This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/7/2009
One of the top 10 examples of this key Cobb issue on record at PSA, the offered 1914 Cracker Jack card #30 has been graded PSA 6 EX/MT and reports just 2 competitors in its respectable EX/MT 6 class, with just 1 higher at the NM 7 level, and just 6 higher at the NM/MT 8 level, and that's it. Interested bidders should immediately recognize that the offered specimen hails from the 1914 Cracker Jack issue, as opposed to the nearly identical (but far easier) 1915 issue. As most educated hobbyists know, the only way for a sticky-fingered fan of "The Georgia Peach" to acquire this card was to dig through multiple boxes of "The Famous Popcorn Confection," where the cards were inserted without protection, one per box. As a result, caramel staining can be found on nearly every surviving example, and the presence of staining, to knowledgeable collectors, is therefore an expected and even welcomed characteristic. The entire 1915 issue, on the other hand, was made available through a redemption program, delivered to customers in set form along with a protective album, obviously a much safer distribution method. But just how difficult is the 1914 issue relative the succeeding 1915 issue? PSA's pop reports tell the story: the entire 144-card 1914 issue has witnessed nearly 2,300 submissions and yielded 0 GEM 10s, just 2 MINT 9s, 0 NM/MT+ 8.5s, 79 NM/MT 8s, 108 NM 7s, and 186 EX/MT 6s, including the offered Cobb, while the 1915 issue, on the other hand, has witnessed nearly 9,000 submissions and yielded 2 GEM 10s, 271 MINT 9s, and a whopping 2,080 NM/MT 8s, just to give an idea. More importantly, the 1915 Cobb has witnessed 30+ examples at or above the EX/MT 6 level, compared to the scant 10 that exist in EX/MT or better from the 1914 issue. Clearly, the year makes a tremendous difference, but let's forget about numbers and statistics for a moment and focus on the obvious. The 1914 Cracker Jack Ty Cobb card is, quite convincingly, Cobb's single greatest baseball card. No other issue better captures Cobb's intensity; studying the card, one can hardly discern whether he's looking to swing at a baseball, or at a baseball player! The registration (or, to be more accurate, the color tinting) of the offered example is pristine, rendering Cobb's facial details in bold, powdery perfection, with virtually no unsightly color gaps between Cobb's outline and the thoroughly saturated red backdrop, which exudes a lush, crimson hue, completely devoid of orange. The self-evident centering favors the right border, and some unobtrusive and reassuring caramel stains can be observed around the extreme periphery on both surfaces, while both the corners and edges, finally, appear to border on MINT. Very strongly encouraged for the long term, a comparable specimen may not surface again for several years.