In 2009, Legendary Auctions brought to auction an absolutely stunning group of 41 T206 Drum backs (and an additional 8 T205 Drums). This massive find was dubbed “The St. Louis Find” after the city the cards were found in*. This was by far the largest assemblage of Drum backs ever found. The cards are in amazing shape. They have stunning colors, and only a couple have creasing. Each card has corner wear that is remarkably consistent throughout the group, suggesting they were enjoyed a lot over the years but treated with care. They were auctioned off in April and June of 2009 and fetched prices between $2,040 and $7,200.
As you can see, they are a breath-taking group. I wanted to save the scans all in one place for posterity. Here is the entire list in alphabetical order:
- Arellanes PSA 3
- Atz PSA 2
- Bescher portrait PSA 3.5
- Charles PSA 3
- Doolan batting PSA 3
- Egan PSA 3
- Elberfeld fielding PSA 3
- Fletcher PSA 2
- Gasper PSA 2
- Graham, Peaches PSA 3
- Hoblitzell PSA 2
- Hofman PSA 3
- Howell portrait PSA 3
- Jordan batting PSA 2
- Knabe PSA 3
- Knight portrait PSA 3
- Kroh PSA 3
- Lake no ball PSA 3
- LaPorte PSA 3
- Lennox PSA 3
- Manning pitching PSA 3
- Marshall PSA 3
- Milan PSA 3
- Mitchell, Mike PSA 3
- Mullen portrait PSA 2.5
- Oakes PSA 3
- Perring PSA 3
- Pfeister PSA 2.5
- Phelps PSA 2
- Quinn PSA 3
- Rhoades hands at chest PSA 1
- Schmidt portrait PSA 3
- Smith, Heinie PSA 3
- Steinfeldt with bat PSA 2.5
- Titus PSA 2.5
- Wagner, Heinie bat on right shoulder PSA 2
- Wilhelm with bat PSA 3
- Willett PSA 2.5
- Willetts PSA 2
- Willis with bat PSA 3
- Wiltse pitching PSA 2
* St. Louis has continued to be a hotbed for Drum finds in the intervening years. Four more were found there earlier in 2016 (Hayden, LaPorte, Schreck, & Starr).
I want to thank cardtarget.com for saving these scans so they could be enjoyed 7 years later. cardtarget.com tracks completed sales in an easy-to-use and well-organized interface. I highly recommend checking them out if you haven’t yet.