Tag: broad leaf

Some Things To Consider Before Starting a T206 Back Run

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.

Gibson is a 150-350 Series pose

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.

Murphy (With Bat) is a 350-460 Series subject

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.

Mailbag: Why Is It That Most T206 Hall of Fame Portraits Were Not Printed With Rare Backs?

A couple different friends have asked me recently why it is so hard to find a T206 Portrait of a Hall Of Famer with a rare back. The answer is pretty simple.  Most of them were never printed with a truly rare back.  For the purposes of this article (and all my other work) “rare backs” refers to Carolina Brights, Broad Leaf 350, Black Lenox, Brown Lenox, Red Hindu, Drum, and Broad Leaf 460*.  Let’s get into why.

There are 31 Portraits in the T206 set that feature a Hall of Famer.  23 of them were printed in the 150-350 Series.  The rarest backs that were printed in the 150-350 Series are Old Mill and Brown Hindu.

These 23 Hall Of Fame Portraits were printed during the 150-350 Series (along with the rarest back(s) the pose was printed with):

  • Bender (Old Mill)
  • Bresnahan (Brown Hindu & Old Mill)
  • Brown (Brown Hindu & Old Mill)
  • Chance Red Background (Brown Hindu & Old Mill)
  • Chesbro (Old Mill)
  • Clarke (Brown Hindu & Old Mill)
  • Cobb Green Background (Old Mill)
  • Evers (Brown Hindu & Old Mill)
  • Griffith (Brown Hindu & Old Mill)
  • Jennings (Old Mill)
  • Johnson (Brown Hindu & Old Mill)
  • Joss (Brown Hindu & Old Mill)
  • Keeler (Old Mill)
  • Lajoie (Brown Hindu & Old Mill)
  • Mathewson (Brown Hindu & Old Mill)
  • McGraw No Cap (Brown Hindu & Old Mill)
  • Plank
  • Tinker (Brown Hindu & Old Mill)
  • Waddell (Brown Hindu & Old Mill)
  • Wagner
  • Walsh (Brown Hindu & Old Mill)
  • Willis (Brown Hindu & Old Mill)
  • Young (Brown Hindu & Old Mill)

These 8 Hall of Fame Portraits were printed in later Series (and which rare backs they were printed with):

  • Beckley (350 Series – Broad Leaf 350)
  • Chance Yellow Background (Super Print – Broad Leaf 350, Carolina Brights, Drum, Lenox, Red Hindu)
  • Cobb Red Background (Super Print – Broad Leaf 350, Broad Leaf 460, Carolina Brights, Drum, Lenox, Red Hindu)
  • Eddie Collins (350 Series – Broad Leaf 350 & Carolina Brights)
  • Jimmy Collins (350 Series – Carolina Brights)
  • Huggins (350 Series – Broad Leaf 350)
  • Marquard (350 Series – Broad Leaf 350)
  • McGraw With Cap (460 Only Series -Lenox, Uzit)

The above 8 poses were printed with various rare backs**.  They definitely are not easy to find, but at least they exist.  To learn exactly which poses were printed with each back, I recommend perusing the checklists at t206resource.com.

The moral of the story is, if you attempt to own the rarest back for a given Hall of Fame Portrait, you will become very well acquainted with Brown Hindu and Old Mill backs.

* I did not include Blank Backs in this list because they don’t follow the same patterns as all other backs.  This is because were not intended to exist.

** They were also printed with various mid-tier backs such as American Beauty, Cycle, EPDG, Piedmont 42, and Tolstoi.  I didn’t list each because that is beyond the scope of this article.

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

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

REA Fall Auction Results:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Broad Leaf 350 Nattress SGC 1 – $900

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

  • Uzit Merkle PSA 2 – $3,690

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

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

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

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

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

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

T206 Ty Cobb Red Background Portrait with Broad Leaf 460 Back Sells for $60,000

On March 11, 2018, an eBay member listed the above Ty Cobb Broad Leaf 460 as a 7-day auction.  As you can imagine, it caused quite a stir in the T206 collecting community.  I was notified within minutes when a friend sent an email titled simply, “Did You See This?”  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  Not even a year earlier I had written an article about the only Cobb Broad Leaf 460 in existence.  I got online to take a look at the card, fully expecting the find reasons to doubt its legitimacy.  I pulled up the listing, and my initial gut reaction was, “Holy crap.  This is real.”

I took a closer look at the edges and read the seller’s description. Anytime a significant front/back combo shows up for sale in raw form, the main thing you want to look out for is the possibility that the card has been re-backed.  There are two types of re-backs. In the first type, the front is real, but the back is fake.  In the second, the front is real and features a huge star like Cobb, Young, Johnson, etc and the back is also real, but was taken from a common player’s card and affixed to the Hall of Fame front.  After looking closer at the card, I felt more confident that it was legit. The back was clearly real, which eliminated the possibility that someone had bought an $800 Cobb, created a fake Broad Leaf 460 back, and combined the two.  The seller’s description also rang true.  I’ve read hundreds of eBay descriptions written by scammers, and this one didn’t raise any red flags for me.

A thread soon developed on Net54.  Not surprisingly, a majority of posters were concerned about the card being a fake, or more specifically, a fake back affixed to a real front.  I was a little surprised at how many posters felt certain the card was no good.  Plenty of well-known collectors who have handled tons of T206s flat-out called it a fake.  There tends to be a good deal of skepticism among collectors on Net54 with any new find a raw card, so perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised.  In this case, I don’t blame people for being skeptical.  The seller didn’t have any recent feedback, and more concerning, they hadn’t listed any common players or backs.

The auction ran for two days, and the Net54 thread raged on.  On March 12th, a Net54 member posted the following message he had received from the seller:

Hello xxxxxxx,

As I stated in my listing yes, I would refund high bid if and only if, card is a fake or rebacked (word of the day) lol.  I have an offer of $21,000 to end auction and 2 collectors flying out to view card before making an offer.  Both collectors are aware of the $21,000 offer.  Good luck bidding.

regards,
xxxxxxx

On the 13th, the auction was ended by the seller.  It wasn’t immediately clear what had happened, but we didn’t have to wait long to find out where the card had ended up.  In the meantime, a friend of mine, who had been corresponding with the seller, sent me the following pictures of the other cards in the collection the Broad Leaf 460 Cobb came from.  It’s a small collection, but man is it packed with some tough cards!

On March 23rd, Brian Dwyer of REA posted the preview of the Spring Auction, which would be headlined by the Cobb Broad Leaf 460!  On April 13, 2018, the auction opened to the usual fanfare of an REA offering.  Before I even had a chance to put in my initial bids, the lot was at $20,000.

When the auction ended last Sunday, (May 6, 2018) the final sale price was $60,000 after the juice.  My opinion probably doesn’t mean that much, as I was just a spectator, but I feel like the buyer got a great deal on this card.  Obviously $60k is a lot of money, but for T206 back collectors, it doesn’t get any better than this.  In my article titled T206 Hall of Fame Front/Back Combo Power Rankings: The Elite: Top 10 (Which is a fun read that I recommend checking out), I ranked the Ty Cobb Red Background Portrait with Broad Leaf 460 back as the #1 most desirable front/back combo in the T206 world.

It was a lot of fun to watch this saga unfold.  It’s something of a feel-good story for all involved.  I imagine the consignor is very happy to pocket $50,000 for a card they didn’t initially realize was anywhere near this valuable.  The seller got an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime card at a very nice price.  And all of us onlookers got a great show!

Sources:

–http://net54baseball.com/showthread.php?p=1756667
–https://www.ebay.com/itm/1909-11-AUTHENIC-t206-Ty-Cobb-Red-Portrait-Broad-Leaf-/123014766205?ul_noapp=true&nma=true&si=FxvAju%252FrlQGmLecQpFMeR6UidQQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

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.

Auction Report: Memory Lane Spring 2017

The latest Memory Lane auction concluded on Saturday evening/Sunday morning.  It was absolutely loaded with T206s.  It appears that an entire set was auctioned off, one card at a time.  Many of the cards were in high grade, and the ones that weren’t had scarce backs.  Let’s get right to the recap.

Wagner PSA 2 sells for a cool $600,000
You know it’s a special auction when there’s a Wagner up for sale.  The grade is a bit of a head-scratcher, but the card is a beauty regardless.  Congrats to the new owner!

Plank PSA 4 sells for $76,800
An absolutely beautiful centered copy with a flawless surface.  I love this card and I bet the new owner does as well.

SGC 60 Magie Error sells for $40,800 

Cobb Bat Off Lenox SGC 40 sells for $41,249
A week after the PSA 6 Uzit Cobb sold in REA for $106k, this copy finds a new home as well.  It’s a very strong card for the grade.  One of many absolute monster cards in this auction.

Speaker Drum PSA 1 sells for $26,534
One of the top 10 combos in my humble opinion, this card was in the middle of a spirited bidding war.  When the dust settled, the hammer was a healthy $26k.  In much the same way that the Wagner does not look like a “2”, this card doesn’t look like a “1”.  It’s a beautiful card for the grade.  The rounded corners and creases above his head don’t detract from the overall eye appeal much.

Carolina Brights Mathewson Dark Cap PSA 3 sells for $12,113
This card is an absolute beauty.  The colors are incredible, the surface and back are clean and the centering is solid.

Tinker Bat Off Shoulder Lenox PSA 3.5 sells for $11,011
Another extremely tough card that looks amazing for the grade.

Hindu Johnson Portrait PSA 2 sells for $6,060
Yet another example of a scarce front/back combo in this auction where the eye appeal far exceeded the technical grade.  This card looks like a 4 to me, and it looks like the bidders agreed.

Hindu Lajoie Portrait PSA 2 sells for $5,918
Like the WaJo Hindu, this one looks much nicer than a “2”.  The price was pretty hefty.  I’m surprised that Lajoie went for essentially the same price as the WaJo, especially considering that the WaJo looks like a slightly nicer card in terms of eye appeal.

Autographed Crawford with bat Polar Bear sells for $4,903
This card is an absolute beauty.  The signature is clean and the card looks to be in a clean VGEX.  The Polar Bear back adds to the appeal of this rare specimen.

Broad Leaf 460 Baker SGC 10 sells for $3,110
It doesn’t get much better than a Hall of Famer with a Broad Leaf 460 back.  This card has some obvious issues, and they no doubt kept the price down.  This feels to me like a good deal for the winner.  It’s definitely not every day you get a shot at a BL460 HOFer.

Kelley Broad Leaf 350 PSA 1 sells for $2,147
Kelley is one of the more scarce BL350s, and the price reflected that.  This is a pretty nice looking card for the grade and it could be a long while before another copy comes to market.

T206 Donie Bush With Interesting Print Mark – But Only On the Rarest Backs?

High resolution scan of the Broad Leaf 350

Monday 4/17/2017:

Continuing with the recent theme of examining print oddities and errors, here is a Donie Bush with rare Broad Leaf 350 back that has a unique print error.  The area directly to the left of his glove appears to be missing the gray ink for his uniform, and as a result it looks pink to the naked eye.  As of now, this is the only known copy of Bush with a Broad Leaf 350 back, so there aren’t any others to compare this one to.

However, I was chatting with a friend about this card, and he sent me this scan, of a Donie Bush Carolina Brights that he once owned.  Note the the print defect in exactly the same spot.  I had examined a high resolution scan of the Broad Leaf and was convinced that the spot was missing ink, rather than altered in some way.  Often, when you see mark that looks like this, it will have been created by a eraser.  This Carolina Brights scan serves as a nice confirmation that both cards were printed with the pink spot at the factory.

Upon being alerted as to the existence of this Carolina Brights card, I began to scour the internet looking for other examples with the same “pink spot”.  What I found was quite surprising.  So far, I have not found a single copy of Bush with a common back that exhibits the flaw.  No Piedmont, Sweet Caporal, Polar Bear, Old Mill, or Sovereign backs that I found had the “pink spot”.  However, the lone Cycle 350 that I found did have it:

Wednesday 4/19/2017:

After finding the Cycle 350 scan, I spent the next couple days looking for other examples of the “pink spot”.  I posted a thread on net54 asking for scans and reached out to a few friends.  The net54 query paid off immediately when long-time back collector Brian Weisner reached out to me with scans of the Carolina Brights above, and an American Beauty below, which does not have the print flaw.  Brian told me that the “pink spot” appears on 2 of the 5 Donie Bush Carolina Brights that are known to exist.

This American Beauty does not exhibit the “pink spot” print anomaly

At that point, I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t find any common backs with the print flaw, but that changed when Pat Romolo joined the search.  Pat is the foremost expert in T206 Print Oddities/Anomalies.  Many of you are probably familiar with Pat’s Piedmont 150 Plate Scratch Project (ironically the thread was started by Steve Birmingham, who is the foremost expert on the printing process(es) used to create T206s) .  If not, you should definitely check it out.

Pat noted that Bush shares the same back profile as George McBride.  McBride has a print anomaly that Pat has been following, which he he has dubbed the “blue flame”.  McBride’s print anomaly has been found on the following backs:

So, theoretically with enough searching we may be able to find the “pink spot” anomaly on these same five backs above.  Later in the afternoon, Pat emailed me with the following scan:

At that point, my theory that the “pink spot” would only be found with the rarest backs was proven incorrect.  I’ll keep my eye out for more copies with this anomaly, and possibly post an update sometime in the future.  As of now, I have not seen a scan of a Piedmont 350 with the “pink spot” but based on the existence of the SC 350/30 above, I imagine there are some out there.