The Sports Collectors Daily featured one of the most unique prewar baseball cards - a true 1-1 Josh Gibson rookie from 1931. The card became more unique since Negro League baseball players like Gibson did not have baseball cards like their Major League Baseball counterparts in that era.
Gibson started his Negro League baseball career in 1930. He played until 1947, the same year Jackie Robinson joined MLB with the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking the color barrier. Unlike contemporaries such as Satchel Paige, Gibson did not play in MLB. He died of a stroke in 1947 at 35 years old.
In 1995, individuals discovered a single-print postcard. The signature received PSA/DNA authentication. The Hot Springs, Arkansas, produced card features an 18-year-old Gibson photo and autograph on the front and a signed inscription “To my pal Joe Lewis from Joshua Gibson” on the back. Joe Lewis played in the Negro Leagues as a catcher. While notated as a postcard in the PSA holder, the item becomes a de-facto rookie card, as Gibson's actual baseball card was not made until 1955, well after his death.
MLB inducted Gibson into its Hall of Fame posthumously in 1972, the second Negro Leaguer after Paige. In 2024, MLB integrated the Negro League baseball statistics, statistically ranking Gibson among the top MLB players.
The card, most likely initially owned by Joe Lewis, was lost for decades in the mists of time. The card entered the collecting community in 1995 from Louis Santop, a former Nego League player. In 2006, it hit the auction block and achieved $81,000.
