November 2016 – That T206 life

Understanding the American Beauty backs: T206 American Beauty 350 with frame (Part 2/4)

Luke February 9, 2017 November 30, 2016

American Beauty 350 with frame is the most straight-forward of all the AB subsets. The checklist consists of 190 different poses. As a result, it is easier to list the “no-prints” here than the full checklist. 184 of the cards in the AB350w/f checklist come from Print Group 2. Print group 2 consists of 202 cards. This leaves these 18 poses that were not printed with an AB350w/f back:

It’s not readily apparent why most of these players were excluded from the AB350w/f print run. Demmitt STL and O’Hara STL are the two that make sense, because we know the team name changes were made near the end of 350 series production, and they were only printed with Polar Bear backs.

That covers 184 of the 190 cards in the subset. The other 6 are the “Super Prints”, also known as Print Group 5. The Super Prints are an interesting subset that have their own rules. They were printed with more backs than any other poses in the entire set. I will most likely devote an entire post to them at some point. As you can see, all 6 were very popular players at the time:

As I said in Part One of this series, there are more T206s with AB350w/f backs in existence than AB350nf backs. The reason is that AB350w/f were printed on 190 different poses while AB350nf backs were printed on only 37 poses. So, if you just want one copy of each back and you don’t care who is on the front, you’ll have an easier time finding the AB350w/f. You’ll also most likely pay less.

One thing that many collectors do not realize is that individual poses with AB350w/f backs are usually more scarce than their AB350nf counterparts. I think the best way to illustrate this is with an example. There are 8 players who have one pose that was printed with AB350w/f back and another with AB350nf back. If you were working on player back runs for any of these players, you would most likely find the AB350w/f back tougher to locate. 4 of those players also were printed with AB460 backs. I will exclude them from the example because their Pop Reports are harder to read. PSA only recently started to differentiate between AB350nf and AB460 backs, so our Pop Report Results would be suspect if I were to include those 4 players. Here is the list of the remaining 4 players, along with PSA and SGC pop report numbers for each front/back combo*.

This example serves as a fairly random sampling of cards from each subset. As you can see, each card on the AB350w/f list is more scarce than the AB350nf pose. To get a better idea of the Pop Reports for cards with each back, play around a little bit with the PSA and SGC Pop Reports.

Some poses are very tough to find with AB350w/f and command a premium over the more common subjects. Thielman (2 combined in PSA & SGC Pop Reports) and Herbie Moran (3 combined in PSA & SGC Pop Reports) are a couple examples. There are also some subjects that are pretty easy to find. The best tool we have to help us judge scarcity is the Pop Reports, so I recommend using them to help you make a buying or selling decision.

*-For each of these players, the SGC Pop Report also lists a generic “American Beauty” back. Since these cards could be either pose, I simply excluded them from the results.

Thank you to T206resource.com for allowing me to use their checklists.

Ever noticed that some T206 cards with 350 backs have a “washed out” look to them?

Luke February 9, 2017 November 27, 2016

Me too, so I figured I’d write a post about it. This is a phenomenon that most advanced collectors are aware of. However, I don’t think there hasn’t been much written about it.

In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, I’ll get right to it. Some cards from the 350 series have an unfocused, “washed out” look to them that is easy to notice once you know what you are looking for. Not all cards with 350 backs can be found with the washed out look. From what I have seen, only poses from Print Group 1 have exhibited this print anomaly. So, in theory, there should be 146 subjects that exist with a washed out image. The way I arrive at that number is taking the entire checklist of Print Group 1 (thanks to t206resource.com for the checklist) which is 159 subjects, and subtracting the 13 subjects that are 150 only poses.

“Washed out” images can be found on fronts with these backs:

Old Mill
Piedmont 350
Sovereign 350
Sweet Caporal 350 factory 25
Sweet Caporal 350 factory 30

It’s really unclear at this point how this may have happened. Not all Print Group 1 cards with the above backs have washed out images. I talked with a friend recently who has a theory that there were three distinct print runs in the 350 series and that small changes were made before the printing of each. I’m very intrigued by this idea and I plan to look into it further. If I’m able to find anything of substance, I will be sure to write about it. This theory would explain the washed out image phenomenon pretty well. It would explain why some Old Mills from Print Group 1 have great focus and vivid colors, while others are unfocused and have muted colors. It seems that at some point during the 350 series run on Print Group 1, that the printing presses got out of whack for a little while and created this washed out look. That could have been at the tail-end of the 350 print run of PG1, or at the beginning and the printing presses were fixed for subsequent print runs.

I find it hard to explain exactly what we are looking at. The Old Mill Overall at the top of this post is clearly missing some of the darker colors. The red, blue, brown and black are all darker and more crisp on the SC 150/25 copy. Meanwhile, the Hahn Old Mill below actually looks darker than it’s Sov150 counterpart. Both Old Mills clearly have the same washed out look however. If anyone who has a better understanding of the printing process can shed some light on what created this “washed out” look, I would very appreciative.

Many collectors actively avoid these cards, preferring 150 backs with crisp images. I may be the only one, but I really like the washed out look. If these cards ever gained popularity, I think we would find that they are somewhat tough to find in general and that the really extreme examples are quite scarce.

How to Use the SGC Pop Report

Luke November 23, 2016 November 23, 2016 1 Comment

In my last post, I showed you how to use the PSA Pop Report. In this one, I’ll do the same with the SGC’s. Like the PSA Pop Report, SGC’s is simple and easy to use.

Start by going to sgccard.com. Follow the red arrow above. Hold you cursor over the “RESOURCES” tab and click on “POPULATION REPORTS”.

That’ll take you to the page below. Select “baseball” from the drop down menu and type “t206” into the Set Name field. For this example, I’m going to use my new George Gibson Sovereign 150, so let’s type “Gibson” into the Player Name field.

The cool thing about the SGC Pop Report tool is that you can see all of a player’s cards without having to click on a drop down menu. It’s very easy to compare scarcity between the different backs that Gibson was printed with. SGC has graded 5 Sovereign 150 Gibsons. Gibson was not printed with a Sovereign 350 back, but if he was, you would see a listing for “1910 Sovereign Cigarettes”. 1909 Sovereign is always Sovereign 150 and 1910 Sovereign is always Sovereign 350. The same rule holds true for Sweet Caporal, Piedmont, Cycle and American Beauty. A “1910” listing refers to a 350 series back, and a “1911” listing refers to a 460 back.

Typing in a few different player names and looking at the results can give you a good idea of how back distributions work. I highly recommend playing around with it if you are interested in getting into back collecting.

How to Use the PSA Pop Report

Luke November 23, 2016 November 19, 2016

I hope this post will be helpful to any and all collectors, but T206 collectors in particular definitely need to know this stuff. When you are dealing with some of the more scarce T206 backs, it can be very helpful to take a look at the Pop Reports.

The term “Pop Report” is short for “Population Report” and population just means all of the cards that PSA has graded. It’s a powerful tool which can help you understand the relative scarcity of a given card.

It is important to note that the PSA Pop Report only shows the cards that have been graded by PSA. It doesn’t show cards graded by SGC, BVG, or any other company and it doesn’t show ungraded cards. So, for one individual front/back combo, the Pop Report certainly does not tell you the whole story. But when you look at a lot of different cards and compare the data, you are going to have a very good idea about relative scarcity of your sample.

I think the best to way to show you how to use the report is with an example. I recently picked up this T206 PSA 3 Ossie Schreck with Cycle 350 back. Pretty sweet huh? Now, I want to know how many Schreck Cycle 350s have been graded and what is the highest graded copy.

Continue reading How to Use the PSA Pop Report

Understanding the T206 American Beauty backs: Overview (Part 1/4)

Luke February 9, 2017 November 16, 2016

Understanding the American Beauty backs can be a challenge, so I’m going to go into detail here and hopefully answer any questions that you may have. As always, please send me a message via the “contact” button if you have any questions or suggestions.

There are three distinct and different American Beauty backs:

-American Beauty 350 with frame (AB350w/f)
-American Beauty 350 no frame (AB350nf)
-American Beauty 460 (AB460)

The three backs represent distinct portions of the T206 print run, and are almost always mutually exclusive. This means that when a certain pose exists with one American Beauty back, it will not exist with any others (there are 19 exceptions to this rule within the AB350nf and AB460 checklists, which I will get to in Part Three).

Pricing:

In general, AB460 backs sell for the most, followed by AB350nf and then AB350w/f. I’ll explain why and talk about exceptions to the rule.

Scarcity:

This is how they rank on the T206resource.com back scarcity list:

Where each back lies in scarcity rankings is largely due to the size of each checklist. It makes sense that there are less AB350nf backs out there than AB350w/f, simply because the latter were printed with 5 times as many fronts. As you can see from the graphic below, AB460 is more scarce than AB350nf despite being printed on twice as many fronts (75 AB460 to 37 AB350nf). The reason for this is that there are some truly rare cards in the AB460 checklist. The same cannot be said for the AB350nf subset.

It’s important to note that this is a broad overview, and that individual cards within these series can range from very scarce to somewhat common. I will go into more detail in the rest of this series, but here is an example to show what I mean:

Gabby Street’s portrait can be found with a AB350w/f back. Gabby Street’s catching pose can be found with a AB350nf back. If you just looked at the overall scarcity rankings, you would assume that the catching pose would be the tougher card to find. In this case, that would be incorrect. PSA lists 8 Street catching with AB350nf backs and only 5 Street portraits with AB350w/f backs.

Stay tuned for Parts 2 through 4 of this series where I’ll build upon this framework by taking an in-depth look at each American Beauty back.

Thanks to Ted Z. for pointing out an error in the first draft of this article.

Thanks as always to the guys at T206resource.com for allowing me to use their checklists.

T206 Brown Hindu: The Case of the Missing Red Ink

Luke February 9, 2017 November 13, 2016

If you’ve looked at enough T206 scans, you’ve probably come across some Hindus that look a little weird. Many, like this Beaumont above, were printed with very faint red ink. Others appear to be missing red altogether. This phenomenon is most pronounced on cards with red backgrounds, though it does affect other cards as well. If you take a look at my example scans, you can see that most of these cards appear to have an orange background. Some have more red than others, but all of them are noticeably more orange than a typical example with a different back.

If you take a close look at other cards with Hindu backs, you can see that red is missing, even when red didn’t figure prominently in the card’s design. These two Bradley portraits have a subtle difference; the color of the lips.

I have never heard any theory about why so many Hindus are missing red ink. It would stand to reason that quality control was not a huge concern at American Lithographic Co. where the cards where produced. After all, the cards were to be given away for free as advertising. That said, the overall quality of production across the entire set is quite high in my opinion. Most cards are well-centered with nicely aligned fronts and backs. Colors and shading can vary a bit from one example of a card to another, but rarely to the level we are looking at here.

Here’s my theory: Hindu backs were produced early in the T206 production run. My guess is that at the beginning, quality control was a little bit lax. Most of the Hindus were probably printed, even though the red was not as dark as they wanted. Once the cards were released they became a cultural sensation. People loved them, and as a result the American Tobacco Company may have wanted to ensure that subsequent printings would be of higher quality. It’s also possible that the printers didn’t realize that the design called for more red, because they hadn’t seen enough copies of the cards to be able to tell what they were meant to look like.

Back Scarcity in the T206 150-350 series Part Two: Brown Hindu

Luke February 9, 2017 November 10, 2016 2 Comments

In Part One of this series, I took a look at the checklist of the 150-350 series. We’ve seen that not all poses were printed with the same backs. The Piedmont, Sovereign 150 and Sweet Caporal print runs used the majority of the 159 player checklist. The other backs that comprise the 150-350 series did not. In the next few posts of this series, I’m going to take a closer look at the individual backs, beginning with Brown Hindu.

Brown Hindu backs were printed in 1909 at the beginning of T206 production. 102 Major Leaguers were printed with Brown Hindu backs. This is a bit odd because the Sovereign 150 backs were printed right about the same time. It begs the question, “If ATC had access to all 150 subjects that were used to create the Sovereign 150 print run, why did they choose not to print 48 of them with Hindu backs?” It likely has something to do with the inclusion of 34 Southern Leaguers into the Brown Hindu print run. We’re not likely to know the exact reason, but it seems likely that they wanted to include the Southern Leaguers and just removed some Major Leaguers from the print run to make it possible. To make things more murky, one of the Hindu Cigarettes newspaper advertisements (the one at the top of this post) included pictures of 3 cards that were not actually printed with a Hindu back. Along the bottom of the ad, you can see Waddell throwing, Lobert and Dooin at about 4 o’clock.

You might expect that the biggest stars would be included and the more obscure players would be omitted. That doesn’t seem to be the case. Stars such as Ty Cobb and Hal Chase were omitted from the print run while fringe players such as Wilbur Good and Al Shaw were included.

This is the list of the 48 Brown Hindu “no prints” from the 150-350 series

Abbaticchio, Ed (Brown Sleeves)
Ball, Neal (New York)
Bender, Chief (Portrait)
Camnitz, Howie (Arms Folded)
Chase, Hal (Portrait – Pink)
Chase, Hal (White Cap)
Chesbro, Jack
Cicotte, Ed
Cobb, Ty (Portrait – Green)
Cobb, Ty (Bat On Shoulder)
Conroy, Wid (Fielding)
Covaleski, Harry
Crandall, Doc (Portrait No Cap)
Criger, Lou
Criss, Dode
Donlin, Mike (Seated)
Donohue, Jiggs
Dooin, Red
Doolin, Mickey
Durham, Bull
Hahn, Ed
Hemphill, Charlie
Jacklitsch, Fred
Jordan, Tim (Portrait)
Karger, Ed
Keeler, Willie (Portrait)
Keeler, Willie (With Bat)
Kleinow, Red (New York – With Bat)
Lobert, Hans
Lundgren, Carl (Chicago)
McGraw, John (Finger In Air)
Mullin, George (Throwing)
Murphy, Danny (Throwing)
Nicholls, Simon (Hands On Knees)
Niles, Harry
Oldring, Rube (Fielding)
Rucker, Nap (Portrait)
Schaefer, Germany (Detroit)
Seymour, Cy (Batting)
Shipke, Bill
Smith, Frank (F. Smith)
Stovall, George (Portrait)
Tannehill, Lee (L. Tannehill On Front)
Turner, Terry
Waddell, Rube (Throwing)
Weimer, Jake
Williams, Jimmy
Young, Cy (Bare Hand)

As you can see, level of stardom doesn’t seem to have been taken into consideration. Likewise, geographic location of the teams doesn’t seem to have been a factor. 14 of the 16 Major League teams were included in the omissions and the distribution appears normal. Overall, it doesn’t seem that the omissions fit any kind of pattern.

Scarcity and Value

Hindu backs consistently sell for the highest prices of any 150-350 series back. In a general sense, Hindu backs are more scarce than any of the other backs that comprise the 150-350 series. This is because Hindu was only printed in the 150 series, while Old Mill and El Principe de Gales were printed on the backs of cards in the 350 and 460 series, making those backs more plentiful overall. In most cases, Hindu is the second or third toughest back to find for a given player, with Old Mill being the toughest. For players that were printed with both Hindu and EPDG backs, scarcity will be about the same for both.

Thanks to Mark at rustywilly.com for allowing me to use the newspaper advertisements.

The Easiest T206 Back Run: Jiggs Donahue

Luke February 9, 2017 November 4, 2016

So, what’s the easiest back run to complete in the 150-350 series? Chicago White Sox first baseman Jiggs Donahue. Donahue (mis-spelled on his t206 as Donohue) is the only player from the 150-350 series that was not printed with a Hindu, El Principe de Gales or Old Mill back. All other subjects were printed with at least one of those backs, and often more than one.

Here is the complete checklist for Donahue:

Piedmont 150
Sovereign 150
Sweet Caporal 150 factory 25
Sweet Caporal 150 factory 30
Piedmont 350
Sovereign 350
Sweet Caporal 350 factory 25
Sweet Caporal 350 factory 30

Donahue had a fairly nondescript career, and it helps to understand why he was not included in the aforementioned print runs. He played a little outfield and catcher in his first 3 seasons, but by the age of 22, was solely a first baseman. In 1904, his first year with the White Sox, he topped 100 games played for the first time. His career batting average (.255) and WAR (13.5) are very solid, but he rarely ranked among the top 10 in any category. In 1905, he was 7th in the A.L. in WAR for position players. He hit .287 that year, which was the 7th best average in the A.L. In 1907 he led the A.L. in games played and at bats. He never approached that number of games again. In 1908 he played just 93 and followed it up with 86 in 1909, his final year.

When production began in 1909, there was no way to know that it would be Donahue’s last year in Major League Baseball. He was just 29. So, his initial inclusion in the set makes sense. He was a young regular on one of the premier teams in the league. It also makes sense that he was omitted from the Hindu print run. For reasons unknown, only 102 of the 150 series subjects were printed with a Hindu back. So, 48 players were left off the Hindu print run. After his part-time duty in 1908, he seems like a logical candidate to be omitted. In 1910, when it came time to choose which players would be used for the EPDG and Old Mill print runs, Donahue was out of baseball and he was not printed with either back.

The thing that really doesn’t make sense is, “Why was he printed with a Sovereign 350 back when he was omitted from all of the other non-Piedmont/Sweet Caporal runs?” Only 80 subjects from the 150-350 series were used for the Sovereign 350 series. That means they chose not to use about half of the players from Print Group One. Many players who were still in the big leagues were printed with a Sovereign 150 back, but not with a Sovereign 350 back. Some players such as Bill Bergen, Wid Conroy, and Doc Crandall were left off the Sovereign 350 print run and then had another pose released later on in T206 production. So clearly, some players were left off the Sovereign 350 print run who were still popular Major Leaguers. It’s a mystery why Donahue was one of the players chosen for inclusion in the Sovereign 350 print run. Vive Lindaman, whose career ended in 1909 as well was pulled from production in 1910 right after being included in the EPDG print run, and right in the middle of the Piedmont 350 run.

Every front/back combo on Donahue’s checklist is readily available, making it a good choice for an easy introduction into collecting a back run. The card itself is one of the most beautiful from the 150-350 series in my opinion. Heck, maybe that is the reason they decided to continue to include it in 1910 print runs? We’ll probably never know the reason, but it is fun to speculate.

T206 Back Run 101

Luke November 17, 2016 November 2, 2016

Back runs are a fun way to collect tobacco cards and early caramel cards. Because there are so many different front/back combinations in T206, it’s a set that really lends itself to a back run (or two). Working on back runs is a good way to learn about the set in a hands-on way. It can also add some variety if your collection mostly consists of common backs. When your goal is to get one of each card, regardless of back, the main constraint is money. If you had enough money, you could collect the entire set in a month (Wagner and Plank would be tough, but there is a Plank on ebay as I write this) just by buying cards from ebay. Looking for certain front/back combos can take a lot more time that you might expect. A common back like Sweet Caporal 150 factory 25 can take forever to show up with the player you are looking for. This isn’t just a random example. I am currently working on a Dode Criss back run, and that particular back is giving me fits. Back runs teach you patience, which is a very good trait to have as a tobacco card collector.

So, if you wanted to give back runs a try, where should you start? Great question. More than any other collecting focus, choosing a back run is dependent on your budget. The most difficult subjects to complete a back run with are players from the 460 series. The reason is that the rarest and most valuable backs were printed at the end of the T206 print run in 1911. Subjects from the 350 series who were printed with a Drum back are also very tough to complete, and very expensive. If you can afford a Broad Leaf 460, Uzit, and Lenox back, then working on a back run of a 460 series subject could be an extremely fun project for you.

If your budget won’t allow for all of those backs, it doesn’t mean you can’t collect a back run. Players from the 150-350 series are a good choice because they consist of common to semi-tough backs. The Sovereign 150, EPDG, Hindu, and Old Mill backs for your run may take some searching to track down, but with some patience you can acquire them all. A player from the 350 series who was not printed with a Drum or Broad Leaf 350 back (Gray and Groom to name a couple) could also be a good choice.

The largest back run of a 150-350 series subject will consist of 12 front/back combos (Walter Johnson portrait and Clark Griffith portrait are a couple of examples). The smallest in term of front/back combos is Carl Lundgren Chicago. He was only printed with Piedmont 150, Piedmont 350, and El Principe de Gales. Lundgren may have the fewest cards to track down, but is by no means the easiest. The Piedmont 350 is tough to find, and expensive when you do.

Most other 150-350 subjects have between 9 and 11 possible combos. The reason for the disparity comes down to the Hindu, EPDG, and Old Mill backs. Some subjects like Frank Chance red portrait were printed with all three. Others were printed with just two of the three, or even just one. The Criss back run I mentioned earlier consists of 9 different backs. The reason it is 9 rather than 11 is that Criss was not printed with a Hindu or EPDG back. If you want to start with a simple project, choose a player from the 150-350 series with only 9 possible backs. Or, if you want to pick the easiest back run, choose the player that I will highlight in my next post.