How rare and valuable are Cameo Pepsins?

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Posted By: Paul

I was amazed to see Rob Lifson's collection of Cameo Pepsins in the Smithsonian book. I've never seen most of them before -- like the Sockalexis, the Mack, and the Jennings. And I think there have been times when I've gone more than a year or two without seeing a single pin from this set for sale.

How rare are these? Could there be only one or two of some players? And how valuable are they? I assume Sockalexis is off the charts, but how much should you pay for Mack or Jennings or Delahanty or Hamilton?

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Posted By: davidcycleback

They're so valuable that I can't even afford the book that pictures them.

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Posted By: Andy Baran

Paul,

It's my understanding that they are pretty rare. The Sockalexis is uncataloged, which makes Rob's the only known example I believe. I owned a Cy Young at one time. Bought it about 6 years ago in a Mastro West Auction (remember them) for about $1,100. I have no idea what they would sell for today. I traded it to a fellow board member a few years ago, and I think it may have changed hands a couple of times since then. Kinda wish I had it back. They're very cool.

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

said he knew it'd been listed for years, but had always thought it was one of those things that's listed by mistake, and just stays there because it's so hard to prove the NON-existance of things.

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Posted By: Rich Klein

Mastro had a Dummy Hoy Cameo Pin in his last auction. It was lot #2179 and sold for $1735 in ex/mt.

Rich

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Posted By: Judge Dred (Fred)

I thought that Hoy Pepsin pin was going to break the $4K mark because they are fairly hard to find (add to that the Hoy factor). I guess it would have been a great opportunity for a Hoy collector to "find a relative bargain" in Mastro. Who ever picked it up didn't do so bad, I guess.

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Posted By: Rhys

Between my brother and myself, we have owned about 12-15 of these in the last 10 years. They used to pop up on ebay about every 2-3 months one would surface back about 4-5 years ago. Now you are lucky to see 3 a year on ebay. I have theories about how they were produced and distributed but they are just theories as nobody really knows for sure. However, there are MANY Cameo Papsin pins which are uncatalogued, and most of the ones that are catalogued are either unique, or there are no more than 2-3 examples known. I have seen 3 seperate Cap Anson's before but that is because of his popularity and he probably was "chosen" and distributed more than others. I have never seen another pin in which there were duplicates to examine. Kit Young found a small handful of Cedar Rapids players about 4 years ago but many of them are STILL uncatalogued. My personal guess is that about 1/2 the set is catalogued in the SCD Price Guide and there are still new discoveries being made which would diminish that percentage fairly easily. They are found with either Cameo Pepsin paper backings, or simple advertising backs for Whitehead and Hoag (the pin manufacturer). Another problem with these pins is that they are made of Celluloid which is a very fragile material and a small scratch or blemish will expand over time if kept in humid environments. This probably led to the demise of many Cameo Pepsins over the years as well. They are extremely rare but only a handful of people in the hobby actively persue them and because they are a pin and not a card they only appeal to certain tastes. Hope that helps a little.

Rhys
Prewarsports

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Posted By: Paul

There are at least 2 McPhees, the one in Rob Lifson's collection, and the one Lew Lipset recently auctioned on ebay.