Though
more scarce, the Boston Store set catalogued as H801-8 utilizes the
same 200-card base set (though some variations are known) as the
Collins-McCarthy issue. It is a clean and stark black and white photographic
set, similar in design to a number of other baseball sets released in the
early 1920s. The cards were produced on thin stock with a glossy
surface, making them susceptible to creasing and wrinkles.
Featuring
promotional advertising for a Chicago department store, the cards are
very scarce and desirable today. The issue is rare enough that the
total graded population of most of the cards remain in the single
digits, and despite the preponderance of of hobby auctions and
internet-based card dealers making an enormous variety of inventory
available daily, not a single complete set appears on PSA's massive set
registry.
Offered here is one of the finest examples ever graded by SGC. Centering is nearly perfect, though some minor diamond cutting leaves the top right corner just a hair higher than the left. The corners and edges are wonderfully sharp, and the printing on the reverse is bold and dark. Only some light soiling keeps this card from grading even higher than it already has, but this is an extraordinary example seldom seen with this sort of visual appeal.
SGC has only ever graded 6 total examples of this 1917 Boston Store, with NONE receiving a higher grade than the NM 7 offered here of pitcher Arthur Nehf.
While
SGC has graded a total of 1,182 cards across the entirety of the
200-card set, only eleven (11!) cards total have ever graded higher than
this one.