I strongly believe that the scarcity of T206 Wagner and Plank cards has to do with both men's opposition to being affiliated with tobacco. Besides the fact that its the most widely mentioned and earliest proffered explanation, Wagner and Plank's absence in almost every other tobacco issue is, I think, determinative. Neither player is in the T205 set, which is large and has most other contemporary HOFers. There are no Wagners or Planks in the T201, T202, T207, T213 or T3 sets. In fact, besides T206, the only tobacco set that Wagner is in is the T216 set, and I feel like those cards were pirated for that 1911-16 set from the earlier caramel (E) cards that use the same pose. The same is true for Plank, yet for some reason he also has a T204 card (Wagner does not) and is in the T208 set, which is strictly a Philly team set
Yet, while both players are part of an extremely few T issues, they are both widely found in the caramel/candy issues - E101, E102, E92, E105, E106, E107, etc; they are in confectionary issues, such as D303 and and D304 (in case of Wagner); they are in publication issues, such as W600, M101, etc; they are on all sorts of non-T post cards, such as Rose Co and Novelty Cutlery. Clearly, neither Wagner nor Plank had aversions to being used on a wide variety on non-T product-pieces. Thus, the scarcity of Wagner/Plank tobacco pieces, coupled their wide use on all products other than tobacco, seems to indicate that both were anti-tobacco.
I dont think it was a "money" thing because, as mentioned, both players are all over E, D, W, M and all sorts of other cards/issues. There were many tobacco companies, not all ATC, and I think it would be unrealistic to think all the tobacco companies, including huge ones, were cheap. Yet Crofts, out of Philly, general baking out of Rochester, and Nadja (out of STL I think), paid the necessary money that ATC and other profitable T companies did/could not. The money theory has too many logical holes.
I dont know enough about printing plates to opine there, other than I think the anti-tobacco argument makes the most sense. BTW, I believe Plank was a bit of a goodie goodie, adding to the likelihood he would be anti-tobacco and would not want kids chasing tobacco packs for his card. Regarding Wagner, note his 1949 Leaf card, where an older Wagner is in the act of sticking a huge wad of tobacco into his pie hole; interesting and perhaps ironic they used that image.
Plank was a great player, but Wagner was 10x the player and 100x the icon. Plus, there are more T206 Planks than Wagners (and Planks has 150 and 350 series, both facts mitigating against the fact that they were both pulled off the print bc only one contested), and the T206 Wagner is THE card of all collectibles. Plank is certainly an amazing and perhaps underrated card, but its utter chump change compared to the T206 Wagner (indeed, every other pre war card out there except a very few is chump change compared to the T206 Wagner).
Here are some T examples of Wagner and Plank -- very rare to have either on a tobacco card
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