The T206 Tinker Hands on Knees “Chicago” variation is one of the more valuable errors/variations in the set. For a card that has repeatedly sold for five figures, it seems to fly under the radar in terms of notoriety. It’s a relatively recent discovery, which could be a contributing factor. The first copy surfaced in March 2011 on ebay. A thread was started on net54baseball.com to discuss it. There was a lot of skepticism initially. However, a few long-time T206 collectors stated that they thought it was legit. On April 15th of 2011, Bob Lemke posted that the card had been graded by SGC and was deemed a legitimate variation.
At the time the first copy was being discussed, it was known that an early proof of Wildfire Schulte front view had “CHICAGO” written
across his jersey rather than “CUBS”, lending credence to the idea that perhaps Tinker was originally slated to have “CHICAGO” across his
jersey as well. The Schulte proof, which is one of the coolest T206 cards in existence, is owned by Keith Olbermann. He wrote an article about proofs and variations in 1997 for the Vintage & Classic Baseball Collector magazine which included a scan of the Schulte proof. I’m less sure about the timeline of the discovery of this Tinker photo, which legitimized the variation for anyone who was still skeptical. It’s clearly the photo that was used for Tinker’s Hands at Knees T206 card. You can see why they didn’t want to copy it exactly, since his 
jersey is unbuttoned and it’s hard to read the letters across his chest. Why they chose to remove “CHICAGO” and add “CUBS” rather than just touch it up so “CHICAGO” was legible is anyone’s guess. Every Chicago Cubs pose released in the 150 series features”CUBS” across the jersey. It’s possible all Cubs were initially slated to be printed with “CHICAGO” on their jerseys. It’s also possible that Schulte and Tinker were changed to “CUBS” to fit in with the rest of the team.
In REA’s Spring 2012 Auction, a second copy of this variation surfaced, selling for $18,960. This one was noticed by an SGC grader who spotted it while grading a submission. The owner promptly sent it to REA and cashed in. Soon after, the first copy was auctioned off in Greg Bussineau’s Summer 2012 Auction, where it fetched $33,720. The second copy is in much nicer shape, even though the grades are identical. Waiting until the second copy sold turned out to be a wise move for the owner of the first copy.
In 2013, the third copy of this variation surfaced. This one is by far the nicest. It was graded a 2.5 by PSA due to some slight surface wear on the back but looks a lot more like a 5. A distinct pattern had developed, as this card (in addition to copy #1 and copy #2) featured a Sweet Caporal 150 factory 30 back. The third copy was auctioned off by REA in the Fall of 2013 and went for $11,850. The same card was recently sold via Heritage Auctions in their August 2016 Platinum Night Auction. This time, it fetched $22,705.
Only 3 copies of this variation are known, but a number of Tinker Hands on Knees cards show remnants of the darker “CHICAGO” text. The theory is that when the printers swapped “CHICAGO” for “CUBS”, they initially left “CHICAGO” underneath but reacted quickly to erase most of “CHICAGO”. The partial remnant can be found on cards with Hindu, Piedmont 150, Sovereign 150, and Sweet Caporal 150 backs. I am not aware of any 350 series backs that feature the remnant, so they must have cleaned it up for a second time following the 150 series print runs. Copies with the remnant are not particularly tough to find and don’t seem to sell for any premium.
Next time you come across a copy of Tinker Hands on Knees, make sure to give it a close look. There might be another one out there just waiting to be found!
Thanks to Robert Edwards Auctions, net54baseball.com, Bob Lemke’s blog, and Heritage Auctions for the reference materials for this article.
