1910-1911 T3 Turkey Red Cabinet Ty Cobb SGC 35 | Just Collect Blog

He was called the “Georgia Peach”, but opposing teams never had a “peachy” day playing against him.  Ty Cobb holds the all-time Major League Baseball career batting average record at .367, and was the very first candidate elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 1936, amassing 222 of a possible 226 votes from the selection committee. Long was he baseball’s all-time hits and runs scored leading, finally ceding those titles to Pete Rose and Rickey Henderson, respectively.  Almost one hundred years after his career ended, Tyrus Cobb remains number 2 among all-time MLB players in those to offensive categories. Between 1910 and 1911, the American Tobacco Company issued an oversized set of baseball cards, known as the T3 Turkey Red Cabinet cards, featuring the Cobb, and several other stars of the game, such as Cy Young, Tris Speaker, Christy Mathewson, Nap Lajoie and Walter Johnson.  They were available only by mailing in a coupon from Old Mill, Fez and Turkey Red cigarette packs. The lore of this style of photograph reveals that they are called “cabinets” because of their size.  They had to be displayed on cabinets rather than in albums of the day.

The example of the “Georgia Peach” seen here comes from our recent Knoxville, Tennessee “Volunteer Collection”, and included 100 different baseball players, as well as 25 boxers.  Three separate card back designs appear in the set.  One features a checklist with an advertisement offer for the mail in campaign.  The second variation showed only the checklist with no promotion offer, while the third and last version had a large advertisement for the Turkey Red brand of cigarettes.  The back of this example carries the checklist with ad issue. Spectacular with an iconic image, the gray bordered Cobb card appears as if it is in a picture frame.  This Turkey Red card shows the Tigers immortal at the prime of his playing career, with the grandstands in the background under a beautiful sunset, this century old baseball card of Ty Cobb earned the 2.5 Good+ rating from professional third party grader SGC.  The 1910-11 Turkey Red cards are susceptible to wear, making mid to upper grades extremely scarce.  Market Data reflects that about 150 or so have been graded, with only 7 earning the grade of 6 or higher.  Values vary, but are trending in the thousands for all grades, with the elusive “Mint” grade worth at least six figures! Just Collect is always looking to buy T3 Turkey Red Cabinet Cards and other vintage baseball cards from 1879 through 1979. This incredible Checklist with advertisement version of the “Georgia Peach” Ty Cobb can be added to your collection by clicking here from Just Collect.