Rare cards! 1914 T222 Fatima baseball cards are so scarce, only a few have been graded and authenticated. Today, we'll teach you about these incredible treasures in our new series: The Set of the Week. While you join us, we'll share a historic discovery Just Collect proudly made when we purchased The Fatima Wilcox Hotel Collection!
You're probably familiar with most new sports cards such as 2025 Topps baseball or Panini Prizm basketball, and of course, those wax packs you opened up in the 1980's when a Don Mattingly rookie card was on your radar. When you see vintage card sets, few places, if any, are equip with the knowledge we have here at Just Collect to identify and evaluate cards from over 100 years ago. With over 50 years of combined experience in purchasing and selling vintage cards, we're here to help you learn about sets often unknown in the hobby. Welcome to our new series, The Set of the Week!
110 years ago, baseball cards weren't sold the way each are today. Rather than buying a box from Wal-Mart or from joining breaks like you can with our friends at
Fatima Turkish Blend Cigarettes used baseball cards to help advertise their cigarettes in 1914. Each card is 2.5" x 4.5", a little bigger than the cards produced today of 2.5" x 3.5". On the back of each card is an ad for Turkish Blend, which is from the Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company. Liggett & Myers began in 1873 in Durham, NC., and was recently acquired by Japan Tobacco International, a company who makes Camel and Winston cigarettes. Along with the ad for Fatima Cigarettes, the back of each card has a note stating "Collection of 100 photographs of famous Baseball players, American athletic champions, and Photoplay stars." Of the 100 cards in the set, only 52 are of baseball players, some of which are incredibly rare.
On the front of each card, Fatima features real photos of baseball stars. A beautiful sepia image of each player catches your eyes as you glimpse into a time when there was no webbing on a glove and batting helmets weren't even a thought. Several Hall of Famers call the set home including Walter Johnson, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Frank Chance, Rube Marquard, Hughie Jennings, and Miller Huggins.
Here are photos of 1914 T222 Fatima cards:
How rare are these Fatima cards? The two biggest grading companies, PSA, and SGC, have only graded 1,733 total cards from the set. For comparison, PSA alone has graded 293,211 of the 1909-11 T206 set! Looking at individual cards, some are even more scarce that the iconic Honus Wagner card. In total, about 50 to 60 T206 Honus Wagner cards are known to exist. Combined, PSA and SGC have authenticated and graded a total of only 27 Walter Johnson T222 Fatima cards.
The third card you see above is one of the Walter Johnson cards! "The Big Train", Walter Johnson, is one of the greatest pitchers in the history of baseball. Johnson hasn't pitched a game in 98 years and still holds the record for career shutouts with 110. A two-time MVP (1913 and 1924), Johnson won the Triple Crown of pitching by leading the league in wins, strikeouts, and ERA THREE times (1913, 1918, and 1924)! Walter Johnson is still second all-time in career wins with 417. To understand how many wins that is for a pitcher, the most wins by an active pitcher is Justin Verlander with 262 wins. Verlander is 42 years-old, and the most wins he's ever had in a single season is 24 back in 2011. If Verlander matched his career best of 24 wins every year, he'd need to pitch until he's 48. Given Verlander won only 5 games in 2024, odds are he won't win 24 more total games let alone another 155!
We hope you enjoyed learning about the T222 Fatima set! Make sure to come back next week to learn about our next Set of the Week.
If you're wondering where we obtained photos of these rare Fatima cards to show you today, we're proud to show you the Wilcox Hotel Collection! In March of 2021, a family who owned a hotel in Wilcox, PA., discovered 39 cards from the T222 Fatima set in an envelope tucked away in a secretary desk!
You can see the Fatima Wilcox Hotel Collection and the whole story HERE.
Just Collect has purchased more than one Fatima collection, too! We proudly purchased and sold more than 50 MILLION dollars in collections including the rarest sports cards in the world. If you have a rare Fatima card or other vintage cards you're interested in selling, we are always buying! We also offer a FREE APPRAISAL. Here is how you can contact us any time today:
Just Collect is always buying vintage sports and non-sports cards from 1879 to 1989 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.
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.
We keep a LIST of card shows we'll be attending. Come stop by the Just Collect table and chat.
If you have a valuable collection and want us to come to you, we'll hop on the next plane out.
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.
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.
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.
Whether you have vintage cards or modern wax you want to sell, you can reach out to us any time!