Lot # 60: 1888 N172 Old Judge Wilbert Robinson SGC Authentic

1888 N172 Old Judge card of Hall of Famer Wilbert Robinson (pose #388-2) dating from his playing days as catcher for the Philadelphia Athletics, before stardom as captain of the Baltimore Orioles teams of the 1890s and success as one of the great coaches and managers of the early twentieth century. Wilbert Robinson is among the rarest of all Old Judge Hall of Famers and has always been one of the key stumbling blocks to the assembly of a complete Old Judge Hall of Famer collection. In fact, Robinson is ranked as the third rarest out of all 28 Hall of Famers appearing in the set (trailing only Deacon White and Bid McPhee) according to Jay Miller, Joe Gonsowski, and Richard Masson, authors of The Photographic Baseball Cards of Goodwin & Company (1886-1890), the definitive book on Old Judges. This is a very attractive example of this important Hall of Famer rarity! The offered card has superb image quality and honest corner wear. Encapsulated as "Authentic" by SGC due to a portion of the backing being skinned. There are very few cards of Wilbert Robinson as a player, as his playing career spanned the years 1886 to 1902. This is a visually appealing example of one of the most important cards in the N172 set and one of only a few cards that vie for rookie-card status (the Kalamazoo Bats card of Robinson was issued in 1887) as one of Wilbert Robinson’s earliest cards.