Masterpieces and Uncommon Commons XXVIII
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on:
7/30/2010
The popularity of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) cannot be overemphasized. With no pre-war teams existing west of St. Louis, the PCL was considered the “major league” baseball of the West Coast. Many future Hall of Famers grew up in the western states, with the long list of PCL stars including Tony Lazerri, Paul Waner, Earl Averill, Bobby Doer, and most notably, the iconic Ted Williams and “Joltin” Joe DiMaggio whose career with the San Francisco Seals was highly publicized. The star players unable to move on to Major League baseball managed to enjoy very successful careers in the PCL with one of those players, pitcher Frank Shellenback, tallying an incomparable 295 minor league victories! Due to the consistently warm weather throughout the year, PCL players were also able to play longer seasons, with some teams exceeding 200 games in a single season, with the San Francisco Seals once playing in a record 230 games in 1905! More baseball games resulted in more revenue, justifying why many professional ball players were able to financially play their entire careers in the PCL.
Due to the aforementioned popularity, commencing in 1911 the San Francisco based Collins McCarthy Company jumped on the PCL “bandwagon” and issued its inaugural PCL baseball card set, the first of an incredible 28 year run that stands as the longest and most desirable run of baseball cards manufactured on the West Coast. Distributed with company products, oversized Zeenut cardboard issues were found in boxes of Zeenuts, Ruf-Neks, and Home Run Kisses. Seldom surfacing within the hobby, most of the subjects are extremely condition sensitive due to the approximate ½” redemption tabs that were typically removed from the card, with the original owners indifferent with neatly removing these tabs. Therefore, few the existing Zeenut’s are accompanied by the desirable bottom coupon, with most examples excluding these tabs and appearing in low end condition. While approximately 3,700 subjects are estimated to have been released over the aforementioned 28 year span, new subjects are always being recorded with most checklists considered incomplete. Extremely popular with advanced enthusiasts, type card collectors actively attempt to gather as many specimens as possible from each year’s set.
Presented here just happens to be one of the most incredible offerings ever handled by Goodwin & Company. Our consignor has put together a single subject from EVERY Zeenut PCL set issued from 1911 thru 1938! By placing the final bid on this virtually unique lot, you will be the owner of every Zeenut type card manufactured in that 28 year period. That is correct, 24 individually graded SGC cards (one card covers a 4 year period dating from 1933 – 1936; another card covers a 2 year period dating from 1937/1938), all exclude the bottom tabs with the assigned grades ranging from “Authentic” to 50/4. This miraculous compilation of Zeenut PCL cards immediately provides its new owner with a COMPLETE array of the Zeenut type cards issued over a 28 year period with all but one of the subjects from the Portland PCL clubs (only the 1918 “Ritchie” card is from the San Francisco Seals). The complete list of players and their respective grades are as follows:
YEAR PLAYER SGC GRADE
1911 Sheehan 20/1.5
1912 Rodgers 10/1
1913 Fisher 20/1.5
1914 Fisher 10/1
1915 Lober 10/1
1916 Giusto Authentic
1917 Helfrich Authentic
1918 Ritchie 30/2
1919 Pennington 10/1
1920 Jones 30/2
1921 O’Malia 40/3
1922 King Authentic
1923 Leverenz 10/1
1924 Querry 40/3
1925 Ortman 50/4
1926 Metz 40/3
1927 McCurdy 30/2
1928 Keesey 40/3
1929 Bates 20/1.5
1930 French 30/2
1931 Fenton 20/1.5
1932 Johnson 40/3
1933 -‘36 Peterson 10/1
1937 - ‘38 Cronin 40/3
There you have it; a complete listing of a single player from each Zeenut set manufactured between 1911 and 1938. True, the highest graded specimen of these primarily Portland based subjects resides in an SGC 50/4 holder, with the remaining subjects reflecting lower grades. However, most of the images provide aesthetically pleasing contrast and vivid registration, with only two of the blank backed subjects including written notations (the 1931 Fenton and 1933-’36 Peterson). This anomaly of PCL players provides an outstanding opportunity to assemble all of the Zeenut PCL type cards simply by placing the final bid. We promise you it will be quite some time before another lot synonymous to this rarely offered theme comes along!
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