Lot # 2725: Circa 1910 T218 Mecca/Hassan "Champion Athletes and Prize Fighters" Complete Set (153) Including 23 PSA- and SGC-Graded Cards

Complete set of 153 cards featuring early twentieth-century "Athletes and Prize Fighters" issued with Hassan and Mecca tobacco products. Collectors are well aware of the many baseball sets of the 1910 era, but several very substantial high-quality sets featuring other athletes were also issued by tobacco companies. The largest and most substantial of these sets is the T218 Mecca/Hassan "Champion Athletes and Prize Fighters" set. The T218 series includes sixty-six boxers and eighty-seven other champion athletes of the era, including golfers, bowlers, billiards champions, and track-and-field stars. This collection consists of 111 Mecca Cigarettes advertising backs, forty-one Hassans, and two rare Tolstoi backs. Includes a duplicate of Lawson Robertson. Twenty-three cards have been professionally graded and encapsulated by PSA (21) and SGC (2). PSA Grading Composite: EX 5 (1 card): Stone (Mecca). VG-EX+ 4.5 (1 card): Cross (Hassan). VG-EX 4 (4 cards): Driscoll (Mecca), Flanagan/waist up (Mecca), Hamilton (Mecca), and Hoppe/playing billiards (Mecca). VG+ 3.5 (1 card): Hurley (Mecca). VG 3 (9 cards): Brown (Hassan), B. Goodwin (Mecca), Joe Jeannette (SGC, Hassan), James Jeffries/front pose (Mecca), Sam Langford (SGC, Mecca), Moisant (Mecca), O'Brien (Mecca), Sheppard/facing front (Mecca), and J. Walsh (Mecca). GOOD+ 2.5 (1 card): Crowley (Hassan). GOOD 2 (6 cards): Cline (Mecca), Hobens (Mecca), Irons (Mecca), James Jeffries/side pose (Hassan), Neil (Mecca), and Robertson (Hasssan). The condition of the 131-card unencapsulated balance is 5% Vg-Ex to Ex, 57% Gd to Vg, and 38% Pr to Fr. Unencapsulated Keys: Abe Attell (Gd+, Mecca), Joe Gans (Gd+, Hassan), Jack Johnson/front pose (Pr-Fr, Hassan), Jack Johnson/side pose (Pr-Fr, Mecca), W. J. Keating (Vg, Tolstoi), Stanley Ketchell (Pr, Mecca), and Ruddy (Vg, Tolstoi). Compared to baseball cards of the era, this set (which is at least as scarce) represents a particularly outstanding value. This is a very appealing complete set of one of the classic tobacco sport issues from the early twentieth century. Total: 154 cards (set of 153 plus one duplicate). The size/weight of this item requires that there will be an additional shipping charge for this lot.