The 1911 Turkey Red baseball card set is one of the most iconic and valuable sets in the entire history of sports cards. Issued by the American Tobacco Company, the set featured players from both the National and American Leagues on cards measuring 2.5 inches by 1.5 inches that had a distinct red border. A true piece of baseball history, the 1911 Turkey Red set introduced the mass production model for modern baseball cards that is still used today over a century later.
Like most early baseball cards, the 1911 Turkey Reds were included as inserts in packs of cigarettes produced by American Tobacco with the goal of helping advertise and promote their tobacco products. The cards were named Turkey Reds due to their distinct reddish border which was printed using ferrotype ink derived from iron pigments. While smaller in size compared to modern cards, the 1911 Turkey Reds featured vibrant color portraits of players on the front along with factual information like their team, position, and batting average on the reverse.
Some of the biggest stars of the era like Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson were all included on cards in the complete 100 card 1911 Turkey Red set. The high quality portraits and historical significance of the set make individual 1911 Turkey Reds some of the most valuable and sought after trading cards in the world today with high grade examples of stars frequently selling for well over $100,000 each at auction.
When they were originally released, the 1911 Turkey Red cards were never intended by American Tobacco to be collected or traded by children. Instead, they saw the cards as a strategic marketing tool to promote their brands like Sweet Caporal and Piedmont cigarettes. While kids did end up swapping and collecting the cards, the print run of the 1911 Turkey Reds was massive for the era with estimates indicating 25-40 million complete sets may have originally been produced. But the vast majority were sadly destroyed over the decades leaving the set incredibly scarce today with likely fewer than 100 complete sets known to still exist in mint condition.
Part of what makes finding high grade 1911 Turkey Reds so difficult is how roughly they were treated right from the start more than 100 years ago. Since the cards were included loosely in cigarette packs back in 1911, they were prone to damage from fingertips, burns from ashes, and discoloration from tobacco stains. Many kids of the time also ignored the tobacco companies’ intentions and put the cards to more rough-and-tumble uses like drawing on them, decorating bicycle spokes, or even using them as makeshift wallpaper.
Survivors tend to come from collections of adults who recognized the cards early on as interesting baseball memorabilia rather than as disposable promotions. Among the most impressive collections to surface in recent decades was one amassed by Idaho dentist Dr. James Beckett, who began seriously acquiring 1911 Turkey Reds back in the 1950s and 1960s before the set was widely recognized as highly valuable. Beckett went on to become a respected authority on sports collectibles and his Turkey Red examples in pristine condition helped establish record prices and grade standards still used today.
While no card is truly considered “common” within the set today given the rarity of high quality survivors, some individual 1911 Turkey Red cards are considerably tougher to find in perfect condition than others. Arguably the single most difficult examples to acquire in mint condition include stars like batter’s image Hall of Famer Ty Cobb on card #5, iconic spitballer Ed Walsh on card #44, and hard throwing phenom Walter Johnson on card #48. Finding these critical pieces in a state of preservation worthy of the highest grades like PSA 8 or above can take a dedicated collector years of searching to complete.
As the collecting hobby grew in popularity through the 1980s and beyond, demand and prices for desirable pre-war vintage sets like the 1911 Turkey Reds soared. In 1989 a pristine Ty Cobb example from the set sold for an unprecedented $50,000 shattering records at the time. That kicked off a price surge that has continued over the past few decades with blue chip Turkey Reds trading hands for sums no one could have possibly imagined back when kids first began swapping them over a century ago. In 2022, a flawless PSA GEM MT 10 Walter Johnson was sold by Heritage Auctions for an astounding $756,000.
With its staggering rarity, historical significance, and memorable portraits of some of the earliest baseball legends, the 1911 Turkey Red set represents the pinnacle achievement for collectors of vintage cards. While highly complete original sets will likely remain trophies out of reach except for the wealthiest institutions and serious collectors, pursuing high graded individual cards from the set remains an enticing challenge and sound investment decades after their original distribution. The 1911 Turkey Reds were truly pioneering in conception and their scarcity has certified them as one of the cornerstone collections coveted by all who appreciate the origins of our national pastime and the growth of the sports memorabilia industry.
