Introducing new addition to M116 Sporting Life checklist...Frank Smith, BOSTON AL

[brianp-beme]

Thought I would share a new addition (as far as I can tell) to the M116 Sporting Life checklist: Frank Smith, Boston AL variation. Not long ago I came across this card, shown on the right of each of the scans, and have been unable to find any mention of it in any of the checklists for the set, nor does it come up on any internet searches I attempted. It appears that Sporting Life updated the Smith card for the 300 subjects back at some point after Frank was traded mid-season of 1910 to the Red Sox.

As a side note, the T206 set has a Frank Smith card with the funky "Chicago and Boston" identification to indicate, without changing the artwork showing a White Sox uniform, that Smith was now a Red Sox player. Fortunately for the Sporting Life folks, the uniform pictured on the M116 card is pretty plain wrap, so all they had to do was change the caption.

Does anyone else have a Frank Smith Boston card or know of one out there? Or perhaps is a Frank Smith CHICAGO card known with the 300 Subjects back?

Disclosure: If this is a new discovery, down the road I plan on sending it off to auction, as I never anticipate going after a master M116 set.

Would love to hear your comments,

Brian

[RCMcKenzie]

Brian,

I follow this set somewhat and have a few. I have never seen or heard of this card. Looks like quite a find.

[sb1]

Smith, now joins Bates and Seymour(both also previously unknown until the last few years) as players with team changes in the M116 set, and the well known McConnell and McQuillan.

[edhans]

Congratulations Brian. Nice find!

[caramelcard]

Brian,

Unbelievable find in my eyes! The kind of stuff that keeps me collecting and reading the board. Congrats!! You probably own the rarest M116 along with (as scott mentioned) seymour and bates which I think there are only one example each that I'm aware of. Just incredible.

Rob

[CW]

Wow, quite the find. Congrats!

[Danny Smith]

That's pretty freakin cool. Congrats.

[sox1903wschamp]

Great find. This is what makes the hobby fun.

[Bicem]

very cool, where did you find it???

[ethicsprof]

wow!!!
this is truly what makes this hobby most exciting!!!
congrats.
all the best,
barry

[tbob]

Originally Posted by brianp-beme

Does anyone else have a Frank Smith Boston card or know of one out there?

Would love to hear your comments,

Brian

Wow!!! Brian this is a HUGE find, congratulations! I have the M116 set (at one time a master set before new variation captions came along of Bates and Seymour) and I have never heard of the Boston card. This card is RARE, an oft-overused term used in our hobby but fitting in this case. I believe it could very well be one of a kind.
The M116 set is so underrated, undervalued and underappreciated. This Find may jump start some collectors beginning to look through Smith cards for a Boston variation.
I'm jealous, but happy for you Brian.
tbob

[brianp-beme]

Thanks for all the kind words guys. I was just as surprised when I received this card in a small group of M116 cards from dbay (the diminished capacity version of this fast sinking internet marketplace). The other cards in the lot were the ones I was interested in, as I already had a 'F. Smith' card in my collection. Fortunately, I owned this regular F. Smith White Sox card, which is how I discovered the team change while comparing the two. If I hadn't already owned the regular F. Smith card, this variation card undoubtably would have slipped my notice and sunk itself into my collection. Just like it was hiding in plain sight in the lot listing that obviously no one else spotted either.

Of all the 'major' pre-war sets, I believe the M116 set is the one that new additions are most likely to occur. I suggest that everyone check their '300 Subject' backs for team variations...who knows, maybe someone else will get lucky and spot another similiar variation card. I would like to personally thank my regular Frank Smith with the paper loss on the front...thanks for being there for me buddy!

Brian

[caramelcard]

While collecting this set, I often had many dupes and would compare them. For some reason this never happened!

Thanks for sharing it with the community.

[timn1]

I'm pleased to see it, and it couldn't happen to a nicer guy--

My own small achievement in this event is to predict it, sort of.... at the end of my Old Cardboard article on the set, where I commented on three team variations that are listed in the Sporting Life ads but have never been discovered.

I asked "Is it possible that not a single copy survived? Or more likely, are there a few lodged deep in the collections of longtime hobbyists who have never noticed small discrepancies on one or two of their commons?"

I should have added, "or are there even more undiscovered team variations in mixed lots on ebay?"

I'm fairly certain that there are more to come, maybe very soon!

Tim

[caramelcard]

Maybe very soon? Hmm....

[hoshua4710]

Congrats on the find, I would love to make a discovery like that! I wish there was a way to go through the old basements and attics of every old house of every Grandparent/great grandparent/older person that I know haha. You always here about those incredible finds and it always sparks your imagination of possible places to go looking. Again, awesome find Brian, im jealous!

Josh B.

[brianp-beme]

An update on the M116 Sporting Life Frank Smith, Boston card...the M116 checklist on the Old Cardboard website has been updated to include this card, and Lyman H. has a nice write-up about the discovery in their E-Newsletter (I suggest you check out their site and sign up for the newsletter if you haven't already done so).

Thanks again for all your help in helping me determine that this card was indeed a new discovery. To put it mildly, this was a thoroughly enjoyable surprise, but this card is just too big for me (the Smith Boston variation now ranks at the top of the M116 scarcity heap) so it will be in the upcoming REA auction in October.

Brian

[Cardboard Junkie]

Congratulations, pretty impressive!Dave.