GREAT CARDS A CURATED SELECTION OF
30. 1887 N172 Old Judge Cigarettes #149-7 Buck Ewing (HOF) – PSA AUTHENTIC
31. 1887 N172 Old Judge Cigarettes #251-4 Tim Keefe (HOF) – PSA GOOD+ 2.5
Freshly-graded card picturing Hall of Famer Buck Ewing, once referred to as “Stooping to Field Grounder” and now commonly referred to as card #149-7 thanks to the convenient checklisting system pioneered by Gonsowski, Masson and Miller in their landmark book The Photographic Baseball Cards of Goodwin and Company (1886-1890) . Freshly assessed by PSA, the card is largely clean and sharp, with strong image clarity and legible typography. The Authentic grade is a puzzling one, perhaps related to the irregular
Tim Keefe rates as one of our pas- time’s first great pitchers, leading the league in key categories several times during his career and taking his New York Giants to back-to- back titles in 1888-89. As testament to his popularity, Keefe appears nine different times in the N172 set, twice holding a bat. While he showed oc- casional power, his batting average paled in comparison to those pitch- ing feats. This PSA GOOD+ 2.5 shows balanced features, with light corner touches and clean surfaces. Its image
cut at the bottom edge, though all Old Judge cards were hand-cut at the factory and are often found with cuts like this. A pencil mark on the reverse would qualify the card for a (MK) qualifier but is largely irrelevant when considering the clean and sharp obverse. A strong example of a key Hall of Famer.
looks lighter than some, while retaining excellent clarity overall and good detail. Spots of residue removal on its reverse impact the score without taking anything from its main photo. The population report shows seven encapsulated across all grades, making this a fine addition to any serious N172 collection and challenging to improve.
MINIMUM BID: $2,500
MINIMUM BID: $2,500
Tremendous card of Hall of Famer “Sliding” Billy Hamilton, marked by fantastic image quality, the beneficiary of an unusually detailed photo. A close examination of the image reveals the shadows on Hamilton’s cupped hands, the concentration in his eyes, and even the stitching on the ball that hangs suspended in the frame. The typography is also unusually dark, contrasting vividly against the clean borders. The technical grade assessed by PSA is a result of today’s more stringent grading standards, the grader assigning disproportionately harsh criticism of the corners and some abrasions and very minor staining on the reverse. 32. 1887 N172 Old Judge Cigarettes #210-5 Billy Hamilton (HOF) – PSA GOOD 2 MINIMUM BID: $3,500
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