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Headliners
17 Lots
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 Lot 1. W503 Complete Set of 64. Extremely rare! To my knowledge, the first complete set of these extremely difficult 1923 cards offered through a major auction or in the hobby press in more than 35 years. In October 2001 we auctioned a near set, missing 3 cards (including Ruth), from the Don McPherson collection and that brought $10,355. The under bidder for that set was John Spalding, who is the consignor for this set. He said there were 7 cards he wanted as upgrades. W503's are mislabeled as an anonymous issue ("W") by Jefferson Burdick in his American Card Catalog. These blank-backed 1 5/8 by 2 3/8-inch B&W cards actually were issued in clear plastic wrappers with caramel candy in 1923 in the New York, St. Louis and San Francisco Bay regions. They should be considered "E" cards. Scarcity and use of photos not seen in other card sets make this a highly coveted issue. In addition, the photos were taken in ballparks and those views make the set even more desirable. Produced in two groups of 32 cards with the second group of high numbers (#33-64) much more difficult to find. The overall condition is exceptional for this tough set, which includes 16 HOFers. 1st Series Highlights: 6-Kelly (ex), 11-Hoyt (ex-mt), 13-Sisler (vg-ex), 15-Stengel (vg), 21-Frisch (gd, 1/2" crease and writing on back), 23-Johnson (vg with some pencil writing on rear), 25-Bancroft (vg-ex), 32-Ruth (would be ex+ but one 1/4" crease at right side); Balance: 3 ex-mt, 4 ex, 5 vg-ex, 8 very good, 2 gd-vg, 2 gd; 2nd Series Highlights: 37-Marquard (ex-mt), 38-Alexander (vg-ex), 42-Hornsby (ex+, tiny wrinkle at left), 43-Luque (ex+), 44-Wheat (ex+), 46-Maranville (ex+-mt), 51-Pennock (vg-ex), 53-Carey (nr mt), 64-Coveleski (vg); Balance: 4 nr mt, 8 ex-mt, 9-excellent, 2 vg-ex;
Winning Bid $33,657.
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 Lot 2. T202 SGC Graded Hassan Triple Folder set of 132. One of the nicest T202 sets you'll ever see, 130 of the 132 cards are graded by SGC. Grading breakdown is 6 cards EX-MT 6, 5 cards EX+ 5.5, 21 cards EX 5, 40 cards VG-EX 4, 34 cards VG 3, 16 cards GD-VG 2, 4 cards GD 1.5 and 7 cards FR 1. The two ungraded cards are 13e Chance Beats Out a Hit and 33. Elberfeld Beats the Throw. It should b e noted that T202's are among the toughest cards to grade because of their uniqueness and all the possible imperfections. Highlights: 2 A desperate Slide/Cobb/O'Leary (1), 7 Birmingham Gets to Third/Johnson/Street (5), 29A Devlin Gets His Man/Devlin-Bos/Mathewson (4), 29D Devlin Gets His Man/Meyers/Mathewson (5), 36E Evers Makes A Safe Slide/Tinker/Chance (4), 37 Fast Work At Third/Cobb/O'Leary (3), 39 Good Play At Third/Cobb/Moriarity (5), 48B Just Before The Battle/McGraw/Bresnahan (4), 48G Just Before The Battle/McGraw/Jennings (6), 49 Knight Catches A Runner/Johnson/Knight (3), 63 Speaker Rounding Third/Speaker/Wood (3), 74C Too Late for Devlin/Mathewson/Devlin-NY (4), 75A Ty Cobb Steals Third/Cobb/Jennings (3), 75B Ty Cobb Steals Third/Cobb/Moriarity (4),75C Ty Cobb Steals Third/Stovall/Austin (2). 72 cards (55%) are vg-ex or better and 106 cards (80%) are very good or better. A detailed list of the grades of all cards is available on request.
Winning Bid $30,597.
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 Lot 3. E145 1914 Cracker Jack #30-Ty Cobb GAI EX+ 5.5. Beautiful Cobb card from the tough first year. The product stains on the bottom, which go through to the back, undoubtedly kept the grade down from an EX/MT 6 or higher.
Winning Bid $6,655.
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 Lot 4. 1948 Topps Magic Photos uncut sheet. Magnificent sheet, possibly one a kind, showing 126 cards from this popular 1948 set. The sheet measures 15 3/4" x 10" with crystal clear images of the cards. The sheet shows 20 baseball cards including Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mathewson, Johnson, Cobb, Alexander, Tinker & Evers, Young, Sisler, Hornsby and Mack. Other baseball include 2 Lou Boudreau and 3 Cleveland Indian photos relating to the just concluded 1948 World Series. The last baseball photo is actor William Bendix as Babe Ruth from the 1948 movie "The Babe Ruth Story". In addition there are 5 football, 5 basketball and 1 hockey in addition to actors and historic Americans. Ex+-mt.
Winning Bid $5,000.
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 Lot 5. M116 Sporting Life Johnny Bates, Cincinnati Rare new discovery. While not a star John Bates, an outfielder, had a good major league career from 1906-14. Bates played with the Braves (1906-09), then was traded mid 1909 to the Phils where he played through the end of 1910. There was a M116 Sporting Life card issued with the Phils. In 1911 Bates moved on to Cincinnati where he played until 1914, at which time n he finished his career with two other teams. Sporting Life was not a card issuer that was inclined to note team changes on cards. Two famous rarities in the set, Ambrose McConnell and George McQuillan, had cards with different teams issued and these cards go in the thousands. In April 2004, we auctioned a newly discovered team change card of Cy Seymour, Baltimore along with a B&W blank backed proof of that card and those brought over $18,000. Now a new card has been discovered of John Bates with Cincinnati which makes it an immediate contender for the, or one of the, rarest card(s) in the hobby. The Bates, Cincinnati is multiple creased, has a normal ad back. The card was received too late to submit it for grading, but it measures the proper 2 11/16" x 1 1/2" and we see no reason why it won't grade, A normal Bates, Philadelphia is included with the lot.
Winning Bid $20,897.
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 Lot 6. 1923 Exhibit Babe Ruth. Perhaps the toughest Ruth card from a mass produced set. The pose is identical to the very common 1921 Ruth except a white border was added. I've only seen the 1923 Ruth Exhibit offered at Auction twice before. Once by Lelands, in a large lot of exhibits and in our November 2003 auction, when it went for $13,783. The foremost exhibit collectors- Elwood Scharf, Irv Lerner, Don McPherson have never owned the card and I only know of three copies. The offered card is very good plus. No creases, some writing in the bottom margin has been erased.
Winning Bid $3,993.
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 Lot 7. R316 Style Large Original Photo Cards Collection of 111 different rarely seen 5 by 6 3/4-inch black and white glossy original photos. The photos are on heavy board in the same style and with the same photos as the R316 card set, but much more attractive. A duplicate of Maguire brings the total to 112. This is the largest group ever offered of these sharply focused, original photos with bright contrasts from the late 1920s. All photos are full length poses taken by famed New York photographer Charles Conlon. The collection includes 12 players not pictured in the R316 set (Benge, Bressler, Brickell, Mickey Cochrane, Dudley, Gilbert, Lind, McNeely, Metzler, Mitchell, Morgan and Myer). The only R316 photos missing here are Frank Hogan and Jimmy Welsh. There are 33 HOFers (Bottomley, Cochrane, Combs, Faber, Foxx, Frisch, Gehrig, Gehringer, Goslin, Grimes, Grove, Hafey, Haines, Hornsby, Hoyt, Klein, Lindstrom, Manush, Maranville, Ott, Pennock, Rice, Roush, Ruffing, Ruth, Sewell, Simmons, Terry, Traynor, Vance, L. Waner, P. Waner and Wilson) plus the coveted Moe Berg. All are Ex-Mt to Near Mt except Bush (tack holes top corners, toning on borders, Vg-Ex) and Stephenson (tack holes top corners, one spot minor border damage, Ex). A collection that would be nearly impossible to duplicate. A complete list of the contents is available on request.
Winning Bid $12,543.
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 Lot 8. T222 Fatima Players Set of 52. Rarely found offered as a set and this is a pretty nice one. Highlights: Alexander (gd), Austin (gd), Bresnahan (ex), Chance (gd-vg), Henry (gd-vg), Huggins (vg front, some album remains on back at top), Jennings (gd-vg), Johnson (good), Lelivelt (good), S. Magee, Phils (vg-ex, o/c), Marquard (nr mt), Morgan (gd). Balance: 10 cards excellent, 13 cards very good, 14 cards good, 3 cards fair.
Winning Bid $11,402.
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 Lot 9. Remarkable Koestlers Bread advertising sheet of 35 cards featuring 16 N.Y. Yankee and 19 N.Y. Giant players. Issued for the 1921 World Series, the first "subway series". The sheet is a heavy stock and measures about 16" wide and 14" tall. Koestlers cards when cut from a sheet take on the appearance of W575's and in most cases there is no difference. The sheet leaves no doubt these are Koestler's Bread images. Included among these images is Babe Ruth, still in Boston Red Sox uniform and the familiar pitching pose. Other notables are Jesse Burkett, a Giant coach, Miller Huggins, Home Run Baker, Casey Stengel, Ross Youngs, Georghe Kelly, Dave Bancorft, Roger Peckinpaugh and Mike Gonzlaez. There is a heavy crease between the 3rd and 4th rows and a 1 1/2" cut between the 4th and 5th cards in the bottom row.
Winning Bid $4,833.
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 Lot 10. N403 August Beck "Yum Yum" Pud Galvin SGC GOOD 2. A harsh grade for a well centered Hall of Famer with sharp corners. The card was apparently downgraded for a slight stain on the right border and a stain from being in an album on the rear. An extremely nice appearing card.
Winning Bid $5,317.
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 Lot 11. N690 Kalamazoo Bat Harry Wright SGC Graded 40 VG 3. Famous card of the Philadelphia manager sitting in their dugout holding one of his famous scorecards in his hand. A beautiful card with excellent centering and photo clarity is only hindered by a printing wrinkle at the top of the card above Wrights head. The back is clean.
Winning Bid $32,541.
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 Lot 12. M101-2 Sporting News Supplements set of 100. Rarely offered and highly attractive high quality complete set of sepia photos, 1909-1913. First 16 issued at 7 1/2 by 10 inches, the remainder at 8 1/2 by 10 except for four team photos at 10 by 16. Loaded with HOFers, the set is mounted in special high grade plastic sheets in a large binder. The four oversized team photos ('09 Tigers, '09 Pirates, '10 A's, '10 Cubs) are folded down the middle as issued, but otherwise Ex-Mt. Highlights: Jackson (vg, light hor. crease not visible from front), Cobb (nr mt), H. Wagner (ex-mt), Cobb/Wagner (nr mt), W. Johnson/Street (nr mt), Mathewson (ex-mt), Lajoie (ex-mt), McGraw (vg), Clarke (vg), Comiskey (vg+), Collins (ex+), Speaker (vg), Wallace (vg), Marquard (vg), Wheat (vg), Brown (nr mt), Chase (nr mt), Evers (nr mt), Joss (nr mt), Crawford (nr mt), Mack (nr mt), Plank (nr mt), Baker (nr mt), Griffith (nr mt), '12 Red Sox (ex+), '12 Giants (nr mt), Alexander (ex-mt), Bresnahan (nr mt), Young/Criger (ex+-mt), Chance (ex+-mt), Walsh (nr mt), Jennings (nr mt), Ban Johnson (ex-mt), Tinker (vg), Bender (vg), umps Evans, Klem et al (vg) Schalk (vg), Wood (gd, small 3/4" scuff). Balance: 26 ex-mt or better, 10 excellent, 22 very good. The latter have a light crease which in most cases isn't apparent.
Winning Bid $11,402.
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 Lot 13. E121 American Caramel Series of 80 "Babe" Ruth PSA EX 5. There are no shortage of Babe Ruth cards in the E121 American Caramel series, which is exaggerated by the variations. Most are common but the variations make the rarities clear. In the Series 80, there is only one photo used, and it's the most popular in the entire series - the pitching pose of Ruth in Boston uniform. There are three variations one naming Ruth, George, with a "L.F." designation and two calling him Babe with a "R.F." designation. One of those two cards have Babe with quotation marks and that's an extremely rare card. It's interesting to note that the reverse is true in the Series of 120. The Ruths without the quotation marks are very rare. The card as graded by PSA is a solid excellent as the grading indicates.
Winning Bid $7,139.
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 Lot 14. 1955 Topps Doubleheader set of 66 with 20 cards graded by PSA. Not quite as nice as the Doubleheader set that brought almost $30,000 in our last auction but still a beautiful set with the key cards highly graded. Graded Highlights: 25-6 Robinson/Hack (EX-MT 6), 69-70 Williams/Smith (EX-MT 6), 105-6 Aaron (NM 7), 111-2 Killebrew/Podres (EX-MT 6); Graded card Balance: 2 cards are NM-MT 8 (13-4, 15-6), 13 cards are NM 7 (5-6, 9-12, 17-8, 21-2, 35-6, 43-4, 53-60 and 91-4), 1 card is EX-MT 6 (37-8). Ungraded Balance include 3-4 Irvin (ex), 31-2 Banks/Pollet (ex-mt), 45-6 Kaline/Valentine (ex),127-8 Spahn/Brewer (ex+-mt) with 20 other cards grading nr mt, 17 cards ex-mt, 4 cards excellent and 1 card vg-ex.
Winning Bid $2,929.
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 Lot 15. N28 Allen & Ginter set of 50 with 10 baseball cards graded by GAI. Baseball players graded GAI VG-EX 4 - Glasscock and Comiskey; GAI VG+ 3.5 - Clarkson, Bennett and Mulvey; GAI VG 3 - Anson, Kelly and Caruthers; GAI G-VGF 2.5 Ward and GAI GOOD 2 Keefe. In addition the Annie Oakley card (3.5) and the Buffalo Bill card (1.5) are also GAI graded. The 10 Boxers average very good including Dempsey. The Sullivan card appears excellent but is trimmed. The 7 wrestlers are very good+. The balance average very good. A few cards have minor back damage.
Winning Bid $5,711.
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