5. Incredible 1893 Just So Tobacco Buck Ewing (HOF) – SGC PR 1 – The Only Surviving Example!
Issued in 1893, the Just So To- bacco issue includes members of the Cleveland Spiders, and is rare enough that it is assumed that all the cards have yet to be discovered. Its existence was not established until the 1960s, and just two sub- jects were known for more than a decade. Several more subjects were discovered in the 1980s, but even today, only one or two of each ex- ample are known. They are among the rarest baseball cards in exis- tence, and are highly prized by ad- vanced collectors. Most collectors will never own one, and many will never even see one. Since the issue features only cards of Cleveland Spiders players, it was long theorized that a card of Buck Ewing was produced, but one had never been discovered until the late 1990s, when this very card was dis- covered inside the walls of an old house in Pennsylvania. The card had been nailed to a stud behind a plaster wall, where it had been used as some sort of marker during the construction of the house. During a renovation project, the homeowner discovered the card, and set it aside, having some casual knowledge of the hobby and an understanding
The card has been graded AU- THENTIC by SGC, its wear a sig- nificant part of its story. A missing piece at the top center marks where it had been pierced by a construc- tion nail more than a hundred years before its discovery. Further inden- tations can also be observed, marks from a hammer. The card surface has been darkened by staining from soot, which could likely be cleaned to improve the appearance of the card, though, like the auction house that sold it many years ago, we have elected to leave the card exactly as it was discovered. We also believe that the card will be appreciated for what it is: one of the most import- ant of all 19th Century cards, a card that for many years was only the- orized until its almost miraculous discovery. Just So Tobacco cards are white whales for virtually every prewar card collector, as the demand far outpaces the very limited supply. They almost never make them- selves available for public sale; there’s no recorded sale of two of the set’s Hall of Famers (Cy Young and John Clarkson). As one of the most popular and widely collected players of the era, the Just So To-
that the card could be valuable. Known only to the collector, its exis- tence remained a secret to the hobby until 2009, when the collector conducted some research online and discovered the extreme signif- icance and value potential of the card. What had been a holy grail card for many advanced collectors suddenly became reality, and the card realized an astonishing price of $17,625 in a 2009 auction. To- day, it remains the only known example of a Just So Buck Ewing.
bacco card of Buck Ewing has been tucked away in a private collec- tion for 17 years, its existence known to the most advanced collectors but the card eluding them nonetheless. We are honored to present it here, the only known example of Hall of Famer Buck Ewing’s Just So Tobacco card. In a hobby defined by scarcity, this Just So Tobacco Buck Ewing stands as a once-in-a-lifetime apparition – an impossi- bly rare cornerstone piece that will instantly become the crown jewel of any collection. MINIMUM BID: $10,000
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