Auction Report: Signed T206 Cards
 

Now that the dust has settled, I wanted to discuss the absolute flurry of signed T206 cards that have been popping up in different recent auctions -- a whopping three of which poses had never been publicly identified before (Baker, Tannehill, and Murray). I believe this to be the first time a heretofore unknown signed T206 pose has been publicized since I started tracking these wonderful little marvels back in April 2007. To have three all in the same month or so really amazed me, and hopefully is a portent of good things to come in this regard.

The cream of the crop, Tris Speaker, went for $32,310 -- :eek: -- the highest price ever recorded for an autographed T206 card at auction by thousands, exceeding the $27,600 a signed red background Cobb sold for in 2010. This beauty went in the last Goodwin Auction:

https://goodwinandco.com/LotDetail.a...entoryid=30988

An absolute steal by comparison, this beautiful Frank "Home Run" Baker went for a relatively inexpensive $9,000 to the same buyer in Robert Edward Auctions last weekend:

http://bid.robertedwardauctions.com/...x?itemid=38416

REA also had this sweet Jess Tannehill, which went for $6,600:

http://bid.robertedwardauctions.com/...x?itemid=38417

Tannehill, who died in 1956 -- the earliest of each of these five -- surpassed the highest prior sale of another signed T206 common by over $1,000, a sale which coincidentally happened three weeks ago when Hunt Auctions listed this gorgeous Red Murray:

http://huntauctions.com/phone/imagev...135&lot_num=48

But perhaps the most surprising sale of all was this signed T206 of Bill Carrigan for $2,742 in Clean Sweep Auctions. Surprising because two additional Carrigans were sold from The Great Pittsburgh Find of Signed T206 Cards that hit eBay in 2007, so this was at least the third one identified in that time, and I believe I have seen or owned one or two others.

http://www.cleansweepauctions.com/it...0519504#images

Carrigan died in 1969, which gave him three years after the publication of The Glory of Their Times to sign TTM autographs. Although Carrigan was not featured in Larry Ritter's book, the book generated substantial interest in the Deadball Era, and triggered the pursuit of many autograph collectors who were similarly inspired to track down Rube Marquard, Fred Snodgrass, and others.

This Fall has indeed been a very exciting time to be collecting autographed tobacco cards. It has also caused my wallet to hemorrhage money, as I added the Tannehill and Murray to my collection, which now includes 40 unique signed poses of T206 cards.

Scans of all five of the cards described in the above listings are shown here:

Paul,

Thanks for sharing and congratulations on the new additions.

What a great and unique collection you have going!

Scot

Really cool information (thanks for sharing)

Whenever I see a signed t card, it's usually Marquand... Maybe these are all yours?

Is this because he lived a pretty long time, thus making it to the period where collectors wanted signed items... or did he just happen to sign a bunch of his tobacco cards back in the day?

How much does the average Marquand signed t-206 go for?
Judging by the post I just read, I'm guessing 5-7k?

Very interesting, thanks!

Ha! Definitely not all mine. I've got 3. But, I've catalogued over 30! 33 to be exact, as of today:

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=211673

There are so many because he lived until 1980, is a Hall of Famer, and was written about in The Glory of Their Times.

Marquards go for about $1,000 - $2,500 depending on condition and presentation. Prices have been on the rise. I just sold one on Net54 for about $1,800 a month or so ago.

Haul of shame had a small section on the baker and says it's a forgery.

I disagree and like the sig. Forging T206 autos is an expensive gamble on HOF cards, but of course it does happen, and I've seen a few bad ones out there.

You know, Al Shaw -- and his six letter name -- lived until 1974. Why do we never see signed Shaws, real or forged? Whatever the answer is one of the reasons I really prefer to collect signed T206 commons. It's like the old saying - how come everybody who believes they were somebody in a past life always thinks it was a famous person?!

:D

Turning a $100 card into a 9k card doesn't seem like much of gamble if I'm a forger. In fact the potential return far outways the initial investment....so to me there's plenty of incentive for a forger. Just food for thought.

Understood. Just saying it's cheaper to do 10 index cards and get the same return. For whatever reason this is the only Baker in the market. If we see any more any time soon then maybe I'll start to get concerned about it. But, I do think this signature is authentic.

I would be interested to see how many purportedly autographed T206s James Spence or PSA/DNA or SGC doesn't certify. I've been turned down on a few in my years of collecting.

I'd take the Cobb over the Speaker any day.

I think Cobb would cost well more than Speaker today, though you never know. There are only a few people paying that kind of money for these and if one or more of them already have a Cobb they may bow out. There are many more signed T206 Cobbs than Speakers.