If you've ever wondered what a T206 PSA 10 looks like...
 

My apologies if this has already been discussed -- I looked for posts and did not see any....(but that doesn't mean I haven't missed it...)

For those that like high grade, save up those pennies:

https://sports.ha.com/c/search-resul...792+4294948121

looks like a 9 to me!:D

Nice card, but centering freaks may have an issue with it

Brian

Big borders.

When was the last time PSA gave out a 10, let alone a 9 or even an 8, on a t206? Seems to me, all very high grade t206s have older serial numbers. I would rather buy the more-recently-graded 7, which often looks awfully close (and sometimes better) than 8s and even 9s, and save the $25k+. Nothing against the McGraw- it’s an absolute beauty!!- but at some point you are paying a lot of extra $$ for the flip. Regardless, the t206s coming up in Heritage are unreal. Totally out of this world.

I can’t wait to see what the McGraw trades for. I put the over/under at $80k, and I am taking the over.

There are several 10s in the auction...and that many more 9s...

Given that many aren't sequentially numbered, I figured that they had all been reholdered with the fresh labels. I looked through several pre-VCP auction catalogs and couldn't find any, and none of the 9s or 10s are listed in VCP sales. Seems like these haven't changed hands publicly in awhile...or I've missed it.

Or the print dot, lol

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So many high grade, unreal t206s in one auction. Seems to me, some of these may go for relative bargains, only bc how many people are out there who can buy so many of these in a single auction? I recall an auction a few years ago when a ton of rare back t206 cubs were listed. I picked up a great Evers Red Hindu, but I should have gone to the mat, because there were too many cubs at one time and they went cheap. I later picked up the Tinker Uzit 7 and the Tinker blank back, but I am still kicking myself that I didn’t buy the Evers BL 460 and the tinker bat off AB 460. Too many cards and not enough $$. I think that could happen here.

i think i remember someone on the board saying he once owned a t206 "10."

And he brought it to one of our Net54 dinners for show and tell. While it was razor sharp, it actually had poor centering and didn't deserve a 10.

Which brings us to the age old question: how does a grader distinguish a 9 from A 10? And if those 9's and 10's were broken out and resubmitted, is there any chance they would receive the same grades?

How would a card survive with "10" corners after being wrapped up in a pack of cigarettes?

It probably wasn't in the pack. There was a large find of un-circulated T206's in the late 80's by a company called Southern Cards. More than 1500 if I remember correctly. I bought a couple dozen at the time, I would bet that most of the 8's, 9's and 10's are from this group. There were Piedmont and Sovereign 150-350 and Old Mill SL. Cobb Bat On (the only Cobbs) and a few Johnson portraits among the HOF'ers

Please tell me more about this. Was this find ever written up anywhere? This is a new one to me.

There were several ads in the old SCD with lists of the common cards available, I remember 3-4 full page ads of just vertical columns of player names in small font size in one issue. This was when SCD was large format, like a really old Life magazine. They were using a grading scale that went into decimals to try and describe the difference in conditions (9.9 or 9.925 or 9.975 etc.

The cards originally walked into a shopping mall show where some were purchased and then the rest were tracked down by Southern Cards. I believe this was in North Carolina.

The theory at the time was that a worker at the packing factory took home a box of cards that were meant to be inserted into the packs. I think we know that the cards were printed in NYC and shipped to the various factory locations and inserted.

If you look at both PSA and SGC population reports of cards that grade 8-9-10 you will see that some have multiples more so than others (Johnson portrait for example) its likely that these are from the find. There were McGraw finger in air cards and Keeler batting in multiples if I remember correctly. I have personally owned portraits of Evers, Chance red, Joss, Lajoie and Fred Clarke as well as SL of Coles, Helm and Paige from this group.

There were many "diamond cut" cards with huge borders and even some trapezoid cuts where the bottom edge was straight and the top was extremely tilted like a barn roof.

I imagine that many of the cards are in 6-7-8 holders because of quality control or just movement in the storage box etc., but the idea that all high grade T206 are trimmed is not the case as I know some people think (understandably).

Brian Goldner (JuJuDrum) knows a bit about this find as well, he and I were trading cards from it back and forth for a couple years back then!

GB

"Southern Find"
 

I should also note that there is another card find that had T213's from the mid 1990's that has taken the name "Southern Find". The card find I am referring to was also called the Southern Find (because of the Company name involved) but it was several years prior and I think the names were mixed together due to pre-internet word of mouth information. This T206 find is unparalleled as far as I know...

Correct
 

The southern find was absolutely written about several times in SCD. It was an impressive collection of beautiful t206 cards. The first find from late 80s.

It sounds very similar to the E98 Black Swamp Find. It is encouraging to hear this story (for me, for the first time as well), as I had always assumed that the cleanest T206s were either trimmed, or had been soaked out of a scrapbook once upon a time.

Thanks for sharing. Would love to hear/read/see any more details.

i never heard the southern find consisted of "uncirculated" cards? In fact if they were uncirculated then why are so many that ended up in the harris collection suspected of being trimmed?

A lot of the Harris cards just look bad, way too small etc. Also, the find didn't have any 150 series only cards that I recall, no Sweet Caporal backs, no super prints and no 460 series. It was probably a box or "shoe" of cards (like a Vegas dealer) taken home from factory 25 based on the backs involved. Harris was a myriad of all things.

That's one heckuva auction :eek:

One of the local guys here (Virginia) was involved in the original Southern Find of T206s. I think I even have one or two of the cards from that find - still raw. I'll try to get a photo/scan of them.

I'll see if I can get him to chime in here with some more details. I believe he is a member.

Many of the T206 "Southern Find" cards were graded by SGC (SBC at the time?). There were many pristine cards - 92s, 96s and 98s. I need to find my notes, but if my memory serves me correctly, I remember multiples of McGraw finger in air, Keeler batting, Johnson portrait, Waddell pitching and Young side view. There were also some T3s. They were nice, but I do not think that they were in the same sort of condition as the T206s. Tony Galovich bought quite a few of the cards raw and sold them to some coin dealers who immediately had them graded.

Quote from one of the original buyers of the Southern Find:

"There were 5 of us that bought the original Southern find. We paid 6K back in 1988 or 1989. There were over 900 T206, 50 Turkey Reds, and a bunch of Mecca non-baseball cards. In addition, there were a bunch of coupons that were used to redeem for Turkey Reds. Most of the find was sold to Marco Rol of Southern Cards. I kept my share and sold off pieces over time. I took the Turkey Red Cy Young to the Chicago National around 1989 or 1990. There was a dentist from Florida that kept looking at the Young. He told me that I was overpriced. I told him I was firm on the price (I forgot the price, but I am thinking it was around $1800). Anyhow, he grabbed Bill Hughes of Executive Investments to look at my T3 Young. Bill told him that if he didn't buy it, he would. The dentist whipped out a bunch of AMEX travel checks and paid me."

I bought the T3 Chance from that group of 50 for around $900 through the SCD. Later on Brian G. offered me some crazy amount for it and I had to sell it.
I always heard that there were more cards that were tracked down later on by Southern; part 1 from the mall show, and part 2 sometime after. The group this fellow is talking about sounds like part 1. I'd like to see how many were advertised by Southern in those ads...

6k for that collection? One T206 common graded a 10 would put you in the profit column. Simply amazing to see how the values have changed since then.

I’m still surprised that his hasn’t come up more on Net54 before, and just highlights that the hobby doesn’t know what people won’t share about their collections or collecting history. Expectations about things like population reports and cards in existence are always going to have the propensity to be wildly off based on large swaths of important collections never getting the public due they are obviously worth.

There is more we don't know than we do know, concerning populations, would be my guess. That is a lot of T206 9s and 10s in one auction.

Brian Goldners' collection was auctioned by Mile High a couple months ago, there were a whole bunch of Southern Find cards in SGC 92-96-98 in it. You can see a few of the diamond cut cards with big borders I was talking about in there also.

Ryan, I hear you, but I would take the under....Here's the problem now with T206s graded at 8 or higher, there just aren't that many buyers anymore....You can buy a solid 8 for a fraction of the price, and I mean a fraction...Plus, the cards are near identical....

I think that applies to most issues, not just T206s. And I agree.

The market goes up, the market goes down. It will be interesting to see how the Pre-WWII cards do in the future, from a value perspective. I remember when Caramels (E cards) were the hot thing. Now many, if not most, can be had for a small fraction of what they were 15 - 18 yrs ago.

I should add, it's also going to be interesting to see where these 9s and 10s end up. But it might be a different type collector of those than a mid grade card so that tells us something, just not sure what (investors?).