I’ve written a few articles about some of my favorite T206 collections, and in the process we learned a little about the collectors themselves. But, up until now I haven’t focused specifically on the collector. This occurred to me recently and I figured it would be fun to start getting to know a little more about some of my fellow T206 collectors. This is the first installment of a new series of articles called Collector Spotlight. I think this will be a fun way to learn about some of the people with whom we share the hobby. It will also be interesting to read about the different ways that people are approaching the Monster.
For this week’s article, I caught up with Colton English, a hobby buddy I have made many deals with over the last couple years.
Q: When did you start collecting baseball cards?
A: I’m 33 years old today, I have been collecting baseball cards for as long as I can remember. When I was a young boy, my parents would buy me a pack of cards every time we went to the store. I used to sort out and keep all the Hall of Famers. I would put those in binders, the rest would build up in shoe boxes.
Q: What were you collecting then?
A: Back then I just collected up as many cards of each Hall of Famer that I could. Most of the cards I had were from the late ’80’s and early ’90’s.
Q: How did you wind up collecting T206s?
A. In 2004 (junior year in college) I opened an eBay account after browsing through the baseball card listings. I was drawn to the old cards because prior to this I had only seen them and read about them in magazines (I subscribed to Beckett Baseball growing up). I will submit a photo of my first pre-war card. Burleigh Grimes Strip Card for $6 total, including shipping. When it arrived in the mail, I was hooked. I concentrated on putting together multiple strip card sets from the ’20’s, ’30’s, and ’40’s at first because they were more affordable and quite frankly the idea of the T206 set was a bit overwhelming. However, I started buying them up when I could find a good deal or a cheap lot. In 2009 I needed some money and decided to sell all the 1933 Goudeys and T206s that I had collected. Actually, I sold all but 12 T206 Hall of Famers. I hid those away and strictly concentrated on completing the multiple strip card sets that I had begun. In 2014 I got bored waiting for the final key cards to complete my other sets to come along. I had always cherished those 12 T206s that I kept, and decided to pull the trigger and go for the T206 set.
Q: What is your current T206 collecting focus?
A: In the short time collecting this set, the focus has changed a few times already. I enjoy researching these things and have found the T206 set to be the most amazing set that I’ve ever concentrated on due to the massive amount of data that is out there. I have always found the rare and/or scarce backs to be the most interesting. I look at these as the “inserts” of today’s baseball card world. The idea of finding a T206 with maybe only a few other of the same front/back combinations known to exist is really neat to me. To have one that is the only known example (front/back combo) is way neater to me than to have the nicest card known to exist (grading wise) of say any given Piedmont pose. Further, I can’t afford the super high grade cards, so I have always leaned toward the low grade cards with the rare backs. About a year into collecting the set, I decided I wanted to put together as many rare back cards as I could. The current focus is to collect all 524 T206s with as many rare backs as possible. I try and concentrate on Hindu, EPDG, American Beauty, Cycle, Old Mill, Sovereign and Tolstoi backs. Further, I have decided to try and acquire a “back run” within the 76 Hall of Famers that make up the T206 set. I am trying to collect at least one of every tobacco brand back that was printed with a Hall of Fame front.
Q: Would you say you’re more of a set collector, back collector, HOF collector, team collector, etc?
A: I’m only interested in Hall of Fame cards post 1950. However, pre-1950 I would say I’m a set collector. Within the T206 set, I am most definitely a back collector.
Q: What is your favorite card in your collection? (feel free to name more than one if you can’t decide)
A: W515-2 Babe Ruth (#3 & #48)
Q: What is your “dream card” that would be the centerpiece of your collection?
A: The Wagner of course.
Q: I see from the scans you sent me that you have a number of raw cards that used to be graded. Do you prefer raw cards to graded cards?
A: My opinion on this has changed over the years. I do prefer raw cards to graded cards for the ease and conformity of storage, and have busted many cards out over the years. However, I seldom break the cards today as it has become more difficult to get them out for one and I find the graded cards hold their value a little better for trading purposes. I have long debated if I will want to someday have the collection slabbed, but remain undecided to date. I appreciate that the major graders’ databases have become public, but must weigh cost vs. value gained for my lower-grade collection … another interesting debate.
Q: Wagner aside, are there any more attainable cards or backs that you hope to add to the collection in the next few years?
A: I currently have over 300 different T206’s on the way to my quest for 524…..(we’ll see). Of those, over 200 have either an EPDG, American Beauty, Cycle, or Tolstoi back. Of which most are considered poor condition. At the top of my current wish list would be any Hall of Famer with a super rare back (Drum, Lenox, Uzit, Carolina Brights, Red Hindu, Broadleaf). Of course, I can only afford and would only be interested in these cards in lower-grade condition at a reasonable cost. Also, I’m currently looking for the third Jennings EPDG pose to complete the player back run. I currently have for trade a lower grade 1948 Bowman complete set and a partial set of 28 different lower grade 1909 E92 Dockmans (all commons except for Lajoie).
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