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: What is The Best Scanner for Graded Cards?

I could make this a really long post with tons of in-depth information on how scanners work.  Thankfully, that is not necessary.  If you plan to use your scanner for more complicated projects than just scanning slabbed cards, then you do need to do some additional research.  Although if you have the need for a high-end scanner, you probably already have one.  For our purposes, there is just one thing you need to know:

There are two main types of “scanning elements”: CIS and CCD.  You need a scanner with a CCD element.

The reason you see so many horrible blurry scans of graded cards is that most commercially available scanners have a CIS element.  If your scanner has a CIS element, you will always have blurry scans of graded cards.

CIS Element:

CIS stands for Contact Image Sensor.  The full name actually does a pretty good job of explaining why a scanner with a CIS element does a poor job of scanning graded cards.  CIS elements scan the surface that is directly against the glass.  Scanners with CIS elements do a great job of scanning raw cards because they are laying directly on the glass.  When you place a graded card on a CIS scanner, the scanner is scanning the front of the plastic slab, leaving the image of the card behind very blurry.

CCD Element:

CCD (which stands for Charged Coupled Device) technology was originally intended to be used for scanning film slides.  Scanners with CCD elements can focus on the image in a slide (or a card in a slab) rather than just the first layer of plastic (in the case of a slabbed card) or paper (in the case of a film slide).

In order to make sure you’re buying the right scanner, you have look through the specs and make sure your target scanner clearly states that it has a CCD element.  Like I said earlier, if you get a scanner with a CIS element, you will have blurry scans.  There aren’t any adjustments you can make to improve the quality of scans.

All of the scans you see on this website were taken with my Epson Perfection v33 scanner.  It’s a refurbished unit that I got on eBay for $40.  If you currently have a scanner with a CIS element and you own graded cards, buying yourself a scanner with a CCD element may be the best present you can give yourself for the price.  As you can see from my example, you can get one for the price of a PSA 2.5 T206 common.

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.

“Re-backed” T206s

Last week’s article was about a T206 Walter Johnson Portrait with a Broad Leaf 350 back.  That card is an example of “re-backed” T206.  The term “re-backed” refers to a card that has had it’s back removed and replaced with a more desirable back.  In almost all cases these cards were created with nefarious intent.  The scammers who create these cards are commonly referred to as “card doctors”.  They are essentially paper conservators who are using their skills in an attempt to defraud collectors.

There are two type of re-backed T206s:

  • “Frankenstein Cards”

This is an example of a re-backed card where the front of an authentic T206 was separated from its back and attached to a back from another authentic T206 which was separated from its front.  The Walter Johnson Broad Leaf 350 is an example of a Frankenstein card in that the front and back came from two different authentic T206s.

Over ten years ago, a number of Frankenstein re-backs with rare backs appeared on the market.  Some of them were very convincing forgeries.  Some even got passed the graders, as you can see with the Mathewson Portrait at the top of the article.

The front of this Bergen is real, but the back is fake. Note that the texture of the back more closely resembles a paper towel than an authentic T206 back.
  • Fake Backs

The process used to create these is similar to Frankenstein cards, with one big difference:  The back is fake.

Thankfully, the fake backs tend to be a lot easier to spot than the Frankenstein re-backs.  It’s hard to create a fake T206 back that looks believable.  With that being said, I have seen quite a few of these fake re-backs where the front and fake back were lined up very well.  If it weren’t for the back being fake, it would be very hard to detect the alteration.

The Lenox back above is an example of fake back.  I bought this card from a fellow collector who didn’t suspect anything was wrong with it.  When it arrived in the mail I immediately knew the back was fake.  The texture of the back was all wrong, and the way the ink sat on the paper was unlike any T206 I had ever seen.  As you can see, the edges line up really well.  Honestly, if the back had been real, I wouldn’t have noticed that they front and back were two different pieces of paper.

 

A couple years ago, there were a lot of these coming up for sale in raw form on eBay.  It’s very difficult to re-create the paper that T206 cards are printed on, and it was obvious in all cases that the backs were not consistent with an authentic T206.  The seller was doing a few different things to try and disguise the fact that the paper was not a very close match.  Some of the cards were rubbed down with olive oil, while others had various different kinds of paper added to the back to partially cover up the back (but not enough to obscure the Carolina Brights or Lenox advertisement completely of course).  I haven’t seen any new fakes on the market in the last six months or so, but you never know when they might pop up again.

If you are in the market for T206s with rare backs, please be careful and do your due diligence before making any purchases.  Buying rare backs in raw form is not something I would recommend until you are very comfortable spotting fakes and alterations.  If you stick to buying cards that have been graded by PSA or SGC you will greatly limit your chances of buying a fake or re-backed card.

T206 Walter Johnson Portrait with Broad Leaf 350 Back?

I recently added this card to my collection.  At first glance, this may look like a rare and highly desirable T206 front/back combo.  There’s one big problem though.  The combination doesn’t exist.

Walter Johnson (Portrait) was printed with the following backs:

  • El Principe de Gales
  • Hindu
  • Old Mill
  • Piedmont 150
  • Piedmont 350
  • Sovereign 150
  • Sovereign 350
  • Sweet Caporal 150 Factory 25
  • Sweet Caporal 150 Factory 30
  • Sweet Caporal 150 Factory 649 Overprint
  • Sweet Caporal 350 Factory 25
  • Sweet Caporal 350 Factory 30

This combo shouldn’t exist, but there it is at the top of the article.  So what’s going on?

If you took a quick look at the scan and thought it looked real, you were partially correct.  The front is real, and so is the back, but they are each parts of a different card.  Sadly, two very nice looking cards were ruined in the making of this Frankenstein card.  If you take a close look at the top edge you’ll see that the front scan shows a bit of the back of the card protruding above the edge of the front.  Likewise, if you look at the right edge of the back. you’ll see a bit of the front half extending out beyond where the back ends.

I bought this card from a friend who had it for over 20 years, with full disclosure as to what it is.  Back then there was less information available to people about which front/back combos are possible for a given pose.  This was not the only impossible front/back combo that was created by card doctor(s) back then, but I haven’t seen any of the other cards in a long time.  I’ll tell that story in a future article.

The purpose of this article is to make collectors aware that this type of card doctoring exists, and has for a long time.  Though the front and back of this “card” do not line up perfectly, it’s still pretty scary how good a forgery this is.  It’s hard to believe that the front of a card can be removed from it’s back without creating a single crease.

This particular forgery is easy to spot because the combo shouldn’t exist.  The card doctors have gotten smarter since this one was created however.  For the most part, the fake “rebacked” T206s I have seen in the last few years have all been of confirmed front/back combos.  This makes it tougher to spot the forgeries.  Now you have to physically spot the alteration, or rely on a grading company to do it for you.

When buying expensive T206s (like this one would be if it were actually a legit card) it is always smart to stick with graded cards unless you are an expert at spotting alterations.  For one thing, it’s just smart to get a second opinion.  Second and perhaps most important, if you see a raw card for sale that should be worth four figures, your first thought should be, “Why isn’t this in a holder?”  The reason for that line of thought is simple:  A seller is typically looking to maximize the sale price of their item, and getting it graded is an easy way to do that.  If they don’t haven’t done that, you have to wonder why not.  Perhaps they tried and the item was rejected by the TPG, or perhaps they already know it won’t pass authentication.

Next week, I’ll dive a little deeper into “rebacked” T206s and talk about ways to spot them.

Ron Kornacki Found a T206 Jack Powell with Blue Old Mill Back… And I Think its Legit

Back in December of 2012, an Ed Walsh T206 with a Blue Old Mill back was first offered for sale to the public via Huggins and Scott Auctions, where it sold for $15,000.  Because no one had ever seen an Old Mill back printed with blue ink before, people were understandably skeptical.  The card exchanged hands again in November 2013 (via Heritage Auctions) and has not been offered publicly since.

After the Walsh was found and authenticated by SGC, collectors everywhere went to check their Old Mill backs in the hopes they might find a blue one.  I know I did at least (with no luck sadly).  In the five years since the Walsh surfaced, no other Blue Old Mill backs have been found.  Until now.

A couple weeks ago my friend Ron Kornacki posted this video on YouTube.  I saw it linked on FaceBook and checked it out.

At the time I didn’t realize that Ron was the owner of the card.  The video goes a long way towards proving that the back is indeed blue.  However, knowing that the video was made by a fellow back collector, and not a random YouTube account makes me feel a lot better about the authenticity of the card.  Ron and I have done a number of deals over the years and his collection is extremely impressive.  He started a thread on net54 which can be read by clicking on this link.

This side-by-side scan of Powell and Kleinow (another 150-350 Series Subject) clearly shows that the ink on the two backs is different.

Here is a close-up scan of the Blue Old Mill along with a Polar Bear and a Piedmont 350 back.  Once you see these high resolution images, it’s pretty hard to argue that the back of the Powell is indeed printed with blue ink.

There was some debate on the net54 thread as to whether the blue ink used to print the Old Mill back was the same shade as a Polar Bear back, a Piedmont 150 back, or a Piedmont 350 back.  In general I think it’s unwise to state opinions and theories as fact when looking back at a set that was printed over 100 years ago.  With that being said, I feel pretty strongly that we can rule out Piedmont 150 and Polar Bear as possibilities.  Old Mill backs were not printed until 1910, at the very tail end of the 150-350 Series print run.  It is very unlikely that Piedmont 150 backs were still being printed when the Old Mill print run started.  There are a number of facts that lead me to this conclusion but the simplest is that Dahlen appears with Brooklyn on the front of his Old Mill card, and Elberfeld appears with Washington.  Piedmont 150 examples feature them with Boston (Dahlen) and New York (Elberfeld) respectively.  In a similar vein, Polar Bear backs were not printed until the 350 Only Series.  Most T206 historians agree that production was completed on the 150-350 Series before production of the 350 Only Series began.

With that said, it probably doesn’t matter much which shade of blue was mistakenly used on the Old Mill sheet that featured Powell.  As Pat Romolo posted in the net54 thread, the shade of blue used on Piedmont backs varied a decent amount.  The same can be said for Polar Bear backs.

 

This close-up shows the ink from the “O” in Old Mill alongside a Polar Bear back

Jean Dubuc and the 1919 Black Sox Scandal: A Curious Inclusion in the T206 Set and a Career Shortened by Controversy

 

Jean Dubuc is one of the more intriguing characters in the T206 set.  Dubuc appeared in his first Major League game as a 19 year-old rookie with Cincinnati in 1908.  He appeared in just fifteen games, nine of which were starts.  He went 5-4 with an ERA of 2.74.

In 1909, he started 5 games and appeared in 14 more as a reliever.  His record dropped to 2-5 with an ERA of 3.66.  Those numbers certainly represent a useful bullpen arm, but I’m a little surprised that they caught the attention of the person who selected players for inclusion in the T206 set*.  It isn’t hard to find other, more established pitchers who do not appear in the T206 set.  In trying to understand why he was chosen and other players with better track records were not, I noticed something interesting.  There are 202 poses in the 350 Only Series.  Of those 202, fifteen are Cincinnati Reds, more than any other team**.  To put that number in perspective, there are only 13 poses featuring Boston Red Sox in the entire set.

In 1910, Reds skipper Clark Griffith sent Dubuc down to the Buffalo Bisons of the Eastern League.  He struggled mightily there, and was released.  He promptly signed with the Montreal Royals, where he righted the ship, going 21-11 in 1911.

On paper, Dubuc’s inclusion in the T206 set doesn’t make a ton of sense.  In fact, when his T206 card was being produced in 1910, Dubuc was likely playing in either Buffalo or Montreal.  In order to understand why he was selected for the T206 set, we have to go beyond the stats and dig a little deeper.  Following the 1908 season Cincinnati went on a barnstorming tour in Cuba.  Dubuc opened a number of eyes, going 3-1 during the trip.  Going into 1909, expectations were high for him.  Unfortunately, he caught malaria in Spring Training and missed the majority of the season, appearing in just 19 games.  Still just 20 years old and with tons of potential, his inclusion in the T206 set makes sense with a little more context.

During his year-and-a-half stint in Montreal, Dubuc (who spoke French) was extremely prolific.  As mentioned previously, he went 21-11 on the mound in 1911, but what he did off the field is arguably more impressive.  He opened a successful business called The Palace Bowling Alley and Pool Room at just 22 years of age.  In addition, he bought stock in the Montreal Wanderers, a National Hockey Association team.

MLB teams had been keeping tabs on his Dubuc during his season in Canada.  After the season Montreal made the mistake of exposing him to the major league draft.  Ten of the 16 major league teams put in a claim on him.  The Detroit Tigers were the lucky team awarded his rights.

Dubuc’s 1914 Coupon Type 2 (T213-2) card – note the caption has been changed to reflect his then current team, the Tigers

The next five years were the highlight of Jean Dubuc’s Major League career.  From 1912 to 1916, he made 130 starts for the Tigers, going 71-60 with an ERA of 3.06.  He was remarkably consistent during his tenure with the Tigers, starting at least 36 games in each season.

Despite starting 36 games and pitching to a 2.96 ERA (to go with a 10-10 record) he was let go after the 1916 season.  He spent the 1917 season with the Salt Lake City Bees of the Pacific Coast League.  In 1918, he was acquired by the Boston Red Sox, though he only appeared in five games (and only two as a pitcher).

John McGraw’s New York Giants acquired Dubuc before the 1919 season. In an era when relief specialists were unheard of–Firpo Marberry, often credited for launching that role, didn’t appear until five seasons later–Dubuc pitched in 36 games, only five of them starts, leading the N.L. with 31 relief appearances. He won six, lost four, saved three (tied for second in the league in that category), and led the league in games finished (22), an early example of the “closer” in baseball. Dubuc compiled a 2.66 ERA and allowed only 119 hits in 132 innings as the Giants finished in second place.. He seemed to have found a niche.

–Jean Dubuc’s SABR bio written by Tom Simon and Guy Waterman

During the Fall of 1919, while the Giants were on a barnstorming tour, manager John McGraw unexpectedly released Dubuc.  He never played in the majors again.

Why was Dubuc released after putting up such a solid season at the relatively young age of 31?  The answers to those questions wouldn’t become apparent for another year.

On September 24, 1920, New York Giants pitcher Rube Benton testified before a grand jury in Chicago that he had seen a telegram which proved the 1919 World Series had been fixed.

“I don’t know who sent it,” Benton said, “but it came to Jean Dubuc, who was barnstorming with us. It simply said: ‘Bet on the Cincinnati team today.’ I suppose it came from Bill Burns, who had been close to Dubuc a few weeks before the Series when both were living at the Ansonia Hotel in New York City.”

On November 11th, The Sporting News published an article entitled, “Why Dubuc Was Dropped.”  McGraw was quoted as saying that he dropped Dubuc because he associated with Sleepy Bill Burns, a gambler and prominent figure in the 1919 Black Sox Scandal.  Burns and Dubuc were teammates in 1912 with the Tigers.  The Sporting News went on the speculate that McGraw may have suspected Dubuc and Hal Chase were responsible for the Giants losing the 1919 pennant race to the Cincinnati Reds.

While MLB commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis was banning eight members of the Black Sox as well as Joe Gedeon from Major League Baseball, Jean Dubuc was conveniently out of the country.  He spent the 1921 season pitching in the Atwater Park Twilight League in Montreal.

In 1922, he quietly returned to United States and hooked up with the Syracuse Stars of the American Association.  Though he never returned the majors, he had successfully avoided a lifetime ban for his alleged involvement in the 1919 Black Sox Scandal.

1919 Coupon Type 3 (T213-3) noting Dubuc as a member of the New York Giants

Sources:

SABR biography of Jean Dubuc
Jean Dubuc – Baseball Reference page

Footnotes:

*Not much is known about the selection process for the T206 set.  The cards were produced at American Lithographic Company (ALC).  I’m sure someone was in charge of creating a checklist of players, finding photos of them, and getting artists to turn those photos into the artwork we see on the cards.  What we don’t know is where that work was done.  Was someone at American Tobacco Company (ATC) in charge of selecting players, or did they delegate the entire job to ALC?

**Detroit is closest among Major League teams with 12 poses in the 350 Only Series.  The New York Giants had 10 poses.  The Philadelphia Athletics and New York Highlanders are tied with 9 apiece.  The rest of the Major League teams are as follows:  Boston Nat’l- & Washington (7), Chicago Nat’l,  Chicago Amer & Cleveland (6), Brooklyn & Pittsburgh (5), Philadelphia Nat’l (3).  Buffalo leads the Minor League teams with 11 poses.  Baltimore has 9, and Minneapolis and Providence are tied at 8 apiece.

T206 Collecting Tips for Beginners: It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint

I recall a Tony Robbins quote where he said something to the effect of:

People overestimate what they can achieve in a year.  But they underestimate what they can do in five years.

Obviously, opinions are going to differ on Tony Robbins, but the quote stuck with me because it describes my T206 collecting journey perfectly.  I started collecting T206s in 2010.  I joined net54 and spent hours poring over old threads in an attempt to learn as much as possible about the set.  A side effect of joining net54 was that I was also constantly looking at scans of other people’s collections.

I was working with a budget of around $200 a month, and my collection was tiny.  Looking at all the amazing, valuable items that other people owned was a bit daunting.  How was I supposed to a build a collection anywhere near as impressive as these guys when I was only able to buy a couple lower grade Hall of Famers each month?

I tried to avoid any negative thoughts and just enjoy the hunt, and cards I did have.  But I couldn’t help feeling discouraged from time to time.  Honestly, I didn’t expect those feelings to ever go away completely.  After all, there will always be someone out there with a bigger and better collection than yours.

Around three years ago, I was looking through my collection and it occurred to me that I hadn’t felt discouraged in that same way in quite awhile.  I thought about why that might be.  Could it have been because I had made an effort to just enjoy the hobby and not get caught up in comparing my collection to anyone else’s?  Or maybe it was the fact that I had consciously made it a priority to spend more time enjoying my collection than searching for cards to add to it?  Both of those things played a part, to be sure, but I think the most impactful elements were time and effort.  There’s a bit of a “compounding interest” effect with building a collection.  The cards you add to the collection in a given month may not seem like they are moving the needle much, but over time they can add up to something really significant.

When you are just getting started with your T206 collection, it’s hard to imagine your collection in the future, as a finished product, and therefore easy to get discouraged.  It’s difficult for humans to imagine what their effort multiplied over days, weeks, months, and years will look like.  And even harder to imagine what the fruits of that labor will look like.  If you consistently spend time looking for good deals and tough-to-find cards, you will get some hits here and there.  Over time, those cards begin to stack up.

Collecting is as much (if not more) about “the hunt” as it is about owning the items we collect.  As long as you are having fun collecting T206s, the rest will take care of itself.  And if you’re still collecting the set five years from now, you’re going to be surprised at how many great cards you’ve found between then and now.

What to Make of the Prices Realized for Old Mill Southern League T206s in the Most Recent Memory Lane Auction?

The most recent Memory Lane Auction ended on December 15th.  The headliner was a restored T206 Honus Wagner, which sold for $420,000.  That wasn’t the only card to sell for a strong price however.  There were quite a few Old Mill backed Southern Leaguers in the auction, and many of them sold for astounding prices.  Here is a sampling:

PSA 5:
  • Breitenstein – $1,466
  • Foster – $1,333
  • Kiernan – $1,002
  • McCauley – $1,613
PSA 5.5
  • Cranston – $1,613
  • Mullaney – $752
  • Smith, Carlos – $2,362

PSA 6:
  • Greminger  – $2,598
  • Helm PSA – $2,147
  • LaFitte – $1,951
  • Revelle – $2,198
  • Thornton – $1,613

Most of those prices are unlike anything I’ve seen before for similar mid-grade cards.  After the auction I was talking with a friend and we were speculating as to whether these prices were a sign that mid-grade Southern Leaguers were about to take off in value.

In the week since, that does not appear to have happened.  Here are the two T206 Old Mill Southern Leaguer sales results from eBay in the last week

  • Reagan PSA 5 – $711
  • Sentz PSA 5 – $399

Here is a sampling of the Old Mill Southern Leaguers in PSA 5 holders that are currently on eBay as active Buy It Now listings:

  • Bastian PSA 5 – $1000 or best offer
  • Bay PSA 5 – $450 or best offer
  • Breitenstein PSA 5 – $1000 or best offer
  • Howard PSA 5 – $495 or best offer
  • Kiernan PSA 5 – $1000 or best offer
  • Miller PSA 5 – $1000 or best offer
  • Thornton PSA 5 – $1000 or best offer

One huge head-scratcher is that someone paid $1,466 for a PSA 5 Breitenstein.  That should mean that there was an under-bidder willing to pay $1200 or $1300.  If there was, you’d think that person would want to buy the PSA 5 that’s currently on eBay for $1000 or best offer.

It’s always possible that two or more bidders got caught up in the moment and ran the bidding well beyond what the cards would normally sell for.  Whatever happened, the lack of eBay sales in the last week make it pretty clear that the prices realized in the auction on December 15th ought to be looked at as a strange anomaly that does not reflect the current market.

 

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)