“Gettysburg Eddie” Plank and His T206 Rarity – A 110 Year-Old Puzzle Solved?

Editor’s note:  I am pleased to present another guest article from hobby friend, and long-time collector Tom Slowey.  Enjoy!

by Tom Slowey

Eddie Plank, star pitcher for the Philadelphia A’s, has a card in the T206 White Border series, yet approximately only 100 of them exist.  For 110 years, the hobby has put forth different theories such as a player who did not want to encourage tobacco use among children, was under contract elsewhere or wanted more compensation for the use of his image, or even a broken printing plate.

The T206 set of 524 cards features 389 different players.  Are there just two of these players (Plank and Wagner) that objected to the use of their image in a tobacco product or wanted to be paid more money?  Other Philadelphia A’s players are common to both tobacco and caramel issues (such as Chief Bender and Harry Davis in the 1st (150-350) series of T206 and other players like Eddie Collins and Frank Baker in subsequent series), so could it really have been a sponsorship dispute?   The printing plate theory has elsewhere been dismissed based on Plank having different backs (150 and 350 series). A summer vacation trip to Gettysburg made me wonder about a new possible explanation, if you can first come to truly understand Eddie Plank’s life in that town.

Gettysburg Eddie’s is located at 217 Steinwehr Ave, Gettysburg, PA 17325

The July 1863 campaign in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania is known as the “high water mark” of the Confederacy.  General Robert E. Lee had sought a victory on northern soil. In the Battle of Gettysburg, his infantry assault, now known as Pickett’s Charge, was met with defeat by the Army of the Potomac.  In its three day wake were 51,118 casualties, including 3,903 Confederates dead lying next to 3,155 Union dead. The Gettysburg townsfolk were left to bury them in place on farms, in peach orchards, and in the woods.  The Union soldier remains were re-interred at Soldier’s National Cemetery. The Confederate soldiers’ remains were left in place until relocation by their families to southern cemeteries through 1873.

Imagine Eddie Plank as a boy born in Gettysburg in 1875, hearing those Civil War stories from his father.  A boy who played with rifle “minnie balls” he found in the fields. A boy who could pitch so well that he was recruited to play for Gettysburg College in 1900 and 1901, even though he was not enrolled as a student there.  A boy who left Gettysburg to travel to major league cities and play on three World Series winning teams. Yet perhaps also a boy who’s mind and heart never really left the farmlands and town of Gettysburg.

Eddie Plank returned to Gettysburg in his playing days to give unofficial battlefield tours to teammates and visiting players.  He retired there with his wife and son on Carlisle Street and operated a Buick dealership. Plank died of a stroke at age 50 and was buried in Gettysburg’s Evergreen Cemetery, as was his father, grandfather and great grandfather (and later his son).

Eddie Plank with Connie Mack and other guests outside Gettysburg’s Devil’s Den.

Now imagine Plank as a young player seeing his image on a 1902 cabinet of the Sporting Life Newspaper Company (Philadelphia, PA), a 1903 caramel card of the Breisch Williams Company (Oxford, PA), a 1906 playing card of Fan Craze Company (Cincinnati, OH), a 1907 Ramly Turkish Cigarette card of the Mentor Company (Boston, MA), a 1908 candy card of the American Caramel Company (Philadelphia, PA), a 1909 candy card of the Philadelphia Caramel Company (Camden, NJ) and a 1909 postcard of Novelty Cutlery (Canton, OH).

Imagine Plank’s possible reaction to seeing his image on a 1909 white border card of a card with a Sweet Caporal back in an American Tobacco Company package – “A business from the SOUTH is using my picture?  The SOUTH who’s Confederate soldiers demanded their wounds be nursed on my uncle’s farm just before I was born? The SOUTH who left their dead Confederate soldiers laying in the summer sun and were buried in our fields, after they came here to plunder my town and try to beat the Union over on Cemetery Ridge?”

Sports Collectors Store Auction (1995 advertisement)

Eddie Plank’s real objection may have been to a SOUTHERN tobacco company using his image for their own purpose.  The American Tobacco Company would come to issue its remaining T206 white borders, as well as its T205 gold borders, T207 brown borders, T201 Mecca double folds, T202 triple folds, T3 cabinets and T332 stamps, all without his image being included.

Outside the tobacco trust cards, Plank’s images is used on plenty of cards from Northern companies, including 1910 M116 pastel cards of Sporting Life Newspaper Company (Philadelphia, PA), 1911 bread cards of the Williams Baking Company (Newark, NY), 1911 cabinets of the Pinkerton Tobacco Company (Owenboro, KY), 1911 tobacco cards of the Thomas Cullivan Company (Syracuse, NY), 1914 Texas Tommy cards by the Cardinet Candy Company (Oakland, CA) and 1914 and 1915 caramel popcorn cards by Cracker Jack (Chicago, IL).  Plank may have approved of only a card or two from South, such the 1911-14 tobacco cards of the Peoples Tobacco Company (New Orleans, LA) (yet that city had fallen to the Union in 1862).

So a boy may leave his hometown yet his hometown may not leave his heart, just like “Gettysburg Eddie” Plank.  Perhaps the truth is that Plank demanded the American Tobacco Company remove his card from any Southern tobacco card production, never to use his image again.

“Gettysburg Eddie”, courtesy of Sunbury Press Books.

Written by Tom Slowey

The author of this article formerly wrote “1893 ‘Just So’ Tobacco Cards Linked to Frishmuth Bros. & Co.”, Old Cardboard Magazine, Issue #27 (Spring 2012) and “George W. Harrison’s Sovereign 150 Barney Pelty”, That T206 Life (April 2019).  All rights to the article reserved by the author.

Upside-Down T206 Sweet Caporal 150 Factory 649 Overprint Discovered

On August 23rd, 2019, a net54 member made a post about this Nap Lajoie (Throwing) with an upside-down Factory 649 Overprint that he recently acquired.  He went on to say the card had been in an old collection, stored in an attic for 80 years, along with other T206s.

There was a bit of skepticism at first as this would be the first upside down Sweet Caporal 150 Factory 649 Overprint known if it was indeed genuine.  My initial thoughts were that it looked good, but there were a couple things that gave me pause.  First, there were a ton of Sweet Caporal 150 Factory 649 Overprints printed.  It would be somewhat surprising for the first known upside-down overprint to finally surface now.  Secondly, anytime a new rare back or oddity find features a Hall of Famer on the front, I tend to look at the find with increased scrutiny.

Along with some healthy skepticism, I had another thought:  The placement of the overprint looked to be an exact match with the Factory 649 overprint on the Greminger Brown Old Mill (below).

Another member soon posted on the net54 thread saying that he had also seen the card in person at a recent card show and felt it was legit.  Then I received an email from my friend Pat Romolo who brought up some additional corroborating evidence that had not occurred to me.

My immediate reaction was everything about it looked good to me and the 649 op is about where I would expect it to be.  For a while now I have thought for whatever reason the sheets were printed off center from top to bottom with a much larger top border and if that was the case then the op is about where it should be.

If T206 sheets had the huge top border like the Young and Stahl above, it would perfectly explain the placement of this Factory 649 overprint on the Lajoie, as well as the one on Greminger.

On September 20, 2019 the original poster returned to say the card had been authenticated by SGC and was featured in the current Wheatland Auction.  As you can see, SGC declined to mention the upside-down overprint on the label.

The auction closed on September 30, 2019 with a hammer price of $4,720.

What’s the deal with Topps T206 Buybacks?

Editor’s note:  I’m very excited to present a guest article written by my buddy, and fellow T206 collector Justin Goodman, co-host of The Monster Podcast. Thanks Justin!”

In early 2002, Topps issued a T206-themed modern card set whose packs included randomly inserted original T206 cards sealed in small plastic frames.  Because of the novelty of the old cards inserted into modern packs, the product sparked interest among modern collectors, as well as those chasing The Monster. Even today, the framed T206 cards continue to command a premium. Here’s what you need to know:

How many are out there?

For the 2002 set, Topps worked with a well-known T206 dealer to purchase a reported 4,000 T206s from the marketplace, which included some T205 and T207 cards.  One estimate indicates that the odds of pulling one from a 2002 pack was roughly 1:100 depending on which of the three series the pack was from.

Topps inserted original T206 cards again in packs of its 2008 Topps Updates & Highlights (odds 1:1,384 packs), as well as its T206-themed products in 2009—on the 100th anniversary of the birth of The Monster—and 2010. One source shows the odds of pulling an original T206 from the 2010 product was 1 in 4,077. The odds of pulling a T206 from a Topps pack were the best, by far, in the original 2002 release.

These framed cards are commonly referred to as “buybacks” even though, as some have noted, the T206 cards used were not technically “bought back” by Topps since it never produced or owned them in the first place.

What do they look like?

In 2002, Topps released three series of its T206-themed cards in standard modern card size. The first series featured yellow plastic frames with clear cut-outs around the original T206 cards, the second series was blue, and the third was pink.

In 2008 and 2009, the T206 inserts had black frames.

There are no dedicated frames for the 2010 series because Topps apparently inserted those original T206s in unused 2002 buyback frames.

Which T206s were bought by Topps and inserted into packs?

Collectors’ accounts on message boards, auction sales records, eBay listings and personal experience demonstrate a pretty diverse range of T206s used for the buyback inserts.

Common players with common backs (Piedmont and Sweet Caporal) make up the overwhelming majority of the buybacks that have been seen. However, a good number of Hall of Famers, including with scarcer and even rare backs, have been verified as well.

 According to one former Topps employee: “I worked at Topps as a baseball editor in 2001-2 and probably my favorite couple of hours there was opening that package from [dealer] Kit Young and sorting those T206 cards alphabetically on the carpet floor of a meeting room. I wish I had taken a picture. There were a few nice HOFers there too, highlighted by Walter Johnson.”

 

The Hugh Duffy with a Polar Bear back above is just one example of a tougher combination appearing in a buyback holder. One collector has reported seeing a Christy Mathewson portrait as a buyback. There have also been sightings of American Beauty, Cycle (see photo below) and Sovereign backs. In one extraordinary example detailed below, I have a rare T206 John McGraw (with cap variation) with a black Lenox back.

While these tougher cards are clearly exceptions, not the rule, it’s important to keep in mind that the market for T206s was not nearly as strong in 2001 when these cards were being purchased, so what may seem outlandish to insert as a giveaway now may not have seemed that way nearly 20 years ago. For example, the now-highly-sought-after Elite 11 rarities were not documented until the mid-late 2000s, and some, like the Bill Dahlen (Boston) Piedmont 350 shown below, have appeared as Topps buybacks.


What condition are the framed T206s in?

The condition of the inserted T206 cards generally ranges from Poor to Very Good/Excellent. Several collectors have reported T206 cards removed from their Topps buyback frames earning a grade of a 4 (VG-EX) from third party graders.  There is also evidence that some of the inserted cards had been trimmed or otherwise altered at some point in their lifetime.

The former Topps employee quoted above also wrote: “There was no QC to this effect from Topps’ end. I’m sure that all were authentic, but these were purchased and inserted raw and had never been graded (or perhaps some of them had been attempted, but who knows). In any case, we didn’t do anything to ensure no trimming or alteration.”

For example, this apparently-trimmed Bill Dahlen (Boston) Piedmont 350 back—one of the super rare “Elite 11”—in a Topps buyback frame is currently listed for sale on Net54.

Of course, Topps used these low-grade buyback cards as a marketing tool, and never guaranteed collectors anything more than an authentic original T206 card, so they shouldn’t be purchased with any expectation beyond that.  BVG is currently the only grading company that will grade and slab T206s still encased in the Topps buyback frames. Other third party graders will remove the card from the frame upon receipt or require that you do so prior to submission.

What do collectors think?

There’s a wide range of opinions on the desirability and value of the Topps T206 buybacks.   Many T206 collectors feel the re-inserted cards do not warrant any kind of premium price. They don’t like the aesthetics of the modern plastic frame, and prefer to have the cards in their original raw state.

But, there are modern and pre-war collectors who seek the cards out because of their novelty and are willing to pay extra for them. To a modern collector, the T206 buybacks are seen as rare inserts to chase. To some pre-war collectors—and they are definitely in the minority—they’re notable artifacts because they represent a new way these 100-year-old cards made it into the hands of collectors.

Whether or not you want to collect them, the marketing gimmick has had the positive effect of inspiring new T206 collectors. A poster on Net54 wrote: “I would think the appeal is not necessarily to seasoned collectors, but to kids and adults who like to buy packs but aren’t necessarily “in the hobby”… to them, pulling a genuine old card (no matter who the player is) from a pack probably would be a thrill. You never know if a buyback card pulled today might be the first step in the journey of some great collection of the 2050s or 2060s.”

There seems to be some validity to this. One collector said: “I like them. I pulled two in 2002 and they got me interested in T206/prewar. A couple years ago I released them from their sleeve and had them graded. They’ll always have sentimental value to me as they were my first.” Another wrote about he and his daughter, “Our first “real” t206 card as a hit on the 2002 set led to a lot of research and a serious case of monsteritis.”

What are they worth?

Despite the mixed feelings about the Topps T206 buybacks, they continue to sell for a premium.  For instance, a beat up common with front paper loss and back staining and paper loss recently sold for double its raw value just because it’s a Topps buyback.

For lower dollar cards, T206 buybacks still seem to command a roughly 25% to 100% markup over their raw or third-party-graded counterparts, though the pool of interested buyers is quite small.  For Hall of Famers and other more desirable buybacks, the mark-up is significantly less, especially since the leading third-party graders require that the card be removed to be authenticated, graded and encapsulated. Additionally, because of some of the fraud concerns raised below, there is less interest in purchasing high-dollar T206 buybacks because of the risk.

Buyer beware

There is evidence that some fraud is taking place.  In the 2002 Topps set, the plastic frames used for the T206 buybacks were also used to house other, less valuable inserts that now often sell for less than a dollar.  In some cases, unscrupulous hucksters have carefully cut open the frames to insert original T206s (which then sell for a premium) and even phony T206 rarities.

One thief has repeatedly been caught purchasing dozens of low grade T206 cards on eBay and elsewhere, cleaning them up, inserting them into recycled Topps buyback frames and selling them on eBay as original buybacks just to squeeze a few extra dollars out of unsuspecting buyers. Above is an actual example of one of the before and after of one of these phony buybacks as a collector on Net54 documented.

A personal story

A year and a half ago, a 2002 Topps T206 John McGraw (with cap variation) buyback with a rare black Lenox back showed up on eBay. Collectors on the Net54 message board immediately began voicing strong doubts about the authenticity of the card, both the ultra-tough McGraw/Lenox combination, and the fact that a card of such scarcity would have been inserted into a pack as part of Topps buyback program.

The card was in rough shape to be sure, but I examined it closely and the wear and tear looked right to me, despite the compelling red-flag of such a rarity ending up in the Topps buyback holder. After some deliberation and consultation with other collectors—many who were skeptical—I took the plunge and purchased the card.

Upon receipt, I crowdsourced input on whether to cut the card out, keep it as it or send it in to be graded. Most of my friends said to cut Mugsy out. I ultimately decided to because if SGC determined the card was phony and they were the ones who removed it from the buyback frame, I would have strong evidence for a refund from the eBay seller. I sent it in with instructions that they cut it out of the frame and grade the raw card. Thankfully, he came back graded Authentic by SGC.

There’s a common expression in card collecting, “Buy the card, not the grade” (or “Buy the card, not the slab”).  It’s some of the best advice out there for collectors, and it holds true for the Topps T206 buybacks as well. Don’t ever blindly trust the plastic frame, or the PSA slab. Use your own eyes and judgment (and the expertise of other collectors) to determine if a card is what it’s advertised to be and if it’s the right card for you.

In this case, the buyback holder alone wasn’t a good enough reason not to buy the card.  But a name brand holder also shouldn’t be a reason to buy any card without carefully inspecting it in light of all the information above.

Take home message

With an estimated 4,000 original Topps T206 buybacks, it’s likely that the overwhelming majority being encountered out there are legitimate, as long as you keep in mind the caveats that even real buybacks may contain altered cards; there has been fraud with commons; and some eye-catching examples out there are too good to be true.

I don’t specifically search out the buybacks and wouldn’t pay a premium for them, but tend to agree with Luke’s opinion that, “the Topps holder just kind of adds to the story of the card.”  Topps did the hobby a service by giving these special cards a chance to once again spark enthusiasm for tobacco card collecting like it did in so many people over a century ago.

Written by Justin Goodman

Is a Scrapped T206 Broad Leaf 460 Sheet Being Broken Up Slowly?

About 18 months ago, the Snodgrass above was sold via Hunt Auctions (I can’t remember the exact date, and there doesn’t seem to be any record of the sale online).  Two month ago, this Griffith appeared on eBay:

If you take a close look, you’ll see that both cards are hand-cut.  They have large, wavy, and uneven borders.  When I saw the Griffith it immediately reminded me of the Snodgrass.  At that point I wondered if there were others from the same sheet.  But, two copies wasn’t really enough to assume there was a larger pattern.

Eight weeks after Griffith was listed on eBay, the below Harry Davis appeared.  At that point I was convinced these three cards came from the same sheet.

The question was: “Are there any others?”  I didn’t have to wait long to find out.  REA’s Summer 2019 Auction went live this week and among the predictably staggering offerings were these hand-cut Broad Leaf 460s:

Now that we know these six cards very likely originated from the same sheet, a couple questions come to mind.  Are there more that will come to market soon?  And if there are, what effect will that have on prices for Broad Leaf 460s going forward?

An Update on Content and an Appeal for Guest Articles

1 Comment on An Update on Content and an Appeal for Guest Articles

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I haven’t published much content lately, and for that I apologize.  We are in the process of moving into a new house and clearing out and renting the condo that we were living in.  So I went from spending a lot of my free time house shopping to spending it moving, cleaning, and doing yard work.  I should have posted something earlier about my slower pace, but honestly I was hoping I could just get back at publishing once a week and not have to.

Maintaining this site has always been a hobby, and I try to keep that in mind.  I’ve had periods where I am really inspired to pump out content, and others where it hasn’t sounded like much fun.  At times that has been due to something akin to writer’s block.  Basically I just didn’t have any great ideas to write about.  Other times I just haven’t felt like writing.  When I started the site, I held myself to a strict schedule of publishing one article per week.  The idea was I wanted to stack up a bunch of (hopefully) interesting and informative articles so the site would become a valuable resource for collectors.

Image result for http://www.net54baseball.com t206 images

I had a lot more free time when I started the site than I do now.  That combined with the simple passage of time made it somewhat inevitable that I would run into a period of burnout at some point.  While I was considering starting a website, I wrote down all the ideas I could think of for articles and research projects.  I got to about 50 and then decided to give it a go.  Over the last 32 months, I have written about all those topics (and many more).  It can be a little tough to come up with new topics that I believe my readers will find value in.  As many of you know, I could do deep dives into back collecting minutiae every week.  But I’m not sure how many people would be interested in some of it.

For now I am not going to make any decisions or set a new publication schedule.  The plan is just to write when I have the time and inspiration, and go from there.  I may stick with the current format, or I may throw in some lower content blog-style posts in order to publish a little more often.

Image result for http://www.net54baseball.com t206 images

One thing is certain; this site isn’t going anywhere.  Even if I take breaks here and there, I plan to keep the website up and running.  I’m proud of all the content I have produced and want to keep it available for you guys and future T206 collectors to reference.

On a related note, if any of you have an idea for a guest article, I would love to talk about publishing it here on the site.  Some topics that I think would be really cool include (but are not limited to) player bios, stories about your personal collecting focus, fun collecting finds, etc.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for bearing with my slower pace the last few months.

-Luke

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A Trip Inside My Binder: Really Cool Cards that Didn’t Break the Bank

This is a guest post written by my friend and T206 aficionado Jay Kaplan.  Jay originally published it on the Tobacco Row Facebook group.  I really enjoyed reading it and thought other people would as well.  It’s still possible to build a unique and impressive collection without breaking the bank, and these are some great examples to prove it.  Thanks Jay!

One of the reasons that the T206 set is the best set of all time is the nuance. From starting with a team set (sorry if you’re a Pirates or Phillies fan!), to doing a HOF run, to doing a back subset, or endeavoring to complete the monster, there is truly something for every collector. Episode 4 of The Monster Podcast tried to break the set down to provide the collector with a blueprint to complete the set without destroying the bank. This blog is going to highlight a few cards from my personal collection that I think are of extraordinary coolness value that also did not break the bank. Combined, these 4 cards cost me $340, far less than $100 each.

There was admittedly some skill in finding these cards, but 3/4 were purchased off ebay during the last 16 months. The key here, was burrowing through hundreds (maybe thousands) of ebay auctions and listings to find some things that I thought were cool. And then following through with a reasonable bid to make sure they came home to Virginia. This blog will briefly discuss each of the 4 cards, and why I think they are cool.

Card #1 – Chief Bender no trees with a Cycle 460 back – FR condition (formerly an SGC 20); Cost: $150

Chief Bender is certainly in the lower tier of HOFers, and the no trees card is probably the least aesthetically pleasing of his three cards. This is also probably the least cool of the four cards I’m writing about. However, Cycle is one of my favorite backs in terms of appearance, and the Cycle 460 is one of the backs that I think is underrated and underappreciated. I rank Cycle 460 as the 10th toughest back, while the traditional rankings that float around the Internet rank it as the 15th toughest back (excluding Ty Cobb and SL Old Mill Brown from both lists). Getting any HOFer with a back of this difficulty is a great collecting accomplishment, but getting it for just $150 was a real coup.

Card #2 – Bill Dahlen Brooklyn – SCRAP; Cost: $95

Bill Dahlen is on everyone’s short list of non-HOFers that probably should have made it. Some claim that when the committee considers him again in several years that he may get in, but either way, he was a great player and his two cards are two of the best-looking portraits in the set. While the scarcity list says that Dahlen Brooklyn is #87, any set builder knows that it’s a difficult and expensive card to locate. This card is the only scrap Dahlen Brooklyn card that I have ever seen. A scrap is a card that was printed, but never released into packs. They are usually mangled (as this one is), horribly miscut, show visible printing errors, or have some other major issue that prevented them from being included in a pack Sweet Caporal cigarettes in 1910. This card is ¼ of an inch oversize top to bottom and full size left to right (even if it doesn’t look like it). There is nothing to stop people from mangling oversize cards to make them appear to be scraps, but this card sold for far less than a beater or trimmed Dahlen would have sold for (even if maybe it shouldn’t have). You have to train your eye to differentiate a scrap from a trimmed card, but generally if the card is full size but clearly cut at a steep angle, it’s likely a scrap. It’s always good to get a second opinion as I did before I purchased this card.

Card #3 – Bill Donovan fielding – with a “F” back stamp attributed to F. Scott Fitzgerald; Cost: $74

This really cool old-fashioned “F” back stamp is attributed to legendary author F. Scott Fitzgerald. As a kid, he was a known collector of stamps, and an alleged T206 collector that stamped his cards. I’m a big fan of The Great Gatsby and Fitzgerald as an author and person. There has been good research on Net54 to try to conclude whether or not these stamps are actually attributed to Fitzgerald (I am a believer even if others aren’t). But regardless of whether or not this card was actually touched, stamped, or owned by Fitzgerald, it is an amazingly cool back stamp. There are a decent number of these “F” stamps floating around, but this is the darkest and crispest that I have ever seen. We can all agree that this stamp was added by a young collector many years ago, and I think that personal connection is very cool.

Card #4 – Bob Rhoades arm extended – with a big factory number on the back (right border); Cost: $20

TR’s own Luke Lyon wrote a great blog on these big factory numbers, which is actually where I first learned about them (http://www.thatt206life.com/…/t206-sweet-caporal-350-facto…/). I’m not going to duplicate his work, but briefly, these big factory numbers exist only on Sweet Caporal 350 backs. Supposedly, during the printing process, uncut pages of T206s were stamped on the side to differentiate the Sweet Cap 350 Factory 25 pages from the Sweet Cap 350 Factory 30 pages. Normally, when the cards were then cut they were cut in such a way that the large factory numbers did not appear on the cards themselves. After all, they weren’t supposed to! However, some were miscut and part of a number is clearly visible on this card along the right border about 2/3 of the way down. This card is doubly cool because large factory numbers are typically seen on the bottom of the card rather than along the left or right border.

Sometimes the cost and value of a card is not indicative of the coolness value that card possesses. All of these cards will forever remain a part of my personal collection just because I think they add some variety that even a Cobb cannot provide. Sometimes it’s just not about the dollars and cents. Happy collecting everyone and feel free to share your own cards that are low in cost, but high in coolness value in the comments!

-Written by Jay Kaplan

The Ink Used for the Caption on T206s Can Vary More than You Might Think – And What it Means for Spotting Fakes and Reprints

One of the easiest ways to spot a fake T206 is by looking closely at the name and team caption.  This is because fakes and reprints often have the caption printed in black ink.  When the ink is obviously black, it’s an open-and-shut case.  Unfortunately, it can often be tough to tell what color the caption is printed with.  This is something I haven’t seen discussed very often.  My buddy Pat Romolo came up with this idea for an article, and I thought it was a great idea.  The caption comparison graphic above is courtesy of Pat.  All of those cards were scanned on the same scanner, with the same settings.

On an authentic T206, the caption is always printed in brown ink.  However, the shade of brown can vary quite a bit, as can the boldness of the font.

As you can see from the graphic above, some captions are printed with very bold, thick lettering, while the letters on others are a lot skinnier.  Some captions are printed with such a light shade of brown, that it looks more like gray to the naked eye.

Clarke Portrait with thin, light caption

When you are first getting started buy raw T206s, there are two main things to look at when trying to determine the authenticity of the card.  First, look for those “crackle” lines.  Little lines in the surface of a card.  Many fakes have these lines, while no legitimate T206 ever will.  Second is looking out for black ink in the caption, as that is a major red flag.

But what happens when the ink used for the caption looks more like “CAMNITZ” above than “DOOLAN”?  Over the years I have seen a number of scans or photos on ebay where the caption looked like it could be black, but the rest of the card looked authentic.  In those situations I take a closer look at the card as a whole before making a decision.

If a T206 has a light gray-ish looking caption, and then an ebay seller takes a bad scan or picture of it, those two things can conspire to create the illusion of a caption printed with black ink.  This happens very infrequently, but it’s worth thinking about.  If everything else about the card looks good, there’s always a chance it’s just the scanner settings or a bad photo.  If the card features a common player, it’s even more likely to be authentic.  However, if it’s a raw Cobb, my advice would be stay away, or seek advice from a friend who is in a expert at determining authenticity of raw T206s.

Cobb Green Portrait with bold, dark caption

 

George W. Harrison’s Sovereign 150 Barney Pelty

 

Editor’s note:  I am pleased to present a guest article written by fellow collector Thomas A. Slowey.  Thank you Tom!
The fair market value of a pre-war card to a vintage card collector is dependent on a myriad of factors, the majority of which are an interest in a particular set or player, the rarity of the issue and the condition of the particular card.  Intrinsic value may be embedded within fair market value based on the card being a survivor of handling, weather conditions, paper drives during war conditions and house cleanings.  Some intrinsic value exists in owning a card older than ourselves that has outlived world events such as economic depressions.  Unless passed down through a direct family member, rarely is the actual provenance of a card part of intrinsic value.  In almost all such situations this information has been lost by virtue of time.  A few such cards do exist thankfully to the early 20th century practice of adding a back stamp reflecting ownership.  While the stamping of old cards is uncommon, it is even more unique to find one with both an actual name and place of residence to pinpoint the true original owner.
 

The combination of the specific player below with its back stamp allows this card to be specifically traced to having been issued in the summer of 1909 to become possessed by George W. Harrison of Charlotte, Monroe County, New York shortly after he had attained the age of thirteen years.  Birth records show that George was born in Charlotte on April 26, 1896 as the only child of Maud N. Harrison, third spouse of George N. Harrison, who had four daughters.  As was common in that era, the family appears to have stayed in the area, as his parents, siblings and himself are all buried in nearby Rochester.

The 1909 to 1911 T206 “white border” series of cards were printed and distributed by the American Tobacco Company in three groups.  The 150 series, to which George’s card belongs, were the very first, printed and distributed starting in May and through the fall of 1909 when the 350 series commenced.  The American Tobacco Company distributed the 150 Series within the Piedmont, Sweet Caporal and Sovereign flagship cigarette brands, and its Hindu regional brand.  The horizontal Bernard Pelty was available only in the 150 Series.  Only six T206 cards contain horizontal images (Pelty and Pattee only in the 150 Series; Birmingham, Mullin, Murphy and Powell in the 150-350 Series).  The 150 Series (only) group contains 11 players (one of which is Honus Wagner’s portrait) on 6 different backs, for which Hindu then Sovereign 150 are considered much tougher than Piedmont or Sweet Caporal. 

Public records show that George’s father passed away at some unknown date in 1909 at age 61 or 62.  At least one of George’s grandfathers had predeceased his father, who had no brothers of record alive at that time either.  This makes it a reasonable assumption that George, unless attempting to smoke as a new teenager, was likely gifted this card by only his dad (or otherwise acquired it through inheritance had his father kept it in a drawer or book) shortly after May 1909.

In May 1917, President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the Selective Service (Draft) Act.  George was likely drafted when he entered the United States Army at the age of twenty-one years old on December 16, 1917 as a Private, assigned to Battery F, 57th Artillery, Coast Artillery Corps.  He was promoted to Bugler on April 12, 1918.  His regiment left New York City aboard the USS Rijndam (Ryndam) on May 10, 1918 for France, after George had turned 22 years old.  Battery F served at the Battle of St. Mihiel at Sampigny, routing the German forces, continuing to the Meuse-Argonne sector, from September 25th to November 11th, driving the fiercely resisting enemy from Montzeville, Avocourt, Malancourt, Iovry, Mountfaucon and Bois de Romagne. 

On January 2, 1919, Battery F (with George having survived these battles) departed Brest, France on the USS Huntington among 1,700 passengers, returning to New York on January 14, 1919.  George was discharged on January 25, 1919, likely from Camp Merritt, New Jersey.  A photograph of Battery F, 57th Artillery, C.A.C. in France is shown above, for which he could be one of these soldiers. 

A World War I service book about Rochester men confirmed George’s death at the age of 30 on October 14, 1926, while living at 13 Vienna Street in Rochester, New York.  He was attached to the Aviation Corps of the U.S. Army.  George’s grave website information does not state that he ever married or had any children.  What is conclusive is that George W. Harrison was the original owner of this specific Series of 150 Sovereign card of Barney Pelty in the summer of 1909 at age thirteen when he lived in Charlotte, Monroe County, New York

Article provided by Thomas A. Slowey, who previously wrote “1893 ‘Just So’ Tobacco Cards Linked to Frishmuth Bros. & Co.,” Old Cardboard Magazine, Issue #27 (Spring 2012).

Intro to T206 Print Marks – Starring Hall of Famer Ed Walsh

This will be the first in a series of articles where I delve into the research of Pat Romolo.  Pat has been studying T206 plate scratches and print flaws for years.  He was one of the first (if not the very first) collectors to recognize the importance of such identifying marks.  I personally find his work incredibly clever and illuminating.  In this and the articles that follow, I’ll attempt to explain what makes these tiny print flaws so significant to our understanding of the T206 set.

If you take a very close look at one of your T206s, you may notice some things you hadn’t previously.  Every T206 has it’s own unique characteristics.  Some of the more common traits we look for are centering, registration, and boldness of color.  All of these are examples of “factory attributes”.  In other words, these elements of a card’s appearance are due to the way the card was printed at the factory.  Other aspects of a card’s eye appeal such as corner and surface wear, paper loss, writing, and creasing are all examples of “post-factory attributes”.  Print marks are factory attributes that go a long way towards helping us understand the printing process.

Many of the little marks and flaws on a T206 are unique to that particular example, but not all.  Some were printed on multiple cards, leaving a fingerprint (if you will) that can help us better understand the printing process.  Perhaps more importantly, these print marks and print flaws help us define a timeline for when each back was printed.

Today we’re going to take a closer look at this little red dot on Ed Walsh’s uniform.  The first step is to spot the print flaw.  The second is to look at a library of scans of the same pose to determine if this particular print flaw exists on just one card, or many.  In the case of Walsh’s red spot on his uniform, there are indeed multiple cards that exhibit the mark.

The table below shows the results of a survey Pat conducted.    The number on the right is the total amount of cards Pat examined, and the number on the left is how many of those cards had the red spot on the uniform.  A couple of things stand out immediately.  First, the red spot is very rare.  Pat surveyed over 400 copies of Walsh’s T206 and only found 8 examples that featured the red dot.

Upon closer examination, something else sticks out.  All 8 of the cards with the red spot appear on cards with 350 backs (with the exception of the Old Mill, but we’ll get to that in a moment).  None of the backs that were printed at the beginning of the 150-350 Series have been found with this particular print flaw.  No Hindu, Sovereign 150, Piedmont 150 or Sweet Caporal 150 backs.

It’s not a surprise to see an Old Mill back sprinkled in with the Piedmont 350 and Sweet Caporal 350 backs.  It has long seemed likely that Old Mill backs, along with Sweet Caporal 350 Factory 25 were the last two backs printed in the 150-350 Series.  What is interesting is the lack of a single example with either an El Principe de Gales or Sovereign 350 back.

We already knew that Sovereign 350 was printed at least slightly before Old Mill because Kid Elberfeld’s Sovereign 350 Portrait still has him with New York, whereas his Old Mill pictures him with Washington.  Nonetheless, it’s a nice bit of corroborating evidence.  In that same vein, the fact that Pat couldn’t find an El Principe de Gales back with the red dot supports the growing consensus among collectors that EPDG was either the last back printed in the 150 portion of the 150-350 Series, or the first back printed in the 350 portion.

If you own a copy of Ed Walsh’s T206, I hope you’ll go find it and see if you happen to have a copy with the red spot.  As we can see from the table, it’s a long shot (something like 2% chance), but if you do have one, please contact me and tell me about it!

Some More Things to Consider Before Starting a T206 Back Run

Last week’s article focused on what I believe to be the most important consideration when it comes to starting a T206 back run.  Namely, finding out which backs exist for a given pose.  I took a broad look at which backs you can expect to need for your run based on which T206 Print Group your preferred pose falls into.

In a way, I got ahead of myself last week.  Knowing which backs make up the run is definitely important, but it probably won’t be the main reason why you choose a certain pose for your back run.  There are many reasons why collectors choose their back run’s subject.  Let’s take a look at some of them:

Player Collectors

This is one of the more common reasons to choose a player/pose for a back run.  If you pick based on a player, you don’t have to worry about any of the other selection criteria.  Unless the player you want to collect has more than one pose.  In that case you will want to take into consideration which backs exist for each pose.

For example, let’s say you want to do a back run featuring John McGraw.  You have four poses to choose from.  You can pick the one that looks the best to you, or the one that presents the biggest challenge, or the one that will the easiest or most cost-effective to complete.

The easiest would be McGraw’s Finger in Air pose as it only consists of a tough Old Mill, Sovereign 150 & 350, and a bunch of Piedmont and Sweet Caporal backs.

The toughest pose would be either Portrait With Cap or Glove at Hip.  There is only one known McGraw Glove at Hip with a Uzit back, so that would present quite a challenge.  Old Mill and Cycle 460 would also be very tough to locate.  Uzit, Lenox, American Beauty 460 and Cycle 460 backs are the biggest obstacles to completing a back run featuring McGraw Portrait With Cap.

Team Collectors

If you’re a team collector, it makes a lot of sense to choose a player from your favorite team as your back run subject.  In most cases, you’ll have multiple options.  This is nice because you can choose a pose based on which backs it was printed with in conjunction with how costly you want the project to be.

Share the same last name

This is a great reason to start a back run, but as with the player collector, doesn’t give you a ton of flexibility to customize the difficulty of the project.

Love the look of the pose

This selection criteria obviously doesn’t allow any flexibility.

Start with one of the rarest backs

This is another common reason that collectors choose to start a back run.  This method involves waiting until you acquire a card with a rare back, and then starting a back run for that pose.  It makes a lot of sense to knock out one of the toughest backs and start there.  I’ve done this in the past, and I know many other collectors who have as well.

Customize the Difficulty of Your Back Run:

Whether you want a project that is so hard to complete that it could take decades, or you want something you can finish within a couple years, the T206 set offers a pose to suit your preference.

How to Find Out Exactly Which Backs Exist for a Given Pose?

Click on this link ————–>  T206resource.com

From the checklist page of t206resource.com, click on each individual back and look for the pose that you have chosen as your back run subject.

There are spreadsheets out there that list back checklists by player, but I have yet to see one that is without errors.  The checklists on t206resource.com are the best that I have seen, so I recommend just using them and verifying each back individually.