Tag: Tolstoi

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.

George McBride’s Decade of Defensive Dominance

George McBride was the epitome of the “good-field, no-hit” shortstop.  In fact, he owns the record for lowest career Batting Average for an player with more than 5,000 At Bats (.218).  Because of his lack of hitting ability, it took a while for him to secure a starting job.  Once he did so, he took the job and ran with it.  From 1901 to 1907, he bounced around between 6 different Minor League teams, along with the St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates.

In 1908 as a twenty-seven-year-old, McBride was finally given a chance to play full-time by the Washington Senators.  He played 155 games at shortstop and turned in a Defensive WAR of 2.6, which was good for 2nd in the American League.  Of course, WAR wasn’t a stat in use by any teams back then.  However, McBride’s defensive prowess was such that the team didn’t need stats to recognize it.  In 1909, he was named Captain of the Senators, a position he held for his entire tenure with the club*.

1908 was the beginning of a decade of unprecedented defensive wizardry from McBride.  From 1908 to 1916, there was only one season in which he wasn’t in the Top 3 on the American League Defensive WAR leaderboard**.  He placed 2nd in 1908 as well as 1910-11, then 1st in 1912-15.  In 1916, his last season as a full-time player, he finished 3rd in the A.L. in Defensive WAR.

McBride’s glove was so valuable that it catapulted him into the Top Ten in WAR for Position Players in the A.L. twice, in spite of his bat.  In 1908, his 4.5 WAR was good for 8th in the A.L. despite his paltry .232 Batting Average and .566 OPS.  In 1910, his 4.9 WAR placed 7th in the A.L.  His offensive output was similarly uninspiring in that season, a .230 Batting Average to go with a .609 OPS.

In 1917, he was replaced at shortstop by Howard Shanks and skipper Clark Griffith began to groom McBride as his successor.  McBride played 50 games in 1917, and then less than 20 in 1918-20.  In 1921, Griffith stepped away from his on-field duties and named McBride the new manager of the Washington Senators.

Sadly, he only managed one season (1921).  He was injured when a baseball thrown by Earl Smith hit him in the head during pre-game warmups on July 27th.  He wasn’t able to leave his bed for a week and continued to feel the effects of the injury.  At the time, it wasn’t diagnosed as such, but he likely suffered a severe concussion.  On December 6th 1921, he resigned as manager.  Griffith offered him a job as a scout, but McBride turned it down for health reasons.

In 1925, he returned to baseball and served as Ty Cobb’s bench coach with the Detroit Tigers.  In 1929, he retired from baseball at the relatively young age of 48.  He made a complete recovery from the head injury and eventually passed away at the age of 92 in 1973.

*McBride played his final game with the Senators in 1920

**1909 was a bit of down year defensively for McBride.  He didn’t even crack the Top 10 of Defensive WAR.

Sources:
-https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/bb22ca0e
-https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mcbrige01.shtml

Both graphics are courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com

Can You Find a Scarce T206 For Less Than $5.00 ?

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It turns out this is possible, but only if you’re not too picky about how it looks.  This particular front/back combo has only been graded twice by SGC (one 10 and one 50) and not at all by PSA.  When I first spotted it on ebay, I was excited at the chance to add a Killian Tolstoi to my collection.  It’s a card I’d been hoping to find for a little while.  Obviously, the condition leaves something to be desired, but beggars can’t be choosers when it comes to rare 100-year-old baseball cards.

The listing didn’t mention the back, and I was hoping that the front scan would scare most people off and they wouldn’t even click on the listing.  Based on the final hammer price of $4.52, it looks like this is exactly what happened.  I probably would have won the auction even if it had been listed properly, but I was happy to save a little bit of money due to the back not being mentioned.  It’s possible that I’m the only collector who would be excited to own a card this “well-loved”.   However, I bet there are some other collectors out there who can see the beauty in it.

It’s fun to have some collecting targets that don’t cost an arm and a leg to acquire.  I’d go broke pretty quick if I tried to chase down all of the highest graded examples of the scarce front/back combos I am looking for.  Being flexible on condition makes it possible for a smaller budget collector to build an impressive collection over time.  Granted, this Killian is below my typical condition preferences.  But, the fact that it is so badly mangled kind of makes me like it more than if it was just your run of the mill “beater”.

Besides the fact that this is a scarce combo, I love it because Ed Killian was a great pitcher.  His two best season were 1905 (23-14 record, 2.27 ERA) and 1907 (25-13 record and an ERA of 1.78).  In 1909 he posted his career-best ERA (1.71) to go with a record of 11-9.

Killian’s T206 Portrait was released in 1910, which was his final season in Major League Baseball.  In 8 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, he went 103-78 with an ERA of 2.38.

The Greatest T206 Back Run Ever Assembled: Ty Cobb Red Background Portrait

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Completing any back run that includes Broad Leaf 460, Red Hindu, and/or Lenox is a daunting project.  Attempting to complete a Ty Cobb Red Background Portrait back run is sheer lunacy.  But that’s just what T206 collector Jamie Blundell set out to do in 2013.

The story actually starts in December of 2011.  A Cobb portrait with Drum back was auctioned off via ebay and Jamie’s bid held up.  Any time you get a Drum, the thought of a back run inevitably comes to mind, since you’ve just added one of the toughest possible backs (at least so I’ve heard, no Drum for me yet).  The idea did occur to him, but at that point the rest of the cards he would have to acquire still seemed too far out of reach.

Fast forward to Spring of 2013.  Jamie was killing some time scrolling through posts on the net54baseball.com forum.  He stumbled upon a test page where another collector had uploaded scans of 17 different Red Background Ty Cobb Portraits, all with different backs.  Upon seeing all those different Cobbs lined up together, he was fixated on the idea of putting together a Cobb run of his own.  Jamie made the following checklist of every Red Background Ty Cobb:

  1. SC 350 25
  2. SC 350 30
  3. SC 460 25
  4. SC 460 30
  5. SC 460 42
  6. SC 460 42 OP
  7. Pied 350
  8. Pied 460 25
  9. Pied 460 42
  10. Sov 350
  11. Sov 460
  12. Old Mill
  13. Polar Bear
  14. Tolstoi
  15. Cycle 350
  16. Cycle 460
  17. American beauty 350 Frame
  18. EPDG
  19. Carolina Brights
  20. Red Hindu
  21. Black Lenox
  22. Drum
  23. Broadleaf 460
  24. Blank Back
  25. T213 Type 1
  26. T213 Type 2
  27. T213 Type 3
  28. T213 Type 3 Overprint
  29. T214 Victory
  30. Cobb back

To say that list is intimidating would be a severe understatement.  However, he already had one of the toughest cards on the list, and was about to add another.  In April 2013 a Cobb portrait with Lenox back showed up on ebay, but it was in a GAI holder, and it sat there for a few days despite a low Buy It Now price.  Jamie decided to take a gamble on it and immediately sent it to SGC, who agreed with GAI’s assessment that the card was authentic and unaltered.

“That was the defining moment.. my first two Cobbs were the Drum and the Lenox… and at that point I decided to make a run at it.”

Over the course of the next 5 months, he added 14 more to the run including the very tough Cycle 460.

  • April 2013 – Polar Bear
  • May 2013 – SC 350-460 Fact 25, SC 350-460 Fact 30, SC 350-460 Fact 42 w/ Overprint, T213 Coupon Type 2
  • June 2013 – Tolstoi, Piedmont 350, SC 350/25, SC 350/30, SC 350-460 Fact 42 
  • July 2013 – Sovereign 350, Old Mill, Cycle 460, Piedmont 460 25

September 2013 was an absolutely huge month for the back run:

  • Sept 2013 – Cycle 350, Red Hindu, T213 Coupon Type 1, American Beauty 350

The Cycle 350 is a tough card in its own right, but it was overshadowed by three extremely rare combos.  The T213 Coupon Type 1 and American Beauty were acquired in separate private transactions with fellow net54 forum members.  The Red Hindu trade is my favorite story.  Here it is in Jamie’s own words:

“I was emailing with another collector who I knew had three Cobb Red Hindus.  Yes you read that right.  Only 6 known to exist, and this collector had three.  I really thought the Red Hindu was one I would never get.  But this collector was willing to perhaps trade me for several of my errors and rare backs.  The only problem: We would have to meet face to face.  No trade of this magnitude can be done remotely.  As fate would have it I had a work appointment within a one-hour drive of this collector.  So we agreed to meet to see if a trade was possible.  I flew out a day early, met with him
and traded 15 of my cards (which included a Brown Lenox back, many tough front-back combinations, blank backs, mis-cuts, and ghost images) for one very clean PSA 1 Red Hindu Cobb.  I flew home in disbelief that I’d just combined the Drum, the Lenox and the Red Hindu.  I knew the Red Hindu was on the checklist of 30, but it was off of my mental checklist.  I just assumed I would not get it, and if I did, it would be a very long time before I would see one for sale. The opportunity to own one so early in my quest was fantastic.  So, I literally flew across country for that card.
So now I am 5 months into the back run and I have reached 20 backs.  I was thrilled with my progress, but I also knew it was about to get much tougher if I wanted to continue.  In my mind I was happy to reach 20.  That was my personal goal.  Why not keep going…”

In November 2013, after taking a short pause to breathe, Jamie began to search for the ultra-rare Broad Leaf 460.  There is only one copy of this card known to exist, graded SGC 10.  Finding the card was quite a challenge.   Jamie scoured the internet looking for clues as to the card’s whereabouts.  Eventually, he found a post on a forum from 2003 that led him to the card’s owner.  He had owned it since 2005 and was understandably hesitant to part with it.  In time, he decided the card would find a good home in Jamie’s epic back run.  The two collectors settled on a price, and Jamie became the proud new owner.  This card is the pinnacle of this incredible collection.

“This was, and still is to this day the most expensive card I have ever purchased.  I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to put the Broad Leaf, Drum, Red Hindu and Lenox together in the same collection.”
  • Dec 2013 – Piedmont 460 fact 42, Sov 460, EPDG

The train kept rolling in December.  Jamie traded a Blank Back Southern Leaguer and cash for the very tough Piedmont Factory 42 Cobby.  Next up was the scarce and underrated Sovereign 460.  A friend was working on the Sovereign 460 subset but decided to split it up and send the Cobb to Jamie for his back run.

  •   Feb 2014 – Blank Back

“60 days after my last Cobb, and a blank back comes up for auction.  This is one of two known!!!  Once I confirmed the card was authentic I knew I had to acquire it.  It might be my last chance at a Blank Back.  As the auction wound down, I made a bid, but was outbid at 2:00 A.M.  I woke up to the outbid email.  Good thing because my next bid is what won the card!  Went back to bed after bidding and woke up crossing off another card I never thought it would be possible to attain.”

At this point, Jamie had 25 of the possible 30 backs on his checklist.  The last 5 were some of the toughest and most coveted cards in the hobby: Carolina Brights (the only card left on the checklist that is universally considered a T206), T214 Victory, T213 type 3, T213 type 3 with Factory 8 overprint, and the iconic Ty Cobb back.  Some time passed, and then:

  • March 2015 – Carolina Brights, bought privately from a Net54 board member
  • August 2015 – T213 Type 3 with Factory 8 Overprint
“A huge breakthrough.  I found a Type 3 Coupon.  Two weeks later, I traded it with additional cash to a collector who I knew owned the only T213 Type 3 with factory 8 overprint… A true 1 of 1.  I crossed off the Coupon type 3 Factory 8 Overprint but had to give up the T213 normal type 3 to get it.  So that left me still needing the normal Type 3 Coupon.  I figured it would be easier to find another Type 3 Coupon and needed to secure the factory 8 overprint.  So I was happy to make the deal.”

At this point, the run was only missing 3 cards: Ty Cobb back, T213 Type 3, and T214 Victory.  As you can imagine, it was getting extremely tough to find the cards Jamie needed.  11 months passed, and then he found another:

  • July 2016 – T213 Type 3 
“Two net54 board members were at a regional trade show and saw one for sale.  Knowing I might be interested they contacted me, bought it for me, and sold it to me.  The type 3 completed the T213 Coupon run of all 4 possible backs: T213 Type 1, 2, 3 and 3 with OP.”

This brought the run to a staggering 28 cards.  I have no qualms with declaring this the greatest T206 Back Run that has ever been assembled.  In terms of T206 Cobbs, many people would argue that the run is complete.  Collectors are kind of split as to whether the Ty Cobb back should be considered a T206 or not.  I personally don’t consider it a T206 so to me, the T206 portion of Jamie’s run is complete.

This is where his collection sits today.  There are still two cards on Jamie’s want-list, and they are TOUGH.  Jamie plans to loan his Cobbies to the Detroit Tigers for a year or two so that they can display them, but he’s hoping to land the T214 Victory first.  There are only two copies known, so it’s not going to be easy.  But if this project has proven one thing, it’s that anything is possible.