Extremely Rare 1916 M101-5 Successful Farming #85 Miller Huggins

Sold For:

$900

Year:

1916

Auction:

2022 Spring

Lot #:

760

Category:

Prewar Baseball - 1910s and 1920s Cards

Presented is an attractive low-grade example of Hall of Famer Miller Huggins from the M101-5 series featuring an extremely rare Successful Farming advertising reverse. The M101-5 (and the closely related M101-4) set is commonly referred to as Sporting News (in honor of its most prominent sponsor), but cards were actually issued with a variety of advertising backs as well as with blank backs. The Successful Farming reverse is among the scarcest of the various advertisers found on M101-5 cards. While exact population numbers cannot be known, in their extensive research into the M101-4/5 sets and their advertising backs (http://www.oldcardboard.com/m/m101-4/m101pop.asp), hobby scholars Tim Newcomb and Todd Schultz estimate that Successful Farming cards are among the most difficult to find (along with Block & Kuhl, Burgess-Nash, and Ware's Basement) and account for less than one percent of the entire M101-4/5 production run of all back varieties (Successful Farming has been confirmed to appear only on M101-5 cards). Interestingly, this is only the third time we have offered a card with this scarce back in the past twenty years! The offered card displays a crisp image with excellent contrast, rounded corners, centering toward the bottom edge, and light creasing. Graded POOR 10 by SGC due to erased writing along the top border. The reverse advertisement for Successful Farming is bold and crisp. This is an extremely pleasing card of Miller Huggins featuring an ultra-rare back advertisement from one of the most important baseball-card issues of the era. A worthy addition to even the most advanced Miller Huggins, Hall of Fame, or type-card collection! Reserve $750.