1887-1909 Phillies Want List

1909-11 T206 Doolin (portrait)

Yes, this want list is absurd.

But having recently gone through the exercise of putting together want lists for the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s, I thought I'd finish off the universe of Phillies baseball cards by starting at the beginning.  I don't expect to visit or update this post all that often, but here we go.  If nothing else, this may be a good source for reprint cards needed.  I would think this list is incomplete and I'll add to it as needed.

1887 Allen & Ginter's World's Champions (N28) - #9 Mulvey
1887 Buchner Gold Coin (N284) - Andrews (hands together in front), Andrews (catching), Bastian, Casey, Clements, Farrar, Ferguson, Fogarty, Irwin, Mulvey (hands on knees), Mulvey (hands together), Wood (fielding), Wood (stealing a base)
1887 Gypsy Queen (N175) - Buffington (bat at side), Casey (hands at chest), Casey (left arm extended), Clements (with bat), Clements (hands on knees), Dailey, Ferguson (hands at chest), Ferguson (right arm extended back), Ferguson (tagging player), Ferguson (with bat), Fogarty (bat on shoulder), Fogarty (fielding fly ball), Gunning (stooping to catch), Gunning (bending hands on knee), Irwin (batting), Irwin (fielding), McCarthy (catching), McCarthy (sliding), McCarthy (with bat), McGuire (batting), McGuire (catching), Mulvey (fielding), Wood (batting), Woof (throwing)
1887 Kalamazoo Bats (N690-1) - Buffington, Casey, Devlin, Farrar, Ferguson, Fogarty, Gunning, Irwin, Irwin/Maul, Maul, McGuire (throwing), McGuire (catching), Mulvey, Wood, Wright

1887-90 Old Judge (N172) 
Have - Farrar
Need - Allen, Andrews, Bastian, Bastian/Schriver, Buffington, Casey, Childs, Clements, Dailey, Decker, Delahanty, Ferguson, Fogarty, Gardner, Gardner/Murray, Gleason, Gunning, Hallman, Henry, Hoover, Kelly, McGuire, Mulvey, Sanders, Schriver, Tyng, G. Wood, P. Wood, Wright

1887-89 Old Judge Cabinets (N173) - Allen, Clements, Cross, Ferguson, Fogarty, Gleason, Gunning, Irwin, Mulvey, Wright
1888 Allen & Ginter's World's Champions (N29) - #2 Fogarty
1888 Goodwin's Champions (N162) - #1 Andrews
1888 Yum Yum Tobacco (N403) - Buffington,  Ferguson, Fogarty (catching), Fogarty (throwing), Thompson, Wood

1895 Mayo Cut Plug (N300) - Cross, Delahanty, Haddock, Hallman, Hamilton

1903-04 Breisch-Williams (E107) - Douglas, Doyle, Gleason, Hallman, Mitchell, Sparks, Thomas, Zimmer
1906 Fan Craze N.L. (WG3) - Dooin, Doolin, Duffy, Nichols, Pittinger, Thomas
1908-10 E102 - Dooin, Magee, Knabe

1909 Croft's Candy (E92) - Dooin, Doolin, Hartsel, Jacklitsch, Knabe, Magee
1909 Croft's Cocoa (E92) - Dooin, Doolin, Hartsel, Jacklitsch, Knabe, Magee
1909 Dockman & Sons Gum (E92) - Doolin, Hartsel, Magee
1909 Nadja Caramels (E92) - Dooin, Doolin, Hartsel, Jacklitsch, Knabe, Magee
1909 Ramly Cigarettes (T204) - #15 Bransfield
1909 S74 Silks - Dooin, Doolin, Foxen, Shean, Titus

1909-11 American Caramel (E90-1)
Have - McQuillan
Need - Bransfield, Corridon, Dooin, Grant

1909-11 Colgan's Chips Stars of the Diamond (E254) - Bates, Bransfield, Doolin, Knabe, Paskert, Rowan, Sparks, Titus

1909-11 T206
Have - Bransfield, Doolin (batting), Doolin (portrait), Doolin (fielding), Jacklitsch, McQuillan (ball in hand), Titus
Need - Coveleski, Dooin, Knabe, Magee (portrait), Magee (with bat), McQuillan (with bat) 

1910-1919 Phillies Want List

Baseball Card Show Report - Valley Forge 5 (featuring Don Money)

1961 Bazooka #1

Getting closer to a complete set

1909 T206

Doug and I made the hour-long trek to Valley Forge on Saturday morning so that he could spend the entirety of his allowance and birthday money at the Philadelphia Sportscard & Memorabilia Show. With only a few checklists in tow and no real plan in place, we decided we'd both enjoy a morning of free-style pickin' and just see what we could find.  Doug made out great, obtaining quite a few certified autograph cards for his growing collection, including his two new favorite treasures - the very impressive, and very thick, on-card, gold-framed autographs of Aaron Nola and Maikel Franco from the 2016 Topps Gold Label set.  He's still trying to figure out how best to store and display these cards.

He was also very pleased with the addition of two Hall of Fame rookie cards to his collection - a nice 1983 Topps Wade Boggs (for $2!) and a nearly destroyed 1975 Topps Robin Yount (for $1).

Here's a summary of what I picked up:

• A nice stack of 1971 Topps cards for my set, including the Willie Mays card.
• 1977 and 1978 Phillies Media Guides.
• Only a few Phillies cards - 1961 Bazooka Art Mahaffey (shown above), another T206 Phillies card (Mickey Doolan, fielding, Piedmont back) and a few signed Phillies Alumni Photo Cards (post coming soon)

2016 Chachi Valley Forge Autographs #5

One of the highlights of the day, at least for me, was meeting former Phillies and Brewers third baseman Don Money.  Money was the sole former baseball player signing at the show.  I printed a copy of a newspaper article featuring Money and my Dad from 1970 (see below, my Dad is the Coach) and I asked him to sign it.  He graciously obliged and noted that the photo looked to be "at least a few years old."  He was also kind enough to pose for a photo with Doug.

Memory Lane

Valley Forge 1 - September 2010 - Thinking of my Dad
Valley Forge 2 - October 2012 - Doug's first baseball card show
Valley Forge 3 - September 2014 - Meeting Darren Daulton
Valley Forge 4 - September 2016 - Phillies acquisitions and 4 Phillies Legends
Valley Forge 5 - December 2016

$611 and My First T206

For the first time since 2008, I decided to save up and buy as many boxes of Topps Heritage as reasonably possible when the set was released in March.  I checked around and found a decent deal on six hobby boxes at Blowout Cards, so I pulled the trigger and the boxes were mine.  My wife, my oldest son and I took our time with the boxes, and it probably took us a little over two weeks to open every pack.  It was early May before I got around to sorting and checklist-ing the cards, and I posted my want and trade lists on this blog back on May 3rd.

One of the cards I listed as trade bait was the throwback uniform variation card of Derek Jeter.  Fortunately for me, reader Steve F. alerted me immediately to the card's scarcity and I listed the card on eBay with a starting price of $0.99.  The card sold a week later for $611, making it the single most expensive baseball card I ever owned, albeit briefly.

It's not my place to judge a collector who would spend $611 on a purposefully short-printed card that's less than three months old.  But to say I was absolutely stunned that the card went for that much is a huge understatement.  I decided to use a small portion of the proceeds to buy a vintage Phillies card and the card at the top of this post is what I ended up adding to my collection for about $25.

The T206 set, released between 1909 and 1911, is considered by many to be the crown jewel of vintage baseball card sets.  The 524-card set contains perhaps the most famous baseball card of all-time - the T206 Honus Wagner.  Fortunately, I'm not a Pirates team collector, so I have no need to add the Wagner card to my collection.  

The Mickey Doolan card seen here is one of three Doolan cards to be found in the T206 set.  Specifically, this is the "batting" with Polar Bear back variation of the Doolan card.  It's actually the second contemporary card of Doolan's in my collection, as Matthew from 14,000 Phillies sent me Doolan's T205 Gold Border card a few years ago.

I was going to do a brief write-up on Doolan and his career, but the excerpt below from the fantastic book, The T206 Collection - The Players & Their Stories, said everything I would have wanted to say.

Thanks to Topps, Derek Jeter, and a super collector willing to part with $611, I have my first T206 Phillies card in my collection.  Perhaps there's still enough left over from my proceeds to hunt down a second . . .

1911 T205 Gold Border Michael J. Doolan

When putting together my 1930-1939 Phillies Have List back in April, I wrote this:

A few months ago, I put together my 1883-1929 Phillies Have List.  A want list for these years was a bit ridiculous I thought, since I couldn't imagine (a) needing to refer to the list on a regular basis or (b) readers browsing through a want list and deciding to send me a few T206 Phillies cards. 

To date, I've been wrong about the (b) part of the statement as I have yet to have a reader send along a T206 Phillies card.  However, I can now say that I have had a reader (and fellow obsessive Phillies baseball card collector) send along a T205 Phillies card, which is pretty cool.

Amazingly enough, Matthew over at 14,000 Phillies decided he'd do his part to bulk up my 1883-1929 Phillies Have List.  I recently returned home from a miserable day at work to find a package from Matthew sitting in our pile of mail.  I immediately opened it, as he had e-mailed me that he'd be sending along a few Phillies autographed cards from recent years and a hard-to-find Ryan Howard card.

When I first saw the steady gaze of Mickey Doolan peering back at me, surrounded by a beautiful gold border, my initial thought was that I had picked up the wrong envelope.  My second thought was, "What a cool reprint card."  Finally, my third thought was, "Holy crap, Matthew just mailed me a 1911 T205 Gold Border card completely out of the blue."

Thank you for the awesome addition to my collection!

* * *

Doolan, spelled "Doolin" on Baseball Reference but "Doolan" everywhere else I checked, played nine seasons with the Phillies from 1905 to 1913 as their primary shortstop.  He was known more for his glove than his bat, hitting just .236 in 1,302 games with the Phils.  He appeared in quite a few baseball card sets around the turn of the century, including the famous T206 set.  His only modern day card, other than reprints, is his card within the massive 1990 Dodgers Target set.