How often do you get a chance to own one of the top 200 baseball cards ever made? We’ve got one of them, a 1932 U.S. Caramel Ty Cobb in this week’s eBay auctions. The card comes from a set with a fascinating history. Based in Boston, U.S. Caramel created them as sort of a redemption program. Kids who collected all of them could send away for a baseball. Really ambitious kids with a sweet tooth and a little more disposable income who put together three sets could trade them in for a fielder’s glove. Needless to say, many kids just kept the cards. The company was tricky, too. One card in the ’32 U.S. Caramel set, #16, wasn’t even discovered by modern day collectors until the 1980s and only a few are known to exist. The 32-card set is considered complete without it. Many people believe the set wasn’t actually issued until 1933 and it does resemble those Goudey sets that would be sold with gum beginning that year. However, they also bear a bit of a resemblance to the 1914 and ’15 Cracker Jack cards. Cobb’s stature in the game is evident here. Long past his playing days, he nonetheless shares the stage with the likes of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. PSA named it as one of the top 200 baseball cards of all-time because of its scarcity and place in the hobby. The set is one of the more scarce pre-War issues on the market and that’s why it’s rare to see a Cobb up for sale. Only around 1,500 U.S. Caramel cards have been registered with PSA. The Cobb we’re offering displays very nicely with strong colors, excellent focus and terrific centering. It’s no wonder this card is attracting a lot of bids. The auction will close Sunday evening. Whether you collect Cobb , Hall of Famers in general or love rare cards, we couldn’t recommend this one more highly.
