Obtaining a Dummy Taylor T206

[Archive]

Posted By: Matthew S. Moore

DEAF LIFE's next issue will have a cover story on Luther Haden "Dummy" Taylor. I've been trying, without any luck so far, to obtain high-quality, high-resolution scans of Taylor's T206 card . . . and others. We have one photo of Taylor pitching for the New York Giants, ordered from "Sporting News" years ago.

Can anyone here help with our quest?

Please respond quickly, as we're putting the issue together now. Thanks.

Linda Levitan
Matthew S. Moore
Co-Editors-in-Chief, DEAF LIFE

[Archive]

Posted By: Jim VB

Trae has images of all the T206 cards.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/traeregan/sets/72157602091267087/detail/?page=27

[Archive]

Posted By: dstudeba

Brian McQueen has a beautiful C46 Taylor if I recall correctly. (he beat out half the board on it I think!)

[Archive]

Posted By: Zinn

VintageCardPricer has the best scan I've seen:

[Archive]

Posted By: leon

Thanks for helping out with this worthwhile endeavor guys. That's what I love about 98% of us collectors....At the end of the day we are good guys and girls and want to help others. It doesn't get any better. I am proud to be part of it....although I will have to sit on the sidelines on helping in this matter...I know we have several "deaf" player collectors on the board too...and they are always fun to collect with......regards

[Archive]

Posted By: Bobby Binder

Just for the record it is VintageCardPrices.....no ER on the end..

[Archive]

Posted By: leon

Technicalities, technicalities Bobby.....thanks for being an advertiser and the best of luck to you....(yes, I am partial to advertisers)....

http://www.vintagecardprices.com/

[Archive]

Posted By: Zinn

My bad Bobby Love the service though.

[Archive]

Posted By: Matthew S. Moore

Thank you for your suggestions. And those who E-mailed me color scans . . . muchos gracias!

An update: I've purchased a very nice T206 of "Dummy" Taylor on eBay. It's a Piedmont, in "very good" condition, in an SCG slab. My problem is that to scan the card for the cover of DEAF LIFE, I'd have to break open the slab, which would automatically devalue the card. I could send the card back to SCG to be regraded and re-slabbed, but that would cost extra (and I paid plenty of shillings for this beauty), and there's the ever-present risk of the card getting lost or stolen.

Trying to hit on an alternative, I've contacted Trae Regan of T206.org.

If anyone has any other suggestions, I'd be glad to "read" them out.

I'm also desperately trying to find an image of the New York Giants' scorecard cover, as reproduced in Paul Dickson's "New Baseball Dictionary" on page 343. It reads "Greetings from the GIANTS," with action shots of Frank Bowerman, Red Ames, Sam Mertes, Matty, McGinnity, and Taylor. (Taylor's in the "S.") Dickson credits it to the Ron Menchine Collection, but I have no real contact information for him . . . not even sure if he lives in Glen Arm or Long Green, Maryland. No E-mail address. Does anyone have a superduper photo of this?

The text is shaping up nicely . . . lots of footnotes!

I have photocopies of newsclip picturs of Taylor, team photos, etc. Too many to count. But, with one exception, not real photos or high-quality images.

[Archive]

Posted By: Eric B

Why would breaking the slab devalue the card?

[Archive]

Posted By: Frank Wakefield

I've emailed Mathew and Linda a scan of my Taylor card.

And if the slab is carefully broken, I agree with Eric, it would not affect the card at all... whatever value the card had would still be there.

[Archive]

Posted By: Bobby Binder

The problem I think she will have with mine is they are not high enough resolution to be used in print ads only internet.

Bobby

[Archive]

Posted By: Trae R.

Matt, per my email, here's the super-duper high res print version:
http://tinyurl.com/2o4fsg

(See link at bottom of image)

[Archive]

Posted By: Matthew S. Moore

Thanks to all VBC posters who have posted or sent us scans, or simply shared information, suggestions, and advice here. I really appreciate this forum, as it has helped me to become a savvier spotter!

Graded cards are set in slabs for display and protection, and as a way of maintaining their value as collectibles and investments, and, of course, assuming that the grading company is reputable, as a means of attesting that the card is genuine...as you folks all know. The slabs are not designed to be openable, as a card album with archival-polyethylene sleeves would be. They're meant to be permanent. The seller of the Taylor T206 explained that if we broke open the slab, we'd have to get the card regraded. That's what I meant by "devaluation." Of course, the card would still be intact, and, barring a mishap, would retain its value as an authentic card. But we'd be left with a card removed from its slab, and I suppose, would have to furnish some kind of compelling explanation to the grading company as to why.

However, thanks to the response of VBC folks and Trae Regan, we may not have to break the slab after all. We'll see if we can use a high-resolution scan.

I'm grateful to these enthusiastic collectors for their help, because there are many images I'd like to obtain for the Hoy biography that's in progress, and it would be prohibitively expensive to try to obtain real cards for all of the players I'd like to include in the book...or even some of them. I'd like to include various images of Ted Sullivan, Arlie Latham, Paul Hines, Sam Crawford, Tommy Leach, Connie Mack, Hank O'Day, Tommy Corcoran, Tommy McCarthy, Charles Comiskey, and many others, all of whom feature in Hoy's biography. While I've been able to obtain some good photos, I'd like to feature a gallery of Hoy's teammates and managers, AND the umpires he had contact with (ie.g., Valentine), and having access to the T206s of the players who were active during the Deadball Era is a blessing! We can, I suppose, obtain images of the N172s (Old Judges) from the Library of Congress, but we'd have to pay for each one, I assume.

Last year, I actually bid on an N172 of Walter Wilmot, Hoy's roommate on the 1888 Washington Senators (in an online auction), but got outbid. This business is definitely not for the fainthearted!

[Archive]

Posted By: Eric B

I don't think they are made that way to be "permanent" as much as be "tamper-proof". But I'm sure there are collectors out there who don't need to explain to buyers or grading companies that their card is out of the holder

On a side note, if the seller went out of his way to make sure you don't remove it because then you would have to spend money to regrade it, i'd be a bit curious.

[Archive]

Posted By: Matthew S. Moore

Tamper-proof...right you are!

I asked the seller if there was a way to open the slab, and which tool he would recommend. He didn't make a fuss about breaking the slab, just explained what would happen if we did break it. Should we wish to maintain the grading, we'd have to return it to SCG to get reslabbed...if we chose. He was courteous about it...just explaining the situation. Very above-board. I wanted his perspective as a dealer. And I would certainly buy from him again.

This is the first item I've ever purchased that was slabbed. Although I did handle a "Dummy" Hoy N172 to scan it some years back...that one wasn't slabbed.

As long as I'm on the topic: when did slabbing become standard practice? And when did grading companies enter the picture? These seem to be relatively recent developments. It seems only yesterday that baseball cards were kept in (gasp!) shoeboxes, or, if the collectors wanted to be systematic, archival sportscard albums with poly sleeves. I suppose that counterfeiting and tampering with cards has been around as long as Honus Wagner's T206.