When is a T Card not a T Card?

I realize that I am going heavy into my horse themed tobacco card set and have virtually ignored my sports card collection.  I am guessing this turn doesn't interest many of you, so I feel a quick explanation is in order.

I haven't forsaken my sports card collection, but I have put it on hold for a short time. I have been going to the OKC card show 4-6 times a year since 2011.  I've also been a periodic attendee at a very small monthly show at a local LCS. Both show are pretty much always the same sellers and while their inventory does change, they are routine experiences.  That isn't bad, but sometimes I'll go a couple shows without making progress on my sets.  I've only attended one non-local show and that was the National last year in Cleveland. I intend to change that.

While the Tristar show in Houston is a tempting destination, it is also a 7 hour drive from here.  That distance makes it, at a minimum. an overnight stay.  I'm not ready to take on that expense. So, I've decided that I may go to a show in the Dallas area on February 16 (proximity to Valentines Day may alter that plan.) It is a small show, with only 45 tables, but with different sellers it may be productive.  Because it is in the North Dallas suburbs, I am only looking at a 3 hour drive which means I can do it in a day.  Additionally, there is a larger, 200 table show in Dallas from April 26-28 that I may also go to.

Anyways, back to the subject at hand.  The post title may seem cryptic, but it is a marginally clever play on words.  Most of the cards in this collection have been the traditional Jefferson Burdick cataloged T (for tobacco) cards.  The cards I am about to show are not amongst those T cards.

So, when is a T card not a T card?  When they are tea cards. (Geddit?)

These cards were distributed with Typhoo tea in Great Britain in 1935.

Typhoo tea was created in 1903 by John Sumner, Jr the proprietor of a pharmacy/grocery in Birmingham, England for sale in his store. As these things are wont to do, Typhoo has changed hands numerous times over the years. It was part of Cadbury-Schweppes from the late-60s through the mid-80s.  It still exists as a brand controlled by the Indian company, Apeejay Surrendra Group.

While I have not done significant research into their card offerings, it does appear that they did offer cards with their products from the mid 1920s through the 1930s and again from the mid1950s through at least 1976, when they actually offered a Doctor Who set.

The cards are approximately 1-7/16" by 3-7/8" in size. As such they don't fit into any available storage sheet.  I have had to put them into a 6 pocket sheet, which is both too wide and too tall for the cards, but it was the best I could find.

This set, 25 cards strong, has horses as the subject. Although it is a bit odd that some cards focus on various breeds of horses, while others focus on horses by their use.  You can samples of each above,

The back is basically an advertisement for where the Typhoo customer can purchase golf and/or tennis balls.  Go figure.

What I am listening to: East Side of Town by Lucinda Williams

1927 Josetti Show Jumping

Many of these tobacco sets I have been working on are from outside the United States.  I've only showed a few so far, but only one was from the US (N231 Kinney Brothers Great American Trotters.)  The others have all been from Great Britain.  Today, we are going to adventure across the Channel and show a small set from Germany: the 1927 Josetti Show Jumping Series, consisting of only 6 cards.

The cigarette manufacturing company was formed in Berlin in 1888 by Oskar Josetti, but he sold out in 1892 when he emigrated to the United States.The company continued and in 1896 introduced the popular JUNO cigarette.

The company itself was run, starting in 1905 by an affiliate of the American Tobacco Company. This continued for 10 years, until Deutsche Bank bought out the foreign shareholders. It became part of the Reemtsma company in the mid 1920s and continued production of JUNO until 1943 when, apparently, the factory fell victim to an Allied air raid.  Production began again in 1951 and continued until 2016.

The stock for this set is rather thin.  It is more akin to heavy magazine stock than what you would typically associated with a tobacco card.  Perhaps the thin stock inhibited a lot of handling, as the cards I received are in excellent condition.

This guy above better be careful. His leg is swung back behind the girth leaving him off balance and without a base of support.. If the horse stumbles on the landing, he is dismounting in a rather spectacular, and ultimately painful manner.

There is an interesting story behind this card.  The subject, Prince Friedrich Sigismund died on July 6 of 1927, the year this set was issued.  He was riding in an international competition in Lucerne, Switzerland when he fell from his horse. He got his foot caught in a stirrup and ended up underneath the horse where he was trampled, sustaining significant thoracic injuries that he succumbed to shortly thereafter.  I find this somewhat ironic because, of the several cards in this set, his depicts the rider with the best and safest position over the jump.

Coming up next, we'll go to the mid 1930s and take an ever so slight detour from tobacco cards.

What I am listening to: Thumbelina by The Pretenders

Unanimous!

First unanimous selection to the Baseball Hall of Fame!

Two thoughts:

1.  He shouldn't have been the first unanimous selection.  There are others players that should have been unanimous previously. Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial, Sandy Koufax, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron all come to mind.

2. There are those out there who don't believe relief pitchers are deserving of enshrinement in the HOF. And, certainly, modern metrics like WAR bear that out. However, Rivera was, without a doubt, the most dominant reliever of the modern era. And possibly any era. Being a Yankees fan, I watched him pitch many, many times and it is hard to state how consistently dominant he was.  Even as a 43 year old coming off a torn ACL that cut his 2012 season short, he was fearsome.

Oh, and one final note:  the card above was sent to me a few years back by Night Owl. Also, one of my best Christmas presents ever came from my wife three years ago:

Cleanup in Aisle Sports

Not too long ago, Night Owl ran a giveaway to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his blog.  I entered, but was fairly far down on the order of selection and a lot of really cool cards had already been picked over. I ended up choosing the 2008 Topps Babe Ruth you see below. 

It doesn't really fit in my collecting wheelhouse, but it is a nice card and is apparently fairly rare.  The 1994 Rawlings Yoo-hoo Bobby Bonds was included and is a nice card as well. I like the design and it is the type of modern oddball I might consider collecting.  

The following cards arrived from the inestimable Mr. Haverkamp.  He sent me 8 cards from 1972-73 Topps basketball, a set I started working on last fall.  Of the 8 cards, I needed two and three others were clear upgrades. I am not sure why I didn't scan all five of the cards before they went into the binder, but I didn't. So, here is four of the cards that found their way into my binder.

And finally, a card from 1968 Topps Baseball:

In terms of my sports card collecting, I am working on 1968 and 1970 Topps Baseball and am less than 100 cards from completing each set.  Specifically, I need 76 cards to finish 1968 and 99 to finish 1970.  Even though the number of cards is lower for 1968, I am probably further away. The only major stars I need for 1970 are Roberto Clemente and Al Kaline. However, for 1968 I lack most of the star cards, including the dreaded Tom Seaver rookie card and the Killebrew/Mays/Mantle Super Stars card.

I got this on an Ebay auction. My approach to set building is to get as far as I can with local shows and card shops. Once those sources are exhausted, I generally look to Greg Morris Cards set breatk auctions to fill out the set.  It takes a while because I usually only end up winning a few auctions at a time.  With 1068 and 1970, this is the point I am at. Although, my tentative trip to a Dallas show in February may help me knock a few more off in person.

So that may be about it for a while. I'll still keep an eye on Ebay, but my expectation is that I'll add more cards to my horse themed tobacco card collection and keep my powder dry on everything else until February.

What I am listening to: Jacob's Dream by Alison Krauss (sorry)

1938 Gallaher Racing Scenes

It may seem like I have foresworn sports cards lately, but that really isn't the case.  I swear it isn't.  It is just that these horse themed tobacco cards are really quite affordable.  Take for example, the 48 card 1938 Gallaher Racing Scenes set which I am about to show  These cards are in excellent condition and I was able to get the complete set for $11 delivered.  I still collect sports cards, but am going to skip the January OKC show in favor of saving up and going to a show down in Dallas in February.  So, the sports card posts may be a little skimpy for a while.

This set is my favorite horse themed set yet.  While it does show various scenes of horses and jockeys, it also shines a little light backstage, if you will.  For this post I'm going to focus on those cards.

This is interesting. I am not sure if it is indicative of the casual racism of the early 20th century or not, but it certainly speaks to tensions between the Gypsy/Roma/Traveler community that came to Surrey each year for the Epsom Derby and the local gentry.  There is an interesting BBC photo  story about this topic. Here also is an interesting history of the Gypsy presence at Epsom.

Here is a picture of a young horse being trained.  This is still a common training technique known as lunging.  It is often done on a lunge line, as seen here, or in a round pen without.   Part of the training is to train the horses to move through the three gaits. But, lunging is also a fairly typical  in various natural horsemanship techniques to develop a rapport between horse and trainer.

Ah, the farrier.  One thing you need to understand is that the horses hoof is the equine analog to our finger/toenails and as, such are constantly growing.  So, the farrier needs to come out periodically to trim the hoof and reset the shoes, if they are used.  It is a matter of preference how frequently the farrier comes out.  We normally go seven weeks between visits. We are lucky that most of our horses have good feet and don't require shoeing, only trims. Now something that isn't commonly known, sometimes even amongst horse owners, is that the farrier is an important contributor to the health of the horse.  For example:

This is an x-ray of the front foot of a laminatic horse.  The triangle shaped bone is the coffin bone and is equivalent to one of our finger phalanges.  The surfaces of the coffin bone should be parallel to the hoof wall.  The hoof is attached to the bone with a fibrous tissue known as lamina.  If the lamina breaks down, the bone rotates, as you can see above. This is painful for the horse (imagine having to stand on your tiptoes for an extended period of time.) While this can have a mechanical cause, it is quite often attributable to a diabetic reaction to something in the horses diet. A good farrier is every bit as important as a vet in treating laminitis.  Generally, they will in the short term do some corrective shoeing to better distribute the pressure of standing more evenly across the foot. Over the longer term they will gradually trim the foot to get the angles back to normal.

But, I digress.

The motor horse box.  I am told this is still a common configuration for vehicles in Europe. Here is the US, as most of you have probably seen, is a separate trailer pulled by a pickup truck.

I just thought this was funny.  A local horse racing track does something similar for charity, but with ostriches instead of donkeys.

What I am listening to: Redemption day by Sheryl Crow

Christmas Comes Late

I got one of my Christmas presents today.

While I am mainly a vintage collector, occasionally a modern set will cach my fancy.  2000 through 2004 Fleer Greats of the Game fall into that category.  As does the 2009 through 2011 Tristar Obak sets that were issued to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the original T212 Obak tobacco cards.  Back in December, I happened across an uncut sheet of the 2011 Obak cards on eBay for a less than $50 delivered. So, I got it and took it in to be framed. I got it back today.

It is not the complete base set, just the regular print run cards.   The 2011 base set consisted of 120 cards, the last 10 of which were short prints.  This sheet is the other 110 cards.

The Obak sets were mainly normal sized trading cards, but each included a subset of T212 minis, which were essentially duplicates of some of the main set cards, but in the size of the 1909-1911 tobacco card originals.  For some reason, I had it in my mind that the sheet was the minis, though I have no earthly idea why I thought that. Since this the full size base set, it is huge.  I am going to have to think about how/where to put it in my home office/card room.

1939 Will's Cigarettes Racehorses & Jockeys

The next of my horse themed tobacco card pickups is the 1939 (issued) Will's Cigarette's 40 card series of the top racehorses and jockeys of 1938. I was able to get the entire 40 card set for about $15 delivered.  If there are any horse racing history fans out there in my "vast" readership, please note that the set was issued in the United Kingdom, and is focused there, so there is no Seabiscuit or War Admiral cards.

The WD &HO Wills company was founded in 1786 under a different name, and was the first British tobacco company to mass produce cigarettes and was also one of the first such companies to offer trading cards with their products. In 1901, Wills along with 13 other British tobacco companies merged into the Imperial Tobacco Company, including the  previously covered John Player & Sons.  They offered their first trad card in 1887, but didn't begin offering general interest sets until 1895.

The cards themselves are a hair narrower than your modern sports card and about 3/8" shorter, so they still fit well into a 9 pocket page.  The artwork is fantastic. I find that it is quite realistic in how it captures the moods and mannerisms of horse and rider.  As I was researching this post, I have seen the same artwork offered in print form, though generally listed as Artist Unknown.  I don't know if this means the tobacco company commissioned the work to be done or licensed existing artwork. What is interesting to me is that the first 27 cards are vertical, while the last 13 are horizontal. I don't know if this indicates that the cards were issued in series, but it is a curious thing. More research will be needed.

With regard to the subjects, there are (obviously) 40 different horses, but 21 different jockeys including Pat Beasley who appeared 6 different times.  In case you were wondering, I did not attempt to trace the lineage of any of our horses to the subjects in this set.  While I know people who are fascinated by bloodlines, I found the research tedious and of little more than passing interest.

Up next will be an Australian issue from 1906.

What I am listening to: South Central Rain by R.E.M.

Back to Your Regularly Scheduled Programming

Okay, enough of the horsey posts. I'll have more of those later, but I know most of you are more interested in sports cards, so let's get back to that.

I had a little extra cash recently and, on a lark, bought two slots in a group break at Burl's Sports for 1934-36 National Chicle Diamond Stars.  It was just my luck that the break was livecast on YouTube while I was driving home from a business trip to Louisiana.  I was determined to watch the break, but obviously couldn't while driving.  So, I did the next best and safest thing, and streamed the break via Bluetooth to my car's stereo system. So, while I wasn't actually watching, I could learn what I received.  And here they are:

I think I did fairly well, particularly considering the Traynor is a high number. I did some research and it shows that if I chose to sell them I would get well more than my entry money back.  Am I going to sell them?  I don't know.  I didn't enter the break with the idea of flipping the cards.  Group breaks are something like a casino. Chances are good you aren't going to come out ahead.  

However, the potential sale price for these two cards is somewhere around three months worth of my normal hobby budget and that cannot be ignored.  These are great looking cards, but if they can help me make progress on projects within my hobby focus, why wouldn't I consider it?  I did something similar a few years ago when I flipped a 1938 Goudey Jimmy Foxx (which I also won in a group break) into 1956 Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente.  I have finished 1956 Topps, but have a good head start on 1955 (111 of 206 total cards.) Why not look at that trade up? Well...….

I just looked at prices for the two major rookie cards in 1955 Topps: Roberto Clemente and Sandy Koufax. Holy Moley!  The Koufax is in roughly the same neighborhood price-wise as the 1956 Mantle I got at this years National. Which means it is at the hairy edge of what I am willing to spend on a card.  The Clemente, however, has a Beckett high book of $5000, which means even in Poor condition it is still going to cost $500 to $600. VG condition looks to cost $1,500. Maybe things will change in the future, but right now today there is no way I would spend that kind of dough on a card even if I had that kind of money laying around. Which I don't.

So, I have put these cards into my miscellaneous vintage binder while I consider my options.  If they stay there, fine.  If I can figure a way to use them to get something more in my wheelhouse, so much the better.

What I am listening to: Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap by AC/DC