Can anyone help me with an M116?

Back when I first started collecting pre-war in the 1990s ... TWO DECADES AGO NOW! ... I was trying to get at least one example of each of the major sets featuring a prominent Hall of Famer. I got burned on a couple of sets that I didn't have knowledge of. Bought a reprint E90-1 beat up and sold as legit, bought a 1914 Cracker Jack Walsh that I thought was HOFer Ed Walsh, bought a 1912 T207 Collins I thought was HOFer Eddie Collins, etc. LOL

Anyway. I was a teenager then and I'm back on the horse and this time it's a M116. I don't think I've ever handled one of these in person, but they sure are beautiful and I know that some of you have put together some nice specimens.

The one I'm considering is currently up on eBay and it's my old nemesis Ed Walsh. It's not slabbed, which has me a little uncomfortable, but it could help me a little on cost.

Can someone take a look at it and assess the authenticity?

Also, it mentions there's tape or tape residue on it ... if it were sent it to be graded (SGC) will that automatically categorize it as "A"?

Any help would be appreciated! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350299050529

I'm not the resident M116 expert (I have a couple). That card does look authentic - as in real -to me. It looks like it once was in some sort of album or book with photo corners (note the lighter color on two diagonal corners). Likely the tape was also used to affix the card in some way.

My understanding of SGC is that the card will not get an automatic "A" grade because of the tape. I believe the "A" is usually used for trimmed and recolored cards. Cards with glue, back damage, etc. usually get a number grade, I believe. This sort of makes sense because if you ripped that tape off (not recommended) you would have a card with back damage that should grade numerically. Of course, you could expect the number to take a serious hit...even though that card looks nice, the tape would probably take it down to a 1.5 or a 1 (assuming it was not trimmed or otherwise altered).

It's definitely real and more than likely would receive a grade of 10 by SGC in my opinion.

Tony A.

While i am not an expert (maybe a step below) on M116 i can tell you SGC will give a card the numerical grade even if tape or glue is on back as long as there is no trimming. Now, to the trim part....i don't believe it's trimmed, but most sellers would at least want to get top dollar for a card like that.

M116's are known to sometimes have small borders on front which might make them appear trimmed. The top of that card has the small border but the back seems ok in relation to being not trimmed.

The seller does try and bend the truth....He states "This is a very rare card from the Sporting Life's series of baseball cards issued in 1911."

It is NOT a very rare card...if you buy it and it turns out trimmed you are going waste money. My thought would be try and get a graded Walsh card.

Here is a link to a M116 graded Walsh and to boot it has the scarce back for $390.00

http://cgi.ebay.com/1910-M116-Sporting-Life-Ed-Walsh-HoF-SGC-60_W0QQitemZ330342134965QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Baseball?hash=item4ce9ecf4b5



goodluck
Mark

I won this card as I needed it for my set. Looking forward to receiving it.

The seller was Bill Heitman who literally wrote the book on T206 back collecting.

It's not a rare back by any means, but I have found Walsh to be a bit tough to find compared to some of the other hofers.

Strangely, Walsh seems to be a tough card in several different issues.

Rob

caramelcard wrote:I won this card as I needed it for my set. Looking forward to receiving it.

The seller was Bill Heitman who literally wrote the book on T206 back collecting.

It's not a rare back by any means, but I have found Walsh to be a bit tough to find compared to some of the other hofers.

Strangely, Walsh seems to be a tough card in several different issues.

Rob

Hi Rob,

Congrats - nice deal!