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1888 Allen & Ginter and 1909-11 T206 Beckett Graded Hall of Famers Purchased

Cap Anson and Cy Young Cards in Long-Time Collection

October 27, 2025

One of the oldest baseball cards produced has proudly been purchased by Just Collect! An incredible 1888 Allen & Ginter card of Cap Anson is in this new collection along with 1909-11 T206 cards and 1933 Goudey featuring more baseball legends all graded BGS BVG Authentic.

Small in size but huge in value, this collection features some of the oldest baseball cards ever known! A gentleman named Tommy had held onto cards going back to 1888 for many years and chose Just Collect to sell these treasures to.

THE COLLECTION

In 1888, Allen & Ginter produced the N-28 set. A 50-card, multi-sport set which came in Allen & Ginter cigarette boxes. Unlike wax packs you remember opening, each N-28 card was placed inside of cigarettes and are much smaller, coming in at 1.5" x 2-3/4" (compared to a standard card side of 2.5" x 3.5"). You may have seen brand new Topps Allen & Ginter boxes at Walmart or your local card shop and did not know that those new cards are a throwback to cards from over 100 years ago! Today, you can see authentic cards from the 1888 set.

The first card you see below is of Cap Anson. In 1871, Anson suited up for the Rockford Forest Citys. That Citys tour didn't last long as Anson became a Philadelphia Athletic in 1872 where he played until 1875. From 1876 - 1897, Anson was a Chicago Whitestocking / Colt, a team you now know as the Chicago Cubs! Anson has 3,345 hits in his career and his credited with 3,011 in MLB. The all-white background makes the portrait of Anson pop! That uniform and striped hat really shows you how different the game was back in 1888. For perspective, Thomas Edison had the first private electric system in a house in 1878. When this Cap Anson card was pulled from a pack of cigarettes, the owner probably didn't even know what a light bulb was!

The second photo below shows each card from the collection, including a second 1888 Allen & Ginter N-28 with John L. Sullivan, a professional boxer who lost only one fight in his career- his final one. In 1889, Sullivan won the inaugural world heavyweight title and kept his world bare-knuckle heavyweight title. Talk about a different era - no light bulbs and boxing without gloves!

Cards from the famous 1909-11 T206 set are also in the collection. We told you about this well-known set when we featured it in our Set of the Week blog! Also placed in packs of tobacco, these rare cards are older than television! If you have never owned a baseball card in your life, you still probably know all about the Honus Wagner card. The Wagner card is from this T206 set! In the collection, as seen in the second photo, are cards of Hall of Famers Nap Lajoie, Willie Keeler, and Cy Young. Yes, that Cy Young. Each year, the top pitcher in each league is presented with the Cy Young award - here is Cy! Lajoie is still 14th in all-time career hits with 3,252 despite not playing a game since 1916. Keeler won wo batting titles and ended his career with a .341 average. We could fill up this whole blog with Cy Young stats, but the top figure to know: 511 career wins. Young hasn't pitched a game since 1911 and still has more wins than any other pitcher in baseball history. The second-most wins is 417 by Walter Johnson. The current active pitcher with the most wins is Justin Verlander with 266. Verlander himself won three Cy Young awards!

The final card is from the 1933 Goudey set. Another featured set in our Set of the Week, Eddie Collins is in your view. Collins tallied 3,315 career hits and win six World Series championships. The 1914 MVP could run with the best; he led the league in stolen bases four times!

One thing you'll notice is that each card is graded Authentic - Altered. Each card is genuine, but rather than a numerical grade on a scale from 1 to 10, each card was deemed altered either due to trimming or restoration. While cutting a card to make the corners sharp or adding color where it wore off may seem like a good idea everywhere else in our world, this is frowned upon for sports cards. None the less, the cards are authentic, and over Century years old!

APPRAISAL AND PURCHASE

The owner, Tommy, loved older cards and bought these from a dealer 35 years ago in Mississippi. Deciding it was time to sell his collection, Tommy reached out through our easy-to-use form. Our owner, Leighton, and Vice President, John, reviewed the images Tommy provided. We have purchased thousands upon thousands of collections and bought and sold over 50 MILLION dollars in cards. The retail stores are focused on selling modern products and simply don't have the time or the knowledge to carefully evaluate vintage collections. This is where we are happy to help you.

After reviewing each card, we made a fair offer to Tommy which he accepted. We then paid Tommy how he wanted to be paid! When you choose Just Collect, we can pay you in cash, company check, or wire transfer. Each card was safely shipped to us with our fully-insured, two-day FedEx account.

We offer many ways to evaluate and purchase your collection! We do travel for large, high-end collections. Just Collect also has multiple booths to buy and sell collections and shows and conventions such as the National Sports Collectors Convention and The Philly Show. Read below to see how you can contact us today!

Love this story? Check out other blogs featuring incredible collections such as:

The Cooperstown Collection purchased in the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame and has multiple rookie cards of Hank Aaron.
The Oregon Farm Collection with a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle discovered in an old barn!
Two 1979 O-Pee-Chee Wayne Gretzky rookie cards - a pair of rookies from the Great One!
1990's Precious Metal Gem basketball cards include some of the rarest, most sought-after cards in modern history.
The Aaron Judge Collection with high-end one of one cards and multiple rookie autos.

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WE ARE ALWAYS BUYING

Just Collect is always buying vintage sports and non-sports cards from 1879 to 2009 as well as select modern cards. If you have a collection that you are considering selling, contact us today to discuss or get our industry-leading purchase offer. If you have a collection that you want appraised, please contact us and we would be happy to discuss your collection and help you understand the real cash value of your collection in the current marketplace. Check out the Just Collect Buy List.

We always offer a FREE APPRAISAL for your collection here at the Just Collect site. Just click here:

We offer may ways to evaluate your cards other than or using our website, too.

Travel to Us

If you can make the trip here like the son from my hometown did for this collection- we can make a deal at the office. We once met a father-son duo that drove eight hours from Virginia to meet us to sell a Michael Jordan rookie card stored in Tupperware since 1986 - great read here.

Come to convention

We keep a LIST of card shows we'll be attending. Come stop by the Just Collect table and chat.

Meet in-person

If you have a valuable collection and want us to come to you, we'll hop on the next plane out.

Meet in New York City

If you're near New York City and would like to meet in a public place, our owner, Leighton, would be happy to meet you; read all the information here.

SHIP your collection

If you choose to mail your cards for an appraisal, we will evaluate your cards for FREE still. If you choose not to sell the cards, we'll ship them back shipping fees paid by us! We can offer our FedEx account with 2-day shipping, fully insured, all covered by us. Simply contact the office to set up this option.

OUR BUYING PHILOSOPHY

We've run into a wide range of people and collections over the last 25 years. Although Just Collect is known for buying vintage sports cards and especially vintage baseball cards, we are also extremely interested in buying non-sports cards, too!

Every collection and every collector is different and we treat EVERY collection with the respect and attention that we show for our own collections. We understand that many have put their heart and souls into building their collections. So when you're ready to sell, we understand the feelings that you're going through and will work with you to help you reach a decision that is a WIN/WIN, because if you're not happy, we're not happy.