"Ugly Little R337s" aka Eclipse Import of New York Babe Ruth

My dear friend, the late Bob Bostoff ran Empire State Sports out of New York.  He was a great guy and a hobbyist to his credit!

For years the R337 set was known as anonymous until Bob bought a full strip with a salesman sample card at the top at a Richmond show from Rand Bailey.  Bob did an article in the SCD titled "Ugly Little R337s" hence my title here to give credit to my deceased friend.

Though we were friends, Bob had promised the strip to an avid collector just before I got to Bob.  I was heart broken not to get this strip that identified the anonymous set as being issued by Eclipse Import Corporation of New York.

I never knew nor asked who the collector was that beat me to the punch but many years later in a Legendary Auction that featured the fabulous collection of Chad Dryer, there was a lot of uncut "W" series full strips. 

Low and behold the missing R337 strip was hidden in there!!!!

Needless to say I won the lot and at a fraction of what I would have paid for it as the significance of the R337 strip was never mentioned.

Bob felt bad not selling me the strip and later found me a single salesman ad card of Lefty Grove which he sold me.

Then in January of 2012 a NET54 member found a partial R337 ad strip with a Babe Ruth salesman sample card on it.  He posted on NET54 and then consigned it to Heritage auctions.  Well I just had to have it and it cost me a fortune thanks to my good friend Garysportscards running me to the moon on it.

This is one of my all time favorite sets, they are ugly, scarce, and not popular!  Perfect!

Great stuff!!! This is a set that I knew very little about and never even owned a type card at any point, mainly for the reason stated, they are ugly. In the 80s I chased the "beautiful" cards like t205, n162, n28, t204, etc. The only strip cards I ever owned back then was a strip of MP&Co. The only set uglier than this one.

Yes those may just be uglier Jay!  There is one cool frontal variation in the 1949 set I believe.  Lemon can be found with and w/o the team name on his chest.

That's a great strip Dan...thx for posting that!

I've never owned an m&p...or an r337...and these sets are case in point why I got out of type collecting!!!!!!!

Yea I agree Peter, I consider myself mainly a set collector who is/was a half-a$$ type collector.

Dan Gandt and Leon are probably the 2 most serious type collectors I have ever dealt with.  Though I think Lew Lipset may have been back in the day as well.

Actually I also need to give Kudos to Glenv as well!

I had no idea where you got your moniker, Dan. For some reason, I never even put it together that R337 referred to the ACC #. I guess I was just used to R!chard W0ng's "rman" moniker and didn't think much about the difference. Very cool strip.

I still get jealous of your j=k avatar every time I see it.

Ha! Thanks Brian! That J=K is filling in as my T206 Wagner!  And is 100 times more rare than the T206.

Yes that is my moniker - R337man!

Thanks for posting!
Dan

at first I thought his name was 1337 5p34k but then I realized Dan isn't much of an internet geek.

funny...i never connected the 337 in Dan's moniker either!!!!

if you'r j=k wags is 100x's as rare as t206 wags...that would imply there are 100 t206 wagners...which I do not believe there are!!!!!  

Pete, that J=K Wags is only 3/4 of card, so he might be right

r337man wrote:Ha! Thanks Brian! That J=K is filling in as my T206 Wagner!  And is 100 times more rare than the T206.

Yes that is my moniker - R337man!

Thanks for posting!
Dan

Not a bad fill-in!  

I'm trying to think if any of my Wagners are more common than the T206.  

...

Colgans is probably more common, but other than that, I'm with you!  (I actually prefer a lot of his other cards over his T206.)

Sorry to hijack.  Back to Gorilla Babe!

ETA: Will we see you and your dad in Cleveland this year, Dan?

"This is one of my all time favorite sets, they are ugly, scarce, and not popular!"

Hey Dan, there might be some folks (across the street, of course) who interpret your description of this set to also be a "selfie" description!   

Seriously, that is a fantastic R337 strip - congrats on obtaining it.
Val

ba BAM!!!!!!

sabrjay wrote:Pete, that J=K Wags is only 3/4 of card, so he might be right

Why is the J=K only 3/4 of a card Jay?

ullmandds wrote:if you'r j=k wags is 100x's as rare as t206 wags...that would imply there are 100 t206 wagners...which I do not believe there are!!!!!  

Yea I exaggerated, I think there are about 70 Wagners

I know of 2 of these J=K Wagners and just 1 of the square type that I was under bidder at a PA auction for.

terjung wrote:

r337man wrote:Ha! Thanks Brian! That J=K is filling in as my T206 Wagner!  And is 100 times more rare than the T206.

Yes that is my moniker - R337man!

Thanks for posting!
Dan

Not a bad fill-in!  

I'm trying to think if any of my Wagners are more common than the T206.  

...

Colgans is probably more common, but other than that, I'm with you!  (I actually prefer a lot of his other cards over his T206.)

Sorry to hijack.  Back to Gorilla Babe!

ETA:  Will we see you and your dad in Cleveland this year, Dan?

Pop can't travel any more, his breathing is terrible.  Amazing he is still with us.

His mind is all there at 92 which is great!

I am debating Cleveland, getting tired of dealing with the non-collectors that come up trying to steal stuff to flip.

I much preferred the 1980s and early 90s when actual collectors bought cards from the shows.

ValKehl wrote:"This is one of my all time favorite sets, they are ugly, scarce, and not popular!"

Hey Dan, there might be some folks (across the street, of course) who interpret your description of this set to also be a "selfie" description!   

Seriously, that is a fantastic R337 strip - congrats on obtaining it.
Val

I agree Val! Actually most across the street would consider me ugly and not popular which is why I made myself "scarce" across the street

Dan, your card is trimmed ;-)

Ha!  You mean hand Cut, huge difference