1914 Boston Garter Joe Jackson SGC 70 EX+ 5.5....

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The highest-graded Boston Garter known!

1914 Boston Garter Joe Jackson SGC 70 EX+ 5.5. It's the blue whale of the trading card taxonomy--impossibly large, stunningly beautiful, and yet almost never seen by the human eye. Only nineteen examples from the full roster of twelve subjects are known to exist, with the offered specimen not only the finest of the three Jackson representations, but also the highest-graded card of the entire breed. It is one of the hobby's great masterpieces, and one of its most improbable survivors.

With more than thirty-two square inches of surface area, the stunning graphics are able to stretch their legs both literally and figuratively, artfully capturing the perfectly balanced batting form that established Shoeless Joe as one of the most feared offensive weapons of the Dead Ball Era. The 1914 season matching the date of production would find this son of the reconstructed Confederacy engaged in his final full season in Cleveland before setting sail for glory and ignominy in the black socks of Chicago.

Perhaps the most unusual of all businesses ever to have linked itself to our national pastime through cardboard premiums, Boston Garter seems a particularly apt product to showcase a man for whom socks (and shoes, or the lack thereof) played such an instrumental role in his legend. Certainly the original production run of these oversized relics was dwarfed by its tobacco and candy contemporaries, while the amplified dangers inherent in their towering physical dimensions decimated those small original ranks to the edge of extinction.

Yet we find little more than corner wear to report here, with none of the creasing, chipping or staining that hampers nearly every other member of this rarest of formats. The argument that this is the most impressive baseball trading card that exists would not be without merit, checking every available box for significance, aesthetics and rarity.