REA makes splash with five T215 Pirates
February 17, 2013 -- For one T215 Pirate Cigarettes card to come to auction is noteworthy. For multiple examples to be offered in a single sale is practically unheard of. Yet Robert Edward Auctions will have five in its upcoming spring auction, and one of those deserves extra-special mention.
In August 2007, Legendary Auctions sold a near-set of 96 (of 97) T215 Pirates. Other than that offering, single cards hit the auction block in December 2000, August 2001, December 2005, April 2008 and August 2008. In a hobby where the word rare has been mistakenly used to the point of being comical, T215 Pirates unquestionably fit the definition.
The five to be offered by REA, all graded "Authentic" by PSA with the appearance of being hand-cut, are: Gabby Street, Chief Myers, Fred Merkle, Frank Chance and Harry Lord (front and back images can be seen by clicking on each card).
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The Lord card deserves special mention because it has a faint remnant of "Chicago, Amer." over and above the "Boston, Amer." designation at the bottom of the card.
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On Aug. 9, 1910, Lord was traded by the Red Sox to the Chicago White Sox. This was after he had been selected for the T206 set, so his team designation and artwork are "Boston Amer." (The T215-1 Red Cross and T215 Pirate sets reused the T206 artwork, with some subjects having their team designation updated.)
Lord's team designation was updated in the T215-1 Red Cross set to "Chicago Amer." At some point during the Pirate printing the offered Lord caption was produced. The fact that the former team is bold with his later team faint seems reversed from what one would expect. This is definitely a mysterious and fascinating card.