SEPIA POSTCARDS  -  INTRODUCTION

I'd like to present a brief guide of the B&W Baseball Hall of Fame Postcards that were sold at the Baseball Museum in Cooperstown from the opening of the hall of fame in 1939 through 1943.  These postcards were produced by the albertype company and were the precursors to the albertype and artvue postcards that were produced from the mid 1940's through the 1960's. Guides on the Artvue and Albertype postcards have already been completed and are an invaluable resource for anyone who is just starting collecting these cards and even those who are well into completing their sets. 

 I will try to provide the information as accurately as I can based on information I have learned myself and from others.  If you have any additional information, or notice an error, please let me know using the e-bay message feature.  I want to give thanks to Bob Hicks for all of his help in steering me in the right direction with these postcards and Dan Yaw for helping me put much of this set together. I have decided to use the same format that Mr. Hicks used in presenting the guides on the Albertypes and the Artvues because that seems to have worked very well in presenting the information.

THE BASICS - SEPIA - TYPE 1 & TYPE 2

Sepia-toned Baseball HOF Postcards were first produced by Albertype in 1939 and sold only at the baseball hall of fame.  There are two variations of the Sepia HOF postcards The difference between the two variations of Sepia B&W Postcards involves the text on the back of the plaque postcards.  The first (Type 1), were produced only in 1939 and the text on the back of the card  reads "Base ball was invented in Cooperstown, New York, by Abner Doubleday and first played there in 1939. National interest centers in the Centennial Celebration in 1939 at Cooperstown".  (see pictures below for comparison).  Type 2 Sepia plaque postcards were produced from 1940 through 1943 and the text on the back of the card reads "Base ball was invented in Cooperstown, New York, by Abner Doubleday and first played in this village in 1939. The National Base Ball Museum and Hall of Fame and Doubleday Field are maintained here as a Shrine to the national game".

THE PLAQUE CHECKLISTS

To the best of my knowledge there are 25 Sepia Type 1 player cards and 27 Type 2 player cards.

Sepia Type 1 Plaque Checklist:
Alexander, Anson, Bulkeley, Cartwright, Chadwick, Cobb,  Eddie Collins, Comiskey, Cummings, Ewing, B. Johnson, W. Johnson, Keeler, Lajoie, Mack, Mathewson, McGraw, Radbourn, Ruth, Sisler, Spalding, Speaker, Wagner, G. Wright & Young.

Sepia Type 2 Plaque Checklist: (All Type 1 Plaques plus...)
Gehrig & Hornsby

THE NON-PLAQUE POSTCARDS

In addition to the Hall of Fame plaque postcards, Albertype made available other related Sepia HOF B&W Postcards for sale in the Museum's Gift Shop.  I belive there to be 10 different non-player cards.  Please send me any additions/corrections if this is not correct so I can update this checklist.  All 10 of the non-player postcards are possible in both Type 1 & Type 2 variations. (see picture below)

Abner Doubleday                             Abner Doubleday baseball 

Bust of Christy Mathewson              Doubleday Field in 1938

Doubleday Field in Original State    Exhibition Game on Doubleday Field

Hall of Fame Immortals (top) & Hall of Fame Entrance (bottom)

Hall of Fame Exterior                 Interior National Baseball Museum

Autographed Sepias

As you might guess, autographed examples of the Sepias are extremely rare and valuable. I haven't found many of them for sale over the few years that I have been collecting them. In December 2005 Sothebys sold a lot of 16 signed postcards  that included Ruth, Young, Speaker, W. Johnson, Wagner, Mack, Alexander, Cobb & Lajoie. These were all signed on their respective hof plaque postcards and there was also a group that were each signed on Mathewson postcards and these included E. Collins, Sisler, Arky Vaughan, L. Waner, etc. The lot sold for $72,000. The last Ruth sepia hof plaque postcard I saw for sale sold for almost $45,000 in the 2008 Robert Edwards auction. I have only seen 3 Babe Ruth sepia signed plaque postcards and have never seen one on an Albertype or Artvue hof plaque postcard. 

Final Thoughts:

I have found it more difficult to find the Type 2 Sepia player cards for my set than I have for the Sepia Type 1 player cards and I would have assumed it would have been the other way around since the Type 1 cards were only printed for the 1 year. Perhaps after the initial collectors purchased the player cards in the Sepia Type 1's then they didn't bother with purchasing the Type 2's of the same player since they already had a postcard that looked exactly the same except for the text on the back. Perhaps someone else can shed some light on why this might be or if they have indeed noticed the same thing in their quest to complete a Sepia set. I am having more trouble finding the Type 1 non-player cards so this really makes it difficult to comprehend.