Turkey Red T3 and T205 Gold Border Baseball Cards Available at Dean's Cards

by Dean Hanley
Founder and Owner, Dean's Cards

Turkey Red T3 and T205 cards can be seen on the Deans's Cards Recently Added Cards page.

Dean’s Cards recently added a wide variety of Pre-War baseball cards to our inventory of more than 1.5 million vintage cards. The new additions include cards for a number of Hall of Fame players, including a T205 Ty Cobb, a T205 Eddie Collins, and a T206 Cy Young.

But the most distinctive cards in our recently acquired Pre-War baseball cards are the 1911 Turkey Red T3 Cabinets, some of the most popular Pre-War cards sets ever printed. The Turkey Red set consists of 126 cabinets that measure a huge  5¾” by 8." Each card has a checklist or advertisement for Turkey Red tobacco on the back.

Unlike other tobacco T-cards at the time, Turkey Red T3 cards were not inserted into packages of cigarettes or loose tobacco. T3 cards are often referred to as “premiums,” meaning that they could be redeemed by sending in coupons from participating tobacco brands. The Turkey Red cards could be redeemed by sending in 10 coupons from Turkey Red cigarettes, 25 coupons from Old Mill cigarettes, or 25 coupons from Fez cigarettes.

Turkey Red cigarettes were manufactured by the American Tobacco Company, which made many of the tobacco cards in the early part of the 20th century. The name Turkey Red may have come from a red dye that was found in southwest Asia. Turkish cigarettes would continue to be popular all the way through World War I.

The Turkey Red Cabinets set also includes action shots. Because the cards are particularly hard to find, the Turkey Red reprint set is a cheaper and easier set to build. The Turkey Red Cabinets are some of the most popular reprints that DeansCards.com has in stock.

Fred Clarke, Hall of Famer, available at Dean's Cards.

The Turkey Red cards include a number of Hall of Fame players, which make the set even more desirable. Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, Cy Young, and Tris Speaker, who appears in significantly fewer baseball card sets than many other early baseball players, are all featured in the Turkey Red set. And the card for Fred Clarke, another Hall of Fame player, was recently added to our collection now available for purchase.

T205 Ty Cobb available at Dean's Cards.

The T205 baseball cards also now available for sale are easily identified by the cards’ distinctive gold borders, which also tend to chip easily.

Like the Turkey Red baseball card set, the T205 set was released by the American Tobacco Company.  It featured players from the National League, American League, and minor league. The cards also have the first ever facsimile autograph that is overlaid on the players’ pictures. The idea of including a facsimile autograph would be repeated again and again by Topps and several other companies.

The T205 baseball card set includes many expensive variations and star cards. Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, and Cy Young all have cards in the T205 set.

However, one of the most expensive cards in the set is the Dick Hoblitzell “no stats” variation. The statistics were usually printed between the short biographical paragraph and the cigarette advertisement. Several other cards were printed without the statistics, but Hoblitzell’s is the most expensive. Hoblitzell was the 21-year-old first baseman for the Reds.  Although he had a fairly unremarkable baseball career, this card is one of the most interesting of the Pre-War baseball cards era.

T205 Eddie Collins available at Dean's Cards.

T205 baseball cards can be extremely expensive, especially in nice condition. The reprints for the T205 cards are very popular and can be viewed by clicking here.

Dean’s Cards is always buying Turkey Red, T205 and all other Pre-War baseball cards. Please click here if you are interested in selling your Pre-War cards.

Click here to see our complete inventory of Turkey Red cards.

Click here to see our complete inventory of T205 Gold Border cards.

Dean Hanley, founder and owner of DeansCards.com, is considered one of the foremost experts on the subject of vintage baseball cards, other sports and non-sports cards and has a regular column in the Sports Collectors Digest and publishes articles on his blog. Dean has also written two books on vintage sports cards: The Bubble Gum Card War: The Great Bowman & Topps Sets from 1948 to 1955 and Before There Was Bubble Gum: Our Favorite Pre-World War I Baseball Cards.

Great Value Baseball Card Sets for 1960 -- 1963 Added at Dean's Cards

by Dean Hanley
Owner of Dean's Cards

In 2012, we introduced a "value added" product for card collectors that has proven to be very popular -- our exclusive Near Complete Sets. Since many collectors enjoy the challenge of building their own sets, we wanted to give you a way of obtaining most of the baseball cards in a set at a more reasonable price and then let you build the rest of the set on your own.

We just added Near Complete Sets for the following years:

• 1960 Topps baseball cards -- grade 5
• 1961 Topps baseball cards -- grade 3.5
• 1962 Topps baseball cards -- grade 4
• 1963 Topps baseball cards -- grade 4

But you also can click here to find baseball card Near Complete Sets for other years in the 1950s and 1960s.

Ron Santo from the 1961 Topps Near Complete Set.

Depending on the year and the grade, our Near Complete Sets consist of 60%-80% of the baseball cards you would get in a Complete Baseball Card Set. This leaves collectors like you plenty of room to go in and individually purchase the last 100-300 cards in the set.

The best feature of our exclusive Near Complete Sets is the discount. While most of our Complete Sets are priced at 20-30% off of our individual card prices, our Near Complete Sets are priced even lower. Our Near Complete Sets are priced so that you receive 35%-45% off of the individual card prices.

Duke Snider and Gil Hodges from the 1963 Near Complete Set.

Dean's Cards Near Complete Sets are a great way to get a majority of the cards in a particular set for just a fraction of the cost. Our Near Complete Sets are custom built by hand by our team of baseball card grading professionals to give you a consistent grade. For collectors who shy away from purchasing complete sets because they like the challenge of finding and buying the cards individually, Near Complete Sets are a fun challenge -- and a great value.

Please click here to see the Near Complete Sets we currently have in our online inventory.

Mickey mantle and Ken Boyer from the 1960 Topps baseball cards Near Complete Set.

And if you are looking for a Near Complete Set from a year that we currently don't have available online, please Contact Us and we will try our best to accommodate your specific needs.

Here at Dean's Cards, we’re always trying to think up new and unique products to bring even more fun to the baseball card collecting hobby, and Near Complete Sets have proven to be very popular for our customers.

Dean Hanley, founder and owner of DeansCards.com, is considered one of the foremost experts on the subject of vintage baseball cards, other sports and non-sports cards and has a regular column in the Sports Collectors Digest and publishes articles on his blog. Dean has also written two books on vintage sports cards: The Bubble Gum Card War: The Great Bowman & Topps Sets from 1948 to 1955 and Before There Was Bubble Gum: Our Favorite Pre-World War I Baseball Cards.

Dean's Cards Recently Added Cards (RAC): The Hottest Cards Are Here First

by Dean Hanley
Owner of Dean’s Cards

Every week we add thousands of cards to our Dean’s Cards inventory of vintage baseball cards, football cards, basketball cards, hockey cards, other sports cards and non-sports cards – but there is one place where you can easily find the hottest additions to our inventory. Just go to the Recently Added Cards (RAC) page, which you can find linked on the right side of our Home page.

Our Recently Adds Cards (RAC) page shows our latest vintage cards.

Since we are always buying card collections, our team of card experts first personally inspects and grades all cards. Then the cards are scanned so you can see the actual cards that you buy – that takes the guesswork out of knowing how your cards will look when you receive them.

Our customers routinely tell us that are very pleased with the quality of the cards they purchase from us since we use the Grading Standards of PSA as the minimum baseline for grading the cards in our inventory. One positive aspect of Dean's Cards grading standards is that we take into account a card's "eye appeal."  Other grading companies, such as PSA do not always take "eye appeal" into account when grading cards. As collectors ourselves, we tend to be a bit more critical of a card's eye appeal than the professional grading companies. Collectors who are accustomed to purchasing ungraded cards from other vendors are usually amazed at our tough grading standards.

I encourage you to visit our RAC page regularly to find the latest additions to our inventory, since many cards go quickly. Here are a few recent “Star Card” additions that may interest you:

• 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card – The card was rated by PSA as authentic, but it has been trimmed. Still, the card is a beautiful example of this highly sought card.

• 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth baseball cards – This set actually featured four Babe Ruth cards and we now have two of them available: Babe Ruth #144 and Babe Ruth #181, both graded as PSA 3.

• 1949 Leaf Joe DiMaggio baseball card -- The 1949 Leaf set was the first to be printed in color post-war and DiMaggio’s card was No. 1 in the set.
• 1950 Bowman Ted Williams baseball cards – available in PSA 3 and 5
• 1952 Bowman Willie Mays baseball card -- The 1952 Bowman Baseball cards are one of the first to feature the players' printed autographs.  

• 1953 Topps Willie Mays baseball card -- The 1953 Topps baseball cards feature numerous large close-up portraits of the players.
• 1953 Topps Jackie Robinson – Card No. 1 in this popular set.

• 1955 Topps Sandy Koufax rookie card – You’ll find this card in a variety of grades.

And, of course, you can find all the latest Mickey Mantle baseball cards by visiting this special page we created to celebrate The Mick’s career in baseball cards. You'll also see a special video about Mickey Mantle baseball cards.

If you’re looking for early 20th century baseball cards, the RAC page will show you our latest additions, including T3 Turkey Red baseball cards, T206 baseball cards, T204 Ramly baseball cards, and T205 Gold border cards.

If you are a set collector, you’ll also find our latest complete sets, near complete sets, starter sets, near complete sets, and additions to sets on the RAC page. Some of the latest additions include:

• 1933 Goudey baseball cards
• 1934 Goudey baseball cards
• 1953 Topps baseball cards complete set
• 1959 Topps baseball cards complete set
• 1966 Topps baseball cards complete set

The RAC page is updated many times throughout the week, so we hope you will visit often to see the latest and greatest we have to offer you at Dean’s Cards!

Dean Hanley, founder and owner of DeansCards.com, is considered one of the foremost experts on the subject of vintage baseball cards, other sports and non-sports cards and has a regular column in the Sports Collectors Digest and publishes articles on his blog. Dean has also written two books on vintage sports cards: The Bubble Gum Card War: The Great Bowman & Topps Sets from 1948 to 1955 and Before There Was Bubble Gum: Our Favorite Pre-World War I Baseball Cards.

Selling Baseball Cards: Earning Your Trust at Dean's Cards

By Dean Hanley
Owner of DeansCards.com

Dean’s Cards recently purchased a large baseball card collection from a collector that included full sets of baseball cards from the 1950s and 1960s, as well as various baseball star cards and rookie cards, which you can see in the photos in this blog.

Part of a collection we recently purchased from a Seller. Click here to sell your baseball cards to Dean's Cards.

Even though this was a large baseball card collection that we purchased for a cost well into five figures, it was handled with the same, simple, trusting and personal process as all collections we buy:

• The seller completed the form on our Sell Baseball Cards page with details of baseball cards in his collection.
• Elana, the head of our baseball card buying team, replied to the seller by email, and then Elana and I spoke to him by phone to get further details on the baseball card collection.
• The seller then sent us the baseball cards by mail so Elana and I could personally evaluate them.
• We offered a bid for the collection based on our review of the seller’s collection.
• The bid was accepted, and we mailed the seller a check.

Dean’s Cards buys more than 500 card collections every year, and we are proud that sellers trust us to send their collections for our evaluation that they often personally have built over many years.

Some of the baseball star cards in a recent large collection we purchased. To sell your baseball cards to Dean's Cards, please click here.

Of course, it is a valid concern to be skeptical of sending anything of value to someone that you do not know personally. That’s why we work so hard to earn trust from our customers – which is proven by the fact that we receive card collections worth thousands of dollars almost every day, as well as glowing testimonials form sellers.

The best reason that I can give you for why we try so hard to treat people fairly is that it is simply good business. We do all our business by mail -- both buying and selling -- and I have taken great care to protect the reputation of our business. Dean's Cards has never kept a card that does not belong to us, and we never will. If we treated people wrong, we would be finished as a business.

As far as giving you a firm offer on your collection, there is simply no way to do it without physically seeing your cards. For us to determine the value of your cards, you need to send them to us. Any reputable dealer will tell you the same thing. Bidding on scanned images of cards is way too uncertain and would force me us bid very conservatively – and that would just cost you money.

We are proud to sellers trust us to send their collections. Please contact us if you are ready to sell your baseball card collection.

It usually costs a dealer about $1000 (not counting at least a day of his time) to fly out to bid on a collection. No matter what a dealer says, this expense has to be passed along to the seller. What about the people who decide NOT to sell their collections? Guess who pays for those trips? If you said, "the seller,” you are correct. We would much rather give the travel money saved to a seller for cards, than to the airlines for transportation costs.

Our "secret" to buying so many baseball card collections is that we simply pay more for cards. Our goal is to keep our costs down, so that we can continue to pay a higher dollar amount than other dealers. We have the bidding process down to a science and an art and it works extremely well for us – and for sellers. Please understand, we are very motivated to buy your cards, which is why we offer more than other dealers – simply put, if we can’t buy cards, we can’t sell cards.

If sending the cards by mail makes you uncomfortable, then we suggest sending us part of your collection first.  We will value the cards and contact you with an offer. If you agree to our offer, I will send you a check. Usually, after sellers receive the first couple of checks, mailing the cards becomes a non-issue. If my offer is unsatisfactory, then I will pay for the postage to send the collection back to you.

More star cards in a recently acquired collection. Please visit our Sell Baseball Cards page if you are ready t sell your  baseball cards.

The bottom line is that there is nothing that I can really say to totally assure you, the seller. At some point it will take an element of trust on your part. In reality, it all comes down to business ethics. If you do decide to send us your collection, we will certainly not violate your trust – and you can visit our testimonials page to read the positive comments from sellers and see how they feel about doing business with us.

If you have a collection of baseball cards, football cards, other sports cards or non-sports cards from 1869-1969 and you’re ready to sell, please fill out the form on our Sell Baseball Cards page so can begin talking. You have my personal guarantee that we will work hard to earn your trust, just as we have for thousands of sellers since I started Dean’s Cards in 2001.

We look forward to learning more about your card collection!

Sincerely,

Dean Hanley
Owner of Dean's Cards

Dean Hanley, founder and owner of DeansCards.com, is considered one of the foremost experts on the subject of vintage sports cards and has a regular column in the Sports Collectors Digest and publishes articles on his blog. Dean has also written two books on vintage sports cards: The Bubble Gum Card War: The Great Bowman & Topps Sets from 1948 to 1955 and Before There Was Bubble Gum: Our Favorite Pre-World War I Baseball Cards.

Click here if you have vintage baseball cards to sell -- 1869-1969.