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.
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