Cycle Back

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Posted By: Ryan Christoff

Believe it or not, Colorado is not a Mecca of vintage baseball cards and almost never has baseball card shows, but they had one of these mall shows this weekend so I decided to check it out. If anyone needs any Wheaties boxes with John Elway on them I now have about 25 connections.

I was stunned at the amount of new crap everywhere, but there was one dealer who actually had some vintage stuff. He had a stack of about 12 T206 cards so I asked to see them. I immediately flipped them over to see what backs they had (while I don't collect them at all I do realize many people do and some can be quite rare). I found a Cycle back, which I know isn't a Drum or Uzit, but I think it moderately difficult from what I have read on the board.

The player is Malarkey. The interesting thing is that you can see his image on the back of the card. I think it has bled through from the front. I know some people collect stuff like this but I didn't know if this kind of thing makes it more valuable or less valuable.

I'll post scans of the card. Can anyone estimate the value of this card?

Thanks for your help,

-Ryan

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Posted By: warshawlaw

Hi Ryan

The card isn't a bleed through--that's all but impossible. The image results from having a new sheet of cardboard placed on a just-printed sheet that's still a little wet. The image transfers from one sheet to the other.

There are quite a few collectors of ghosts. Really sharp, clear ghost images can bring several hundred dollars at auction. I had a really nice one sell for $300. Yours isn't quite that sharp, but I'd say yours would pull at least a couple times the price of the card in its condition and adjusted for the back value. You can see some more at the T206 Museum.

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Posted By: RBCraik@aol.com

Was the dealer's name Steve?

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Posted By: Ryan Christoff

Nope. Not Steve.

-Ryan