When I first got into collecting the T206 set, I read somewhere that Piedmont Factory 42 backs were rare and valuable. They look almost identical to the other Piedmont 350-460 back, which is from Factory 25. Because of this, they sometimes fall through the cracks and can be found at bargain prices. For the next few months, I checked the bottom of every Piedmont back I saw on ebay, hoping to find my first Piedmont 42 (sadly, I didn’t find a single one). At the time, I didn’t realize the Piedmont Factory 42 back was only possible on certain fronts (76 different fronts to be exact). I wish someone had told me early on which cards to check the backs of and which cards to not bother with. I figured it might be helpful to write an article about this topic, since I wasted a lot of time checking back scans of poses that couldn’t possibly have possibly been from Factory 42.
These are the most important things to know:
- Piedmont 150 backs are all from Factory 25
- Piedmont 350 backs are all from Factory 25
- Piedmont 350-460 backs can be found with both Factory 25 and Factory 42 backs
- Piedmont 350-460 Factory 42 backs are very scarce and sell for a large premium over their Piedmont 350-460 Factory 25 counterparts
So don’t bother checking the factory numbers on Piedmont 150 and 350 backs, because they are all the same.
The Piedmont 350-460 Factory 25 checklist consists of 109 poses. The majority of those 109 also were printed with Piedmont 350-460 Factory 42 backs, but not all. Here is the entire 76 card checklist of Piedmont 350-460 Factory 42:
These 76 poses are the only ones that exist with Piedmont Factory 42 backs. It’s not clear why the other 33 poses printed with Piedmont 350-460 Factory 25 were left off the Piedmont 350-460 Factory 42 print run. These are the 33 poses that exist with P350-460 Fact. 25 but not with P350-460 Fact. 42:
Now that we’ve gone over which cards to look for, let’s talk about value. Prices seem to be down a bit recently, but they still command a large premium. Cards in the poor-fair range have been selling for $150-$200 and the gd-vg range for between $250-$400 lately. By the time you read this, the market could have changed, so make sure to check completed ebay sales and other online auction houses to get a better idea of the current market value.
Lastly, there is one slight visual difference between Factory 25 and Factory 42 backs. The printing on the bottom of the Factory 42 backs takes up more space from left the right. Knowing this and keeping an eye out for it can help you spot these cards. Check out the image below to see what I mean.
Thank you to t206resource.com for the use of the above checklists.