Despite the bickering, this is a excellent thread on a topic of interest to many of us here. It also seems that wherever you classify the Cobb/Cobb it may consist of a Type 1 (no gloss) and a Type 2 (glossy). It certainly seems like it is within the T206 orbit based upon the latest information summarized here and I appreciate Jon starting it and Ted, Rich,Jim and others continuing it.
I may be able to snag a Drum or Uzit back someday but the Cobb back will definitely mean my back run will be incomplete. That's okay - my set will be minus the big 4 when I am done too.
That ad is great-we get Atlanta (the Russellcollection) and North Carolina (the factory) tied together in it and have the San Francisco intrigue added. That almost (but not quite) screams "Obak Cobb" to me!
In all seriousness, how far west did the ATC market before we get into the Obak/California territory and the west coast tobacco companies?
Some thoughts on the ACC while we are at it:
When Burdick put together the T206 listing he was grouping similar cards that were marketed together as well, I have always thought, which (the marketing together) is a key point. He and the other collectors that developed the T206 checklist may have had access to some primary source information we don't know and how they grouped T206's may have been influenced by such accounts. While not necessarily sacrosanct, the logic that generally went into the T card listings always seemed well thought out to me. I realize there are some exceptions but the ACC brought order from chaos and some chaos still remains.
In any event, the ACC numbering is designed so sub groups and extensions can be added, which Buck Barker and cohorts did with relish in the 60's with the Catalog Updates. They even changed the ACC numbering to a year based system for Topps and a few other annual issues starting around 1968.
For T206 you could develop a subgroup of say -1 for each back of normally sized cards that was issued in a slide shell pack, -2 for the narrower AB's and say a -3 for Polar Bear (and maybe even the Cobb), packed with loose tobacco, which highlights slight differences but retains the overall grouping.
Now, what about those Type 1 Coupons......