REA's March Auction: Featured Five Pre-War Baseball Cards

Featured Five: REA’s March Auction

Posted on March 13, 2025 by Pre-War Cards

Featured Five: REA’s March Auction

The REA March Auction is loaded. Here we’re featuring a few pre-war standouts.

These cards are just a glimpse into an auction filled with “off the beaten path” issues and rare advertising backs for your browsing and bidding pleasure.

1933 R319 Goudey Babe Ruth #344

Leading things off is this attractive example of the classic Babe Ruth card featuring him in his follow-through batting pose. Of the four Ruth cards in the set, Goudey showed this one favor by double printing it when replacing the missing #106 during production. This continues to be one of Ruth’s most popular and recognizable baseball cards. Because of being double-printed by Goudey (there were exactly twice as many Ruth #144s printed as any other card in the same series), this card also represents the best value among the four Babe Ruth cards in the 1933 Goudey set. The offered card exhibits bright colors, a strong image, and moderate corner wear (tiny bend on top left). Clean reverse with bold green text.

1909-1911 T206 Ray Demmitt St. Louis Variation with Polar Bear Back

Polar Bear was the only company to issue this variation, making it one of the more rare and most sought-after examples for collectors chasing “The Monster”. Typically, T206 cards issued with Polar Bear tobacco were not well protected from the accompanying product, thus most Demmitts have significant condition problems, including at least some tobacco staining. This example exhibits bold colors, outstanding registration, rounded corners, heavy creasing and is encapsulated as authentic altered by PSA due to partially erased writing on the front.

1910 E90-2 American Caramel Honus Wagner

Wagner is the key card from the 1910 E90-2 American Caramel set. The very scarce set was regionally issued in the Pittsburgh area and features only members of the Pirates, the National League champions of the previous year. This is one of Wagner’s most striking cards and features a portrait image reminiscent of the pose on his famous T206 card. This example features a brilliant blue background, outstanding registration, and honest corner wear. The reverse has light toning. This is a striking example of this card, which is recognized as among the most classic and popular of all 1910-era Honus Wagner cards.

1910 E98 Anonymous “Set of 30” Ty Cobb – Orange Background

Here we have a classic example of Hall of Famer Ty Cobb from the E98 “Set of 30” candy-card issue. The manufacturer of E98 is unknown, and the set may easily be confused with other caramel-card sets of the era (E93 and E94 specifically); this is an entirely different set even though it uses many of the same subjects and poses. For many years, E98s were among the scarcest of the 1910-era caramel cards, but the “Black Swamp Find” changed the population dramatically. E98s have always been very desirable, and their increased availability and noteworthiness due to the find may have actually increased the demand as more collectors have become familiar with the set. This example features a brilliant orange background, a crisp image of Cobb, and light corner wear. Caramel cards in general are much rarer than tobacco cards of the era. Because they were issued with caramels one card per package and sold to children (as opposed to being sold to adults with tobacco), they also tend to survive in a much lower grade. This is a very presentable low-grade example of key Hall of Famer Ty Cobb from this extremely desirable early twentieth-century candy issue.

1915 E145 Cracker Jack #68 Honus Wagner

The strong red background of Cracker Jack cards gives collectors “the feels”, and Wagner’s portrait on this example, cap and collar, brilliantly depicts the pre-war era. The 1915 Cracker Jack series was available directly from the company by mail in a complete “factory set” as well as within boxes of the tasty treat. The presence of caramel staining on the offered example would suggest that it was originally packaged in one of the boxes. The “Flying Dutchman” is one of the big four key cards in the set, along with Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, and Joe Jackson. This card has a bright red background, outstanding registration, moderate corner wear, and no major creases. The card has a much better appearance than its technically accurate PSA grade, and would be a very welcome addition to any high-quality collection of Cracker Jack, Honus Wagner, or Hall of Fame cards.

With historic legends, tough variations, and some of the finest examples in existence, the REA March Auction is definitely worth a browse for serious pre-war collectors. Dig into the whole auction here.