Amazing Cy Young Rose Co. Postcard Journey

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

For those of you that missed it I recently got in an amazing consignment of new to the hobby Rose Co. Post Cards. Cy Young (only the third known in the hobby) Christy Mathewson, and 4 commons. We sent them to PSA so we could have them to show off at the National.

So this morning was a Crazy roller coaster of a morning. I get notice that the Mathewson and Young Rose Co. grades are in. I rush to the site to find they both got Authentic Altered. I COMPLETELY FREAK OUT. With the provenance on these cards this makes no sense. So I call my rep at PSA and explain the situation. He brings the cards to the head grader who immediately recognizes the Mathewson as the no team variation and completely legit. He still rejects the Cy Young though because there is a sticker over the name obscuring the team.

That hadn't bothered me when I got the cards, because I knew that guys who changed teams after the 1908 season, if Rose Co. had back stock, got the sticker treatment. What I didn't think of is that, with only two previously known examples of the Cy Young card a sticker variation, which should have been expected, had never been discovered, so it wasn't on the checklist of sticker cards.

I send PSA the information about the 4 cards known to have stickers all being guys who changed teams after 1908. Sent them pictures of one of the sticker variations which looks exactly like my Young, and they saw the light.
So not only did PSA work with me to get these cards correctly graded, but we've added a brand new variation of one of the most important players in history to the checklist.

Thanks to Kevin Struss, SCD (an article from 2014 was invaluable) and PSA for considering the evidence and agreeing that we just found something that the hobby should have guessed existed, and now really does!

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

For those of you that missed it I recently got in an amazing consignment of new to the hobby Rose Co. Post Cards. Cy Young (only the third known in the hobby) Christy Mathewson, and 4 commons. We sent them to PSA so we could have them to show off at the National.

So this morning was a Crazy roller coaster of a morning. I get notice that the Mathewson and Young Rose Co. grades are in. I rush to the site to find they both got Authentic Altered. I COMPLETELY FREAK OUT. With the provenance on these cards this makes no sense. So I call my rep at PSA and explain the situation. He brings the cards to the head grader who immediately recognizes the Mathewson as the no team variation and completely legit. He still rejects the Cy Young though because there is a sticker over the name obscuring the team.

That hadn't bothered me when I got the cards, because I knew that guys who changed teams after the 1908 season, if Rose Co. had back stock, got the sticker treatment. What I didn't think of is that, with only two previously known examples of the Cy Young card a sticker variation, which should have been expected, had never been discovered, so it wasn't on the checklist of sticker cards.

I send PSA the information about the 4 cards known to have stickers all being guys who changed teams after 1908. Sent them pictures of one of the sticker variations which looks exactly like my Young, and they saw the light.
So not only did PSA work with me to get these cards correctly graded, but we've added a brand new variation of one of the most important players in history to the checklist.

Thanks to Kevin Struss, SCD (an article from 2014 was invaluable) and PSA for considering the evidence and agreeing that we just found something that the hobby should have guessed existed, and now really does!

WOW

That amazing first from the History of the cards , to the "New Discovery", to PSA actively listening to you and examining the evidence you had.

Glad to hear it all worked out.

Looking forward to these potentially at auction in the future

[oldjudge]

PSA actually has a great research group. I have worked with them several times on 19th century cards.

[Casey2296]

Nice story and an amazing card Scott, great job on bringing the RPC's to market, looking forward to your upcoming auction. Kevin is also such a great resource on this set, I don't think anybody knows more than him when it comes to Rose Postcards.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Thanks Phil,

It was very cool to get to show Kevin a card that had not been known to exist!