This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/20/2015
Hall of Famer Charles Albert "Chief" Bender is often overlooked amongst the great hurlers of his time. Over his 16-year career, the majority of which was with the Philadelphia Athletics, Bender was usually the third option to take the mound behind more accomplished pitchers like Eddie Plank and Rube Waddell, posting far fewer starts with many appearances coming in relief. As a result, Bender doesn't have the gaudy statistics of Cy Young, Walter Johnson or Christy Mathewson. But with 212 career wins against only 127 losses, what Chief Bender excelled at was keeping his team in title contention, winning 3 World Series championships in 5 appearances from 1905-1914. Bender's debut in 1903 came during a down time in baseball card distribution, well past the Old Judge and Mayo Cut Plug era but predating the T206 series by many years. So for collectors of Hall of Famer rookie cards, we've got good news ... sort of. A Chief Bender rookie card that was issued during his debut season exists, but you'll have to take on one of the most elusive and mysterious issues of all-time ... Breisch Williams! Headquartered in Oxford, Pennsylvania, the Breisch Williams Company, Inc. produced caramel and several other candy products, some of which contained what was to be the first significant collection of baseball cards for the 20th Century. The black and white pasteboards provided the inspiration for the size and format of the upcoming T206 series and began a new renaissance in the baseball card market. Ironically, the collection was short-lived and the Breisch Williams Company would subsequently go through several name changes, becoming Oxford Confectionary and producing the highly-coveted 1921 E253 Oxford Confectionary set decades later. As for the featured item, this is a Chief Bender rookie card from his professional baseball debut in 1903 that clearly offers much more than the grade of SGC 30 GOOD 2 suggests. The limited assessment of this amazingly rare prize is the result of discoloring and blemishes to the blank reverse, although the image of Bender and almost perfect centering on the front easily transcends SGC's evaluation by several grade levels. Some minor age spotting is apparent but does not detract from the overall image of the 19-year old rising star. Each corner shows moderate to heavy wear indicative of a century-old pasteboard with two light creases at the extreme southwest endpoint but still project as clearly above-grade. Only four other specimens of Bender's rookie card have been evaluated by SGC, this being the second best, while PSA reports seeing just one and labeling it PSA 1 POOR. Simply put, this may be the rarest rookie card in existence of a Hall of Famer and you have the opportunity to secure this museum-quality piece for your collection right now!