Why are some HOFs not included in t205
 

Been researching players I am targeting later this year and reviewing what sets they are in. When I came across the t205, I noticed that a few HOF players are not in the set and it got me thinking, why? The HOFs are included in the t206, but not included in the t205. Anyone know why?

Here are the players who played past 1911, but not included in t205

Sam Crawford
Nap Lajoie (who started this whole research)
Eddie Plank
Honus Wagner.

Did they not want to be associated with cigarettes?

I dont know the answer.

However, Plank and Wagner are on very few tobacco cards -- I believe Plank is only on T206, T204, and T216 (which may have pirated images), and Wagner is only on T206 and and T216; not including Fatima team cards and noting the T206 examples are extremely rare for both. Yet both are readily found on E (and other non-tobacco) cards/issues. This seems to indicate an issue with tobacco specifically and not wanting to endorse it and/or promote it to children, who were the ones most often looking for and collecting the "pictures of baseball men".

T205 was an unfinished set. The backs note 400 subjects, far more than were printed. Subject count is often off by a couple subjects, but not by 50%. Lajoie and Crawford are probably absent because the set was never finished and only some of the planned waves actually issued. Plank and Wagner are absent because the lithographers followed NY privacy law and probably had some contractual issues with them of some nature. Period accounts support the traditional narrative on Wagner.

We know there are conflicting accounts as to why Honus didn't want his image used in T206.

While it may be neither here nor there, I knew many old timers who played when Honus was coaching the Pirates. A few were Bucs, some were on other teams. All loved Honus and were proud to have known him. More than one of them brought up (on their own, I didn't ask) the T206. Apparently, there was talk of this card going back to the 1930's-40's. Each man gave me the same story: the "Honus didn't want kids to buy tobacco to obtain his card" version. They also mentioned how much Honus loved kids and being around them, even playing catch with groups of them.

Can't claim my own knowledge here, but Anson wrote an interesting article about a similar topic.

https://prewarcards.com/2019/11/21/t...rs-variations/

I would agree with him that because Honus did not approve to be in T206, and his disapproval would have carried into the 1911 T205 set as well.

It is crazy of a miss that Lajoie and Jackson were missed in T205.

Great set though. I don't know if there is any perfect set... every set brings it's own set of questions on what players could have been added, or ways to improve it.

The artwork of T205 is simply amazing, great borders, stats, and colors.

I think about the faults of T206 as well, not including Joe Jackson, or Smoky Joe Wood in either T205 or T206.

[T207 and Diamond Stars look around sheepishly]

You must look at the financial circumstances of the company that produced the T206 & T205: American Tobacco which was an original member of the DJIA. During the production of those cards, American Tobacco was being sued for violating the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. By 1911, it was forced to break-up into smaller companies. This explains why the T205 is riddled with typos and is an incomplete set. It may also explain why American Tobacco would not produce cards of Wagner and Plank in order to avoid further litigation.