What's your best tobacco-card find?

[Rob D.]

It could be a single card at an antiques shop or a buy of 500 cards in a private sale. What's your best find of tobacco cards?

Mine was about 20 T206s mixed in with assorted nuts and bolts (literally) in a cigar box at the Hartville (Ohio) flea market in the summer of 1977 or '78. Seller wanted $15; I was able to get the box for $12. He wouldn't sell the cards separately; I had to take the hardware, too.

[ullmandds]

drum backed t206 hofman...which a board member now owns...in 92' for $30.

[Blitzu]

My coolest find is still just an unopened drum tobacco pack in a St. Louis antique store. Not a card but I enjoy the items associated to the cards much better. I have found T206's in antique stores before but nothing exceptionally great.

[Bocabirdman]

Back in 1979 I was coming home from a day of flea markets and antique shops. I was just about broke from a reasonably sucessful day. I stopped at a plaza either in Southern New Hampshire on Northern Massachusetts. The stop was as much to use the rest room and grab a bite to eat nearby. I figured as long as I stopped, I would go into this little shop. It was basically a quick window shop. For the heck of it, I asked the woman behind the counter, "Do you happened to have any baseball cards?". She went out back and returned with a large stack (almost 200, as I recall) of T206s T205s and T207s. I cringed, knowing I had little money in my wallet, but I still had to ask, "How much do yo want?" "Well", she said, "They are old......". The $25 she asked for was end her hand before the words finished echoing around the shop.:eek: Two sad postscripts. There were no high dollar cards though they were in great shape. Secondly, I sold them and my complete collection about a year later for pennies on the dollar. I am working on collection #2 now:D

[wazoo]

My first t206 Piedmont 42, authentic (looks perfect) and it only cost $49.


Mike, great story by the way :)

Or my t206 Joe Doyle and Ed Cicotte.

I bought both cards raw for $90 each. The Doyle graded an SGC 50 and the Cicotte graded an SGC 60. Some of my best finds.

[t206hound]

Now you have me crying (not literally)... went back over some past sales since I haven't had a real "find", just some seemingly great bargains.

2005 - bought a lot with a Schlei Uzit (corner ripped off and back damage) and Peaches Graham Broadleaf 350. Allocated $11 to each card. Sold for $110 and $50 respectively. Thought I was a "winner" at the time.

2006 - That lot also had a McGraw Glove at Hip Red Hindu that graded PSA 3. Sold it for $565 in early 2006. Separately bought raw Marquard Portrait S350 and Bernhard Hindu for roughly $100 each. Both graded PSA 6. Sold for $730 and and $820. Seven years later, what would they go for?

[larrie804]

In March 2004 a friend called and asked me for assistance in selling some baseball cards he had. I had known him for 8 to 10 years and did not know he had collected cards. He told me they were not collected by him..he was 64 in 2004..but by his father who was born in 1900. As a boy his father loved sports but was in a wheel chair from 1908 to 1915. Knowing he loved sports friends of his family had brought him cards so he could enjoy baseball even though he was unable to play the game. The father kept the cards ...2,750 of them... until he was 84 at which time he divided the cards between his two children. The 1,375 cards the man's son brought to me in 2004 were what I call a "virgin collection" having stayed with the family for 96 years!
About 125 of the cards were non-sports the remainder were baseball...T205, T206, T207, T210, Cracker Jacks, E125s, etc. One of the 6-8 "Slow Joe Doyles" we collectors have today came from that collection. I'm still trying to pry loose the other half of the collection!

[Jlighter]

About 125 of the cards were non-sports the remainder were baseball...T205, T206, T207, T210, Cracker Jacks, E125s, etc. One of the 6-8 "Slow Joe Doyles" we collectors have today came from that collection. I'm still trying to pry loose the other half of the collection!

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: :eek::eek:

Any highlights from the other half of the collection?

[ctownboy]

In the early 1990's, I was in college and had plenty of time to go around looking for baseball items. I put an ad in a small town paper and got a call from a guy. I went to his house and he had.... not much. Mostly cards from the 1970's. He did, however, tell me about a guy in another small town that had some older stuff.

I found that guy and got to hear a story and see some good things.

The story was, this guy's Grand Mother married a guy who was a junk collector (hoarder). When the Step - Grand Father died, his Grand Mother kept all of the stuff he had collected over the years. When she died, the children and grand children inherited it all.

Of course, some of the people didn't want anything (or wanted the money if it was going to be sold) and then there were some that wanted some of the stuff. After it was all divided, the guy I was talking to had the job of cleaning everything out of the house and the outbuilding, getting to keep anything he wanted as reward for doing the work.

The bad news:

Well, he said, the roof of the outbuilding had rotted and allowed water to get inside. In the middle of the small outbuilding was literally a three foot high pile of paper goods that were water logged. Nothing was salvageable and he had to take a shovel to be able to lift the stuff up and get it in the wheelbarrow to be thrown away.

The good news.

However, the things on the shelves were high and dry. Inside one of the wooden boxes on the shelves were tobacco cards. About 1100 in total.

Since he liked history, especially history about the West (he also found a number of tin type and daguerrotype photos, some of which supposedly were of Custer and his men in uniform. The guys were in uniform and each photo had the soldiers name underneath of it so, it could have been possible...). Anyway, he wanted to keep the cards of the Indians (about 100 cards) and was willing to sell the rest.

The "rest" were all cards from the 1880's. There were N28's of Clarkson, Keefe and Caruthers (the only baseball cards in the bunch). There were also N28's of wrestlers and pugilists (John L. Sullivan, Jake Kilrain), Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill Cody, etc. I would guess there was at least half of the N28 set and there were some doubles (or more) of some of the cards.

The rest of the cards consisted of actors and actresses, World's Smokers, World's Dudes, Parasol Drill, Game Birds (and other animal cards) and very thin hold to light cards (when held in front of a light you could see different playing cards from a deck of cards), etc.

The guy wanted $3,500 for everything. Being in college, I didn't have that type of money to spend and my parents wouldn't loan it to me. So, I had to pass on the deal. I later told a guy who collected (and dealt in) cards about this find and he immediately went and bought them.

Later, I saw him set up at a show and I asked what he had gotten. Because he had only collected the N28 baseball players, he said he was able to almost finish the N28 set (and by selling these other cards, he would use that money to buy the cards he didn't have and finish the set). He said he was able to put together a couple of complete sets, each, of stuff like the Game Birds and Prize Chickens and then partial sets of the other cards.

To this day, I regret not having the money to buy those cards. Since eBay and third party grading wasn't around back then, if I could have just been able to buy the cards and hold on to them......

David

[atx840]

drum backed t206 hofman...which a board member now owns...in 92' for $30.

That hurts :)

At least Solly is as free as he was in 92'...

[Jantz]

It would have to be the T206 Murr'y that I found at the 2009 National.

Funny thing is, I found it while walking over to get Ron Blomberg's autograph with one of those free autograph coupons you get with a VIP pass. I had a 1979 Topps card of him in my backpack that I got out of a pack in 1979 when I was a kid. I thought since I had the card for 40 years now, I might as well get it signed and put it back with my set.

Needless to say, I never made it to the autograph pavilion after purchasing the Murr'y!

For now, this is my best tobacco find. Hopefully if luck is on my side, I may get the chance to purchase a large T206 collection that I've known about for close to 10 years. Time will tell.

Great stories! Keep them coming.


Jantz

[larrie804]

I sold most of the 1375 cards on consignment. The other half of the collection is now owned by the original collector's grandson and at this point he does not want to sell.

[r2678]

Around 1979 I was at a coin show and a Baltimore dealer sold me a collection he acquired. There were more than 300 different T206s including three Ty Cobbs, a complete set of the T201 double folders, a nice tin full of P2 pins, a 1914 world series ticket stub and a 1926 world series program. Money got tight in the 1990s and the T206s ended up with a Charlotte dealer, the T201 set was sold off and Paul Fusco and I made a trade involving the P2 pins and a Federal League silver pass. I kept the stub and program but haven't seen them in years. They may have been lost in one of my moves.

[Blunder19]

My 2 best finds:

About 5 years ago I bought a lot of 150 T206 cards for $2100 (about $14.50 each) off ebay. The seller was local to me (in NYC) I drove to the guys apartment where he literally had the cards in a shoebox. In the lot was a red hindu and 3 SL blank backs. They were not advertised on his ebay auction. Still have 2 of the Blank backs.

Then about 2 years ago I was searching the internet and found a pic of the chance ghost (which is my avatar on Net54 now). I was able to track down the card for sale from the picture on a small site where it would be tough for anyone to find.. although the price was good... the better story was finding a "true" t206 ghost for sale on a small dealers site.

[oldphil]

About 10 years ago I purchased 11 ungraded T205s from a fellow in Pa. The cards were not graded but looked very nice. I paid about $2100 for the cards and at the time I was very naive about trimming, miniscule wrinkles etc. I would never take this chance now. Sent the cards to PSA and got the following grades:
Baker 7
Collins (open) 6
Collins (closed) 6
Daubert 7
Donahue 8
Speaker 6
Bender 6
Huggins 4
Dougherty (white sock) 7
Walsh 5
Bresnahan (open) 5
This was the beginning of my love affair with the T205s. Still my favorite set.

[Exhibitman]

First find: I was invited into a transaction in progress with the nephew of a homeowner who found a box of vintage tobacco cards in her attic. The cards included in the find broke down into two categories, baseball and boxing. The group included two T202s, six T205s, five T207s, approximately 40 T219s, and ten T227s. The most interesting thing I realized on viewing the lot was that the smoker in the house was an Honest Long Cut loyalist. All of the T219s and T227s were Honest Long Cut branded, as were 5 of the 6 T205s. The sole other T205 was a Sovereign. One of the T207s was a Recruit, one a Napoleon, and three were Broad Leaf backs (how I wish that the smoker had been loyal to that brand!). The three Broad Leaf cards included Alex McCarthy, Phelan and Otto Miller (Brooklyn), while the Napoleon was Golden and the Recruit was Germany Schaefer. The T205s included Ed Walsh (2 cards), Wiltse right ear showing variation, Moriarty, Tinker (the Sovereign back), and Ford (dark cap). From T227 we found one baseball player, Rube Marquard, three boxers (Johnson, Attell and Coulon), wrestler Zybsko and a few of the miscellaneous sports and pseudosports subjects.

Second find: I got a contact through my web site from someone who had a boatload of T boxing cards. Turned out to be a near set of T220 Tolstoi and several T218 Tolstoi cards.

Final find: At a local show a few years ago a guy had an album of T cards that included a bunch of T218 Tolstois.

[abothebear]

I picked up a beater Buck Herzog Old Mill T206 off of ebay for $5. When I received it in the mail and gave it a closer look I discovered that is was the ultra rare Large Ass variation. I have yet to find another like it. It was my first T206. Beginners luck, I guess.

[teetwoohsix]

My best find was here locally, I went into a card shop that I hadn't been in for maybe a couple of years. I asked the guy if they had any tobacco cards, and he showed me a stack in the display case. I was suprised they had a few, and excited to look at them(the last time I was in there they didn't have any). As I looked through them, I was even more suprised to find that they had some with EPDG, Sovereign, and Tolstoi backs-but the biggest suprise was turning over this Nicholls card !!

The owner of the shop is a very nice guy- I didn't go in there prepared to buy anything, I was just in the area and dropped in. I asked him if he'd hold them and I'd be back to pick them up. He did hold them, and was even cool enough to give me a discount on the three I bought. Not as exciting as most stories, but it was a great thrill for me :D

Sincerely, Clayton

[cfc1909]

there was a dealer in Texas who thought he could corner the market on t206s. He eventually realized he could not do this and listed all the cards on his website.

I picked this out of his inventory with no mention of the back and it was raw when I bought it

not sure if its my best find but it is up there with the best

http://photos.imageevent.com/cfc1909cards/errors/websize/9Batch.jpghttp://photos.imageevent.com/cfc1909cards/errors/websize/Batchb.jpg

[cfc1909]

got this one out of a card show at Arundel Mills Mall. Dealer had no idea what he had

http://photos.imageevent.com/cfc1909cards/errors/websize/Steinfeldtpor.jpghttp://photos.imageevent.com/cfc1909cards/errors/websize/Steinfeldtporb.jpg

[teetwoohsix]

Wow Jim !!!!!!! Great cards !!! Thanks for posting those.

Great stories everyone, this is a fun thread. Jantz, congrats on the Murr'y, and I hope you score that collection !!!

Sincerely, Clayton

[Exhibitman]

The print freaks shown here as finds are making me smile. I have been collecting print flaws/freaks/scraps for years. It is really ironic that some of my best T card 'finds' were considered such crap when I found them that more than one fellow collector told me I was wasting my time buying them. Even the dealers. When I bought these cards the dealer gave me one of those sad head shakes reserved for stupid customers who are wasting their money:

http://photos.imageevent.com/exhibitman/freaksandgeeks/websize/T207%20misprint.jpghttp://photos.imageevent.com/exhibitman/freaksandgeeks/websize/T212%20Obak%20miscut.jpg

[cfc1909]

I know Adam, remember no one wanted them. Everyone wanted a crease free perfect centered card. All the freaks were considered trash. Funny how times change.

I got that upside down back probably around 2002 and it was in a very large inventory and like I said no mention of the back. Crazy


thanks Clayton.

[teetwoohsix]

Adam, you were just ahead of your time ;):D
Great cards also !!

Jim- I can imagine how you must have felt when you turned that Batch over and saw the back :eek: I would've probably broke out in a sweat :D

Sincerely, Clayton

[atx840]

Bought 35 PB T206s off a pawn shop for $800. The lot included several HOFs and this guy.

http://i.imgur.com/6HQmw08.jpg

[npa589]

For me - I haven't been doing it too long, and for some reason have not branched out to flea markets and pawn shops - but my best find was probably recently when I got a group of 25 or so Sovereign 460s/apple green 350s, almost all in VG-EX to EX shape. Steve K. has been showing off one of them (the beautiful Cobb)... :D

[teetwoohsix]

Bought 35 PB T206s off a pawn shop for $800. The lot included several HOFs and this guy.

http://i.imgur.com/6HQmw08.jpg

Man Chris, that's awesome !!!! :eek:

Nate-sounds like a great score !!! That is an awesome Cobb. Nice job !!

Sincerely, clayton

[Al C.risafulli]

This is a great thread.

Personally, I went to a Rothstein show in White Plains one year maybe 15 years ago, and a guy was complaining that the show was so bad, he hadn't made his table fees. He had a big stack of EX-MT T206s, and when I asked to see them, he said "Everything in that pile, twenty bucks each." I pulled out five cards including a Waddell portrait, paid the man $100, and walked away smiling.

I later lost the Waddell, sadly. No idea where it is.

Professionally, I recently received a consignment of tobacco cards from the family of the original owner that included 13 N172s (7 HOFers), 80 or so T205s, about 280 T206s including a bunch of Cycle and AB 460s, about 80 T207s including a Red Cycle, a bunch of Broadleaf and a Ward Miller, and a bunch of 1920s strip cards. The couple who consigned them were lovely people, and really didn't know what they had. They had run into an unexpected home repair bill that was going to cost them a thousand dollars, and they asked me if I thought there was enough value in the cards to cover the cost. I reckon they'll be pretty happy with the result. :)

-Al

[Runscott]

Years ago, I found lots of great T206's in common piles, but since returning to the hobby, this has been my favorite. The shifted colors, etc, are cool, but this one's actually kind of artistic:

[npa589]

Years ago, I found lots of great T206's in common piles, but since returning to the hobby, this has been my favorite. The shifted colors, etc, are cool, but this one's actually kind of artistic:


Nice Scott! When I first saw your Wiltse, I heard circus music in the background...(Entry of the Gladiators by Fucik). Definitely a creepy ghost!

[T206Collector]

When I first started collecting signed T206s, someone on Net54 suggested that my cards may have originated from the Jeff Morey collection. After a little research, I was able to track down Morey and interview him about his decades of autograph collecting. The audio from that interview is on my website, for those who are interested.

During our discussions, Morey told me that he had kept a few of his signed tobacco cards because Mastro didn't seem to want them at the time of his major sale about six years prior. He had 18 signed T206s and T205s which he sold me, including the best condition autographed T206 card I've ever seen:

<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/iVXWEz_OSRpmQm3cPgM96jiJm_Z5QsNdec5_I7WHZRE?feat=e mbedwebsite"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ScLDMNA6TAY/S7FELIol4BI/AAAAAAAAHw8/B9DHvy6ObL0/s800/Doyle%2520Portrait%2520Auto%2520SGC%252080.jpg" height="800" width="502" /></a>

<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/swmn-ZNcU5Hy5n4FSAxESMoqui2mE8Wk0uni3G-P8F4?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-WamvyuhBJ8M/UQl2xFFCytI/AAAAAAAAQ4A/W2NWlxT2Av8/s800/Morey_PVM.jpg" height="285" width="800" /></a>

[steve B]

Just before I joined I helped go through a collection from an estate. Wide range of stuff, and enough good stuff that I couldn't afford it. Got them set up with an auction after about 3 days of sorting so I'd know what was there.

I asked for a small bag that contained what seemed at a glance to be a small collection of T nonsports, mostly comon or worn, plus a few other things.

To my surprise the bag also included some dusty/dirty T205s and T206s and a few caramels. Plus about a half set of T49s including one previously unlisted. The baseball cards all had some surface dirt, but were really nice otherwise.

Later they found more, and I bought the rest of the T49 set at the auction. Paid a bit much I thought, but I figured I owed them a bit. (Still do) The other two uncataloged T49s were in the second batch. So the set I ended up with is probably the only complete set.

That was the find that brought me here and got me back into cards after a bout 5 years of being mostly inactive, only a few packs each year.:D

Steve B

Steve B