Pre-War Cards

An ultra-rare Rose Company baseball postcard featuring the legendary Cy Young is up for grabs

Issued in 1908 and 1909, the Rose Company postcards aren’t terribly easy to find. These cards featured images of baseball players against a playing field background and the set includes many big names.

One of the biggest is Cy Young and a rare variation of his card is being auctioned off in a current Collector Connection auction.

Young is not only one of the biggest names in the set but one of the toughest of the Rose Company cards to find. Only two are known to exist and this card being auctioned is a third, ‘new to the hobby’ example.

The card, however, is different from the other two. The Rose Company postcards included a small nameplate with the player’s name and team. However, when a player was traded from that team, the card essentially became out of date.

To fix this problem, Rose printed small labels for some postcards with simply the player’s name, to cover up the outdated information. Today, these cards are known as sticker or label variation cards. They are typically much rarer than the standard Rose Company postcards.

This card is one of those sticker variations and the only known Young example. The card was sent to PSA for and received a VG 3 grade.

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