NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - A rare 1910 Shoeless Joe Jackson baseball card depicting the future Hall of Fame candidate during his season with the New Orleans Pelicans is heading to auction next week with an estimated value of $800,000.
The T210 Old Mill tobacco card is the most valuable item in Heritage Auctions’ spring card auction, which closes April 3. Only 17 of the cards are known to exist, making it rarer than the famous T206 Honus Wagner card.
“When you’re talking about a card this rare, kind of sky’s the limit,” said Mike Provenzale, Heritage’s director of production.
The card features a portrait of Jackson wearing a three-quarter trench-style warm-up jacket from his time with the Pelicans, a minor league team that operated from 1887 to 1959. Jackson played for New Orleans in 1910, the year before he joined the major leagues.
Jackson’s pivotal season in New Orleans
Jackson hit .354 during the 1910 season and led the league in batting as the Pelicans won the minor league pennant. The following year, he joined the Cleveland Naps and hit .408 as a rookie, making him the only rookie in baseball history to hit over .400. He finished second in the league in batting to Ty Cobb.
“That season with the Pelicans was really formative for him,” Provenzale said.
Jackson, a South Carolina native who worked as a farm laborer before his baseball career, was illiterate and reportedly shy around others. Only a handful of his autographs are known. After all, he was uncomfortable signing because he could not read or write.
“The only place he felt truly comfortable was on a baseball diamond,” Provenzale said.
The card is graded a 3 on a 10-point scale. Only two examples are graded higher.
Jackson’s major league career ended with the 1919 Black Sox scandal. Last year, baseball officials announced Jackson and Pete Rose would be eligible for the Hall of Fame.
Heritage Auctions previously sold the only known Shoeless Joe game-used bat from his major league career for over $3 million two years ago, a record price for any baseball bat.
Peyton Manning rookie card
The auction also includes a 1998 Playoff Contenders Ticket autographed Peyton Manning rookie card. Only 200 were made. Manning grew up in New Orleans. The card is graded a gem mint 10 and could eclipse the $207,000 record for a Manning card set last year.
The auction is open for bidding at ha.com and includes over 2,000 items.
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