A COMPLETE set of 1941 Play Ball cards including legendary players Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio has been purchased by Just Collect by a log time Yankees fan!
When Janet inherited her father's baseball cards, she remembered a few fond memories of the lifelong baseball fan. A diehard Yankee fan, Janet's father would turn the TV off when the Bronx Bombers were losing! Given how often the Yankees won, we imagine the television wasn't dark for many nights. When the time came to sell the card collection, Janet knew that Just Collect was the right place; 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! We have purchased thousands upon thousands of collections and bought and sold over 50 MILLION dollars in cards. Janet brought a COMPLETE set of 1941 Play Ball cards to our office!
Growing up in Newark, NJ, Janet's father loved the game of baseball. As he grew older, he enjoyed collecting cards just like you and us here at Just Collect! Rooting for the Bronx Bombers, one set a collector would have been keen on putting together in the era in which Janet's father did was 1941 Play Ball.
The 1941 Play Ball set has 72 cards in total with each measuring 2.5" x 3/18" in size. Among the 72 cards is #71, Joe DiMaggio. "The Yankee Clipper", DiMaggio helped his Yankees win 9 World Series championships and was named MVP of the league on three different occasions. A two-time batting champion, DiMaggio also led the league in home runs twice, and was named to 13 All-Star teams. The stat about DiMaggio that stands out among all others, though, is his record 56-game hitting streak! Joe DiMaggio collected at least one hit in every game for 56 consecutive games, a record that still stands today. A Yankee fan like Janet's dad had their eyes on this 1941 Play Ball Joe DiMaggio card for certain!
Despite playing for the rival Boston Red Sox, another iconic player has a card in the 1941 Play Ball set that Janet's father completed - Ted Williams. Perhaps the greatest hitter of all-time, the "Splendid Splinter" won six batting titles and is the last player to have batted over .400 for a season when he finished at .406 in the year this set came out! Williams led the league in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in during the same season - twice! Two triple crowns!
Several Hall of Famers other than DiMaggio and Williams are in the 1941 Play Ball set including Mel Ott, Hank Greenberg, Bill Dickey, Chuck Klein, Lefty Gomez, and Carl Hubbell. Each of these stars are in the collection; the whole, complete set of 72 cards was put together by Janet's father!
Janet inherited her dad's collection when he passed away. Her dad did talk about his collection occasionally. However, Janet remembers that he mostly kept them hidden. Janet's father felt accomplished when he completed the entire 1941 Play Ball set. We would have felt the same way, too! Back then, you couldn't go to a store to buy a full set like you can do today. Remember when you were a kid and had to buy wax pack after wax pack to get each card for the set? Some of those 1980's Topps sets had 792 cards, too; that is a lot of wax packs. For the Play Ball set, one pack came with two cards for a penny. While the cost was a little bit lower, a collector in the 1940's still needed to buy many packs to get a set! Forget about buying cards you need at a card show or using eBay; these things were decades away yet.
Along with the complete set of 1941 Play Ball cards, many cards from the 1939 and 1940 Play Ball sets are in the collection. You can see the difference between the first two sets and the third pretty quickly; the '39 and '40 releases are black and white while the '41 release is in color.
Several of the Play Ball cards from the 1939 and 1940 sets were written on. Janet wasn't quite sure why the cards were marked and she realized that it wasn't his handwriting so he must of acquired them that way. This reminds us of a collection we purchased previously! Just Collect purchased The Mysteriously-Stamped Playball Collection. On the front of just the 1939 cards EVERY card was stamped with the same date: May 9th, 1941. This date still has us guessing as to why it was stamped on every card!
Here are photos of Janet's collection starting with Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio in the first image:
Do you have any similar cards from this collection that you'd like to sell? We are buying! Click here for more info:
Janet came to our Just Collect store in-person in Summit, NJ. Bringing the cards with her, she shared stories about her father and the collection. As we always do when evaluating a collection, we offered Janet a FREE APPRAISAL. After carefully reviewing the complete set of 1941 Play Ball cards and the handful of 1939 and 1940 Play Ball cards, we made Janet a fair offer that she accepted. We then paid Janet right at our office! When you choose to sell your collection to Just Collect, we pay you how you want to be paid, be it cash, company check, or wire transfer. We will have the video for you to watch soon. When you watch the video, you will see how easy the deal was and how much Janet enjoyed working with us at Just Collect.
Before Janet went back home, we not only paid her for the collection, but we sent her back with a gift to remember her father by - one of the Play Ball cards! Our owner, Leighton, gifted back a Hall of Famer for Janet. Thank you for choosing Just Collect to sell your collection to as well as sharing the stories about your father!
If you have a collection you'd like to sell but can't make it out to New Jersey to see us in-person, don't worry; we have many ways to evaluate and purchase your collection! Here is how you can contact us any time:
Just Collect is always buying vintage sports and non-sports cards from 1879 to 1979 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!