The D304 General Baking Co. series issued between 1911 and 1914 by the Buffalo NY-area baking company is one of the hobby"s most rare and desirable vintage bakery issues. Commonly called "Brunners Bread" cards today the set actually features five different back varieties (Brunners Bread Butter Krust Bread General Baking Company Weber Bakery and Martens Bakery). Largely due to the size of the cards but also due to the issue"s striking images and more regionalized distribution this issue is one of the more unique issues of its era.Unlike other baseball issues of the day which often shared poses or images across multiple sets the poses and illustrations in the D304 set are found only in this issue. The D304 issue is also significantly more rare than the popular tobacco issues of the era with its key cards rarely becoming available for sale in the hobby. The 25 cards from this issue are a rarity and we are proud to offer a large assortment of cards from the set in our inaugural auction.This card of popular Hall of Famer Eddie Collins is an extremely rare example with the tough Martens Bakery back. According to author Robert Adesso in the article "1911-14 D304 General Baking: A Colorful Set with Five Sponsors" (Old Cardboard issue #11 Spring 2007) the Martens and the Weber Bakery backs are the rarest of the five D304 backs each accounting for just 5% of the cards in Adesso"s survey*. Indeed when the article in question was published five years ago a Collins with a Martens Bakery back had not yet been discovered by the author; it was only after the article"s publication that this and one other Martens Bakery Collins came to light. This is an extraordinarily rare card one of the most rare in this auction (which contains many rare items).The card itself is attractive but well-handled with wear consistent with the grade. The back is clean and visible with just the heavy corner crease in the upper left (upper right on the front) being the card"s primary issue. The only other known example of this card a high-grade example graded 84 by SGC sold for more than $7 600 at auction in May of 2009. This is an outstanding example of a super-rare card of a popular Hall of Famer; another example of which may not