Shoeless Joe. The Professor. The cardboard that survived.
A collection built around “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, Greg Maddux (“The Professor”), and the scarce caramel and bakery cards of the Deadball Era — with the 1909–11 American Caramel set (E90-1), home of Jackson’s rookie, as the caramel focus. Stories and history first, quality over quantity, the low-population survivors that were never meant to last.
The Galleries
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"Shoeless" Joe Jackson
My fascination with Joe Jackson began in high school, when I wrote a paper on him and the Black Sox for U.S. History in February 2002. The cards,...
13 pieces
Black Sox & Associates
The eight men out, their manager, and the gamblers and witnesses who orbited the fix of the 1919 World Series. Read together, these pieces tell the...
12 pieces
Deadball Era
This section prioritizes E-series caramel and D-series bakery cards. The heart of it is the 1909–11 American Caramel set (E90-1): colorful candy cards...
7 pieces
19th Century
Tobacco cards from the 1880s, when the game was young, the cards were photographs pasted to cardboard or lithographs inserted in packs of cigarettes...
3 pieces
Greg Maddux
Greg Maddux, “The Professor,” was my childhood favorite player, which is why he has a gallery here when almost nobody else from the modern game does....
12 pieces
Other
Pieces outside the core themes of the collection. Some are nostalgia cards, others are simply fun pickups I enjoy having around.
7 pieces“Quality over quantity. Stories over stacks. The scarce survivors, the low-population issues, the cardboard that was never meant to last.”
Story & history first
Every piece earns its place by what it tells us about the game and the people in it.
Quality over quantity
Not the grade — the qualities that matter on century-old cards: image, eye appeal, originality, story.
Scarce & low-pop
Caramel, bakery and strip issues, and paper ephemera that few people kept.
Highlights
