We have long been fascinated with the 1921 Herpolsheimer’s issue, and were stunned when, in early 2019, a person posted on the Net54 Baseball message board about a new find of 1921 Herpolsheimer cards. The cards were discovered stored away in an old Band-Aid box as part of an estate just miles from Grand Rapids, the location of the Herpolsheimer department store. Over the years we stayed close to the owner of the cards, astonished at the fact that while much of the hobby continued to be under the impression that the 1921 Herpolsheimer cards were one-of-a-kind, possible “prototype” cards, we knew otherwise – that there were more, including a number of cards that became the second known examples. In our opinion, this discovery dramatically increases the likelihood that the cards were actually distributed to the public somehow through the Grand Rapids store, and are simply unbelievably rare.

This example is one of the issue's keys, featuring Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander.  One of just two examples known, this has been graded GOOD 2 (MK) by PSA, with some light surface wear and moderate staining on the reverse.  The qualifier speaks to some faint, erased pencil writing at the bottom of the reverse (in the border underneath "second floor").  All the cards in this find had similar markings, in fact, each card from both finds were marked with pencil, albeit differently.  Certainly one of Alexander's most rare cards, one of just two currently known to exist.

Final note: Early this morning we published a blog entry titled "An Extraordinary Piece of Hobby Research," which chronicles a brand-new discovery that solves the mystery of how and when the 1921 Herpolsheimer's cards were distributed.  We invite you to review the research that answers these questions, and also direct your attention to a newly-posted print advertisement from the Grand Rapids Press that features these cards.  You can view the blog entry at https://loveofthegameauctions.com/an-extraordinary-piece-of-hobby-research/