In last week’s article, I wrote about what I would do if I was starting a T206 collection with $100. Today, we’ll take a look at the same scenario, but this time with $500. If you read the first two, you know that I’ve settled on a grade range of right about GOOD. If you want to collect higher or lower grades, just adjust the numbers up or down a little and use the same general approach. Last week, I broke it up into two different sections for raw cards v.s. graded cards. The reason is that with a budget of $100, it makes a pretty big difference in terms of how far your money will go. With $500, I don’t think it makes as big of a difference, so for this one, I won’t distinguish between graded or raw cards.
Here are three different ways that I might approach starting a T206 collection with $500:
Start with one major centerpiece Hall of Famer:
Making a big splash can be a fun way to kick off your collection. There are a bunch of different ways you could go. A nice lower grade Johnson, Mathewson, Speaker, or Young would fit the bill. A nicer (Vg-Ex or so) copy of Eddie Collins, Keeler, Lajoie, or Tinker would also be a great option.
Buy a few Hall of Famers:
$500 can also get you a group of Hall of Famers. You could specifically target certain players, or just be patient and wait for some nice deals to come along. Another option would be to knock out all the poses of a given player. You could buy both Joss poses, both Keeler or Waddell poses, or all three Bender or Chance poses.
Start with a big group of commons:
Putting the entire amount toward a stack of commons is also a nice way to get started and build some momentum. $500 should get you somewhere between 20 and 30 cards depending on condition and whether you’re buying raw or graded.
Mix and Match
Of course, you can also add some Hall of Famers, and some commons. This method has some appeal because it allows you to get one or two big name players, but also assemble a nice stack of cards.
Be an opportunist
This approach focuses less on which cards you’d ideally like to buy and more on which cards come to market. If you’re patient, and don’t have a strong preference for any of the above strategies, this method can build your collection faster because you’ll be finding bargains you otherwise might have missed. If you prefer to start with just Hall of Famers, or just players from a certain team or city, then obviously this approach won’t work for you, but it’s something to consider for most people.
Among the above options, my preference would be to tackle a small group of Hall of Famers first. I still remember the feeling of awe I had when I bought my first few T206 Hall of Famers. It’s hard to describe the feeling of flipping through your first handful of T206 Hall of Famers. While commons are extremely cool in their own right, there’s just something special about holding 100 year-old cards of the legendary players I read about as a kid.
In practice, most people will probably go with a mixture of these approaches. It’s good to plan out how you’d like to attack the set, but when you start shopping, you can only buy the cards that are actually available at the time. Also, in practice, people don’t usually start with a $500 chuck on money to spend. Usually it’s $40 here, $160 there, take a little from this paycheck, etc. All that being said, I think it’s smart to spend some time thinking about how you’d ideally like to build your collection before you get started.
The first decision you’ll need to make is what condition you’d like your cards to be in, which I alluded to in Part 1. The main consideration in choosing a condition range is how much of a budget you’re going to allocate to your T206 collection. If you have a very large budget, you can afford to collect mid and high grades. If you’re like most of us, your budget will be more modest, and lower grades will make more sense.
For the purposes of this series of articles, I’m going to focus on lower grades, in the Fair-to-VG range. The reason for this is twofold. For one thing, in my experience, most people that decide to start collecting T206s begin with lower grade cards. It makes sense to test the waters when you’re trying something new, and lower grade cards are a great place to start. Secondly, these articles would be a lot less helpful if I used mid-grades as our benchmark. This article would just be about buying one PSA common for example.
If You’re Starting with Raw T206s:
Buy one Hall of Famer and two nice looking commons:
I would start by targeting a nice looking George Davis, Vic Willis, or Fred Clarke. These Hall of Famers are under-valued in my opinion, and offer a great bang for the buck. With some patience, you should be able to find one for $60 or less. Then I’d go get a couple nice looking lower grade commons as well.
Buy four nice looking commons in GD+/VG condition:
These days a GD/VG T206 common can be had for $25-30. I would imagine $100 would buy a nice group of 4 pretty easily. As I mentioned in the first installment of this series, I think it’s smart to buy some raw T206s as soon as you can. Take them out of their top-loader or card saver and examine them closely. Feel the paper, look at how the ink sits on the paper, notice how a wrinkle or crease looks on an authentic T206, etc. This next bit of advice may seem odd, but you should also smell your raw cards. They tend to have a distinct old and musty smell. All of these things will help you get comfortable with handling T206s. At some point in the future it will pay off when you have a chance to buy a raw T206 (or more often a group of raw T206s) at a good price and you have the confidence to pull the trigger because you feel confident the card is legit.
If You’re Starting with Graded T206s:
Buy one Hall of Famer in a “1.5”, “2”, or “2.5” graded holder:
When buying graded cards, your money won’t go quite as far as it does when buying raw, so I would probably just try and spend the entire $100 on a single nice looking Hall of Famer that can be the centerpiece to your new collection. The players mentioned above should be available in a “2.5” or “3” if you spend a little time looking. Below is a list of Hall of Famers that are typically available in a graded “2” at $100 or less:
Beckley
Bender
Bresnahan
Chance (Yellow Portrait)
Clarke
Collins, Jimmy
Davis
Duffy
Flick
Griffith
Huggins
Jennings
Kelley
Marquard
McGinnity
McGraw (Finger in Air and Glove at Hip)
Wallace
Willis
Here is a handy checklist of the Hall of Famers in the T206 set, courtesy of T206resource.com:
If you spend a little time looking, you can find three nice graded commons in the GOOD/VG range for $100 or less. Buying a group from a forum or Facebook group is probably the most efficient option as it will allow you to save on shipping charges, which is always nice when you’re trying to build a T206 collection on a budget.
I’ve spent a lot of time lately delving into some pretty deep and obscure T206 topics. So when a friend suggested I get back to basics, it sounded like a good idea. In this series, I’ll give some advice to T206 collectors who are just getting started. With this article, I’ll start by taking a look at some different approaches you can take when building a collection. In the next article I will tackle the question, “If you had $100 to start a T206 collection, what would you buy?” Parts three and four will address the same question, but with the $100 replaced by $500 and $1000.
Some Different Ways to Get Started:
Start with the Hall of Famers
This was advice I got when I first started to collect the set, and it served me well. The idea is that when you get started, you don’t really know where the journey will take you. You might get hooked, stay hooked for years, and complete the set. Or you might lose interest at some point. By buying Hall of Famers first, you make it easier to sell your cards and move on to something else if you decide to go that route.
Start with commons
Starting with commons has merit too. You can build up a little stack of them quicker than if you were paying more for Hall of Famers. Seeing your collection grow can give you some momentum to keep at it.
Start with one team, or city
In my opinion this is the ideal way to get your feet wet with the T206 set. It also makes a ton of sense if you happen to be from (or have ties to) a city or town that is featured in the set.
Be an opportunist
This approach requires patience and a lot of research to make sure you understand the market. If you wait for good deals and bid in a lot of auctions, you’ll eventually add some cards to your collection at great prices. The downside is it will take longer to build the collection this way.
Buy some cards from a friend or trusted seller
Buying a group from a friend or someone you trust is probably the easiest way to get started these days (shout out to net54 and Tobacco Row as a couple of great places to buy). The biggest benefit to doing it this way is that you can buy raw cards and feel comfortable that you are getting authentic T206s. In my opinion, handling raw cards is imperative if you want to learn how to identify fakes, reprints, and altered cards as you progress in your journey with the set. The only drawback to buying in this manner is that it kind of limits your ability to select which players and poses you’d most like to acquire, simply because you’ll only be able to choose from the cards that your friends or fellow forum members have for sale.
Some Important Decisions to Make Before Buying Anything:
What condition do you want your cards to be in?
This is among the most important things to figure out. It’s not the end of the world if you buy a bunch of cards and then decide you wish they were in nicer (or worse) condition, but you’ll probably end up spending some time selling or trading them. When I started my collection, I wanted cards in Fair/Good condition. I got about 150 cards into my set before realizing that I preferred cards with a higher level of eye appeal. Luckily for me, I enjoy selling and trading, so it didn’t bother me when I decided I wanted upgrade some of my initial purchases. However, if selling a big stack of T206 commons doesn’t sound like fun to you, it’s smart to spend some time making sure you know what you want before you start buying.
I recommend choosing a condition range that works well with your budget. I’d love to build a T206 set in EX and above, but I don’t have an extra $300,000 laying around, so attempting such a project would be an exercise in frustration. It doesn’t hurt to do a little math before you get started. Try and figure out how much you want to be spending on T206s each month, then look at roughly how much much it will cost to reach your collecting goals, and see how long it will take. The right approach will be different for everyone, but as with any goal, you want to make sure yours is attainable. If it’s too difficult, or it will take too long, you’re likely to get frustrated and lose interest.
Buy graded cards, raw cards, or a mix?
This is something you’ll want to consider before you make any purchases. My advice would be to try and get comfortable with raw cards as quickly as you can. Some collectors strictly buy graded cards, and that’s a perfectly fine approach if it feels right, but you’ll miss out on a lot of opportunities if you’re not willing to buy raw cards. I’d estimate that around 25% of the cards in my collection were raw when I acquired them.
Stay tuned for the next three installments of this series:
If you’re new to back collecting (or if you don’t really care about the tougher backs, and haven’t paid much attention to them) the Hindu backs can be a little confusing. I get a lot of questions about the Hindu backs from hobby friends, so I figured an article on the topic might be in order. Like many T206 topics, this one may seem complex on the surface. Luckily, it’s actually pretty simple. You just need to understand two simple rules, and know where to go to jog your memory if you forget them.
In order to get the most out of this article, I recommend opening the two checklists below (courtesy of t206resource.com) in another tab so that you can refer to them as we go:
Brown Hindu and Red Hindu backs are mutually exclusive. This means that if a pose exists with a Brown Hindu back, it does not exist with a Red Hindu back, and vice versa.
The two backs were printed at completely separate times. Brown Hindu backs were printed very early in T206 production, in 1909. Red Hindu backs were printed in the latter part of 1910 and/or early part of 1911.
Understanding the Print Groups is Key to Understanding the Hindu Backs
If you collect backs, or are considering it, I highly recommend setting aside some time to read and digest the Print Group checklists that are posted over at T206resource.com. I’ll also be writing more about the Print Groups in a the coming months.
Brown Hindu backs are found on:
102 of the 159 Print Group #1 poses (T206resource.com refers to the 150-350 Series as Print Group #1)
34 of the 48 Southern Leaguers (T206resource.com refers to the Southern Leaguers as Print Group #6)
Currently t206resource.com lists 43 confirmed poses with Red Hindu backs. The reason that only 5 of the 6 “Super Prints” are listed in the Red Hindu checklist is that Mathewson (Dark Cap) has not yet been found with a Red Hindu back, though it seems likely that it was a part of the print run. In addition to Mathewson, t206resource expects that McIntyre (Brooklyn and Chicago) and Reulbach (No Glove Showing) were also printed with Red Hindu backs. That brings the expected checklist up to a total of 46 poses.
Red Hindu backs are exponentially scarcer than Brown Hindu backs. There is a decent chance that an unconfirmed Red Hindu pose could show up in the future. Conversely, it would be very surprising if a new player was found with a Brown Hindu back. It’s possible, but very unlikely.
I could have called this article something like “Under-rated T206 Hall of Famers” and snuck a few more players in, but I felt like keeping all the prices in the same range was a good idea.
I’ve selected these ten poses for a couple reasons. First, you should be able to find a nice looking copy of each of these cards in GOOD to GOOD+ condition for $100 or less. Second, in my humble opinion, all of these poses are among the best in the set.
In no particular order:
George Davis
Davis is pictured in the final season of an illustrious career. A slick fielding shortstop, he also more than held his own with the bat. He put up a career batting average of .295 to go with a .767 OPS. He finished in the Top 10 in Offensive WAR seven times, and the Top Ten in Defensive WAR twelve times.
Fred Clarke (With Bat)
In my opinion, Clarke is very underappreciated by collectors. He managed the Pirates for 16 years, winning 4 National League Pennants, and winning the 1909 World Series. On top of that, he was a great hitter. He had 2678 career hits, a .314 batting average, and and OPS of .814. I could have just as easily picked Clarke’s Portrait pose, as it is also one of my favorites. However, I feel like the With Bat pose is particularly underrated.
Frank Chance (Yellow Background Portrait)
Frank Chance probably would not qualify for an article about underappreciated players. However, his Yellow Portrait is a “Super Print”. As a result, it is more common (and costs less) than his other two poses. A nice looking “2” can often be had at $100 or less.
Bobby Wallace
Wallace is another slick fielding shortstop. He finished first in the National League in Defensive WAR in 1901, 1902, and 1908. He placed in the Top 10 thirteen times.
Hugh Duffy
Duffy was a heck of a hitter. In 1894, his stat line looks like it came from a video game. He had 237 hits, 51 doubles, and 18 Home Runs. His batting average was .440 and his OPS was 1.196. Not surprisingly, all of those marks lead the National League.
Vic Willis (With Bat)
This is probably my favorite of the “with bat” poses. It’s especially cool because Willis was a .166 career hitter. Luckily, he was much better on the mound. He put up a career record of 249-205 to go with a 2.63 ERA. He placed first in WAR for Pitchers in the N.L. in 1899 and 1906, and finished in the Top 10 8 times. Like Clarke, Willis’ Portrait would have also been a great inclusion in this list. I wanted to get it in here somehow, so I used it as the header scan.
Jimmy Collins
Collins was a great third baseman and all around player. He hit just below .300 for his career (.294) and had a stellar glove. He finished first in WAR for Defensive Players in 1899 in the N.L and 1901 in the A.L.
Chief Bender (Trees in Background)
I’ve always thought it was a bit strange that Bender has two poses in the T206 set that are so similar. In my opinion, the “With Trees” is the superior pose, aesthetically speaking. It would probably be a stretch to include his Portrait in this list, but you should be able to snag a nice looking lower grade copy of this pose for less than $100.
Clark Griffith (Portrait)
This is one of my favorite portraits in the set. I love the dark orange background. When this card came out in 1909, Griffith was managing the Cincinnati Reds and his pitching days were behind him. On the hill he put up a 237-146 record to go with an ERA of 3.31. He managed in the big leagues for 20 years, putting up a record of 1491-1367.
Elmer Flick
Flick really only played in the majors for 10 seasons (in his last three seasons he played only 9, 66, and 24 games respectively) but he made those 10 seasons count. He hit .313 for his career and OPS’d .834. He was a threat on the base-paths as well, with 330 career steals. He placed first in Offensive WAR in the N.L. in 1900, and the A.L. in 1905.
Lately I’ve been thinking about the different approaches we take in acquiring new cards for our collections. There are many different types of collectors and just as many different approaches. These are the three main approaches that you’ll see employed by T206 collectors:
Bargain Hunting
Big Game Hunting
Treasure Hunting
Bargain hunting is the strategy of looking for the best possible deal on a certain card. It often means passing on a number of copies before finding one at a price the collector is happy with, Typically this approach is used for cards which are fairly common. Big game hunting refers to hunting for a card that is significant in some way, be it perfect centering, perfect registration, scarce front/back combo, or a card that is exceptional for the grade. This approach requires paying a strong price in order to secure a card you may not have a another chance to acquire anytime soon. Treasure hunting is pretty self-explanatory. It’s buying scrapbook lots where the back is obscured, or looking through the thousands of eBay listings hoping to find a rarity or an oddity that fell through the cracks.
My collecting style is a combination of all three approaches, and I imagine I am not unique in this regard. Lately I’ve been thinking about which approach leads to the most satisfaction or happiness. I’ve made a few purchases in the last couple months that required me to “pay strong” if I wanted the cards. It made me realize how I tend to be more excited about a card (or group of cards) that I had to pay a strong price for. Now, I’m not advocating that we all go out and pay high prices. It actually doesn’t have anything to do with the exact price I paid. What I mean is I care about those cards more; I wanted them more. Think about it: By definition, when you are bargain hunting, you’re saying you are indifferent to buying a card once its price reaches a certain point. I’d argue that, in a certain way, that means you don’t really love that particular card, although you may love the pose in general.
There are some obvious situations where bargain hunting is the best approach. If you’re working on a low-grade T206 set, your love for the project may be greater than the sum of your love for each individual card. In that case, trying to build the set as cheaply as possible makes a lot of sense. In other cases, though, bargain hunting may be a sign that you are not as satisfied with your collecting focus as you could be. I say this because I was in that position five or six years ago. I was plodding along, working on a T206 set I wasn’t likely to finish in the next decade. I needed most of the cards in the set, so it didn’t really matter to me which one I got next. As a result, I was hunting for bargains exclusively. For me, this turned out to be a sign that I wasn’t fully satisfied with my collecting focus. I was more excited about the deals I was getting than the actual cards I was buying. It took me a little while, but when I found a focus that was right for me, my approach changed. I still love a good bargain (who doesn’t?), but now I am a lot more likely to set my sights on a certain card that is important to me, and pay whatever I need to (within reason, of course) in order to add it to my collection.
So… what’s the secret? It’s likely going to be different for everyone, but for me it was rather simple: If you find yourself constantly losing auctions or making offers that aren’t accepted, that means you don’t value a card you were going after as highly as other people do. If, on the other hand, you feel like a card is a great value at it’s current market rate, that means you feel the card is undervalued. If you collect things that you feel are undervalued, it gives you a little room to make an above-market offer or bid and still be ecstatic about the purchase.
I’ll give an example. I recently had the chance to buy a group of very rare T207s. Even though I would be buying a group, there was no bulk discount. If I wanted them, I had to pay an above-market rate. If we were talking about a stack of mid-grade Piedmont-backed T206s, I probably wouldn’t have been able to justify paying above market for them. Luckily for me, I think rare T207s are undervalued. I was absolutely stoked to be able to buy a big group all at once, and I was thrilled with the price.
Granted, this isn’t always a realistic approach. If you mainly collect mid-grade T206s with common backs, you are just going to be at the mercy of the market. In that case, you’ll have to focus on finding good deals and/or cards that are very nice for the grade. This example is also a good illustration of why having a few different collecting focuses can be a good thing.
So, if you ever find yourself struggling to add cards to your collection, or if new acquisitions don’t excite you as much they used to, it might be time to take a step back and make sure your current collecting focus is actually aligned with what will bring you the most happiness.
Recently, I’ve received a few emails recently from friends and readers asking me to explain the term “printer’s scrap” as it relates to the T206 set. I figured it would be a good idea to post something that everyone can read. In fact, I am probably long overdue in writing an article on the subject.
The T206 set offers a myriad of collecting niches from the straight-forward, to more esoteric pursuits. Of the many mysteries and intricacies of the T206 set, printer’s scrap may be the least understood. Because each example is unique, it can be very difficult to figure out a price for a given card. As a result, most collectors do not feel comfortable buying them, and tend to stay away. With this article, I hope to make you feel a little more comfortable the next time you come across a piece of T206 printer’s scrap.
The Short and Simple Definition:
Any T206 that was discarded by the printers prior to production being completed.
The Longer, More Detailed Definition:
The term “printer’s scrap” can be used to describe cards that vary greatly in appearance. The one thing that all printer’s scrap cards have in common is they were not inserted into packages of cigarettes/tobacco and were not released to the public. They were either thrown away at the factory and saved by neighborhood kids, or perhaps brought home by the printers and given to kids (or even adults) who collected them. This means that a sheet of cards could have gone through every step of the printing process, but then been discarded for some reason prior to being cut. If that sheet of cards was cut up by hand rather than being factory-cut and inserted into packages of cigarettes, the card is considered printer’s scrap. On the other hand, some of the more striking examples of printer’s scrap cards feature drastic printing mistakes, blank backs, or multiple players and/or back advertisements.
Let’s take a look at the various types of T206 printer’s scrap:
Brown Old Mill Southern Leaguers
The most sought after examples of printer’s scrap are the Brown Old Mill Southern Leaguers. These cards were created accidentally. Old Mill Southern League backs were supposed to be printed with black ink, but at least one sheet was printed with brown ink by mistake*. After the sheets were printed, the mistake was caught. All Brown Old Mill Southern Leaguers are hand-cut, and it is believed that none of them were inserted into packages of Old Mill Cigarettes. This back is either the rarest or second rarest T206 back, depending on whether you consider the Ty Cobb back a T206. Brown Old Mill Southern Leaguers tend to sell in the low five-figure range.
Johnny Bates Proof
Proofs
These are the early versions of the artwork for each pose. Some proofs feature the caption at the bottom while others do not. Each proof has cross marks on the borders of each edge that were used to help the printers with alignment. Proofs tend to sell in the $10,000 range, give or take.
Geroge Merritt with the Ghost of Sam Crawford
Multi-Player Prints and Ghosts & Multi-Strike Backs
These were essentially test sheets used by the printers to calibrate the equipment. You can imagine most of the test sheets would have been discarded after use, but luckily for us some were saved. Values vary greatly depending on how visually striking or unique each card is, but it’s rare to find one of these for less than $1,000.
Blank Backs
Blank Backs are the easiest form of printer’s scrap to identify. Sometimes people will have differing opinions on whether a card is scrap or not, but with Blank Backs, there is no such confusion. They exist in varying levels of completion. The fronts of some Blank Backs look like a completely finished product, and make you wonder why they were never finished. Some are missing one or more color passes while others have registration or “ghosting” issues as the telltale signs of why they were scrapped. Blank backs are currently selling for $800 and up with individual prices varying based on condition, player, and whether the card has any additional printing oddities other than the blank back.
Tom Downey “Yellow-Brown” Printer’s Scrap
Yellow-Brown Sweet Caporal 350-460 Factory 30
Though they were printed with normal backs, the “yellow/brown” scraps received only the yellow, brown, and black color passes. Very distinctive and unique, copies in Fair condition and above will typically sell for in excess of $1,000.
Bill Bradley Sweet Caporal 350-460 Factory 30 “No Print”
Sweet Caporal 350-460 Factory 30 “No Prints”
I plan to devote an entire article to these at some point, but the short version is this: These sheets of cards were almost completely finished, but they had one final step of the production process that still needed to be completed. They were supposed to get the Factory 42 Scroll Overprint, but for some reason, they never did, and were instead cut up by hand and kept together for over 100 years. The person who cut them did a very nice job, and the cards were kept in very nice condition all these years. Two or three years ago the cards were brought into a card shop in the Midwest and slowly sold over the course of a few months. There were hundreds of cards in the collection. Most were poses that are in the Sweet Caporal 350-460 Factory 30 checklist, but the ones that are known as “Sweet Caporal 350-460 Factory 30 No Prints” are the most sought after and valuable cards in the group. In my opinion, it’s a little too early to say what the market is for these as many of them went from eBay directly into collections and not too many have been offered again publicly.
Harry Krause Hand-Cut and Missing Color Passes
Hand-Cut and Missing Color Passes
These are easy to spot because their fronts look a bit odd due to the missing color pass(es). Their value is directly tied to three factors:
How striking the missing color passes are
Registration (the more messed up, the more desirable)
The borders (the larger the better, and the more jagged the edges are, the better)
Hand-Cut but not Missing any Color Passes
Because these look very similar to a card that was inserted into a cigarette pack, it can be difficult to determine whether a card should be given the “printer’s scrap” moniker or not. The Bob Groom below is a good example of one that’s hard to classify. All four edges are hand-cut, but the card is of normal size. In my opinion, it has to have been cut from a sheet by hand because if not, it would have to have had huge borders in order for someone to have been able to trim each side and have the finished product still have roughly normal dimensions. While rare, these cards do not sell at much of a premium over a similar factory-cut T206. In my opinion they are among the best values in the T206 world.
Hopefully these general guidelines will help you to evaluate any T206 printer’s scrap cards you come across. The general rule is pretty simple: The cooler the card, the more you should expect to have to pay for it. The most dramatic examples tend to get the most attention and sell for the highest prices. However, the less visually striking examples offer a combination of scarcity and affordability that can appeal to collectors of all budgets.
*I’m not certain if there were one or more Old Mill Southern League sheets printed with brown backs. I’ll look into it further, and if you happen to know, please shoot me an email (luke@thatt206life.com) or leave a comment.
Like any other T206 collector, I love a good back run. They’re a fun, challenging way to add some variety to a collection. However, there are a few aspects of working on a back run that can be make it tough to see the project through to completion: Collectors with large budgets will often target a very tough 350-460 Series or Super Print subject as their pose of choice. Money won’t be an object, but availability certainly will. Waiting over a decade for your specific pose to show up with Drum or Broad Leaf 460 back seems like it would really put the damper on the fun of working on a back run.
For a smaller budget collector like myself, there are other potential roadblocks to consider. First, tying up a significant amount of money into multiple cards of one player can be hard to justify at times when other desirable cards come to market. I’ve started a few back runs that never reached completion because I sold one or more of the cards in order to pay for a different T206 that I wanted more. The longer it takes to complete the back run, the more chances you’ll have to decide you might rather have something else than complete the project.
The other problem has to do with the project itself. A smaller budget collector is probably going to choose a 150-350 Series subject for their back run simply as a matter of finances. You could also target a 350 Series player who doesn’t have a Drum, but then you’re still going to need a Carolina Brights and/or a Broad Leaf 350 which are not cheap. A 150-350 Series back run makes the most sense, but it can be a little mundane. I recently abandoned a Dode Criss back run while lacking only the Sweet Caporal 150 Factory 25 because I had just lost interest. Granted, Criss is one of the easiest 150-350 back runs because their is no Hindu or EPDG to track down. However the largest back runs from the 150-350 Series (Bresnahan Portrait or Johnson Portrait for example) only have 12 front/back combos, and 7 of them are either Piedmont or Sweet Caporal backs. Needing that many common backs* can get boring, at least it has to me on a few occasions. I’m sure there are plenty of people who have completed such a project without giving up at some point, but I know of many such back runs that have never been seen through to completion.
Once I realized that I wasn’t likely to complete a back run anytime soon, I came up with a different way of looking at back collecting. I would much rather have 12 different mid-tier front/back combos than 12 different backs of the same pose. With that in mind, I started to try to acquire the scarcest back (or the scarcest back I could afford) or each pose for a certain player. Obviously this only makes sense for players who have multiple poses in the T206 set, but thankfully there are plenty of them.
The Bender run below features his toughest Portrait, second scarcest With Trees (Broad Leaf 350 is harder to find), and the tough Cycle 460 No Trees (there are a few tougher front/back combos with for this pose, but I can’t afford most of them).
The Bender run was on the expensive side, but this can also be a fun way to collect on a budget. This Mullin run below cost me around $400 to complete. None of these are the very scarcest back for the pose, but the Cycles are pretty hard to find.
Gallery:
*Not all Sweet Caporal backs are easy to find, but it can be hard to know which ones are tougher to find because most collectors aren’t interested in the different Factory Numbers, and Pop Report numbers are not helpful.
George Mullin is one of the best pitchers in Detroit Tiger history
My last post about my new Ed Killian Tolstoi made me think about an aspect of my collecting approach that I don’t hear talked about much. Whenever possible, I prefer to add T206s that feature star players over players who had a short MLB career, or were career Minor Leaguers. This isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, just a preference. I have a number of Minor Leaguers and Major Leaguers with nondescript careers in my collection that I love as well.
Heinie Zimmerman was a prolific hitter who won the National League Triple Crown in 1912
I’m not sure how many other T206 collectors share this collecting philosophy with me. I know many people collect the entire set without much regard to how good each player was (or wasn’t). And of course you have your Hall of Fame collectors. It makes sense that collecting star players who are not Hall of Famers would be a less common approach. Finding out which players were stars of the day takes some work, whether it be scouring Baseball Reference, or reading books about the Deadball Era.
George McQuillan was one of the best pitchers in baseball in 1908 but he never reached his potential due to off-the-field struggles
It took me a little while to arrive at this approach. When I first started collection T206, I was in love with the artwork and colors and I just wanted one of each front for my set. I knew about almost all of the Hall of Famers from reading about them as a kid, but I didn’t know anything about the players who were not enshrined.
Sherry Magee was an absolute beast offensively, leading the NL in RBI four times
I collected the set without knowing much about the players for about three years before deciding I wanted to know everything I could learn about not only the T206 set, but baseball from 1909-1911 specifically, and the Deadball Era in general. Baseball-reference.com was a great resource, and the one I used mostly. I also have really enjoyed a couple of books that were released by SABR: Deadball Stars of the American League, and Deadball Stars of the National League.
Ed Reulbach is one of the greatest pitchers in Chicago Cubs history – He went 182-106 with a 2.28 ERA for his career
Nowadays, I get almost as much enjoyment from finding a card of an “almost Hall of Famer” as I do a Hall of Famer. I love that I can get a star like Doc White, Sherry Magee, George Mullin, or Larry Doyle at the same price of a fringe player like Herbie Moran. To me, that feels like a huge spot of inefficiency in the market.
From 1906-1909, Orval Overall went 70-32 with an ERA under 2.00 for the Chicago Cubs
Obviously, supply and demand dictates the market price for the cards we collect. I hope that I can continue to find cards of my favorite players at “common” prices. I’m curious if any other collectors use a similar approach when looking to add new cards to their collections.
Larry Doyle had a great career and won the 1912 NL MVP award
I recently came across this beauty. Since my most recent article concerns the printing process for T206s, it seemed fitting that I write up a little post about it.
At first glance, it looks like the back has a Wet Sheet Transfer from another Sweet Caporal back. However, if that were the case, the transfer would be reversed and the words would be backwards. I’m not 100% sure what caused this. But, the fact that the second, lighter printing is aligned in the same direction and slightly offset leads me to believe that it was printed at the time of production. My best guess is the backs were printed once as normal, and then printed again, except that the ink on the blanket was mostly gone and just shows up as a faint shadow on the card above.
I haven’t seen another card like this one, but it does remind me of a pair of double stamped Sweet Caporal 350 factory 30 backs I have seen in the past. I once owned this McCormick. I also know of a Matty McIntyre with the same double printed back. I believe both are from the same sheet.
The obvious difference is that it appears the McCormick back was actually fully printed twice, as the ink is almost as dark on the second printing (slightly above the first).
If anyone has seen any similar cards, I’d love to hear about it. Please shoot me a message via the contact link at the top of the page or via email at luke@thatT206life.com.
