Sunday, August 23, 2015

Sets in my Collection #1 1909 Philadelphia Caramel Zoo / Introduction to new project

As I've mentioned a few times, I am working on trying to get at least one card from each NASCAR and NBA set, and for non-sports the sets that interest me.

I have, in my 27 years collecting cards, added over 1800 different sets covering many, many different topics to my collection. You will see of course Non-sports, basketball, auto racing, but also baseball, hockey, football, and pretty much everything else- eventually!

I'm going to go through each and every one in a series of blog posts over the next several years. I have not yet decided if I want to go in chronological order, or if I want to pull some favorites and post them, or group them topically- but I know I wanted to start with non-sports as that is how I started collecting back in 1988.

So, I begin with the oldest set currently in my collection, 1909 Philadelphia Caramel Zoo.

It is a 50 card set, and I have only 1, or 2%. I am planning on giving the percentages of how close I am to completing it based on the stats provided by the Trading Card Database.

I love squirrels, and when I saw that the set included one, I had to have it. Even though it was already over 100 years old when I got it, it cost me less than $10 with shipping, Can't beat that!

I know I have shown the front of the card before, but this is the first post dedicated to it solely, and I believe it's the first time I've shown the back. Not a lot going on back there, and it even predates the concept of numbering cards.

Hopefully this project will allow me to post more often, as it doesn't really require a lot of thinking or motivation on my part (lol). I could post one a day every day and have about 4 years of posts, so expect this series to be a mainstay on Cardboard History. I have created a tag called "Sets" that each post in the series will be tagged with.

Thanks for reading!

4 comments:

  1. That's a pretty neat card. I think last year's Allen & Ginter set had an insert set with a squirrel card, but it was one of the short-printed mini inserts so they are hard to find. I like the old tobacco cards. Some are cheap and plentiful, but others can be hard to track down. I am working on an original Allen & Ginter set from 1891(ish) that features 50 different chicken breeds.

    http://razcardblog.blogspot.com/search/label/N20%20Allen%20%26%20Ginter%20Prize%20%26%20Game%20Chickens

    I am looking forward to seeing what other sets you've gathered examples from, as I am always looking for new collection ideas.

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    1. I Love those chicken cards! I just went in and read each of your posts on them. Not sure how I missed them because you have posted a couple after I started reading your blog- I guess I need to keep up more on the Blogroll. Getting back into the 1800s is a goal of mine. I've tried but gotten outbid multiple times.

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  2. Billy, You know you read a couple of card blogs and get thinking about what you "need it" "want it" "got it" and you start thinking SQUIRREL!

    Nice card. I love the old tobacco non-sport and even the baseball. It still amazes me when I think of cards 100 years old still being around and better yet some of them being completely affordable. But I still have problems with anything later than 1900 being over 100 years old. EEK! I know it is 2015 and we are well into the second decade of the 21st century but in many ways I am still stuck in the 20th. I'm still trying to wrap the idea that the Titanic sinking in April of 1912 is OVER 100 YEARS.

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    1. Oh I know what you mean. I recently gave some cards to a cousin, and he was happy to get old school stuff...being 1996-97, that I remember new, but are older than him, LOL. It sure made me feel old, but time marches on and rests for no one.

      I still consider cards from 2000 "new" too!

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