Is there a definitive Zeenut gallery somewhere?

[philliesphan]

My collecting dream would be for there to be a coffee table book much like the Old Judge one, documenting Zeenuts, the years, the rarities, the variations, etc.

Conor - to your specific question, there are dozens of Zeenuts across the years for which images would be extra ordinarily hard, if not impossible, to access. Yes, we all know about the Bohen card. But there are dozens more at that level of rarity, many of which are missing from the collections of those that have been actively looking for decades.

For example, there was a private auction last year for a 1920 Zeenut of Ross, from Portland. This beat up Zeenut sold for over $800-, just one of those cards that is invariably missing from the many "partial sets" that you see of Zeenuts that infrequently get auctioned. There are many other cards like that, if not significantly rarer.

Mad props to Rhett for all that he has shared with his scans. I'd like to put together a site sometime that shows tabbed Zeenuts with a few dozen examples, spanning the possible years. Probably a 2016 New Year's Resolution.

[oaks1912]

A picture book is a great idea, but along the lines of the wonderful effort on the Old Judge Book, there are too few individuals that would pay the necessary costs to research, publish and support such a book. You would likely sell less than 250 copies. There are currently only a few images , among the 4000 + different known cards, which are missing from modern collector's access. Rhett's website is the best online image source and likely will be for awhile. The California Historical Society in San Francisco houses the Dick Dobbins Zeenut collection, but has restricted access and charges for each individual image (No cameras are allowed in the research room)

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by oaks1912

A picture book is a great idea, but along the lines of the wonderful effort on the Old Judge Book, there are too few individuals that would pay the necessary costs to research, publish and support such a book. You would likely sell less than 250 copies. There are currently only a few images , among the 4000 + different known cards, which are missing from modern collector's access. Rhett's website is the best online image source and likely will be for awhile. The California Historical Society in San Francisco houses the Dick Dobbins Zeenut collection, but has restricted access and charges for each individual image (No cameras are allowed in the research room)

Mark, how complete was Dick's collection?

[oaks1912]

Dave...The Dobbins collection is lacking less than 100 of the cards listed in Jim Horne's 1977 checklist (appx 3700 cards listed) . There are however numerous printing variances that are not included in the Dobbins collection. Dick worked on his collection about 50 years. He met several of the players in the Zeenut series and had them autograph their card. The Zeenut collection is housed in large archival albums, along with many other Pacific Coast League cards. Its a great way to spend an afternoon, but advanced reservations are mandatory , and there are numerous restrictions, along the lines of viewing the Burdick Collection in New York.

[caramelcard]

Cmon Mark. Just write the book. I'll chip in on the cost.