In another post, we talked about the role of dogs on cigarette cards, and mentioned as an aside that in 2008, $2,800,000 was paid at auction for Hans Wagner cigarette card, a world record price for such a card (Hans Wagner was a shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1897 to 1917, and as a dedicated non-smoker, he threatened legal action when he learned that a tobacco company intended to feature him on a cigarette card without his permission). The point? There can be big money in collectable cards.
We use this as a segue to talk a bit more about dogs and collectable cards.
Images of dogs on baseball cards date back all the way to 1887 when a little dog named “Midge” put a paw on journeyman infielder, Art Whitney’s knee. Issued by Old Judge cigarettes, baseball and collectable card historians have come to believe that the way in which the photograph was staged was a commentary on loyalty, or more specifically, Whitney’s loyalty to his teams, of which there were ten from six different cities within a span of eleven years. With fewer than 100 copies in existence, this card is one of the most popular baseball cards of all time. In 2016, a rare oversized version sold for $18,000 in an Robert Edward auction. More recently, a smaller copy sold for $1,372, nearly five times the historic average in an “Authentic” grade for a card.
We know of adult men who could still weep that their mothers threw away their baseball card collections, and that these boxes of well loved cards may have included a Mickey Mantle card. In case you’re just joining us, the first Mickey Mantle Topps release (Topps being the leading producer of sports cards) is regarded by most collectors as the most important baseball card of the Post-War Era ever, and probably the most valuable. It’s not a surprise, then, that Mickey Mantle is also on one of the most sought after post-war cards associated with dogs, a card that was a premium for “Mascot” dog food (now out of business). Imagine being the person who found such a Mantle card at a Pennsylvania flea market. That lucky soul got $23,600 for the card at auction not long ago.
These days, people can collect “mascot cards” that feature dogs associated with teams or parks. Many of these dogs fetched baseballs or collect bats, dogs like “Miss Babe Ruth,” the wildly popular black Labrador retriever who died this past spring of cancer at the age of 12½ years old. She was the mascot for the Greensboro Grasshoppers minor-league baseball team. Then there was “Dinger,” the Myrtle Beach Pelicans’ home run dog, and another Labrador retriever. He was one of the first dogs in the minor leagues to be included in game day activities. Will these cards be tomorrow’s high value collectables? Who knows, but it can’t hurt to save a few.
There is a wonderful article by istory of dogs and baseball cards that you can read here. Suffice it to say that if you come across a baseball card with a dog on it, and it looks yellowed, old, and if affordable, buy it!