by and large PSA high grades sell for more and consistently sell quicker due to their large market share and their Set Registry collectors. SGC had a large share of Pre-1933 cards and 19th century cards, but I'd love to see the numbers from just this year on those types of cards. PSA may have its detractors (and SGC has a few), but on resale value on cards in the same condition, PSA is normally king.

Swarmee...

Thanks so much for taking the time to comment on my card! Very much appreciate the "ballpark" PSA grade. Certainly getting a valuable education!

For the vast majority of Zeenut collectors I know, grading is not a "thing" except for rare, valuable and/or HOF cards.

I've purchased (many dozens of) tabbed Zeenuts over the last ±decade, and you are correct in that a good percentage of them have been graded, many more by SGC than PSA.

A year or two ago, I basically made an executive call and liberated all of my Zeenuts that graded out below 3.0 / Very Good. The weight and storage of all that plastic is just silly, I think. Tabbed Zeenuts that are VG/EX or better are hard to find, and your example is quite nice.

But we've already established you probably slightly overpaid for the card. And we're collectively telling you here that most of us as buyers of this sort of thing would not pay more for the card because it was graded.

So there you go :)

And I would add there is a distinct chance it could go for more ungraded vs graded. Especially if there is one of those microscopic things only a grader can see :).... Nice card though. Love the Zs with tabs although in my current collection there are only tabless...