Help ID'ing 1920's(?) Oneonta Minor League Cards w/ "City Drug Store" Back Stamps

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Anyone ever heard of these? There are pencil notations on the back with player names. They are real photos but card-sized at about 1.5" x 2.5" images to follow.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

I know rarity and value don't always equate, especially in a case like this, but I am always surprised when nobody here has an answer! There's about 20 of these all told.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Could these possibly just be snapshots with the drug store stamp applied to the back? Are all the images different, or do you have some duplication?

They may have been promotional items in conjunction with the store, but are they really cards? Maybe they were simply snapshots taken by one of the owners of the drug store, who applied the stamp as a means of ownership? Just ideas; none may be correct.

[Vintagedeputy]

Originally Posted by BillyCox3

Could these possibly just be snapshots with the drug store stamp applied to the back? Are all the images different, or do you have some duplication?

They may have been promotional items in conjunction with the store, but are they really cards? Maybe they were simply snapshots taken by one of the owners of the drug store, who applied the stamp as a means of ownership? Just ideas; none may be correct.

My thoughts exactly.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Vintagedeputy

My thoughts exactly.

I was waiting for others to chime in but that was my initial thought too. Some old photos with back stamps. Still cool....
.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Another point to consider: the drug store could have developed the film (or outsourced to have it developed), and just stamped the backs of all such snapshots as a means of free advertising before furnishing them to whoever took the photos.

[sb1]

Generally photos of that era have numeral stamp to identify the roll they came from. I also think these are local photographs developed and stamped by the drugstore.

[nolemmings]

It seems that your photos were from the Oneonta Giants of 1924, or at least the players whose handwritten names I can read were on the team that year: Wilcox, Walsh, Roche, Boylan and Lobee. If so, that was a rather watershed year, because it started with the team playing semi-pro and then merging with Utica Utes, who folded at the beginning of August and whose manager, Roy Thomas, was allowed to cherry-pick players from the Utes and Giants to finish the season. The Oneonta Star reported that the city would be the smallest to have a Class B team.

I looked up the City Drug Store, which advertised itself as “The Kodak Store”, so there may be something to the idea that they developed the photos. I saw no ad for the photos, but the store advertised at least a time or two that game tickets could be purchased there. Maybe they produced them in celebration of the team's promotion to the big time, although that is belied by the appearance of one of the players in a rather heavy-looking sweater, which would have been taken long before August.

[andypcl]

I'm glad to come across this thread. I have 16 different from the 1936 Omaha Red Robins with the drug store folder. I've always wondered if they were distributed somehow. I'm not sure if they have back stamps like the ones posted above but I'll check in the next few days.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by nolemmings

It seems that your photos were from the Oneonta Giants of 1924, or at least the players whose handwritten names I can read were on the team that year: Wilcox, Walsh, Roche, Boylan and Lobee. If so, that was a rather watershed year, because it started with the team playing semi-pro and then merging with Utica Utes, who folded at the beginning of August and whose manager, Roy Thomas, was allowed to cherry-pick players from the Utes and Giants to finish the season. The Oneonta Star reported that the city would be the smallest to have a Class B team.

I looked up the City Drug Store, which advertised itself as “The Kodak Store”, so there may be something to the idea that they developed the photos. I saw no ad for the photos, but the store advertised at least a time or two that game tickets could be purchased there. Maybe they produced them in celebration of the team's promotion to the big time, although that is belied by the appearance of one of the players in a rather heavy-looking sweater, which would have been taken long before August.

WOW I looked and couldn't find this info Thanks so much!

As for the snapshot theory. They are real photos so I obviously have to give it some credence, but they are very small and also look posed and have a set "feel" but that's hardly conclusive. If nobody has ever seen them before I would have to guess that they are indeed "just" snapshots. Will post them all at some point.

Thanks all for the info and thoughts!

[nolemmings]

Seems baseball was a pretty big deal in Oneonta. Here's an ad from July 25, 1924 for an Exhibition game against Connie Mack's A's and a rookie Al Simmons: (Note that tickets can be bought at City Drug Store)

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Photos are in our current auction and will be in tonight's update. Thanks all for the help!