t206 Shappe ???

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Posted By: Martin Neal

I would love to hear the board thinks on this one. I purchased this card in a group of six thinking that there was a pretty good chance it may be T206 Shappe or a variation of that card. I can't swear to it but I think I saw a card just like this one a couple of years ago on Ebay.
t206 Shappe ?
Shappe sig
Shappe comparison

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Posted By: Dave

Here's a picture of a normal Sharpe. It looks to me that your card has been marked. I'd guess that there was some paper loss on the R, and someone wrote on the card in an attempt to add the "leg" of the R.

It looks like the solvent in the ink ran, making the unusual shading around the R. I doubt it is the Shappe.



Edited: Having looked at these again, I'm not so sure. I'd hold your card at an angle and reflect a bright light off the surface near the R. This may tell if you have any paper loss.

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Posted By: Joe D.

Looks to me like somebody really tried to turn an R into a P.

If you consider a P has a verticle line and a 'circle' on top. It is the circle portion that makes me think that it is a doctored R

look at the inside upper portion of the circle. The fake P gets thinner in the inside upper right corner and goes up hill a little - which is consistent with the R and not consistent with the P that stays pretty consistent and straight. The fake P is also rounder (on the inside bottom portion of the circle) than the other P - again the P is pretty straight there. The fake P is also thicker (than the normal P) at this part of the letter.

It looks like a doctored card to me.

This is all my opinion... I could be completely wrong - but thats how I see it.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

I think someone sneezed on the R.

It may be a legitimate printing miscue. In the Shappe variations, it's a fair guess that something got stuck on the lower part of the 'R,' which could theoritically produce staining on some cards. If some dishonest person was trying to disolve the bottom of the R, that wouldn't explain why there was staining on the rest of the R. You'd want to rest of the R to stay put.

Solvents that disolve lithographic ink smell strong, like alcohol and paint thinner.

Most would not pay 'Shappe' money for the card due to the stains.

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Posted By: Martin Neal

Thanks for the responses. I have a graded Shappe which I will scan with this card next week along with a regular Sharpe. My thinking (or hoping!) on this card is that the defect which caused the Shappe variation may have happened on this particular card or at least to a limited number of Sharpes. I don't know enough about the T206 printing process to guess what may have caused the printing defect. It seems to me that I saw this particular defect a couple of years ago (I have religiously examined every Sharpe card on Ebay for the last 4 years) and was hoping someone else on the board had either purchased that card or had seen it.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Martin, it would be very difficult for someone to remove via liquid solvent a small portion of ink from a baseball card. Even if you put the correct solvent on the part of the ink, the ink doesn't vanish on it's own. The solvent essentially loosens the ink and you then have to remove the ink by tool. I've removed ink this way in a lab, and it's not easy. In theory it's simple, but in practice it's hard. Also, the types of solvents a chemist would use would not leave a grease-like stain behind, but would dry invisible. That's why it may be that the the Sharpe stain is just a stain, and is not from someone trying to remove the ink.

If someone told me he was going make rare variations by chemically removing the ink, I'd say "Good luck."

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Posted By: fkw

To me it looks like is might have been a Shappe originally, but then someone came along long ago and made an "R" with an ink pen out of the first "P". With this attempt it made the card less in demand because of this doctoring of the original caption.

Also, just my opinion, the Shappe card is extremely overrated, it is just a print flaw where the leg of the "R" was missing, and not a true man made error like the Magie spelling error. Both the Shappe, Nodgrass, and other print flaws like this are overrated IMO. Id rather have an attractive missing color card than one of these tini caption flaw cards anyday.

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Posted By: Martin Neal

Thanks again for all the comments. I will keep this card just in case someone finds a similar Sharpe or Shappe. It would be interesting to me to compare the two. The card I have is probably a card that someone tried to convert to a Shappe. Frank, I like the color variations better than the Shappe, Murr'y and nodgrass too, but then again, it sure is fun to find one.

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Posted By: bigfish

Martin,
I have had two Shappe error cards within the last 6 months. I have one now if you want to e-mail me for a comparision.

tp7161@yahoo.com