Silk baseball cards?

rmeske

Has anyone ever heard of silk baseball cards? Are they really collectable? Someone emailed a link to me for an auction on silk baseball cards and I have never heard of them. From what I can find they are real, but are they worth investing in?

I would appreciate any thoughts on this?

VikingDude

I'm not familiar with them, but I thought I'd say Welcome to the Boards!

cwazzy

There were several issues of silks back in the early 1900's. They were inserted as inserts in tobacco packs. I believe the S71 series is probably the most popular. The pictures on the front are from the T205 set and they were backed by cardboard that had different tobacco brand advertisements.

Dboneesq

Are you referring to the ones from the early 1900s or the ones Topps came out with in 2010?

TheHun

Tobacco silks were popular in the turn of the 20th century.

Many cigarette makers had silks with themes from Indians to fruits. There were baseball silks with th T-205 design.

Although deterioration is different than cards (fraying), their storage (i.e. holders) are similar. They are not as desired among card collectors, but tobacco enthusiasts like them - especially if they retain their colors.

Stone193

<< <i>Has anyone ever heard of silk baseball cards? Are they really collectable? Someone emailed a link to me for an auction on silk baseball cards and I have never heard of them. From what I can find they are real, but are they worth investing in?

I would appreciate any thoughts on this? >>

Hi and welcome to the boards!

I'm guessing that they are referring to the 2010 Topps Allen & Ginter mini silks, e.g. - and the value depends on who the player is. Also silks were in the 2009 and 10 Topps sets also - I'm not familiar with them since I no longer do that set anymore.



If not - we're talking about different issues from tobacco packs from the early 1900s - my favorite is from the Helmar packs due to the scarcity of the issue.

Have ya got a link to the auction?

rmeske

Thank you everyone for the welcome and input. They are from 1911 and the T205 series. AS the price is high, I was wondering if they hold value or increase in value fairly quickly.

For those that wanted the link it is: http://bid.robertedwardauctions.com/biddetail.aspx?itemid=20019&auctionid=17

Stone193

<< <i>Thank you everyone for the welcome and input. They are from 1911 and the T205 series. AS the price is high, I was wondering if they hold value or increase in value fairly quickly.

For those that wanted the link it is: http://bid.robertedwardauctions.com/biddetail.aspx?itemid=20019&auctionid=17 >>

I have no experience with values and how well anything will hold up.

IMO - in this economic climate - it would be hard to find anything that will increase in value quickly. And this is not an expert opinion - just my feelings.

To be frank - and again - IMO - looking at these collectibles from the POV of appreciation/ROI - is a fast track to grief and disappointment.

I'm sure there's plenty that will disagree with me.

Either way - I wish you the best.

Dboneesq

It's a kewl looking piece if you were looking to buy it for yourself. As far an an INVESTMENT, I don't think too many card collectors would be very interested. JMO. GOOD LUCK.

Stone193

I agree with Doug - it's an interesting piece but individual card collectors may be very disappointed to find all those HOF'ers sewn together - the horror!

cpamike

First off, welcome to the board!!!

As you can tell, there are very knowledgable collectors on here. And then there are people like me that just soak it all in.

Very interesting topic to kick off your membership to the board.

Thanks and good luck.

fkw

Welcome to Board

They are NOT from the T205 series, they are a completely different animal. there are dozens of cloth cards from the 1910s, Most show actresses or have generic baseball/sports images (college mascot), some have images of Major Leaguers.

from that Era, the most desired and well know are these 6...

1912 S74 colored cloth w/o a paper backing
1912 S74 white cloth originally issued with a paper back (if removed kills value drastically)
1912 S81 large coupon based premiums (often sell for $1K - $10K+)
1912 S110 large 5 image premium (very rare)
1914 B18 felt blankets
1916 BF2 photo pennant

then you have many from the 1930s as well, most in the shape of a pennant, some with team names some with player images
ie
1936 BF3 (12+ different types)
1937 BF104 (very rare copycat style of the B18s)

Many times when these are found they have been sewn into a pillow case or blanket.

All are well know to most PreWar collectors and are tough to locate in EX or better condition because of their nature (borders fray often)

No baseball card is an investment, collect them, they are for collecting, if you make $$ on a resell good, but dont live for that, you will be disappointed and are in the hobby for all the wrong reasons (probably a short stay).

good luck, happy collecting
PS no such thing as a reprint silk or a fake, so dont worry about that, but they can be altered or trimmed and often are (sometimes back in 1910s when used as intended)

rbdjr1

RipublicaninMass

rmeske

fkw - Thank you for all the information and advice. Being a collector versus and investor is quite different and something my friend doesn't really get, but then he is a collector and is under the impression that if he has to have it, someone else does to and thus the price will go up.