This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/1/2022
Well before baseball cards were distributed through the purchase of bubble gum, Chicago-based printer Felix Mendelsohn was peddling his 200-card M101-4 series to be used as a means for local businesses to increase their sales through "baseball-themed business cards." Mendelsohn's idea was to sell his blank-backed product to various establishments that would add their own advertising on the reverse and distribute them as collectibles. In all, 18 clients bought into the idea and these cards can be found promoting department stores, bakeries, clothing stores, and breweries among other trades. But Mendelson's most significant client was the Sporting News, a weekly publication founded in 1886. The M101-4 set isn't popular just for its technologically advanced photography but is highly coveted for its collection of rare rookie cards and Hall of Famers. Cooperstown residents Dave Bancroft, Eppa Rixey, George Sisler, and Casey Stengel make their pasteboard debuts, as does the legendary Babe Ruth, and examples featuring Walter Johnson, Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, along with Joe Jackson and fellow 1919 Black Sox teammates Buck Weaver, Chick Gandil, Hap Felsch, and Eddie Cicotte, continue to be among the most valuable specimens of the era. The featured collection is 99% complete, missing just the Babe Ruth and Joe Jackson cards that are being offered individually in this auction. Most of the key cards are SGC graded and have superior eye appeal to the technical grades by at least a grade or two but show a light horizontal and vertical indentation in the same location on each card, an unfortunate flaw in the printing process. Grades are as follows: SGC 3 - #4 Alexander, 9 Baker, 13 Bender, 32 Cicotte, 34 Collins, 41 Crawford, 55 Faber, 84 Hooper, 112 Maranville, 116 McGraw, 174 Tinker, and 188 Wheat. SGC 2.5 - #17 M. Brown, 28 Carey, 36 Comiskey, 86 Huggins, 91 W. Johnson, 97 Lajoie, 107 Mack, 146 Rousch, 169 Stengel, and 182 H. Wagner. SGC 2 - #38 Cobb, 90 Jennings, 154 Schalk, and 184 Walsh. The rest of the set is similar in the GOOD to VG range overall, a few slightly higher or lower, with 10 Bancroft GOOD, 54 Evers VG+, 56 Felsch VG, 64 Gandil VG, 72 Griffith GOOD+, 173 Marquard VG, 142 Rixey GOOD+, 144 W. Robinson FAIR, and 186 Weaver GOOD+,