H804-8 Sporting Life Trade Cards Set and Checklist

Posted on September 8, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	H804-8 Sporting Life Trade Cards
Year	1800s
Size	3″ x 5″
Images	Color
Type	Trade
Number in Set	23

H804-8 Sporting Life Trade Cards Overview

Sporting Life H804-8 Trade Card In the early 1900s, Sporting Life distributed a popular set of baseball cards known today as the M116 set. Before that, however, they created this small set of trade cards to advertise their publication.

This set is part of the Baseball Comics series, as catalogued by Jefferson Burdick in the American Card Catalog. The cards feature a variety of colorful and humorous baseball scenes as well as some advertising text on the front, encouraging collectors to read their publication, The Sporting News.

Three different subsets exist, all featuring different pictures and captions. They have been sorted and checklisted below. It should be noted that while eight cards are in the first two, H804-A and H804-B, only seven are known for the third (H804-C). Given that the first two have eight, however, it is possible that an eighth card exists that has not been recognized.

Collectors of these cards often tried to separate the advertiser name from them. Because of that, these are often found trimmed with the bottom portion having been cut off. The cards uncut, of course, are more valuable.

Speaking of prices, these cards are more desirable than many other trade cards and pursued for their relative rarity. Usually, they will sell for more than $100 and sometimes, will fetch several hundred dollars. They are certainly among the more valuable trade cards not featuring actual players.

As is the case with most trade cards, these are fragile and printed on thinner card stock. For that reason, they can be torn or ripped quite easily and damaged easier than standard baseball cards.