Category: That T206 Life Blog

T206 Carolina Brights Power Rankings: The Top Ten Poses

I received some good feedback the last time I posted a Power Rankings article, and I figure it’s about time for another one.  Last week, I wrote a little introduction to the Carolina Brights subset, and as a fun companion piece, here are the top ten poses available with Carolina Brights backs.

It was a little tough to decide how to rank these cards.  My main objective was to rank them according to level of stardom of the players, but I also wanted to take into consideration that some of these poses are available with less backs than others.  For example, I ended up ranking Speaker above Mathewson because Speaker, a 350 Only Subject, was printed with fewer rare backs (only Carolina Brights, Broad Leaf 350, and Drum) than Mathewson Dark Cap (a Super Print).

The one thing I couldn’t figure out how to incorporate was individual scarcity.  For example, Chase Blue Portrait with a Carolina Brights back is very scarce.  If a nice one came to auction right now, it would likely sell for more than many of the players above Chase on this list.  But because I couldn’t figure out a good way to quantify that, I have just stuck with a mix of stardom and desirability.  I’m sure many of you would rank these slightly differently, but I feel like it’s a pretty good list.  Let me know what you think in the comments section!

1.  Ty Cobb (Red Background Portrait)

2.  Tris Speaker

3.  Christy Mathewson (Dark Cap)

4.  Eddie Collins

5.  Frank Chance (Yellow Background Portrait)

6.  Johnny Evers (Chicago on Shirt)

7.  Jimmy Collins

8.  Chief Bender (Trees in Background)

9.  Hal Chase (Blue Background Portrait)

10.  John Titus

 

Honorable Mentions:

Roger Bresnahan (Batting)
Hal Chase (Dark Cap)
Joe Kelley
Joe McGinnity
Luther Taylor

T206 Carolina Brights Overview

This week we’re going to take a look at one of the truly rare backs of the T206 set.  Carolina Brights backs hold a special place in the hearts and minds of T206 collectors because of their combination of visual appeal and scarcity.  Attempting to rank T206 backs in terms of scarcity can often lead to disagreements among collectors.  However, when it comes to ranking Carolina Brights along the spectrum of T206 back scarcity, there doesn’t seem to be any argument.

Carolina Brights backs are clearly scarcer than the trio of Tier One Mid-Tier Backs (Cycle 460, American Beauty 460, and Piedmont 350-460 Factory 42) and more plentiful than Broad Leaf 350.  This allows us to slot them in on the bottom rung of the “Rare Back” ladder.

Leaving out the backs that were never intended to be released to the public in packs of tobacco/cigarettes, these are the “Rare Backs” in order from scarcest to most plentiful*

  1. Broad Leaf 460
  2. Drum
  3. Uzit
  4. Hindu (Red)
  5. Lenox (Black)
  6. Red Cross Type 1**
  7. Broad Leaf 350
  8. Coupon Type 1**
  9. Carolina Brights

T206resource.com lists 127 confirmed poses with Carolina Brights backs and four remaining poses that have not been confirmed, but are suspected to exist.  The four unconfirmed poses are Art Fromme, Hunky Shaw, Ed Willett (bat), and Lucky Wright.  All but six of the poses in the Carolina Brights Subset are from the 350 Series (Print Group 2).  The other six are the “Super Prints”****

Here is the complete checklist, courtesy of T206resource.com

Though Carolina Brights backs are rare, most poses that were printed with Carolina Brights back were also printed with Drum 350 and/or Broad Leaf 350 backs.  As a result, Carolina Brights is seldom the rarest back for a given player or pose.  Take for instance, Topsy Hartsel.  He was printed with Drum 350, Broad Leaf 350, and Carolina Brights backs.  The Drum is the scarcest, followed by the Broad Leaf 350, with Carolina Brights coming in a somewhat distant third in terms of scarcity.

However there are some poses for which that pattern doesn’t hold.  The following players/poses have not been found with a Broad Leaf 350 or Drum 350 back.  In other words, for these poses, Carolina Brights is the scarcest known back.

  • Barger, Cy
  • Collins, Eddie
  • Collins, Jimmy
  • Demmitt, Ray (New York)
  • Evans, Steve
  • Gray, Dolly
  • Groom, Bob
  • Lundgren, Carl (Kansas City)
  • Mattern, Al
  • McLean, Larry
  • Puttman, Ambrose
  • Shannon, Spike

Carolina Brights backs tend to sell for slightly less than Broad Leaf 350s and quite a bit more than any of the Mid-Tier backs.

Stay tuned for next week’s article Carolina Brights Power Rankings: The Top Ten Combos.

* This leaves out the Ty Cobb back, Brown Old Mill Southern League back, Brown Lenox, and Blank Backs.

** Catalogued as T215 Type 1, this back probably ought to be considered a T206.  Because it was catalogued differently many years ago, most collectors view it as its own set.

*** Catalogued as T213 Type 1, this back should probably also be considered a T206 back.

****The “Super Prints” are the following six poses:

  • Chance, Frank (Portrait – Yellow)
  • Chase, Hal (Portrait – Blue)
  • Chase, Hal (Black Cap)
  • Cobb, Ty (Portrait – Red)
  • Evers, Johnny (Chicago On Shirt – Yellow Sky)
  • Mathewson, Christy (Dark Cap)

It’s the One-Year Anniversary of ThatT206Life.com, And I’m Celebrating with a Giveaway!

65 Comments on It’s the One-Year Anniversary of ThatT206Life.com, And I’m Celebrating with a Giveaway!

One year ago today, (October 19th, 2016) I made my first post on this site.  I wanted to do something fun for the One-Year Anniversary of the site to say thank you to the people who have stopped by and read some of my work over the last year.  I figure there is no better way to do that than giving away some T206s!  I will be giving away three T206 cards, to three different winners.  Check out the rules below to see how to enter:

I will be giving away three of these four cards:

Lot #1: Red Dooin Sovereign 150 PSA 2
Lot #2: Fred Beck Old Mill SGC 40
Lot #3: Mike “Doc” Powers Sweet Caporal 150 Factory 649 PSA 2
Lot #4: Griffith Portrait Piedmont 350

Giveaway Rules:

In order to enter the giveaway, you need to leave a comment on this post.  Your comment needs to include two things:

  1. Answer the question:  “Which pose in the T206 set is your favorite?”
  2. Write either your net54 handle or your name (if you just leave your name, you also need to leave an email or some other way for me to contact you)

You do not need to sign up or sign in in order to leave a comment.  If you have any trouble leaving a comment, send me a message through the “CONTACT” link above and I’ll help you.  The final day to enter the giveaway will be Sunday October 29th (any comment left after midnight Pacific Time will not be entered into the giveaway).  I will select winners on Monday October 30th.  You may only enter once.

I’ll randomize all entries and then draw 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize winners.  The 1st prize winner will get to select their choice of the four cards in the giveaway.  2nd place will get to choose between the remaining three cards, and the 3rd place winner gets their choice of the two remaining cards.  Whichever card is not picked by any of the three winners, I will keep.

Once the winners have been selected, I’ll contact the First Place winner and give them their choice of cards.  Hopefully everyone will get back to me quickly and I am able to get cards mailed out the next day.  If you are selected as one of the winners, you need to get back to me within 48 hours and give me your selection, or I will have to move on to the next winner, and let them have their choice of the available cards.

Thanks for visiting the site over the last year!

The Nuns’ T206 Honus Wagner

In 2009, the School Sisters of Notre Dame received a most unexpected donation.  The School Sisters are a worldwide religious institute of Roman Catholic Sisters.  On February 3rd, 2009, a man (who’s name the nuns have decided to keep confidential) with close ties to the organization passed away at the age of  85 and bequeathed his estate to the order.  The nuns were not surprised to be benefactors of the man’s will.  His sister had belonged to the order, and he had never married or had children.  Besides leaving his home to the nuns, he also willed the contents of his safe deposit box.

When the nuns opened the box, they were surprised to find this T206 Wagner with an attached typewritten note that said,

“Although damaged, the value of this baseball card should increase exponentially throughout the 21st century!”

After picking up the baseball card, Sister Virginia Muller, the order’s former treasurer, searched the Internet to determine its worth. When she saw the value of other Wagner cards, her jaw dropped.

“I very carefully put it into the back of my files,” she said, laughing. “Then quickly insured it.”

-New York Times January 31, 2011

All of the news stories written about the card at the time have noted that the man acquired the card in 1936, though there is no mention of how that was ascertained.  There is also no mention of him owning any other sports cards or collectibles.

“I wish I knew more of the story, like where he got the card or why he kept it, But I guess it will remain a mystery.”

-Sister Virginia Muller in the January 31st 2011 issue of the New York Times

When the nuns were ready to sell the Wagner, they chose Heritage Auctions to handle the sale.  The card was featured in Heritage’s “November 2010 Signature Collectibles Auction” which closed over a two-day period on November 4th and 5th.  When the auction clocked ticked down the zero, the winning bid (including the juice) was $262,900.  Unfortunately, the winning bidder never paid for the card.

Heritage reached out to collector Dr. Nicholas DePace, who agreed to buy the card for $220,000.  According to the New York Times story, Heritage declined to take a commission on the sale, sending all $220,000 to the School Sisters of Notre Dame.  I don’t know whether or not Heritage was able to collect a full or partial commission from the winning bidder, but regardless it was a really classy move by Heritage to send the full $220,000 to the charitable group.

Dr. DePace

The story doesn’t quite end there.  Two days later, Dr. DePace received a call from someone at Heritage asking him if he’d like to make a quick $60,000 profit by selling the card to another interested party.

“I said, ‘What’s the matter with you guys?  It’s no longer just a baseball card; it’s become a religious relic, a St. Jude of memorabilia. I’m keeping it.”

-Dr. Nichlas DePace in the January 31st 2011 issue of the New York Times

Dr. DePace said he intended to feature the card in a non-profit sports museum he planned to open in Collingwood, New Jersey.

Sources:

Cycle 460: Overlooked and Undervalued (Part Four): Cycle 460 v.s. American Beauty 460

For the last installment of this series, we’re going to take a look at how the the Cycle 460 Subset compares to the American Beauty 460 Subset in terms of scarcity.  There are 75* poses in the American Beauty 460 Subset and 109 in the Cycle 460 Subset.  All 75* poses in the American Beauty 460 Subset were also printed with Cycle 460 backs.  Because of this, we have a nice large sample of poses to use for comparison.

Checklists for each back, courtesy of T206resource.com:

Cycle 460

American Beauty 460

My Hypothesis:

Before beginning to research the Pop Reports, I had the following expectation:  I thought that overall, there would be more American Beauty 460s in the PSA Pop Report than Cycle 460s.  The main reason for this is the “Exclusive 12”.  These 12 poses are quite plentiful with American Beauty 460, in stark contrast to the other poses in the subset.  Part of the reason I wanted to publish this series of articles was to show people how Cycle 460s are definitively scarcer than American Beauty 460 in an aggregate sense.  However, I knew certain American Beauty 460 poses are near impossible to find, while the average Cycle 460 pose is scarce, but not bordering on unique.  I was expecting to find if I removed the Exclusive 12 poses from the data, the remaining American Beauty 460s would have a lower Pop than the Cycle 460s.  Let’s take a look at the data I compiled below.

Explanation of Research**:

19 of the 75 poses in the American Beauty 460 Subset were also printed with an American Beauty 350 No Frame back.  Because PSA used a generic “American Beauty” label for a number of years, there’s no way to differentiate between American Beauty 350 No Frame and American Beauty 460 for those 19 poses.  Which that left me with 56 poses to research.  I began by creating a table with all 56 poses, located below.  The “Exclusive 12” poses are highlighted in yellow.

As you can see, American Beauty 460 backs outnumber Cycle 460s by a fairly large margin.  But take a look at the highlighted entries.  The “Exclusive 12” have skewed the data so much that it looks like Cycle 460 is the scarcer back.  And it doesn’t look close.  In an aggregate sense, Cycle 460 is the scarcer back.  Cycle 460 should be ranked above American Beauty 460 on a Back Scarcity Ranking list.  But, if we remove the outliers (the Exclusive 12 poses) from the data, is Cycle 460 still the scarcer back?

This table consists of 44 poses (the 56 poses above, minus the Exclusive 12 poses).  It gives us a much clearer picture of the situation.  It appears from this set of data that the remaining American Beauty 460 poses are scarcer than the remaining Cycle 460 poses.  Because the totals are so close, these results don’t necessarily prove anything.  However, I think it’s safe to conclude that Exclusive 12 poses aside, American Beauty 460 and Cycle 460 poses exist in very similar quantities.

*At the moment, there is some question as to whether Ames Hands Above Head actually exists with American Beauty 460 back.  For now, it is in the checklist, and I included the pose in the research.  In the future I could see it being removed from the checklist if no collectors are able to find one.

**Throughout this series of articles, I have used only the PSA Pop Reports to test the hypothesis.  I chose to do this for a couple different reasons.  First, the PSA Pop Report is a little easier (and quicker) to use when checking a number of different players with the same back.  Secondly, there can be some confusion on the SGC Pop Reports when a player has one pose that was printed with a Brown Hindu back and another pose that was printed with a Red Hindu back.  The same holds true for American Beauty 350 With Frame & American Beauty 350 No Frame.  I wanted to have data that was completely uniform and I didn’t want to use any entry that included any ambiguity.

Cycle 460: Overlooked and Undervalued (Part Three): Cycle 460 v.s. American Beauty 350 No Frame

This week I’m going to be taking a look at how the Cycle 460 subset compares to the American Beauty 350 No Frame subset.  T206resource.com has American Beauty 350 No Frame as the 15th scarcest back in the T206 set, and Cycle 460 as the 17th.  It’s important to remember that back scarcity lists such as the one posted on T206resource.com are an attempt to list the backs in order of aggregate scarcity.  In other words, this list is simply saying less American Beauty 350 No Frame backs exist than Cycle 460 backs.

Attempting to compare the overall populations of these two backs is a little bit tricky because the checklists are of such dissimliar size.  As mentioned in Part Two of this series, the Cycle 460 Subset consists of 109 different poses, while there are only 37 poses in the American Beauty 350 No Frame checklist.  What this means is that there are 2.95 times (but I’ll round it up to 3x for simplicity’s sake) more poses in the Cycle 460 subset than in the American Beauty 350 No Frame Subset.  So, in order for these two backs to have a similar total population, the average individual American Beauty 350 No Frame pose would have to be about 3 times as plentiful as the average Cycle 460 pose.

My Hypothesis:

That 3:1 ratio actually sounded about right to me before I began to research the Pop Report.  I expecting to find a ratio at or around 3:1 and it wouldn’t have surprised me to find that it was even higher (meaning that Cycle 460 backs are scarcer than American Beauty 350 No Frame).  Let’s take a look at the table below to see what the actual results look like.

Links to checklists, courtesy of t206resource.com:

Cycle 460

American Beauty 350 No Frame

Explanation of Research*:

In Part Two of this series, when comparing Brown Hindu Populations to Cycle 460 Populations, I had to use two different poses of the same player.  This is because there is no crossover between poses in the Brown Hindu and Cycle 460 subsets.  Brown Hindu backs were printed exclusively on 150-350 Series subjects in 1909 while Cycle 460 backs were printed in 1911 and feature only poses from the 350-460 Series, 460 Only Series, and the Super Prints.

The research for this article is a bit more straightforward, because we can look at a single pose rather than two different poses featuring the same player.  36 of the 37 poses in the American Beauty 350 No Frame Subset were also printed with a Cycle 460 back**.  Unfortunately I wasn’t able to use PSA Pop Report data for all 36 poses.  Most of the poses that were printed with an American Beauty 350 No Frame back were also printed with an American Beauty 460 back.  Because PSA used a generic “American Beauty” label for a number of years, it’s impossible to get reliable Pop Report data for the players who were printed with both backs***.  This meant I had to use just the poses in the American Beauty 350 No Frame Subset that were not also printed with an American Beauty 460 back.  That left me with the 15 poses in the table below.

As you can see, the PSA Population of American Beauty 350 No Frames outnumber Cycle 460s 148 to 65, for a ratio of 2.28:1.  This falls short of the 3:1 ratio required for the total Populations of each back to be roughly equal.  I was expecting to find the Cycle 460 Population marginally scarcer than American Beauty 350 No Frame. However, the results strongly indicate that American Beauty 350 No Frame backs are indeed scarcer than Cycle 460 backs.

*Throughout this series of articles, I have used only the PSA Pop Reports to test the hypothesis.  I chose to do this for a couple different reasons.  First, the PSA Pop Report is a little easier (and quicker) to use when checking a number of different players with the same back.  Secondly, there can be some confusion on the SGC Pop Reports when a player has one pose that was printed with a Brown Hindu back and another pose that was printed with a Red Hindu back.  The same holds true for American Beauty 350 With Frame & American Beauty 350 No Frame.  I wanted to have data that was completely uniform and I didn’t want to use any entry that included any ambiguity.

**The lone exception is Simon Nichols batting, which was pulled from production before Cycle 460 backs were printed.

***In a previous article entitled “Understanding the American Beauty backs: T206 American Beauty 350 no frame (Part 3/4)“, I used both the PSA and SGC Pop Reports in order to make an educated guess at the total graded population of each pose in the American Beauty 350 No Frame subset.

Cycle 460: Overlooked and Undervalued (Part Two): Cycle 460 v.s. Brown Hindu

The Brown Hindu subset holds a special place in the hearts of many T206 collectors.  Brown Hindu backs are always in high demand for a few reasons.  For one thing, they feature a very unique and visually appealing design.  In addition, they offer some back variety in the 150-350 Series, which does not offer many options for back collectors.  Brown Hindus are the most valuable of all 150-350 Series backs, and the same holds true with regard to Southern Leaguers.

The Cycle 460 subset, on the other hand, tends to fly under the radar, despite a similar level of scarcity.  A couple of possible reasons for this come to mind.  First, the Cycle back is not unique to the 460 Series.  Cycle 350 backs are one of the more plentiful “Mid-Tier” backs, and this may contribute to the lukewarm demand for Cycle 460 backs.  Collectors may think to themselves something along the lines of, “I already have a Cycle 350, so I’m not in any hurry to get a Cycle 460 back.”  Secondly, Cycle 460 is a scarce back, but it is never the most valuable back for a given pose like Brown Hindu is.  If you want the most valuable back for the Mordecai Brown Portrait, you know you need to get a copy with a Brown Hindu back.  The same can’t be said for Cycle 460.  If you want the scarcest back for Mordecai Brown’s Chicago on shirt pose, you are going to want a Broad Leaf 460, Red Hindu, or Lenox.  A Cycle 460 might be a nice alternative as those other three backs would be near impossible to track down, but it wouldn’t be your first choice.

The Cycle 460 checklist features 109 Major Leaguers from Print Groups 3, 4 & 5 (350-460, 460 Only, Super Prints).  The Brown Hindu subset features a total of 136 poses, 102 of which are Major Leaguers from Print Group 1 (the 150-350 Series) The other 34 poses are Southern Leaguers.  For the purposes of this article, I’ll be focusing on just the Major Leaguers.  Because the two checklists have a very similar number of Major Leaguers, these two backs lend themselves to comparison quite well.

Checklists for each back, courtesy of the fine folks at T206resource.com:

Brown Hindu
Cycle 460

My Hypothesis:

These two backs tend to sell for very similar prices.  However, it is my contention that Cycle 460s are undervalued relative to Brown Hindu because Cycle 460s are much scarcer.  I conducted the research below to see if the reality matched my hypothesis.

Explanation of Research:

In an attempt to compare two similar sets of data, I began by finding all of the players in the T206 set who have a pose in both the Brown Hindu subset and the Cycle 460 subset.

Throughout this series of articles, I have used only the PSA Pop Reports to test the hypothesis.  I chose to do this for a couple different reasons.  First, the PSA Pop Report is a little easier (and quicker) to use when checking a number of different players with the same back.  Secondly, there can be some confusion on the SGC Pop Reports when a player has one pose that was printed with a Brown Hindu back and another pose that was printed with a Red Hindu back.  The same holds true for American Beauty 350 With Frame & American Beauty 350 No Frame.  I wanted to have data that was completely uniform and I didn’t want to use any entry that included any ambiguity.

There are 44 players who have at least one pose in both the Brown Hindu and Cycle 460 subsets.  Tinker has two poses in each subset.  This brings us to a total of 45 pairs of front/back combos.  However, there are two pairs we won’t be able to use.  Both Evers Yellow Sky and Mathewson Dark Cap were printed with both a Cycle 350 and a Cycle 460 back.  Because PSA used a generic “Cycle” label for a few years, the Pop Report data for these two cards is not as accurate as the other Cycle 460s in this group.  Which leaves us with a total of 43 players with matched Brown Hindu and Cycle 460 poses.  Check out the table below to see how much scarcer Cycle 460s are than their Brown Hindu counterparts.

As you can see, there is quite a significant gap is Population between the two samples.  Granted there will be a certain margin of error for this sample since it does not include the entire Population of graded Brown Hindu and Cycle 460 backs from both PSA and SGC.  However, it is a pretty significant sample size, and the results don’t leave much question of which back is scarcer.

In addition, my research doesn’t include the 34 Southern Leaguers who were printed with Brown Hindu backs.  When you add those in, it’s likely that Brown Hindu backs actually outnumber Cycle 460 backs by a 3:1 ratio.

In conclusion, Brown Hindu and Cycle 460 backs may sell for very similar prices, but it is clear Cycle 460 backs are by far the scarcer back.

Cycle 460: Overlooked and Undervalued (Part One)

It seems to me that Cycle 460s don’t get the respect they deserve.  Over the last few years, I’ve felt that I was seeing Cycle 460s less often than the other “mid-tier” backs such as Hindu, Piedmont Factory 42, and American Beauty 350 No Frame.  So I decided to do some research to see if my observations were supported by the Pop Reports.

In this series, I’ll be focusing on the scarcest of the “Mid-Tier Backs”, that is:

Tier 1 Backs:
  • American Beauty 460
  • Cycle 460
  • Piedmont 350-460 Factory 42*
Tier 2 Backs:
  • American Beauty 350 No Frame
  • Brown Hindu

In my opinion, there is a clear divide between these 5 backs** and the backs above and below them in terms of scarcity.  There is a large gap in scarcity and value between any of these 5 backs and Carolina Brights, which is significantly scarcer and more valuable.  Likewise, I feel there is a gap below these 5 backs before you get to Tolstoi and Sovereign 460.

A couple of weeks back, I published a two-part article which gave an overview of the “Mid-Tier” Backs, which can be read by clicking the links below:

A Look at the “Mid-Tier” T206 Backs: Tier 1

A Look at the “Mid-Tier” T206 Backs: Tiers 2 & 3

Here are the back scarcity rankings from T206resource.com.  This is a really well put together list, and it’s a great place to start.  I think collectors as a whole have overlooked Cycle 460 and it’s my contention that it needs to move up four or five rungs on this list (and others like it).  I’d also move Sovereign 460 down a couple rungs, but I agree with the vast majority of this list.

Before I get into the research, there are a couple of points I want to address:

First, not all of the mid-tier backs are easy to analyze.  American Beauty 460 is an odd subset because there are 12 poses that are quite easy to find, while the rest of the poses range from tough-to-find to near impossible.  This makes is hard to compare American Beauty 460 to Cycle 460 backs, which have a much more even distribution.  American Beauty 350 No Frame offers a different challenge in terms of comparison.  The AB 350nf subset contains only 37 cards, which is 34% the size of the Cycle 460 checklist (109 cards).

In an aggregate sense, the two backs may have similar scarcity.   However, when looking at specific poses, there will typically be two or three times as many cards with AB350nf backs in the Pop Report than Cycle 460s of the same pose.  This makes it tough to compare Cycle 460 and AB350nf, but I tackle that challenge anyway in Part Three of this series.  In addition, Piedmont 350-460 Factory 42 backs have not been catalogued very well by PSA or SGC over the years, so neither Pop Report is of much use in researching this back.

Secondly, the way the PSA and SGC Pop Reports are set up makes it easy to research certain things but difficult to research others.  For instance it’s difficult to get accurate PSA Pop numbers for a Cycle 460 Chance Yellow Portrait, because PSA used a generic “Cycle” label for a few years, so it’s impossible to know which of those are Cycle 350 and which are Cycle 460.  You run into the same problem for all the poses that have both AB350nf and AB460 backs.  The SGC Pop Report presents a different challenge.  It is easy to tell an AB350nf from an AB460 because the former will be labeled “1910” and the latter “1911”.  However, if a player has two different poses and one was printed with American Beauty 350 With Frame and the other was printed with American Beauty 350 No Frame, it will often be impossible to differentiate between the two in the SGC Pop Report.

Using Pop Reports in an attempt to prove hypotheses can be a little problematic because not all cards in existence have been slabbed, and not all slabbed cards correctly indicate the back.  However, I feel that if you compare two like subject groups and the sample size is large enough, Pop Report data can be very accurate and useful.  You’ll see in Part Two of this series how I use just PSA Pop Report Data and I am able to prove my hypothesis without any doubt due to the sample size and the results of my research.

In this series, I am attempting to answer the following questions:

  • “Which of the Mid-Tier backs is the scarcest?”
  • “What is the order of scarcity for these 5 Mid-Tier backs we are looking at?”

Please stay tuned for the rest of this series:

  • Part Two:  Cycle 460 v.s. Brown Hindu
  • Part Three:  Cycle 460 v.s. American Beauty 350 no frame
  • Part Four:  Cycle 460 v.s. American Beauty 460

*Ideally there would be a Part Five, where I compare Cycle 460 to Piedmont Factory 42, but the lack of Pop Report Data available for Piedmont Factory 42 means I have no way to present any meaningful findings with regard to that back.

**I also think Sweet Caporal 350-460 Factory 25 belongs somewhere in this conversation, but the lack of data available makes that impossible.  Additionally, the fact that collectors don’t care too much about this back makes them fly under the radar even more.

A Twist on the Back Run: Player Runs

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.

Lionel Carter’s T206 Eddie Plank

In 2007, hobby legend Lionel Carter sold a number of cards from his expansive collection.  Among them was his T206 Plank.  This is one of my favorite T206s that I don’t own.  Beyond the fact that its a T206 Plank, there are a couple things which make this card extra special, in my eyes.  Most of the highest profile cards in the hobby quietly change hands behind closed doors.  However, if you were a net54baseball.com member in 2012 and 2013, you probably remember reading along as this particular card was purchased by a board member, only to be put back on the market shortly thereafter.   For this Plank card, the story of its ownership and how it was acquired adds to its appeal, at least to me.  Another endearing aspect of this card is how “well-loved” it is.  The vast majority of Mr. Carter’s baseball cards were in very nice shape, and this one obviously stands out like a sore thumb.  Including Mr. Carter, there have been only four owners since 1957:

TIMELINE:

1957:  Lionel Carter acquires the Plank in a cigar box full of cigarette cards from a Charles Bray auction.

In a telephone conversation recorded in 2008, Mr. Carter recalled his first thoughts when discovering the Plank among the other cards in the cigar box:

“I bought it in a box of cigarette cards for $5.  I was quite young at the time, probably going to high school.  I took it up to my room and dumped them out.  And I was going through them, and I said, “Well what’s this crappy card doing in here?”  And I was going to throw it out, but I said, “I’ll keep it until I find a better one.  But I never did find a better one.”

Aug. 27, 2007: Lionel Carter’s T206 Eddie Plank comes to market for the first time. Sold by Legendary Auctions for $16,474.

The new owner reached out to Mr. Carter to ask him a few questions about the card.  In a 2008 letter written to the owner, Mr. Carter wrote:

As for Mr. Plank, I purchased him in Charles Bray sale of 440 lots in the Card Collector’s Bulletin of May 10, 1957 listed as a cigar box full of baseball cigarette cards for $5.00! Figured I had nothing to lose and bid $5.00 and was surprised to get them. All fair or good condition except Plank. Nearly threw him away. Glad he has a nice home!

March 28, 2012: In a private transaction, the buyer of the Plank in the Legendary auction sells it for $29,000.

The winning bidder in the Legendary Auction was approached by a fellow member of the net54baseball.com forum, and a deal was struck.  However, it wasn’t long before the new owner was on the hunt for another high profile card.  In May of 2012, he posted that he was looking for a 1933 Goudey Nap Lajoie and that he was willing to trade the Plank.

August 2013: In a private transaction, Plank is traded to collector Rob Dewolf for a 1933 Goudey Lajoie in an SGC 40/3 holder. The Plank has remained in Dewolf’s possession since then.

This has to be one of the biggest trades in the history of the hobby, but it wasn’t easy.  In April 2013, Dewolf reached out the owner of the Plank about a possible trade, but the two parties didn’t gain any traction right away.  Talks stalled in April only to be re-opened in August.  The owner of the Plank lived in Canada, which added an extra wrinkle to the negotiations.  The owner of the Plank didn’t want to pay for shipping and insurance on the Plank and customs fees for the Lajoie, so they had to come up with a creative solution.  In the end, a straight-up swap of the two iconic cards was agreed to when Rob commissioned a trusted third party to travel to the border with the Lajoie and complete the trade for him.

Unfortunately for us, there’s no way to know the history of this card prior to its arrival in Mr. Carter’s collection.  If it could talk, I’m sure it would have some tales to tell.  I can only imagine how it came to look the way it does.  And, being in that condition, I’m amazed it survived all these years.  Back when tobacco cards had no monetary value, I would think a severely worn card like this would find its way into the trash more often than not.  Heck, even Lionel Carter considered throwing it out.

 

-Thanks to t206collector.com for the excerpts from both the written letter and telephone conversation