Category: That T206 Life Blog

“Paying Strong” v.s. “Bargain Hunting”

2 Comments on “Paying Strong” v.s. “Bargain Hunting”

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.

T206 Piedmont Factory 42: Light Blue v.s. Dark Blue Backs

Charley O’Leary with dark blue Piedmont Factory 42 back

This is an article I’ve had in the works for quite a while.  Almost a year ago, I began writing and researching, but then ran into a bit of a snag.

If you look at enough Piedmont Factory 42 backs, you’ll notice that the blue ink tends to be either very light or very dark.  I’d read a few threads on the subject on net54, but beyond the observation that the ink level varied, I didn’t recall seeing any conclusions drawn.  It’s a minor variation, and maybe not worth spending too much time on.  But then again, at one point Sovereign 350 Green Apple backs were thought to be just a slight color variant of the Forest Green Subset.

So, a few months ago I decided to look into the Piedmont Factory 42 subset to see if I could find any patterns with regard to the dark ink v.s. light ink phenomenon.  I asked a couple friends to help me research.  Adam Goldenberg was nice enough to send me scans of his collection of Piedmont 42s, and Pat Romolo offered to dig through scans on Card Target for me.  Going into the research phase, I was hoping there might be some sort of pattern we’d be able to discern.  Specifically, I was wondering if certain players were printed with only one of the two back types.

The graphic below shows the difference between the light blue and dark blue backs.

The “research phase” was over almost before it started.  I got an email from Pat saying that he had begun to look at scans and he didn’t think there was a pattern.  I meant to take a look for myself, but never got around to it.  Some time passed, and I completely forgot I had started working on this article.  A few weeks back I found it while cleaning up the drafts on my site and decided I should finish it.  After all, even if there is no pattern, that still answers some questions.

So, I delved into the scans that Adam had sent me and past sales on cardtarget.com.  What I was looking for was simple.  I wanted to find one pose that was printed with both a light blue and dark blue back.  I did find that, but I found something else as well.  I went into the project thinking that the backs were almost always either dark blue or light blue.  However, after scrolling through dozens of these backs, I realized that the intensity of the blue actually varies quite a bit.

Below is the “smoking gun” of my research.  One Reulbach with a dark blue back and one with a light blue back (and another that’s somewhere in the middle).  This proves there is no easy pattern where one pose always has either a light blue or a dark blue back.

Reulbach PSA 5 with dark blue Piedmont Factory 42 back

After looking at a bunch of scans, I’m left with a couple thoughts.  First, the darkness v.s. lightness of ink varies quite a bit more than I expected (and more than you’d think from reading the net54 threads).  In my opinion, there are light blue Piedmont Factory 42 backs, dark blue backs, and every shade and variant of blue in between.  Secondly, the fact that I never found any consensus online about the dark blue backs v.s. light blue backs makes a lot of sense.  I’m sure other collectors have looked into this topic in the past, and just never posted anything about it, because they didn’t find any interesting patterns.

Reulbach PSA 5 (mk) with light blue Piedmont Factory 42 back
Ruelbach PSA 5 with a Piedmont Factory 42 back that is neither light blue nor dark blue, but rather somewhere in the middle

Despite the fact that I don’t have any exciting news to report, I figured this topic was still worth posting.  I’m sure I won’t be the last person to notice the differences between the light blue and dark blue backs and wonder if there is a pattern.  Hopefully, I can save some of those people some time.

Sources:
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=137166
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=128227

e97 Briggs Lozenze Partial Sheet, T206 Lash’s Bitters, and Why Haven’t any Uncut T206 Sheets Survived All These Years?

A few weeks back, I wrote an article about T206 cards from the same sheet.  In it, I talked about a few examples of scrapped sheets, including the amazing Lash’s Bitters Printers Scrap group.  Though I may have danced around the subject, what I neglected to mention is to date, a complete uncut T206 sheet has not been found.

I’d been planning to write an article about the Lash’s Bitters cards for awhile.  As luck would have it, a recent purchase jogged my memory on the subject of uncut sheets.  Last week’s article about the Lash’s Bitters group can be read by clicking the link below.

The Incredible T206 Lash’s Bitters Printer’s Scrap Sheet

This group of 11 hand-cut e97 Briggs Lozenge cards sold a couple years back.  I missed them when they were sold, but a friend got them, so at least I knew where they were.  Ever since I saw them, I’ve hoped to be able to acquire them at some point in the future.  Last week, those hopes finally came to fruition.

If you’ve read all of the articles on this site, you know that I love hand-cut cards.  The bigger the borders, and crazier the cuts, the better.  As you can see from looking at this group, they are some pretty unique looking cards.  When I first saw them, I assumed they all came from the same sheet.  The friend who sold them to me confirmed it by copying the layout of the uncut sheet below.

This is not the first time a group of e97s from the same sheet have surfaced.  Just last Spring, REA auctioned off this group of three panels of an uncut e97 sheet:

This brings me to the central question of the article.  Why aren’t there any uncut T206 sheets out there?  On the surface, it seems very strange.  Here we have this beautiful e97 sheet that has survived all these years (albeit in three pieces), but no such T206 sheet is known to exist.  T206 sheets must have outnumbered e97 sheets by a ratio of 1000:1 (or some similar huge number)*.

On one hand, I do find it surprising that there aren’t any uncut T206 sheets.  On the other hand, it makes some sense that uncut sheets from other sets, such as e97, might make for a more attractive display piece.  The e97 sheet above is undeniably beautiful.  The pastel colors are vivid and striking, and the variety of poses and colors are very pleasing to the eye.  From what we know about T206 sheets, I think it’s fair to say they would not be as attractive a display item.  The Briggs Lozenge sheet above features one of each pose in the 30-card set.  T206 sheets were laid out differently.  A single pose was typically repeated vertically multiple times.  Thanks to the research of Pat Romolo, we know what some of the sheets from the 150-350 series looked like.  The sheet below was recreated by Pat using Plate Scratches found on the backs of Piedmont 150 cards.  As you can see, this sheet looks a lot different than the e97 sheet.  The e97 sheet lends itself to display a lot more than this T206 sheet.

The repetitive nature of the T206 sheet makes for a less attractive presentation, at least in my opinion.  Still, I would expect that there would be a few strips or partial strips of T206s out there somewhere.  This group of cards below is known as the “T206 Test Strip”.  Clearly, these poses were located next to each other on a sheet, but because they were cut into individual cards they don’t qualify as an uncut strip.

The only strip that I know of is the “Wagner Proof” strip.  This incredible item deserves it’s own article, which you can look forward to next Sunday.  Legend has it this strip of cards was given to Honus Wagner by someone associated with either the American Tobacco Company or American Lithographic Company and the strip was found in the back pocket of a pair of Wagner’s Pirates uniform pants.

To date, this is the only uncut T206 strip that I am aware of.  It would not shock me if there is another short strip out there somewhere.  If any of you know of such an item, please let me know via email or the “Contact” button at the top of the page.  Likewise, I wouldn’t be shocked to see a partial strip come to market in the future.  Judging by the Lucky 7 Ty Cobb back find and the Broad Leaf 460 Cobb that recently hit eBay, there are still some amazing T206s out there hidden in attics, desks and old time collections.

The Incredible T206 Lash’s Bitters Printer’s Scrap Sheet

Recently I wrote an article about T206 sheet mates.  This group of cards was the subject of a fun Net54 thread a few years back where members worked together to figure out what was going on the backs of these T206s.  Besides being incredibly cool, they also offer a unique look into other types of jobs the American Lithographic Company was working on at the time.  The backs of these cards were used to test a run of Lash’s Bitters Tonic Laxative trade cards.

If you are interested in this topic, I highly recommend checking out the original thread on Net54baseball.com.

First, this Lash’s Bitters trade card was found by Net54 member Jantz:

Then Erick Summers posted this graphic, which lines up some of the cards against a grid of the Lash’s Bitters trade cards:

The graphic overlays below were created by T206 sleuth Chris Browne.  The image below looks like it could have been the front of the Lash’s Bitters trade card from above, but it ended up being the front of a different trade card.  If you take a close look at the image at the top of this article you’ll notice that “LASH’S BITTERS” is printed in red ink with two separate layouts.  One version is printed on just one line, while the other has “LASH’S” printed above “BITTERS”.  Chris’s discovery below shed some light on where the single line of red “LASH’S BITTERS” came from, but the double line version remained a mystery.

Then, Chris found the missing piece to the puzzle:

In my opinion, the T206 Lash’s Bitters are among the coolest cards in the set.  From a purely aesthetic standpoint, they are beautiful cards, and the connection with another commercial product from the same time period only adds to their significance.  The Net54 thread was fun and collaborative and epitomized what can happen when collectors work together on a project they are passionate about.

Hindu Newspaper Advertisement “No Prints”

Note:  Much of the background detail in this story is stuff I learned from reading T206resource.com.  Most of my readers will probably be familiar with the site, but if not, make sure to check it out. 

In August 1909, Hindu Cigarettes ads featuring T206 images began appearing in the Times-Picayune Daily and Evening newspapers in New Orleans*.  The ads ran for six weeks from August 2nd to September 10th.  There were 12 ads in total.

The first five ads featured only major-leaguers.  The sixth ad featured both Major Leaguers and Southern Leaguers.  The final six ads featured only Southern Leaguers.

If you collect T206 cards with Hindu backs, you may notice something odd about the ads above and below.  The following four poses appear in the advertisements, but were not actually printed with Brown Hindu backs:

  • Dooin
  • Lobert
  • Nicholls (Hands on Knees)
  • Waddell (Throwing)

It’s not known why these players were advertised but then omitted from the print run.  A similar omission occurred with the Southern Leaguers.  The ad below features Southern Leaguers Breitenstein, Hickman and Jordan, who were all printed with Brown Hindu backs.  The text in the box at the bottom of the ad reads, “This collection consists of a large assortment of colored lithographs of baseball players in the Southern, South Atlantic, Texas, and Virginia Leagues.”

Players from the Southern, South Atlantic, and Virginia Leagues were indeed printed with Hindu backs, but none of the Texas Leaguers were.

*It is believed that the T206 Hindu Ads were published exclusively in the New Orleans Times-Picayune

Sources:
http://t206resource.com/Hindu%20Ads.html
-All images are courtesy of t206resource.com

T206 Cards From the Same Sheet

This trio of Piedmont 350s from the same sheet was sold recently by Huggins & Scott Auctions.  Seeing them got me thinking about other cards that we know came from the same sheet.  In his fantastic book, Inside T206, Scot Reader surmises that the total number of T206s produced could be over 100 million.  Given this staggering estimate, it makes sense that finding two or more T206s that were printed on a single sheet is no easy task.

One of my favorite things about this set is that it lends itself very well to research.  If you learn something about a certain pose or front/back combo, there is often a logical pattern to be followed, which will lead you to more discoveries.  The same cannot really be said for today’s topic.  Finding T206 sheet mates is very cool, but it usually is the result of random happenstance rather than a larger pattern.  In that same vein, there will be little structure to this article.  I mainly just wanted to post some of the coolest T206 sheet mates.

Most of the times that we’re able to trace multiple T206s back to the same sheet, they will be of the printer’s scrap variety.  The reason for this is pretty simple.  In order to make connections between two or more cards, there has to be something that makes them unique.

Take these Hoblitzell and Oakes Piedmont 350s.  They showed up on eBay one day in a group of offerings from the same seller.  I wasn’t able to find out anything about where they came from, but it doesn’t take much of a logical leap to assume they were cut from the same sheet and kept together all this time.  Their large, hand-cut borders and darker-than-normal colors are a dead giveaway.  I’m not sure there’s anything to be learned from them, but they sure are cool.

These three Blank Backs share a similar cut as well as adhesive residue on all four corners of the backs.  They were clearly kept together in an album or frame for many years.  They made their way to market via SCP auctions, where I was able to buy them and keep them together.

The “Lash’s Bitters” T206s are another example of printer’s scrap that work as puzzle pieces that help us to re-construct a sheet of T206 cards.  I have an article in the works featuring these awesome scraps, so I’ll keep this description short.  The back of these T206s was used as a test sheet for trade cards featuring “Lash’s Bitters”.  The fronts look a little odd as well.  They appear to be missing a layer of red.

T206 collector John Dreker was kind enough to send me scans of these four upside-down and mis-cut Piedmont 150s that he owns.  He found Davis in a group of 40 cards he bought in 2000, then bought Tannehill, Doolin, and Cicotte together in the same group in 2002.

This group of cards has been dubbed the “Test Print Sheet”.  As you can see, the backs have a lot going on.

Much like the Lash’s Bitters sheet above, the back of the sheet that Griffith, Lake, and O’Leary were on was used as a test sheet for a Twin Oaks Tobacco advertisement.

This quartet of Blank Backs are very likely to have originated from the same sheet.

T206 Printer’s Scrap 101

Christy Mathewson “Yellow-Brown” Printer’s Scrap

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:

  1. How striking the missing color passes are
  2. Registration (the more messed up, the more desirable)
  3. 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.

Huggins and Scott Auctions off Three T206 Mis-cuts from the same Piedmont 350 Sheet

Huggins and Scott recently sold this very interesting trio of mis-cut Piedmont 350 backs.  The lot, which ended on February 8, 2018, sold for a final price of $840 after the juice.  Though they were not advertised as such, these three cards all came from the same sheet.

I don’t have firsthand knowledge of the provenance of these cards.  However, I believe they may be Printer’s Scrap.  This means that they were not included in packages of Piedmont Cigarettes, and instead left American Lithographic Company with one of the printers, or were discarded and saved by someone else.

The fact that they are so severely mis-cut is the first clue.  By itself, that doesn’t really tell us much though.  The second clue is the condition of each card.  They are all in very nice, uniform shape.  The third clue is the presence of both Seymour and Cicotte in the group.  The pink print marks below connect Seymour and Cicotte, proving they were right next to each other on a Piedmont 150 sheet.  We don’t know for sure that the layout remained the same for Piedmont 350 sheets, but it’s another piece of circumstantial evidence, all of which points in the direction of these three cards being printed on the same sheet.  To read more about the Seymour-Cicotte connection, and Piedmont 150 sheets in general, check out the links at the bottom of this article to other articles I’ve written on the subject.

The final clue is that all three cards came from the same collection.  It would be hard to imagine these three cards looking as similar as they do without them having been stored together for many years.  In the same vein, it would be hard to imagine them being released in packages of Piedmont Cigarettes and eventually making their way into the same collection without exhibiting different levels of wear.  However, there’s always the chance that these three cards were inserted into one carton of cigarettes and a few packs were purchased by the same smoker.

There are other examples of similar cards floating around in the hobby.  They are often referred to as “no name” cards because they are mis-cut in such a way that the caption has been cut off.  If I saw just one of these cards by itself, I wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that it was Printer’s Scrap.  Though they are severely off-center, they are certainly factory-cut.   The vast majority of cards that we refer to as “Printer’s Scrap” will exhibit rough, hand-cut edges because the cards were scrapped as a full sheet, and cut up by hand.  There’s no way to know for sure, but my guess is the sheet these three cards were printed on did not pass quality control (for obvious reasons) and the cards were never inserted into packs of Piedmont Cigarettes.

In the next couple of weeks, I’ll delve deeper into these topics.  Writing about these three cards (which may or may not be scrap) made me realize I haven’t written anything about the topic on this site yet.  So, next week’s article will be an overview of T206 Printer’s Scrap.  I’ll define the term, talk about all the different kinds, and show off some really cool examples.  Two Sundays from now, we’ll take a look at other examples of T206 sheet-mates that have survived together all these years.

Links and Sources:

Pat Romolo’s T206 Piedmont 150 Plate Scratch Project (Part 1/2)

Pat Romolo’s T206 Piedmont 150 Plate Scratch Project Part 2/2

What I Have Learned from Pat Romolo’s Piedmont 150 Plate Scratch Research: Part One

What I Have Learned from Pat Romolo’s Piedmont 150 Plate Scratch Research: Part Two

What I Have Learned from Pat Romolo’s Piedmont 150 Plate Scratch Research: Part Three

What I Have Learned from Pat Romolo’s Piedmont 150 Plate Scratch Research: Part Four

https://hugginsandscott.com/cgi-bin/showitem.pl?itemid=25159&catid=135&lotno=412

Home Run! T206 Broad Leaf 460 Uncovered in Auction Lot

1 Comment on Home Run! T206 Broad Leaf 460 Uncovered in Auction Lot

T206 collector Erick Summers, known on net54 as “t206hound” has sniffed out another elusive prize.  This time, he found one of the crown jewels of the T206 set, a Broad Leaf 460 back.  And not just any Broad Leaf 460.  The front of the card features Hall of Famer Frank “Home Run” Baker.  I caught up with Erick to learn more about his most recent T206 discovery.

Q:  This is amazing!  Congrats!  So, where did you find it?
A:  It was affixed to a poster along with the other cards in this Huggins & Scott auction lot:  
 
Q:  What made you decide to go after that lot?
 
A:  After being out of the hobby for about a year, I recently sold my Sweet Caporal 460 Factory 42 subset and had some money to play with, so I had been looking for something interesting.  There were two lots in the Huggins auction that caught my eye, but this one really intrigued me.  Of the 111 cards, there were 16 HOF including Cobb, Young and Johnson.  There was also an Elberfeld Washington Portrait, a card I’ve never owned.  With such a high percentage of “high value” cards (even in lower condition), I figured I could get the thrill of treasure hunting for a tougher back, but still get close to my money back in resale in the likely scenario of all common backs.
 
Q:  Have you ever bought any similar display pieces with the backs obscured?  
 
A:  I’ve been tempted before, but never pulled the trigger.  I’ve soaked cards in the past, so I’m familiar with the practice.  These cards were all rough, so I wasn’t worried too much about ending up with cards with back damage in the event that the cards didn’t come off clean.  I was more concerned about cards being offset as it was apparent that the cards on front and back of the display were not aligned.  I was hoping I wouldn’t have to “sacrifice” a card on one side to remove another.
 
Q:  If so, have you ever found any rare backs in similar fashion?
A:  Never.  In fact, this purchase looked like it was going to yield nothing but Sweet Caporals.  It wasn’t until I got to the two Crawfords that I came across a different back.  The Crawford was one of only four Sovereigns to go along with 106 Sweet Caps.  I had been texting Johnny Vanderbeck and the last message I received from him before seeing the Broadleaf was “I’m hoping you have something really crazy in there.”  It took me two more hours before I had moved on to the Baker.   I got glimpse of the back of the Baker, and I saw that the back was brown.  Initially I was thinking it was a Hindu as I didn’t recall that Baker isn’t available with that advertisement.  Imagine my surprise when I saw “Leaf” on the back.
Q:  Have you decided if you will keep it? 
 
A:  I’m honestly not much of a collector as I enjoy the hunt more than acquisition.  However, in this case I’m going to keep the card.   The other 110 cards, however, will likely find new homes.

Lena Blackburne’s Baseball Rubbing Mud

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Lena Blackburne appears in the T206 set with the Providence Grays, with whom he played in 1909 as a 22 year-old.  He spent parts of the next five seasons with the Chicago White Sox before bouncing around the National League with Cincinnati, Boston, and Philadelphia in 1918-19.  He is credited with playing one game with the White Sox in 1927, and another single game with the Sox in 1929, when he was the manager of the club.  Blackburne managed the White Sox in 1928-29, to a 99-133 record over that span.

Clearly this article is not going to be about his playing days, though he was a baseball lifer who had a lengthy career as a coach and manager in both the Major and Minor Leagues.  In addition to his managerial record shown below, he served as a coach on Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics ball clubs for the better part of 16 years between 1933 and 1948 (1933 through 1938, as well as 1940, 1942, 1943, 1947, and 1948).

Though his playing career was fairly nondescript, Blackburne left a lasting imprint on the game of baseball.

It all began in 1938 when an umpire complained to Lena Blackburne, a third base coach for the old Philadelphia Athletics, about the sorry condition of the baseballs used by the American League. Back then a ball was prepped simply with mud made of water and dirt from the playing field. The result? The ball’s cover was too soft, leaving it open for tampering. Something was needed to take off the shine but not soften the cover.

-http://baseballrubbingmud.com

Blackburne decided to try to tackle the problem.   He returned to New Jersey and combed the tributaries of the Delaware River, looking for the perfect consistency of mud to rub down a baseball without making it wet.  After some searching, he found just what he was looking for.  He brought some of the mud to the ballpark and found that it worked perfectly.  It took the sheen off the ball and allowed for an easier grip without adding water weight.  It also had no odor, and didn’t turn the balls black.

Thus, Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud was born.  By the end of 1938, every American League team was using his Rubbing Mud to prepare baseballs for use in games.  Though the A.L. was using the mud in 1938, it wasn’t until the mid 1950’s that the National League began to use it.  It wasn’t that the N.L. was slow to adopt the product though.  Blackburne was a staunch American League supporter, and refused to sell his product to the National League for almost two decades.

The business still exists today, supplying Rubbing Mud to all MLB and MiLB teams.  Small containers are available for sale to the general public.  Upon Blackburne’s death in 1968, the company was willed to his close friend John Haas.  Haas eventually turned the business over to his son-in-law Burns Bintliff.  The company is currently run by Burns’ son Jim.

The exact spot where the mud is sourced remains a closely guarded secret.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Lena_Blackburne

http://baseballrubbingmud.com

Photos courtesy of baseballrubbingmud.com