[T206Collector]

Collectors want their collections to be special and unique. When you collect T206 cards you have a lot in common with hundreds or even thousands of other collectors. Finding anomalies on ordinary T206 cards makes the card and the collection it belongs to more personal to the owner.

Underlying all of this is the passion many T206 collectors share for their little cardboard gems. The images become so well known that even the slightest variations can jump off the paper and sparkle.

Now add two collectors that will spend $1,000+ on a comma-shaped period. Word spreads, and before you know it, everyone with a T206 card is looking for the same little glitch that they had never noticed before. Suddenly, you've got a phenomenon driven by a small group of people who are willing to spend real cash on such minutiae.

If you had two collectors constantly facing off with mega dollars trying to corner the market on some of the Jimmy Dykes 26 vs. 36 age variation cards, you might be able to trigger the same sort of phenomenon in 1933 Goudey. Two wealthy collectors bidding to the death against each other for the age 26 variation would quickly resolve in a spike of interest in this otherwise mundane variation. That might then bleed into additional Goudey variation price bumps.

The first time I saw a true "ghost image" on a T206, I knew it was cool and wanted one just because of that. However, the first time I found a Baker without the blue ink, I knew I wanted to sell it because of the demand for such a variation. Sometimes you're willing to pay a premium because you like a card -- and sometimes you're willing to pay a premium because you think someone else will pay you even bigger dollars for it. This is one of the phenomena that drives T206 variation pricing.

When I "complain" about the ridiculous prices autographed T206 cards are fetching these days, more than a few people responded by telling me that I have no one else to blame but myself for promoting how cool they were on Net54. There are a lot of people promoting their T206 variations on Net54. That promotion spurs interest, and drives prices.