Lot 1.  1867 The Ballplayers Chronicle and the 1868 American Chronicle of Sports and Pastimes. Written and Edited by Henry Chadwick (“The Father of Baseball”), the Chronicle was baseball's first weekly devoted (nearly) completely to baseball. The Chronicle covered nearly every important team of the late 1860's. The offered first volume, while not bound or with boards is in excellent condition and can be read easily. Includes every issue in 1867 from the first issue dated June 6, 1867 to the last in 1867 dated December 26, 1867. It also includes a title sheet and a 2 page summary of contents detailing what is in the 30 issues of 1867. The last issue of 1867 states “The American Chronicle of Sports and Pastimes” " The above is the title of our paper, with which we commence our second volume.......”, “The change of name has been made in accordance with our original programme ....to publish a family journal of outdoor sports and home amusements of which the American game of baseball would be the leading specialty." The offered volume is complete to July 23, 1868 and is missing the last issue of July 30th. The Ballplayers Chronicle is a historic paper. We know of only two sales, both of only the first volume. One was an ebay sale March of 2006 for $12,988 and the other in an obscure book auction which went for only $6,600. I've never seen the 1868 volume offered. Minimum Bid $6,000.

Lot 2.  R318 Batter Up Set of 192 Above average set with 25% ex-mt or better, 23% excellent, 30% very good-excellent and 22% fair-good. Highlights: 3-Lopez (ex), 5-Hubbell (vg), 6-Terry (ex+-mt), 8-Bottomley (ex-mt), 10-Ferrell (gd), 14-Traynor (ex-mt), 16-Hafey (vg+), 17-L. Waner (gd-vg), 21-Vaughn (ex), 23-Gomez (vg), 24-Averill (ex), 25-Cochrane (ex), 27-Ott (gd), 28-Foxx (gd), 30-Dickey (gd-vg), 31-Grove (vg-ex), 32-Cronin (gd-vg), 33-Frisch (nr mt), 34-Simmons (vg), 35-Hornsby (ex+), 36-Lyons (vg), 37-Maranville (ex-mt), 42-Gehringer (gd), 45-Lazzeri (gd), 57-Greenbeerg (ex), 64-Dean (ex-mt), 73-Wilson (vg), 77-Manush (vg), 85-Goslin (ex+), 86-Gomez (vg-ex), 98-Webb-Moses (gd-vg), 100-Traynor (ex-mt), 111-Hayes-Lyons (vg-ex), 113-Averill (nr mt), 115-Andrews-Bottomley (vg), 117-Dickey (ex-mt), 119-Lyons (ex-mt), 122-Lindstrom (vg), 124-Appling (gd), 126-R. Ferrell (ex-mt), 129-Lombardi (gd), 130-Gehringer (vg), 136-Hartnett (ex-mt), 138-Herman (gd), 144-Foxx (ex-mt), 145-Medwick (gd), 149-Berg (nr mt front, small paper loss imperfection near die cut on rear), 153-Grove (gd-vg), 156-Durocher (ex-mt), 157-L.Waner (ex), 173-Frisch (vg), 179-Bottomley (ex-mt), 182-Crosetti (gd-vg), 183-Cronin (vg-ex), 185-Klein (ex front, date stamps on rear). Balance Low Numbers: 9 cards ex-mt or nr mt, 16 cards excellent, 21 cards very good, 6 cards good. Balance High Numbers: 22 cards ex-mt or near mint, 20 cards excellent, 24 cards very good, 16 cards good, 3 cards poor. Winning Bid $7,986.

Lot 3.  N28 Allen & Ginter set of 50. This is a beautiful set that most collectors would be delighted to own. Unfortunately, it would not grade well because of trivial problems such as light water marks or a speck of paper loss at the very bottom. Baseball Highlights: Anson (near mint front, slight toning on back at bottom and top), Bennett (ex+-mt front, excellent back), Caruthers (nr mint front, ex-mt back), Clarkson (excellent + front and back), Comiskey (ex front with light water mark, vg-ex back), Glasscock (ex+-mt front, slight toning on back at bottom and top), Keefe (ex front), Kelly (stain at top, o/w excellent+, excellent back), Mulvey (ex-mt front and excellent back), Ward (vg-ex front, stain on rear). Buffalo Bill (ex+-mt front, tape mark on top of rear), Annie Oakley (ex+); Boxers & Wrestlers: Dempsey (ex), Sullivan (ex+), all others appear to be ex-mt or better on the front except Lannon (gd-vg), but have light toning or stains on the rear. Balance: Buffalo Bill (ex+-mt front, tape mark on top of rear), Annie Oakley (ex+); The rest appear ex-mt or better with light toning or stains on the rear. The Teemer is vg on the front with a rubber stamp on the rear. Winning Bid $5,857.

Lot 4.  N370 Lone Jack of Doc Bushong, high graded SGC 50 VG/EX 4 plus associated tin. A “rare opportunity” to purchase an exceedingly rare type card of Doc Bushong of the N370 Lone Jack Cigarettes baseball series. Bushong was the Browns catcher with their championship teams of the late 1880's. The Lone Jack set, issued by the obscure Long Jack Tobacco Company features the same images used in the 1886 N172 Browns Champion subset of the N172 Old Judge series. Differences with the Old Judges are obviously the advertising, the photo size and the rarity. It is not believed a complete set exists although all 13 poses are known. One collector, well known to me, had six at one time. This is a very high grade example graded an SGC 50 VG/EX 4, which easily could have been higher. The mage is as nice as can be found and the card is well centered. The back shows a paper disturbance on the lower left side (see scan) taking the grade down from what was most likely a “7” to a “4”. A previous sale was a poor condition card, graded 1 by SGC, which went for $4,700+ in an early 2007 auction. An interesting associative piece is an extremely rare Lone Jack Tin from the 19th Century measuring 5" by 3" by 1-1/4". Winning Bid $7,500.

Lot 5.  V300 O-Pee-Chee set of 40 with 4 key cards high graded by SGC. As nice a set as one could reasonably expect to find of this rarely offered Canadian version of R318 Batter Up. Highlights: 103-Averill (ex), 106-Foxx (nr mint front, light crease only visible on rear caused by die cut), 107-Greenberg (gd-vg), 111-Goslin (good), 112-Gehringer (SGC 84 NM 7), 115-Appling (fair), 117-Lazzeri (SGC 60 EX 5), 118-J. DiMaggio (SGC 60 EX 5), 119-Dickey (vg), 120-Feller (SGC 70 EX+ 5.5), 124-Cronin (vg-ex), 132-R.Ferrell (ex), 136-Ruffing (ex+), 137-Grove (SGC 50 VG/EX 4), 140-Hornsby (ex); Balance: 6 cards excellent-mint, 7 cards excellent, 9 cards very good, 3 cards good. Winning Bid $15,197.

Lot 6.  R333 Delong set of 24 with 3 key cards graded by SGC. Extremely nice set with 60% excellent and better. The Gehrig card, which appears to be ex+-mt or near mint when we first looked at it revealed on closer inspection that Gehrig’s left shoe was skillfully filled in with pencil writing. A close up scan is available on request. Highlights: 1-McManus (ex+), 2-Simmons (ex, but color loss on left side), 4-Terry (ex-mt), 5-Gehringer (ex), 6-Cochrane (gd-vg), 7-Gehrig (ex-mt with writing as mentioned above), 8-Cuyler (vg-ex), 10-O’Doul (ex+, off-center), 11-Lindstrom (ex), 12-Traynor (gd), 13-Maranville (gd-vg), 14-Gomez (vg), 17-Martin (ex+-mt), 19-Hafey (ex+-mt, o/c), 21-Foxx (SGC 84 NM 7), 22-Klein (SGC 80 EX/NM 6), 23-Grove (ex), 24-Goslin (SGC 80 EX/NM 6). Balance: 2 cards ex-mt, 2 cards excellent, 2 cards very good. Winning Bid $7,797.

Lot 7.  PSA graded 1956 Topps set of 342 including both checklists. An amazing set where 329 of the 342 cards are graded PSA NM-MT 8 (OC) as are the two checklist cards. The off-center cards all have borders all around. The 13 cards which are graded higher are as follows: 49 Pedro Ramos PSA MINT 9 (O/C), 121-Pittsburgh Team PSA MINT 9 (O/C), 150-Duke Snider PSA NM-MT 8, 154-Dave Pope PSA NM-MT 8, 171-Jim Wilson PSA NM-MT 8, 199-Hank Thompson PSA NM-MT 8, 219-Lew Burdette PSA MINT 9 (O/C), 249-Johnny Klippstein PSA NM-MT 8, 253-Irv Noren PSA NM-MT 8, 258-Art Ditmar PSA NM-MT 8, 262-Howie Pollet PSA NM-MT 8, 280-Jim Gilliam PSA NM-MT 8 and 262-Bob Skinner PSA NM-MT 8. The SMR lists a set of PSA 8's at $41,420. A set of PSA 7's is $16,783. Winning Bid $4,400.

Lot 8.  1907 Sporting Life Portfolio with 22 W601 Composites. The very popular W601 Composites are rarely seen and even more so in the portfolio form they were issued. The Portfolios were issued over a 7 year period and contain a  13” x 14” W601 for each of the 16 major league teams from 1906 and 6 minor league teams, each the champion of their league. The 1906 Champions, both Chicago teams lead their respective league's composites followed by the Minor league Champions - Buffalo, Columbus, Birmingham, Scranton, Grand Rapid and Norwich (CT). The Detroit W601 is of note as a very young Ty Cobb is present playing his first full year with the Tigers. There are 33 other Hall of Famers present including Young, Wagner, Mathewson, Lajoie, Keeler, Plank, Beckley, etc. The cover has a minor pencil mark, has its original string binding and is overall in very good-excellent condition. The W601's inside are in average excellent condition with only the first and last slightly less than that. Winning Bid $3,300.

Lot 9.  T205 Christy Mathewson with statistical unknown error on back SGC 40 VG 3. Never seen before, the rear of the Cycle backed card shows Mathewson having lost only one game in 1908 rather than the 11 he lost and is recorded on every other T205 Mathewson known. The type on the back is extremely dark and clear and this is not a case of the type not coming out or a digit being rubbed out. The card was discovered by long time Indianapolis collector Ted Koch at a show in 1975 or 1976 and was purchased then for the princely sum of $1,000. The card has, as previously mentioned a fairly tough Cycle back, and there is a possibility that may have something to do with the error. At this time the card must be considered the rarest of T205 variations easily surpassing the “Hoblitzell”. The card has a worn upper left corner and a couple of minor specks in the gold border. No creases and a very nice appearing card. Winning Bid $9,503.

Lot 10.  1888 Guerin Champion St. Louis Browns Cabinet SGC 50 VG/EX 4. Beautiful cabinet showing the 1888 American Association Champion Browns for the fourth consecutive year. Showing 15 players and their Mascot, the high quality photo shows HOF Captain Comiskey, Hall of Famer Tommy McCarthy and notables including Arlie Latham, Silver King, Yank Robinson and Elton Chamberlain. Graded a 4 by SGC the cabinet is striking in the black mount. Winning Bid $3,661.

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