Starting a '61 White Sox checklist

There are probably few vintage baseball card/memorabilia collectors who spend as much time scouring eBay for the unusual as Florida collector Larry Serota.

As editor of the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards, I really appreciate the fact that Serota shares his finds with me. As a collector, you should be equally appreciative because not all collectors are as public spirited, hobbywise, as Serota. Some miserable collectors like to hoard away their finds, reveling in the fact that they have an "uncataloged" card. Of course when they want to cash in their stash, especially if they want to have one of the major grading companies slab their card, many of them come sniveling around the catalogers for recognition.

Here we have another freely shared and intriguing discovery from Serota.

This is one of 20 paper "cards" that, judging from the copy thereon, was issued in a kids' ticket promotion by a Chicago dry cleaner, or perhaps it was a local chain of dry cleaners.

This piece is about 10" x 2-1/2". Printed in red and blue on white. Serota speculates that it may have been the paper wrapper placed around a dry cleaned shirt, and may have been up to twice as long before being torn off and the printed portion saved.

From reading the copy, we can surmise that there were probably 20 White Sox players in the complete issue. The composition of the checklist is speculative at this point, but if we don't start compiling it now, we'll never complete it. We can look forward to confirmation of the existence of Hall of Famers Luis Aparicio, Nellie Fox and Early Wynn, and such local favorites as Minnie Minoso and Billy Pierce.