R317 Uncle Jacks color subset- complete..finally

[Archive]

Posted By: leon

A few days ago I got this message from one of the long time hobby collectors, that all old timers would know, concerning the R317's. He has asked to stay anonymous but said he reads the board and appreciates what we do...I asked if I could post this information and he said "no problem"...



"Thanks for posting your green Hack Wilson Uncle Jack. I had never seen one and, quite frankly doubted the green ones were authentic, if they existed at all.
I am a longtime collector who visits your fascinating forum occasionally under the cover of darkness. Over the years I have handled many Uncle Jacks, extracting my set from the Springfield, Mass., "find" in the 70s and susequently noticing any others that popped up in the New England region since then. The Uncle Jacks in that find of 100+ unopened packs were all blue, red or purple, and no player appeared in more than two colors. While I don't have two complete sets, I compared notes with the other two collectors who wound up with most of the find and none of us had any green ones, nor players in three different color schemes.
Some of the handful of Uncle Jacks I've seen that definitely came out of vintage collections are printed on a slightly different stock cardboard and have white backs like your Wilson, while the "find" contained only gray-back cards, usually bearing a slight stain from the double sticks of gum included. Since the gray-back cards have crisper images than the white-back Uncle Jacks I've seen, I've wondered whether the white backs were a second printing, not reprints, however.
Anyway, it would be interesting to determine whether any Uncle Jacks appear in all four color schemes.
By the way, you've probably noticed that the photos used for the Uncle Jacks were also the source for many R306s and R337s, likely originating with Baseball Magazine.
Keep up the good work on Network54."

[Leon]

Generally speaking I/we don't want to bring back too many old threads and would rather folks start new ones. However, when there is good information on a lightly talked about subject I think it can make sense. Such is the case here. As ya'll can see, around 3 yrs ago I had posted that I finally got the 4th of 4 different (known at the time) colors of the R317, Uncle Jacks cards. Since then there has been another, very seldom seen, color pop up, that being gray. I have now seen 3 of the gray background ones. I had acquired one a few years ago but returned it as it looked trimmed when I got it. Since then I have seen a Babe Ruth gray one that I believe was in a Goodwin auction not too long ago. SGC actually called me to talk about it as I think someone questioned it's legitimacy. It turned out fine. I finally picked up a Hartnett for myself, that is in a 40 holder, so now believe I have all of the colors known. It's always nice to finish a difficult subset. best regards

[DixieBaseball]

Leon - Your collector perseverance is to be admired, although I am sure you would say you are just being patient and having fun, but such a finite number of Uncle Jacks in color variations, and yet you forge ahead. Very cool -

Nice going - Thanks for the inspiration !

JJ

[leftygrove10]

Great job, Leon! It looks like the Old Cardboard page for R317's needs to be updated. It lists the possible colors as red, blue and purple.

[leftygrove10]

Originally Posted by Archive

Posted By: leon

I am a longtime collector who visits your fascinating forum occasionally under the cover of darkness. Over the years I have handled many Uncle Jacks, extracting my set from the Springfield, Mass., "find" in the 70s and susequently noticing any others that popped up in the New England region since then. The Uncle Jacks in that find of 100+ unopened packs were all blue, red or purple, and no player appeared in more than two colors. While I don't have two complete sets, I compared notes with the other two collectors who wound up with most of the find and none of us had any green ones, nor players in three different color schemes.
Some of the handful of Uncle Jacks I've seen that definitely came out of vintage collections are printed on a slightly different stock cardboard and have white backs like your Wilson, while the "find" contained only gray-back cards, usually bearing a slight stain from the double sticks of gum included. Since the gray-back cards have crisper images than the white-back Uncle Jacks I've seen, I've wondered whether the white backs were a second printing, not reprints, however.
Anyway, it would be interesting to determine whether any Uncle Jacks appear in all four color schemes.
By the way, you've probably noticed that the photos used for the Uncle Jacks were also the source for many R306s and R337s, likely originating with Baseball Magazine.
Keep up the good work on Network54."

What do we know today about the colors of these cards? Do we know if any of the players come in more than two colors?

[Leon]

Originally Posted by leftygrove10

What do we know today about the colors of these cards? Do we know if any of the players come in more than two colors?

Figure this thread is good for one more bump and to answer a few questions.

Don't know if the players came in more than 2 colors but I don't know why they wouldn't?

Also, just shot an email to Lyman to possibly update the colors he has listed on Oldcardboard. He doesn't list green or gray. regards

[lhardem]

Thanks for the note, Leon. The R317 Profile Page has now been updated on the Old Cardboard website. We always welcome and appreciate that kind of feedback. Congrats on your completing the color type set.

Lyman