Freakshows From the Local Card Show

So, I went to a card show they run twice a year at a local Catholic school.  Both times I've attended the show, I ended up with some great cards.  Last time, I ended up with three VG T206 cards at a very good price.  This time, I didn't find anything quite that impressive, as there was a grand total of one T206 at the show (an overpriced white cap Christy Mathewson, not nearly as nice as the one I own.), but I make some other interesting additions to my collection. 

Let's start with a few of the freakshow cards I purchased.



Walter Mails is not a player I was familiar with when I purchased the above card, but I was familiar with Emil Yde and some of the other names some intrepid youngster wrote on the card about 90 years ago.  Duster, as Mails was better known as, was part of two World Series winning teams, the 1920 Cleveland Indians and the 1926 St. Louis Cardinals.  He likely appeared on a E120 American Caramel card for going 7-0 in 1920 and 14-8 in 1921, which comprised the only two good years of his career.  The one inning he threw for the 1926 Cardinals did not push them towards the pennant, but still makes him a footnote for a famous team. 



I also picked up this card.  The dealer and I could agree om three facts:

1. The card was headless.
2. A fair price.
3. The card was from the 1880s.

Looking at the card, I thought it was a Scrapps tobacco card.  However, further investigation yielded some information that the card belong to an 1880s tobacco die-cut set which is different from the Scrapps tobacco issue, which are all giant cut-out heads of famous players.  These cards lacked famous faces, but just represented specific locales, like New York.  Other than the age and lack of head, the card is otherwise unremarkable, but will serve as the oldest baseball card I own for quite some time.

Don't worry fair readers, I scanned a bunch of other cards from my trip to Cape May and my adventures at the card show, which should fill quite a few inches of white space in the upcoming days.