back run – That T206 life

Some Things To Consider Before Starting a T206 Back Run

Luke March 24, 2019

T206 is the greatest baseball card set of all time. Since you’re here, you probably already knew that. One of the reasons is there are so many different ways to collect T206s. One of the more popular approaches in the “back run”. A back run is a collection of cards where the fronts are the same, but the backs are all different.

The most important thing to think about before beginning to collect a back run is, “Which backs are a part of the run?” Some poses will make for a fairly easy-to-complete project, while others are pretty much impossible. For example, a Dode Criss back run consists of 7 different front/back combos. The toughest backs in the run are Old Mill and Sovereign 150. Neither should be too difficult to find, nor should they break the bank. In contrast, a Ty Cobb Red Background Portrait back run consists of 24 different front/back combos. A few of those combos are impossible to find, and even harder to afford. There are only 2 examples of the Broad Leaf 460, both firmly entrenched in collections. Finding a Red Cobb with a Drum, Carolina Brights, Blank Back or Red Hindu back would be similarly tough.

Before you commit to chasing a T206 back run, you should find out which backs exist for each pose that you are considering. Some collectors will want to find a back run that is fairly easy and inexpensive to complete, while others may prefer more of a challenge, and not be deterred by a larger financial commitment.

Let’s take a look at how the T206 Print Groups can help you select a pose that suits your preferences:

150-350 Series:

With just a few exceptions, a pose from the 150-350 Series will be easier (and cheaper) to complete than a pose from the rest of the set. The toughest backs in this series are Old Mill and Hindu. Either back can take awhile to locate, but it won’t break the bank once you do.

350 Only Series:

Completing a back run featuring a 350 Series subject is tougher than a 150-350 pose. 350 Series poses are found with some combination of the following scarce backs: Broad Leaf 350, Carolina Brights, Drum, Tolstoi. Most 350 Series poses will have some, but not all of those backs. For example, Tris Speaker is known with all 4 of those backs, but Jimmy Collins is only known with Carolina Brights and Tolstoi backs.

350-460 Series:

Other than the Super Prints, this series contains some of the toughest back run subjects you could choose. This series features Drum, Black Lenox, Piedmont 42, Red Hindu, and Uzit backs.

460 Only Series:

These poses can be found with some combination of American Beauty 460, Black Lenox, Brown Lenox, Cycle 460, Piedmont 42, Red Hindu, and Uzit backs.

Super Prints:

The Super Prints* were so named because they were printed with so many backs. The Red Background Ty Cobb Portrait mentioned above was printed with 24 backs. The exact back makeup of the six poses differs, but they can be found with the following array of rare backs: Broad Leaf 350, Broad Leaf 460, Carolina Brights, Drum, and Black Lenox.

Southern Leaguers:

A Southern Leaguer back run can range from very easy to complete, to near impossible. 14 poses were printed with only Piedmont 350 and Old Mill backs. Another 34 poses were printed with Piedmont 350, Old Mill, and Brown Hindu backs. If those two or three backs is all you are looking for, it should be a fairly easy and affordable project. However, some Southern Leaguers were also printed with the extremely rare Brown Old Mill back. In addition, Southern League poses can be found with a blank back. If the poses you are working on exists with both Brown Old Mill and Blank backs, that is going to make for an incredibly expensive and challenging project.

A Twist on the Back Run: Player Runs

Luke October 1, 2017 August 27, 2017

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.

Collecting T206: Choosing a Focus

Luke December 4, 2016 December 3, 2016

Figuring out exactly how you want to approach the set is easier said than done. It will most likely take some trial and error before you feel confident that you know what you want to collect. That being said, it definitely can’t hurt to go into it with an idea of how you want to get started. There are a ton of different ways to collect the T206 set. Let’s take a look some of the more common approaches:

Collect all 518 (or 520) fronts:
This is pretty self-explanatory. You pick a general condition preference, and work on getting one of each front. Some people stop at 518 cards, and others make it 520 which includes the St. Louis variations of Demmitt and O’Hara.

Collect all of the Hall of Famers:
Also quite simple. There are 76 cards in the T206 set that depict a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Most of us can’t afford a Plank or Wagner, so that drops the number to 74.

Collecting just one back:
Some people decide they just love the look of one particular back and try to get every card that was printed with it. I have a friend who has a complete Polar Bear set and another who is getting pretty close on an entire Tolstoi set.

Collecting one team or city:
This is a great way to enjoy the set. It makes a lot of sense if you are from or reside in one of the cities represented in the set. Some collectors take it a step further and try to collect their favorite team with a variety of backs.

Back collecting:
This can mean trying to find one copy of each back, or multiple copies of certain backs. The common denominator for back collectors is that they tend to prefer the uncommon backs, sometimes to the point that they have little interest in common backs.

Collecting a player back run:
The idea is to take one pose, figure out all the possible backs that exist for it and try to acquire them all. This can be a really fun way to collect and learn about the set. One collector has an epic back run of the Cobb red portrait. He has more than 20 different red Cobbs, all with different back advertisements.

Collecting a subset:
This is similar to collecting just one back, but deals with one specific series and/or factory number. For example, a collector I know has a complete Sweet Caporal 350-460 factory 25 subset.

Most of the time, a new collector will fall into one of these three categories:

Just wants a few stars and/or notable players
Wants to collect a team or city
Wants to collect the entire set

Starting with a smaller goal can be a great way to get your feet wet and see what appeals to you. However, if you plan to tackle The Monster in its entirety, know this: Attempting to complete the set is a monumental task. Most people who start never finish. Completing the set requires a lot of money, patience and determination. Perhaps more importantly, it requires that your focus remains constant. I know quite a few collectors who set out to complete the set and and their focus never wavered. For others (me included), the journey isn’t quite so smooth.

When I began collecting the set, I wanted to complete it in right around Good Condition. I got up to about 175 cards and then one day I realized that I was just plodding along, checking off cards on my checklist, but not really enjoying it. What happened was I had started to be attracted to the tougher backs, but I couldn’t afford to buy any if I wanted to complete the set in the next 10 years. My budget was pretty small and I was adding a common once a week or so. I felt like it was going to take me forever to complete the set, and I wasn’t enjoying the journey much. Once I realized that my focus had changed, I sold off most of the commons and started over with a new plan. Nowadays, I am mainly a back collector and I don’t have any plans to complete the set anytime soon.

A change in focus isn’t a bad thing. After all, the only reason to collect anything is if you enjoy it. If you ever find yourself losing interest in your collecting goals, take a little break. Be aware that your wants may change as you learn more about the set and handle more cards. It could be as simple as your condition preferences changing along the way. It’s also possible that your collecting journey will take you to unexpected places. When I first caught the T206 bug I thought the fronts of the cards were really cool and figured I’d try to get one of each. I never expected that I would be collecting them based on the tobacco ads on the back. I also never imagined I’d love it so much that I’d end up writing about the set and sharing the fun with other collectors. But, here we are.

T206 Back Run 101

Luke November 17, 2016 November 2, 2016

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

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

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

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

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