Tom Barker cards?

[Belfast1933]

I’d be interested to learn about Tom Barker cards - wondering how much collector appeal they have with all of you? Prices seems quite reasonable even for the biggest name stars so I have to guess they are either quite available, not that desirable or maybe both?

Toying with the idea of adding a Tom Barker Honus Wagner to my HOF collection since it looks like I should be able to afford one for under $1k.

Maybe there have been past threads on this set as well - always appreciate the card lesson from this forum

Thanks for any tips

Jeff

[Leon]

They are a cool and inexpensive set. Not a whole lot to know. Logically all of the players would have the same number of cards, as distributed.

There is a Fenway Breweries series of them that are pretty cool. This is from my prior collection..

[brianp-beme]

Here is a good thread about the National Game and Tom Barker sets that was started over 10 years ago, and has a lot of great input over the years from members. I believe this thread helped establish that in 1913 the National Game cards were issued before the Tom Barker cards (which appeared to have been issued in 1914), and thus Grover Alexander's National Game card should have a leg up on his Tom Barker version when it comes to rookie card status.

https://net54baseball.com/showthread...ighlight=chase

Brian

[Leon]

Originally Posted by brianp-beme

Here is a good thread about the National Game and Tom Barker sets that was started over 10 years ago, and has a lot of great input over the years from members. I believe this thread helped establish that in 1913 the National Game cards were issued before the Tom Barker cards (which appeared to have been issued in 1914), and thus Grover Alexander's National Game card should have a leg up on his Tom Barker version when it comes to rookie card status.

https://net54baseball.com/showthread...ighlight=chase

Brian

Ok, never mind what I said.

.

[BobC]

It is a great set from 1913, desgnated as WG6, and very similar to the National Game set. Since they're actually playing cards, the material is much sturdier and made to be handled a lot, unlike regular base ball cards from back then. Plus the corners are already rounded, which makes it easier (and usually cheaper) to acquire them in actually very nice condition for being over 100 years old. The Tom Barker set includes a lot of star and HOF players, led by the big three, Cobb, Wagner, and Joe Jackson. Depending on what condition you can find any one of those three in, you can easily get to four figures for Cobb and Wagner. Jackson should easily get to four figures, plus, unless you can come across an absolute beater somebody is willing to sell you.

The are also several "In Action" cards of unnamed players, but one of them has been determined to be to Cobb sliding, and normally goes for a premium over all the other "In Action" cards. Depending on condition, the Cobb sliding can run you up into the $100-$200 range+, depending on condition.

And since it is a game, you can also come across a Rules card, and a separate Score card. And if you're really lucky, you might even come across an empty box/carton the game originally came in, as Leon was showing in his post. It isn't an impossible set to put together, and the cost for player's cards, especially the stars and HOFers, are generally much lower than those same star/HOFer cards in other contemporary sets. The exceptions to that would be for the same star/HOF/player cards found in the other two game sets from about the same time, the National Game set (WG5) from 1913, and the Polo Grounds game (WG4) from 1914. In fact, once you do start working on the Tom Barker game set, don't be surprised if you get sucked into collecting these other two game sets as well at some point in the future. All three are great! Happy collecting.

[brianp-beme]

Something that I don't believe was mentioned in the thread is that the player selection between the two sets slightly differs. Besides the team change for Hal Chase, there are 4 other cards that are not seen in both sets.

The National Game set has Bill Dahlen, Larry McLean, Jake Stahl and George Stovall that were not issued in the Tom Barker set, while the Tom Barker replaced these cards with Bill Carrigan, Chief Meyers, Zack Wheat and Ivy Wingo.

Brian