Questions about 1953-54 Briggs Meats Senators Regional Baseball Cards

[Dmurry]

I'm new to this forum and need some advice on appraising and possibly selling 5 Briggs Meats Senators Regional baseball cards from 1953-54. My uncle collected them as a kid among many other cards, and because he is not computer savvy, asked me to help him out. The cards include: Johnny Schmitz, Robert Oldis, James Busby, James Vernon, and Mickey Grasso (Shortprint).

As far as I've seen, these cards seem to be rare and not always in the best condition due to original hot dog packaging, and I have checked the baseball guides, however I know market value can be quite different. My questions are these:

1. Where can I get them appraised for a decent price?
2. Should I get them graded, or since they are not in high grade condition, just authenticated?
3. If they are just going to be authenticated, do I need to use pSA or BGS, or use a lesser known grading service?
4. What is the best way to sell them: ebay, auction, dealer?

I would truly appreciate any help that anyone can give me. thanks in advance

[David W]

http://www.ebay.com/dsc/Sports-Mem-C...johnny+schmitz



Here is an ebay link showing Briggs and Busby.

[Orioles1954]

The cards include: Johnny Schmitz, Robert Oldis, James Busby, James Vernon, and Mickey Grasso (Shortprint).

Hello there,

The auction house I work for has sold dozens of these cards and I personally have handled each of these. With regional cards, condition is far less of a factor than scarcity. For that reason, I would highly recommend to NOT grade them as it will not significantly affect the value in any way, shape or form. For your reference, you can visit www.hugginsandscott.com and search past auctions and make a determination based on that criteria.

My Best,

James

[brian1961]

Hi Dmurry. Welcome.

You have gotten some decent responses thus far. I would also agree that you contact the auction firm of Huggins & Scott. They indeed have auctioned numerous Briggs Meats Washington Senator cards in the past.

I for one would tend to encourage you to have the auction house send them away to be authenticated, which also includes grading the card. Since the Briggs cards were to be hand-cut from the paraffin-coated cardboard hot dog box, youngsters often cut them out on their own as best as they could. The quality of the hand-cutting depended largely on their age when they cut them. Kids did their best, depending on how developed their fine motor skills were.

The standards today for what constitutes a hand-cut card worthy of being numerically graded are sometimes ridiculous. Though the Briggs were high quality cards, they still had to be cut off the hot dog box. It was left to the youngster's own discretion how he wanted to cut his free prize baseball card out. Sixty years later, the grading industry has deemed a very insanely high standard for a hand-cut card. They claim that they won't grade hand-cuts the same as a regular machine-cut Topps card, but I think that's precisely what they do!!!!!!!!!!!! They grade them tougher, so to speak, than the toughest English professor you ever had in high school or college. Having said that, those who collect regionals well understand this dilemma. Those meat regionals are very tough to locate, and while thinly traded, the prices paid for them are frequently by no means a thin wad of $100 bills.

Please insist that the auction house offer the five Briggs cards individually. That is paramount. A collector might need two of the five, but then he'd have to sell the other three. Go for selling them individually, by all means. Also, get with your Uncle. Have him tell you his personal memories of collecting the Briggs Senators. This is important because it will allow the auction house to paint a very tender, personal story of the provenance of these rare cards. Rare is the time that a card this tough and this old will come from the original child who got them as a youngster and saved them all these years. It would behoove Huggins and Scott to provide a decent size paragraph on this very thing. Collectors love history, and this is the sort of thing that would be very meaningful and add much to the aura of those great Briggs Meat cards.

Wishing you the very best. Keep us posted, ask more questions, and thanks a million for doing this for your Uncle. That is a great gesture, and will spare him from a shyster. ----Brian Powell

[Bestdj777]

I second Brian's advice. He knows regional issues as well, if not better, than pretty much anyone out there as he has studied them extensively and has written a highly anticipated book on them.

I collect oddball and regional issues and can tell you that the numerical grade just does not matter to collectors like me when it comes to these hand cut cards. I buy what I can find when I can find it. When there is a handful of samples of a particular card available, I go with the better looking sample rather than necessarily the highest graded.

I do not think it could hurt if the auction house was willing to have them graded for you as it gives the buyer some confidence. That said, if they are real they are real, so it might not make a meaningful difference in the price absent a high grade, which is only available if the entire border is showing.

[Dmurry]

Thank you all for shedding some light on these cards as well as explaining the best way to go about selling them. I will definitely look into Huggins and Scott auctions, as it seems the best fit for selling these types of cards. It's good to know that the grade may not be as important as scarcity. My uncle, fortunately, loved his baseball cards as a kid and played with them often, however, unfortunately, some of his cards show signs of this. On a couple of his cards, there are the orange borders still present, which hopefully will get a better price.

On a different subject, since you guys seem to know about vintage cards. He also has a 1947 Bond Bread Johnny Pesky with the Rounded Corners. As far as I understand, this card with the rounded corners is the original 1947 bond bread, unlike the same cards printed in 1949 with the square corners. It's been hard to find info online about the originals.

Do you guys know if this card with the rounded borders is more rare and can be worth something?