1909-11 T206 American Tobacco Company White Borders
Visit http://t206resource.com/index.html for an amazingly detailed description of the T206 set.
There are three different cards for Kid Elberfeld in the set. The links below take you to the specific card:
There are three different cards for Kid Elberfeld in the set. The links below take you to the specific card:
1909 American Tobacco Company T206 Baseball cards
The T206 cards were Produced by the American Tobacco Company (ATC) between 1909 and 1911 and were distributed in packs of ATC brand cigarettes as a premium. These cards are unnumbered and measure 1-7/16 x 2-5/8 (inches). The T206 is the largest, 524 subjects with 40 unique backs, and the most popular Major League Baseball set of it's time. Known simply as T206 or the Monster,
This set contains the 'Holy Grail' of baseball cards (the T206 Honus Wagner). These cards have color lithograph images of said player with a white border. The players name & team are printed in brown ink along the bottom margin. These cards were released in 3 different (150, 350 and 460) series noted on the back. There are sixteen different American Tobacco Co. brands used in ads on backs with Piedmont being the most common.
T206 White Borders Baseball Cards - Background
The 16 cigarette brands that advertise on the back of the T206 cards are; Ty Cobb, Drum, Uzit, Lenox, Broadleaf, Cycle, Hindu, Carolina Brights, El Princepe De Gales, Sovereign, Tolstoi, American Beauty, Old Mill, Polar Bear, Peidmont and Sweet Corporal. Ty Cobb is the rarest, Drum City is next in line for scarcity followed by Uzit and Lenox. Sweet Corporal and Peidmont are the most common backs of T206. The backs of these cards also indicate which ATC factory the cards were produced at; (Factory 6 in Ohio, Factory 17 in Virginia, Factory 25 in Virginia, Factory 30 in New York, Factory 33 in North Carolina, Factory 42 in North Carolina and Factory 649 in New York).
The T206 cards were Produced by the American Tobacco Company (ATC) between 1909 and 1911 and were distributed in packs of ATC brand cigarettes as a premium. These cards are unnumbered and measure 1-7/16 x 2-5/8 (inches). The T206 is the largest, 524 subjects with 40 unique backs, and the most popular Major League Baseball set of it's time. Known simply as T206 or the Monster,
This set contains the 'Holy Grail' of baseball cards (the T206 Honus Wagner). These cards have color lithograph images of said player with a white border. The players name & team are printed in brown ink along the bottom margin. These cards were released in 3 different (150, 350 and 460) series noted on the back. There are sixteen different American Tobacco Co. brands used in ads on backs with Piedmont being the most common.
T206 White Borders Baseball Cards - Background
The 16 cigarette brands that advertise on the back of the T206 cards are; Ty Cobb, Drum, Uzit, Lenox, Broadleaf, Cycle, Hindu, Carolina Brights, El Princepe De Gales, Sovereign, Tolstoi, American Beauty, Old Mill, Polar Bear, Peidmont and Sweet Corporal. Ty Cobb is the rarest, Drum City is next in line for scarcity followed by Uzit and Lenox. Sweet Corporal and Peidmont are the most common backs of T206. The backs of these cards also indicate which ATC factory the cards were produced at; (Factory 6 in Ohio, Factory 17 in Virginia, Factory 25 in Virginia, Factory 30 in New York, Factory 33 in North Carolina, Factory 42 in North Carolina and Factory 649 in New York).
This set is called The Monster for very good reason. It's one of the most widely-collected sets of any era. It contains the single most famous card in the hobby, one recognized even by non-collectors. It has some scarce cards, even though most are easily obtained. It can be collected in a wide variety of ways: as a set, by teams, by Hall of Fame players, by back design, only certain minor leaguers, by portraits or action poses. There is truly something for everyone in the set. The T206 designation comes from Jefferson Burdick in his American Card Catalog in the 1930s, but the cards are also known as white borders due to their design. That border surrounds a strikingly colorful lithograph, with simply a name and city below the picture in black ink.
Most of the 524 fronts are vertically oriented, but a small number are horizontal. However, there are a lot of similarly white-bordered sets of the era (many of those using the same pictures), which causes some confusion among even intermediate collectors. The way of knowing for sure which set a card is from is by looking at the back. Among T206 cards the back design carries only an advertisement, and there are sixteen different tobacco brands that issued them. Sweet Caporal and Piedmont are the most common, but there are also ads for Polar bear, Sovereign, Broadleaf, Cycle, Drum, Old Mill, Carolina Brights, El Pricipe de Gales, American Beauty, Hindu, Lenox, Tolstoi, and Uzit, as well as some with blank backs. One more brand is Ty Cobb, which is found on the back of some of Cobb's own red background card.
Not all cards are found with all the backs, and there are different variations among the backs themselves that push the number of total back designs to more than 30. In all, there are more than two thousand different front/back combinations in the set, which makes putting together a true master set to be a nearly impossible task without a considerable amount of cash and hobby connections. The set was issued over a period of three calendar years, from 1909 through 1911. As a result of several different printings, some players have multiple images and poses. For example, Ty Cobb had four different images, and Hal Chase had five. Several players are shown on two different teams due to trades. Minor leaguers are included as well, with Southern Leaguers being tougher because they were only printed from 1909-'10.
There are also scarcities that resulted from a card being pulled when a player left the game or was traded; Bill O'Hara and Ray Demmitt were two such players. Of course, the most famous card in the hobby and a legend were created because of a star player who requested his card be withdrawn. Honus Wagner's T206 image is iconic, and sales of his card often make the newspapers because of the amounts involved. It's not the scarcest card in the set, but it's the most coveted. There has long been a disagreement about why Wagner's card was pulled early in the printing. Some say that Wagner was worried that kids might buy tobacco products to get his card, while others suggest it was a matter of getting paid. Whatever the reason, it's the single most revered card in the hobby. Sherry Magee had his last name spelled Magie on some of his cards. Since the error was corrected in subsequent printings, the error card is quite valuable today. Hall of Famer Eddie Plank's card was severely short-printed. Hobby legend states a printing plate broke and his card was generally removed in the process. A version of Joe Doyle's card listed N.Y. Nat'l while most omitted the league designation. The Wagner, Plank, Magie and Doyle cards are considered the Big 4 cards that aren't considered necessary to complete a T206 set. However, they're cornerstones to any major collection.
Most of the 524 fronts are vertically oriented, but a small number are horizontal. However, there are a lot of similarly white-bordered sets of the era (many of those using the same pictures), which causes some confusion among even intermediate collectors. The way of knowing for sure which set a card is from is by looking at the back. Among T206 cards the back design carries only an advertisement, and there are sixteen different tobacco brands that issued them. Sweet Caporal and Piedmont are the most common, but there are also ads for Polar bear, Sovereign, Broadleaf, Cycle, Drum, Old Mill, Carolina Brights, El Pricipe de Gales, American Beauty, Hindu, Lenox, Tolstoi, and Uzit, as well as some with blank backs. One more brand is Ty Cobb, which is found on the back of some of Cobb's own red background card.
Not all cards are found with all the backs, and there are different variations among the backs themselves that push the number of total back designs to more than 30. In all, there are more than two thousand different front/back combinations in the set, which makes putting together a true master set to be a nearly impossible task without a considerable amount of cash and hobby connections. The set was issued over a period of three calendar years, from 1909 through 1911. As a result of several different printings, some players have multiple images and poses. For example, Ty Cobb had four different images, and Hal Chase had five. Several players are shown on two different teams due to trades. Minor leaguers are included as well, with Southern Leaguers being tougher because they were only printed from 1909-'10.
There are also scarcities that resulted from a card being pulled when a player left the game or was traded; Bill O'Hara and Ray Demmitt were two such players. Of course, the most famous card in the hobby and a legend were created because of a star player who requested his card be withdrawn. Honus Wagner's T206 image is iconic, and sales of his card often make the newspapers because of the amounts involved. It's not the scarcest card in the set, but it's the most coveted. There has long been a disagreement about why Wagner's card was pulled early in the printing. Some say that Wagner was worried that kids might buy tobacco products to get his card, while others suggest it was a matter of getting paid. Whatever the reason, it's the single most revered card in the hobby. Sherry Magee had his last name spelled Magie on some of his cards. Since the error was corrected in subsequent printings, the error card is quite valuable today. Hall of Famer Eddie Plank's card was severely short-printed. Hobby legend states a printing plate broke and his card was generally removed in the process. A version of Joe Doyle's card listed N.Y. Nat'l while most omitted the league designation. The Wagner, Plank, Magie and Doyle cards are considered the Big 4 cards that aren't considered necessary to complete a T206 set. However, they're cornerstones to any major collection.
T206 Error on BackTobacco companies introduced the U.S. to baseball cards in the late 19th century, aiming to link the all-American pastime to the au courant trend of smoking cigarettes. But the cards really caught fire from 1909 to 1911, when the American Tobacco Co. mass-produced the T206 series, tiny cards with tinted lithographs of major- and minor-league players including Honus Wagner, who decorated baseball’s most valuable card. Each T206 was also marked with a tobacconist’s logo. In rare instances, a card would be marked by two brands in error; such was the case with this card for Kid Elberfeld, a slim shortstop nicknamed the Tabasco Kid. Bearing both Tolstoi and Piedmont ads, it is one of more than 1,400 T206s in a collection offered by Saco River Auction Co.
Ed Burke of Rockville Centre, N.Y., took up smoking in 1909 at age 19, and with it another habit: collecting T206s in a shoebox. He eventually gathered his fill and about 30 years later gave the cards to his son, shoebox and all. In 1993 the younger Burke passed the baseball cards along to his three children, who transferred them to plastic-sleeved albums, keeping a great majority in excellent condition.
Estimate: $20,000 to $30,000 for the Kid Elberfeld card. Sale: Saco River Auction Co., January 14, Biddeford, Maine; sacoriverauction.com
Ed Burke of Rockville Centre, N.Y., took up smoking in 1909 at age 19, and with it another habit: collecting T206s in a shoebox. He eventually gathered his fill and about 30 years later gave the cards to his son, shoebox and all. In 1993 the younger Burke passed the baseball cards along to his three children, who transferred them to plastic-sleeved albums, keeping a great majority in excellent condition.
Estimate: $20,000 to $30,000 for the Kid Elberfeld card. Sale: Saco River Auction Co., January 14, Biddeford, Maine; sacoriverauction.com