Welcome fellow collectors. My name is Mike Cady. I have had the fun and pleasure of looking for all of the variations that Dick Gilkeson’s lists in his book since acquiring it many years ago. Unfortunately, sometimes the guide was hard to follow because of the yearly updates. So, with Dick’s permission, I combined them all and updated as I went along. This is the on-line result created along with the help and guidance of Dick and fellow variations collector George Vrechek. It is not complete so we still need your help. Since variations are still being discovered, and there are still many avid collectors, Dick believes that hobbyists benefit from having separate listings as a reference- a place where those of you aware of unknown variations, or ones you disagree with, have a forum in to the hobby papers, to pass on our knowledge. Feel free to contact me or email me photos to help speed up identification and verification of new variations or disputing listed ones. Any actual cards sent to me should be packed securely and insured so that I may photograph them and return them to you. My plan is to use many different reproductions in the update, including those provided by other hobbyists. I will publish blogs in alphabetical order of the card manufacturers as per the book featuring several card manufacturers when the checklists are small and individually when large. Hopefully this will generate more conversation for particular listings.
I will also be adding additional variation lists for football, basketball and hockey cards, Fleer and Topps logo stickers, and some non-sport cards as listed in the book.
By the way: Dick’s book was titled Volume II. He did it to mark this as the post-war resource. Volume I rightfully belongs to cards produced prior to 1948. His hope was that this book would inspire one of his readers who has a large collection of pre-war variations to follow his lead and bring another wanted resource to the hobby and it worked!
George has completed a Volume I-C since it only covers 1933 to 1947 and feels someone needs to do everything before then which presumably would be at least two more endeavors such as Vol I-A 1880s to 1912 (Tobacco era) and Volume I-B 1913-1932. Please contact him if in obtaining a copy of his Vol I-C that is now available.
Also, George will be handling the Exhibit cards section in this guide which you will notice start a little earlier than 1948.
Please contact him or myself (mcady68677@aol.com) for additional information.
Mike Cady, July 2019
INTRODUCTION
by Dick Gilkeson, July 2019
Welcome to the online updated version of my baseball card variations guide book as created by Mike Cady. When I published my variation guide in 1989, I was pleased that Ralph Nozaki, whose name was then synonymous with error cards and variations, graciously allowed me to build on his research. Now I am happy to formally pass that role to Mike and the group of dedicated collectors who have continued to track and identify variations.
I started identifying and collecting variations after I had collected virtually all the post-war card sets in baseball, basketball and football, as well as many non-sports sets. In hockey I concentrated only on Gretzky, Howe and Orr. I was looking for ways to expand my collection without moving into the pre-war sets. Building master sets became my passion in expanding my collection.
Mike, with his dogged efforts for the past 30 years to find and collect examples of all my listings, has been able to identify the instances of mis-information in my guide, and his work has identified several new findings that escaped my attention. His work should be invaluable in aiding collectors who might otherwise still be searching for the listings in my guide of cards that simply do not exist, or were printed in such small numbers that they failed to qualify.
I expect discussions about whether printing issues such as slight color differences, or small printing blemishes and the like will continue. Evaluating the relevance of certain finds through the years as master set material has always been somewhat subjective. I look forward to being able to look at the images that Mike will be posting in the years ahead as a major leap ahead in allowing collectors to decide the relevance of both new and old finds.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many thanks to Dan Albaugh, Lee Champion, Dwight Chapin, Lew Lipset, Bill Mitchell (Mitchell’s Baseball Cards), Jim Nowell, Ralph Nozaki, John Spalding, Al and Lynda Weber (The Dugout), George Vrechek, Mike Cady and to many other variation collectors and dealers for their encouragement, information, and advice regarding this compilation.
The original paperback copy is still available if preferred. Please contact Mike or myself for additional information.
Baseball Card Variations Guide Book Vol 2 