Show interesting discoveries made about a card after already owning it

[brianp-beme]

Most cards, especially nowadays, have all of its mystery on display, either by image or word, when it is sold. But every once in awhile you might come across a card that has secrets only to be revealed when holding it in hand.

Here is mine. Probably 12-15 years ago I received the Roger Connor shown in a group lot. I just assumed it was an trimmed down Old Judge. It was only after showing it on here, within the last couple of years, that I was informed by a helpful member that what I had was actually a very tough to come by trimmed down Large version N175 Gypsy Queen of Roger Connor. The graded card is one I spotted on the web to show what it would look like in its full-sized glory

Let's see what you have that you found something interesting about after possessing it.

Brian

[Casey2296]

In my "you people should be ashamed of yourselves" post about Rose Postcards I posted a pic of my Doolan/Doolin card (posted here), Kevin Struss, who has encyclopedic knowledge of the set replied;

Nice Mickey Doolan Rose Co. postcard. You are right, the Doolan is the only postcard of a Major League player shown with his hat on, though there are some Scranton players pictured in theirs. All of the other 191 Major League players are shown in studio portraits in uniform, mostly taken by Carl Horner.

There are two versions of Doolan/Doolin that exist. I believe that the postcard that you have was the first version, probably a prototype. Your version has his name spelled incorrectly (Doolan), uses a different font and abbreviates Philadelphia as "Phila." Though it is hard to see, this is the same version that is pictured in the August 15, 1908 edition of the American Stationer.

The later versions spelled his name correctly (Doolin), use the same font that is found on the other Rose Co. postcards and spelled out Philadelphia fully.

Then he posted a copy of the advert from 1908 and there was my card. Unbelievable.

[GeoPoto]

I collect Washington so I was willing to pay a BIN price for the 1921 Exhibits with Border of Howie Shanks (he should have been a golfer). I didn't pay close enough attention to catch the Athletics uniform, a team Shanks never played for. I guess the purchase of the card prompted my curiosity and the next thing I know I am reading Pre-War Cards treatment of the 1921 Exhibits, which closes with:
"One notable misidentification in the set is that the card for Washington Senators infielder/outfielder Howie Shanks actually pictures Wally Schang of the New York Yankees. Schang, thus, is the only player in the set technically featured more than once."

Schang last played for Philadelphia in 1917. So it turns out I am the proud owner of a "Washington" card picturing a New York Yankee wearing a Philadelphia Athletics uniform. As Bob Hope might have said: "Shanks for the memories!"

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1611060577

[Exhibitman]

N332 S.F. Hess Charlie Mitchell (HOFer).



This one was sold as an unidentified photo of an anonymous boxer and sold for less than 1% of what an N332 would normally cost. I knew it was familiar but I just couldn't place it. Eventually I looked at the card back under direct sun light and realized that someone wrote "Charlie Mitchell" on the back in very faint pencil. Once I saw that the rest of the iD was easy.

This one was my first really extensive research project and I was very proud of it! 1860s CDV of John C. Heenan (HOF).



This is the earliest verifiable boxing card. Fredricks was one of the first to make albumen images, a skill he learned in France and brought to the States in 1855. By the time this card was issued as part of his commercially produced "Specialite" series of famous personages, Fredricks owned a large studio and gallery in New York City. His work is featured in a number of museum collections, including the Smithsonian. I saw the card offered as a CDV by a UK seller. Something about the copyright notice caught my eye. I did some research and learned that until 1870 copyright registration was handled by the local Federal courts. After that it was centralized in DC. Pre-1870 items would carry the district court notation.

I'll give you a baseball one too. Rodine baseball postcard:



I found this one at the first Baltimore National. Apparently, Rodine is a paint inhibitor that the American Chemical Paint Co. made. It commissioned a series of these postcards for promoting Rodine and sent them to paint wholesalers and commercial end users. I found another one date-stamped and pinned down the set to 1954. The artist, Jerry Doyle, was a commercial cartoonist for a newspaper in Philadelphia. He has some following but the cards were not part of any catalog of his works that I could locate. The postcard references a premium available on request. Took me years to run down one of them:

[packs]

I bought this card while I was in Berlin. I found it in a shoebox of ephemera that a street vendor was selling. I thought it was cool that it had Jesse Owens on it.

But later I found out the story of the man Jesse Owens is next to; Luz Long. Long was a German athlete who was one of the few Olympians in general who became friendly with Owens during the games, giving Owens advice on the track and saving Owens from a critical fault during the long jump.

A few years after the games Long was killed in action during World War II. But Owens had such fond memories of his time with Long during the games that he served as best man at Long's son's wedding nearly 30 years later:

[brianp-beme]

Some great and varied responses...I especially like the Rose Postcard and Jesse Owens stories.

Here is another one from my collecting. I purchased a lot of 3 lower condition M116 cards (shown below) from an Ebay auction about 10 years ago. I was pretty much interested in the Curtis and Gardner cards, as I did not have them, as I already had a F. Smith. A couple of months after receiving the lot of 3, I finally had the chance to add them to my collection. Well, I discovered that the F. Smith had a different team designation (Boston Americans instead of Chicago Americans, the designation on the card I already had in my collection).

Turns out by a complete stroke of luck, (I honestly would have not noticed the team designation difference if I had not already had a F. Smith card) I had accidentally discovered an unknown M116 variation. The card I discovered is still unique...and someone out there in auctionland owns it, and it perhaps is part of a master set that only they could possess.

Brian

[Jobu]

I learned that this issue, which was unknown to me, was similar to Yuasa but actually a new set, G.T. Sun Co:

https://www.net54baseball.com/showth...ighlight=yuasa

[h2oya311]

I bought a huge lot of strip cards back in 2013 (mostly for a few Ruth cards and some others I needed) and was going through each and selling them individually in 2014 when I realized I had stumbled upon something pretty cool. I don't think it is checklisted anywhere and certainly wasn't the "find of the year" by any stretch, but I thought it was neat/interesting nonetheless.

Here is a rare 1920 W519 (Numbered Ver02) Cravath #18 with his first name listed as "Gobby" instead of "Gabby". He used to go by "Gavvy".

Here's a link to the thread where I "outted" it:

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=180169

[gabrinus]

Cool card Derek...don't believe I have ever seen it before...Jerry

[chlankf]

Not a card but a super find in my collection. This picture of Hughie Nelson came to me in a lot of vintage Des Moines Register/Tribune photos I pick up. A few years later I purchased a 1929 Des Moines program and was thrilled to see my photo was the actual photo use in the printed program.

[Casey2296]

Here's another one I thought was kinda neat. When I did my E98 Orphans project and was accumulating cards I noticed that the "L" at the top of the Lajoie and the "L" written at the top of the McGraw seemed to be written by the same hand. I like to think that these two cards were together long ago and are now reunited.

[JollyElm]

Not sure if this one counts, but what the heck...

I knew there was a really old Clemente card hidden away in a pile of superstars that I had in awful shape, and in my mind I always thought it was his 1956 card...but when I found myself looking through the stack for the first time in many years BOOM!! it turned out to be his 1955 rookie card. That was quite a surprise. The awfulness didn't change when I had it graded, but it's just cool to have one without spending a boatload of money on it.

1955clemente164PSA1.jpg

[abothebear]

I picked up a beater T206 Old Mill Buck Herzog from ebay, because I hadn't ever held a t206 before and wanted to get a feel for them, so I wouldn't get ripped-off on fakes. After a close investigation, I noticed that it was an extremely rare "Large Ass" variation. I couldn't believe my luck. Since then, that card has toured the planet several times over and has been owned by a veritable who's who of the world's greatest card collectors. My collecting career had nowhere to go but down after that.

[Pat R]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

In my "you people should be ashamed of yourselves" post about Rose Postcards I posted a pic of my Doolan/Doolin card (posted here), Kevin Struss, who has encyclopedic knowledge of the set replied;

Nice Mickey Doolan Rose Co. postcard. You are right, the Doolan is the only postcard of a Major League player shown with his hat on, though there are some Scranton players pictured in theirs. All of the other 191 Major League players are shown in studio portraits in uniform, mostly taken by Carl Horner.

There are two versions of Doolan/Doolin that exist. I believe that the postcard that you have was the first version, probably a prototype. Your version has his name spelled incorrectly (Doolan), uses a different font and abbreviates Philadelphia as "Phila." Though it is hard to see, this is the same version that is pictured in the August 15, 1908 edition of the American Stationer.

The later versions spelled his name correctly (Doolin), use the same font that is found on the other Rose Co. postcards and spelled out Philadelphia fully.

Then he posted a copy of the advert from 1908 and there was my card. Unbelievable.

His real name is Doolittle

img081.jpg

And I believe the correct spelling is Doolan. I did some research on the spelling a few years ago searching old newspapers from that era and
a search of Doolan returns 1,266 results while Doolin returns 109 results.

Although they're not authenticated the only autographs I could find were
spelled Doolan

Doolan Auto 2.jpg

Doolan Auto.jpg

and the only signed ball I found was also spelled Doolan.

https://rarebooks.library.nd.edu/exh...hy/index.shtml

[Tyruscobb]

In approximately 1991, I purchased a sweet 1955 Topps Jackie Robinson. 27 years later, in 2018, when I returned to the hobby and had the card graded, I discovered it was a partial diamond variation which sells for a premium. Sorry for not attaching a photo, as the card is in my safety deposit box.

[Fballguy]

My most amazing discovery was the legendary 1969 Topps Wilbur Wood "eyes up" variation, chronicled in the June 2004 edition of Beckett Baseball Collector. This hobby changing addition briefly earned me the nickname "the Alexander Fleming of card collecting". Alas, this was the pinnacle of my stardom. I never made another discovery and the nickname quickly and quietly faded away.

Now I collect pennants.

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by Pat R

His real name is Doolittle


And I believe the correct spelling is Doolan. I did some research on the spelling a few years ago searching old newspapers from that era and
a search of Doolan returns 1,266 results while Doolin returns 109 results.

Although they're not authenticated the only autographs I could find were
spelled Doolan


and the only signed ball I found was also spelled Doolan.

https://rarebooks.library.nd.edu/exh...hy/index.shtml

Thank you for the additional information Pat, fascinating.

Not even a real Irishman!?! My poor Gma is turning over as we speak...

[Tyruscobb]

Originally Posted by abothebear

I picked up a beater T206 Old Mill Buck Herzog from ebay, because I hadn't ever held a t206 before and wanted to get a feel for them, so I wouldn't get ripped-off on fakes. After a close investigation, I noticed that it was an extremely rare "Large Ass" variation. I couldn't believe my luck. Since then, that card has toured the planet several times over and has been owned by a veritable who's who of the world's greatest card collectors. My collecting career had nowhere to go but down after that.

Who currently has this card? It’s been a while since I’ve seen an update.

[ecRich]

One set that has always interested me were 1934 Tarzan Bread cards. Way back in the day Frank Nagy had some, so that's why I became a fan of this set.A number of years ago I was able to pick up a rough Kamm from this set. It wasn't till years later that I realized that my exact card was a Nagy card that was in the 1960's Famous Cards set put out by Frank and Sport Hobbyist publication.

[Casey2296]

That's a cool card.

[thatkidfromjerrymaguire]

I've enjoyed a couple unexpected "discoveries" while building my 1952 Bowman set.

First, I noticed that Sherm Lollar has personalized his catcher's mask:

lollar.JPG

Also, it appears that the Bowman Gum Company thought Campanella set the all time RBI record in 1951.

Camp.jpg

[ullmandds]

Originally Posted by thatkidfromjerrymaguire

I've enjoyed a couple unexpected "discoveries" while building my 1952 Bowman set.

First, I noticed that Sherm Lollar has personalized his catcher's mask:

Attachment 436421

Also, it appears that the Bowman Gum Company thought Campanella set the all time RBI record in 1951.

Attachment 436422

awesome!!!!

[tedzan]

I was set-up at the annual HOF weekend Cooperstown Show (Summer of 1991). A fellow walked-in with this 1904 gem.
He had an idea what it was worth and he wanted to trade it for pre-WWII BB cards (in particular T206's). He selected a
a number of T206's stars & commons which he needed in trade for this classic piece of 1904 BaseBall history.

Fall of 1991, I read the book... "The Year They Called Off The World Series", by Benton Stark. Unbelievable coincidence.

In 1904, Mgr. John McGraw of the NY Giants (N.L. Champs) refused to play Boston (A.L. Champs). McGraw declared his
Giants the "World Series Champions". Since there was no Major League World Series in 1904, the Eastern League (AAA)
Buffalo Bisons became the de facto "1904 World Champions" by defeating the American Association's St. Paul Saints.





TED Z

T206 Reference
.

[robw1959]

In the process of completing a 1971 Topps set last year, I stumbled across a variation that wasn't already publicized, at least not in my online research. I call it the "Killebrew with a red squiggle". I submitted this variation to a site that researches them, and the next day it was included among their '71 Topps baseball set variations. Check out the red squiggle right next to his right shoulder on the Leaders card here. A normal one is also included for reference, and I have no idea which variation is scarcer.