Mystery Lajoie Card in Legendary Auction

[Hankphenom]

This "card" was cut from a mailer sent by the Felix Mendelsohn company of Chicago to solicit advertisers for the backs of their baseball player card set of 200. I have the complete mailer, which contains a horizontal strip of six players: Nap Lajoie, Heinie Zimmerman, Grover Alexander, Johnny Evers, Eddie Collins, and Honus Wagner. The paper stock is heavy, but I don't know how it would compare to the M101-4 and M101-5 cards it is soliciting advertisers for. The printing font is apparently different, too, so perhaps this mailer was made before the set itself was produced. Under the strip, which makes up one side of the broadside when folded for mailing (the other side has lines for the address and a stamp box) is the question: "These men are better known to the majority of your prospects than Thos. Edison, Henry Ford, Sec'y Lansing, Marconi, Lord Kitchener, or Von Hindenburg. Why?") The broadside inside goes to great lengths to explain why. I'd include a picture, but don't have a scanner. I'll bring it to the Valley Forge show in June if anybody wants to see it.

By the way, what did it go for? I can't seem to access last night's results, even when logged in. Why is that?

[dstudeba]

Thanks Hank, that is great information.

[Bicem]

wow -- thanks Hank!

$1700 plus the juice

[dallen]

That is very interesting Hank!

The card came from a fresh collection on the east coast that contained the Brunner's Cobb, The T-3 Proofs and many of the rare type cards in the auction. I rember looking at the card when it came in and I do believe it was on thinner paper stock then M101s as described by Hank. That being said it had a vintage cut and wear typical of what you would see on a VG card.

Hank if you could email me a copy of your brochure I would greatly appreciate it.

Once this is verifed obvioulsy the sale will be negated.

Sincerely,
Doug Allen

[nolemmings]

Thanks Hank.

This is curious in a couple of other respects. First, The Successful Farming promo ad I posted last month shows how you could acquire 6 free cards--the same 6 in Hank's mailer except Wagner was replaced by some guy named Joe Jackson. The Lajoie in that group, however, showed the same image as his m101 card, and bears the same font/caption except for number as the m101.
Seems Mendelsohn may have produced a "test" or "sample" set of 6 on a different sheet.

This Lajoie is clearly different. However, since the other c. 1915 W-unc also shows the same image of Lajoie, I'm wondering if Hank can provide more information on this portion of his "strip" and its caption--for example, did they spell Lajoie's first name correctly?

[paul]

Thank you Hank for the information. And thank you Doug Allen for stepping up to the plate on this one. Obviously, neither one of us thought this was a cut out from an advertising flyer.

Paul

[dallen]

BTW looking back at our notes in December we made an inquiry of Bob Lemke and he was of the belief that this card would be part of the "1915 W-UNC Strip Cards" series listed on page 604 of the 2012 Standard Catalog. That being said the checklist does not match the names identified by Hank on his advertising piece.

[paul]

I looked at the catalogued W-UNC card listing during the auction and decided that the Lajoie couldn't be part of that set. The caption is very different and I think the sizes are a little different too. Also, the photo quality is very different. I really thought it was one of the 2 1/4" x 4" Mendelson proofs until I found out the size was too small.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

By the way, what did it go for? I can't seem to access last night's results, even when logged in. Why is that?

Hank, log in and add it to your 'watch list' - then you can go to your 'my account' page and see the final bid.