Month: December 2018

What to Make of the Prices Realized for Old Mill Southern League T206s in the Most Recent Memory Lane Auction?

The most recent Memory Lane Auction ended on December 15th.  The headliner was a restored T206 Honus Wagner, which sold for $420,000.  That wasn’t the only card to sell for a strong price however.  There were quite a few Old Mill backed Southern Leaguers in the auction, and many of them sold for astounding prices.  Here is a sampling:

PSA 5:
  • Breitenstein – $1,466
  • Foster – $1,333
  • Kiernan – $1,002
  • McCauley – $1,613
PSA 5.5
  • Cranston – $1,613
  • Mullaney – $752
  • Smith, Carlos – $2,362

PSA 6:
  • Greminger  – $2,598
  • Helm PSA – $2,147
  • LaFitte – $1,951
  • Revelle – $2,198
  • Thornton – $1,613

Most of those prices are unlike anything I’ve seen before for similar mid-grade cards.  After the auction I was talking with a friend and we were speculating as to whether these prices were a sign that mid-grade Southern Leaguers were about to take off in value.

In the week since, that does not appear to have happened.  Here are the two T206 Old Mill Southern Leaguer sales results from eBay in the last week

  • Reagan PSA 5 – $711
  • Sentz PSA 5 – $399

Here is a sampling of the Old Mill Southern Leaguers in PSA 5 holders that are currently on eBay as active Buy It Now listings:

  • Bastian PSA 5 – $1000 or best offer
  • Bay PSA 5 – $450 or best offer
  • Breitenstein PSA 5 – $1000 or best offer
  • Howard PSA 5 – $495 or best offer
  • Kiernan PSA 5 – $1000 or best offer
  • Miller PSA 5 – $1000 or best offer
  • Thornton PSA 5 – $1000 or best offer

One huge head-scratcher is that someone paid $1,466 for a PSA 5 Breitenstein.  That should mean that there was an under-bidder willing to pay $1200 or $1300.  If there was, you’d think that person would want to buy the PSA 5 that’s currently on eBay for $1000 or best offer.

It’s always possible that two or more bidders got caught up in the moment and ran the bidding well beyond what the cards would normally sell for.  Whatever happened, the lack of eBay sales in the last week make it pretty clear that the prices realized in the auction on December 15th ought to be looked at as a strange anomaly that does not reflect the current market.

 

Taking a Look Back at the Crazy Prices for T206 Rare Backs in the October REA Auction

Back on October 28th, the Fall REA auction ended.  Prices were very strong across the board on rare T206 backs.  In the days following the auction, I wondered if we were going to see a sustained rise in the value of tougher-backed T206s.  However, in the six weeks since the auction ended, that does not appear to have been the case.  Let’s take a look at the REA sales results, as well as some more recent sales from Heritage, Love of the Game, and eBay.

REA Fall Auction Results:

  • American Beauty 350 With Frame Cobb Red Background Portrait PSA 6 – $33,000
  • Black Lenox Cobb Red Background PSA 3 – $30,000

  • Cycle 460 Cobb Bat Off Shoulder PSA 1.5 – $18,000
  • Brown Old Mill Helm SGC A – $11,400

  • Brown Lenox McQuillan With Bat PSA 1.5 – $9,000

  • Uzit Chase Holding Trophy PSA 2(mk) – $6,600
  • Brown Hindu Mathewson Portrait PSA 1 – $6,600
  • Carolina Brights Lavender PSA 4 – $4,200
  • Cycle 460 Crawford With Bat PSA 7 – $3,900
  • Black Lenox Chance Batting PSA 3 – $3,600
  • Cycle 460 Cobb Red Background Portrait SGC A – $3,300
  • Black Lenox Frill PSA 2 – $3,000

  • Broad Leaf 350 Clancy PSA 3 – $2,700
  • Carolina Brights Puttman SGC 50 – $2,700
  • Carolina Brights Shad Barry SGC 3.5 – $2,700
  • Carolina Brights Dinneen PSA 4 – $2,700
  • Carolina Brights Krause Portrait SGC 3 – $2,280
  • American Beauty 460 Meyers Portrait PSA 6 – $2,160
  • Carolina Brights Bush SGC 1.5 – $1,920

  • American Beauty 460 Bescher Hands in Air PSA 6 – $1,920
  • Carolina Brights Burns SGC 2.5 – $1,800
  • Red Hindu McGraw Glove at Hip PSA 3 – $1,560

Heritage Auction’s “Fall Sports Card Catalog Auction” ended on November 16th:

  • Brown Old Mill Dutch Jordan SGC A – $15,600
  • Broad Leaf 350 Rhoades SGC 3 – $1,560

  • Red Hindu McGraw Glove at Hip SGC 2.5 – $1,546
  • Red Hindu O’Leary SGC 3 – $1,440

  • Broad Leaf 350 Nattress SGC 1 – $900

Love of the Game’s “Fall 2018 Premier Auction” ended on November 25th:

  • Uzit Merkle PSA 2 – $3,690

  • Uzit Lake No Ball in Hand SGC 30 – $2,583

  • Lenox Wiltse Portrait w/ Cap SGC 30 – $1,800

The following rare backs sold on ebay in the same time-frame:

  • Carolina Brights Schlafly SGC 5.5 – $2,284 (sold on 11-07-2018)

  • Lenox Wiltse Portrait w/ Cap SGC 40 – $2,026 (sold on 12-12-2018)

  • Carolina Brights Dinneen PSA 3 – $1,295 (sold on 11-28-2018)
  • Carolina Brights Jesse Tannehill PSA 2 – $1,000 (sold on 12-12-2018)
  • Carolina Brights Freeman PSA 1.5 – $700 (sold on 12-13-2018)

Re-Uniting an T206 Orval Overall Blank Back with Three of its Sheetmates

When I saw this Overall Blank Back listed on eBay, I knew I had to win it.  Two years ago, I picked up a Crawford, Griffith, and Konetchy that are unmistakably from the same sheet.  Not only that, but it looks like they were pasted into a scrapbook or album of some kind.  It’s also possible they were pasted into a frame, but I don’t see any signs of fading from exposure to light, so that is less likely.

There are so many T206s out there that it’s incredibly rare to find a group of cards that can be traced back to a single sheet.  Discoveries like this are my favorite thing about collecting T206s.  I love rare backs and nice looking Hall of Famers as much as the next guy, but finding rarities that don’t break the bank is what gets me most excited.

Up until seeing the Overall, I figured my three cards were the only ones from that sheet in the hobby.  Now, I am wondering if there are any more cards from the sheet out there.  If you have seen any others, please contact me and let me know.

Net54 Detectives Uncover Shocking Pattern of “Signed” T206 Forgeries

Editor’s note:  This article is a very brief synopsis of the events that have recently taken place on net54baseball.com.  I wanted to put all of the before and after scans together in one place for easy reference.  If this topic interests you, I highly recommend reading these net54 threads in their entirety:
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=262580
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=262673

On 11/25/2018, a Net54 member started a thread titled “Did I buy a Fake Marquard Signed T206?”.  The original poster had purchased the above Marquard from Clean Sweep Auctions for $1,264 on 12/01/2018.  It came with a JSA Certification, but when he sent it into SGC to be put into a holder, they rejected it as “not an authentic example”.

It took less than three hours for another member to post damning evidence that the signature is indeed a forgery.  Using cached ebay sales results from Worthpoint.com, he was able to find proof that the card had sold recently, in a PSA 2.5 holder.

This discovery led to more research, and before long, 15 signed T206s were proven to be forgeries that were produced in the last two or three years.  All 15 were certified as authentic by either JSA, SGC, or PSA.

I have a feeling this story is just beginning.  I will write more about this topic as new information comes out.  Here are the 15 forged signatures:

Fred Parent
Billy Sullivan

Bob Rhoades

Paddy Livingston

Frank Baker

Elmer Flick

Heinie Zimmerman

Wid Conroy

Larry Doyle

Jap Barbeau

Red Murray

Eddie Cicotte


Nap Rucker

Jesse Tannehill