Portland Maine Hoard 1400+ T-206 Cards

[Saco River Auction]

Saco River Auction is pleased to announce the acquisition of over 1400 1909-11 T-206 cards consigned to us for auctions starting January 2015. The collection has been in the same family since 1909 and was started by their grandfather who was a new smoker in Brooklyn NY. He saved every card and they are now owned by his grandsons. We have not had time to go through the collection as that will occur in the coming weeks, but a quick look indicates that there are numerous varieties of backs to include American Beauty, Sovereign, Hindu, Sweet Caporal, El Principe De Gales, Piedmont, Polar bear, Tolstoi, and other variations on a handful of T205 cards. There are many hall of famers and many cards are going to grade very high. I'm sure there will be desirable variation cards in the mix and we will update in the weeks to come. We will be grading any and all worthy cards and will post photos of them when the work is complete. I've included some basic photos of the albums.

[ullmandds]

Awesome!!!!! Pop go the pop reports!!!! The burning question is...how many TITUS's are there!!!!!

[packs]

Man, 1,400 packs of smokes in 3 years. Dedication.

[sebie43]

Whoa baby..

[Matvoo]

Originally Posted by ullmandds

Awesome!!!!! Pop go the pop reports!!!! The burning question is...how many TITUS's are there!!!!!

LOL

Originally Posted by packs

Man, 1,400 packs of smokes in 3 years. Dedication.

Well some came with 2 cards. I think it was hindu and polar bear if Im correct

[Matvoo]

Super cool find also

[wonkaticket]

Congrats, great looking group.

[Milton]

Those pics are unbelievable! Good luck with the auctions

[wolf441]

Wow...just wow. I wish my grandfather smoked and saved stuff!!

[atx840]

Beauties.

[refz]

Wonder how many john tituses there are

[Bocabirdman]

Originally Posted by refz

Wonder how many john tituses there are

titii?

[Sean1125]

Originally Posted by Bocabirdman

titii?

I chuckled.

[freakhappy]

Originally Posted by Bocabirdman

titii?

I thought those were part of the female anatomy? Ok, I'm lost...

[4815162342]

Originally Posted by Saco River Auction

... numerous varieties of backs to include American Beauty, Sovereign, Hindu, Sweet Caporal, El Principe De Gales, Piedmont, Polar bear, Tolstoi ...

Were all of those brands available in NY?

[2dueces]

Originally Posted by 4815162342

Were all of those brands available in NY?

And as a smoker wouldn't you find a brand you liked and stick with it? I don't think one person smoked all those. More likely he accumlated off brands and smoked just one. I could be wrong. Ok, I'm usually wrong.

[Bocabirdman]

Originally Posted by 2dueces

And as a smoker wouldn't you find a brand you liked and stick with it? I don't think one person smoked all those. More likely he accumlated off brands and smoked just one. I could be wrong. Ok, I'm usually wrong.

I tend to agree but I could see where delivery scheduling might find a mom n' pop shop out of one or more brands requiring a smoker to settle for another. This was 1909-1911, after all.

[Paul S]

My grandfather smoked a pipe. Darn!

[gregr2]

WOW, that is one sweet find!!

[mrvster]

Any Printer's scraps??? I doubt it if it came from one guy buying packs, but you never know

[Donscards]

Troy Great Find---get those big boys graded so we can do some bidding---I hear there were around 10 Ty Cobbs---I can imagine with 1400 cards, there should be some nice scarce backs. Good Luck, Don

[Leon]

edited ...sorry Bruce....

[Texxxx]

If you feel that bad then trade me the Red Cross. lol

[Leon]

....

[Mountaineer1999]

How many Wagner's are in there?

[the 'stache]

I'm seeing Addie Joss, Lajoie, Frank Baker...Must...sit down..feeling...woozy...

I can't wait to see this find broken down. Wow!

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

This is quite a haul. I doubt that one man smoked all of those packs.

[t206blogcom]

Nice looking group of cards. Can't wait to see them all in January.

[wonkaticket]

Originally Posted by I Only Smoke 4 the Cards

This is quite a haul. I doubt that one man smoked all of those packs.

You never know....

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by I Only Smoke 4 the Cards

I doubt that one man smoked all of those packs.

I agree; however, not for the reason you might think.

Cigarettes are sold in packs of 20 these days. Packs with T206 cards (if I'm not mistaken) contained 10 cigarettes.

Additionally, there were (again, if I'm not mistaken) two T206 cards per pack.

Using the numbers above, someone who smoked 20 cigarettes a day - what we would call a-pack-per-day habit in 2014 - would receive 1,400 T206 cards in just under a year.

What I don't get is the number of different brands. I guess he did some trading along the way.

Just thinking out loud. I could be wrong.

Best regards,

Eric

[barrysloate]

It's possible the original owner let his friends know he collected cigarette cards, and got some groups from people who didn't care about them. That would explain the various brands in the collection. Only a guess, but we don't know how he got them all.

[Saco River Auction]

Here's an update on the Portland Maine Hoard:

I spent several days in New Jersey while SGC graded about 500 of the cards. The majority of the cards ranged from 5-6.5 with some 7's. There are numerous Hall of Famers with tough backs like El Prince, American Beauty, Tolstoi and Hindu. There were also several poses which had never been graded by SGC.

There are some error/scrap variations in the group including a Tolstoi/Piedmont double stamped back. There are also other variations such as name above and below the player. Some cool stuff in the group.

I included some photos so the group can be viewed as a lot. We will begin selling these cards in January 2015. It will take several months to sell this collection. We are also looking for consignments for any of these sales. There should be great interest in these sales and will be good exposure for your items.

If anyone has t-206 items on their want list that you have been searching for, please email them to troyathibodeau@gmail.com and I will let you know if there is one in the collection. If there is an item in the collection that you are looking for, I can let you know which sale date it will be in.IMG_2368.jpg

[Jobu]

Those photos are beautiful, I can't wait to see what happens at auction time.

[bn2cardz]

Would love to see a picture of the Tolstoi/Piedmont double stamped back, as I am certain, so would others.

[t206blogcom]

.

[atx840]

Originally Posted by bn2cardz

Would love to see a picture of the Tolstoi/Piedmont double stamped back, as I am certain, so would others.

+1

[ullmandds]

Originally Posted by atx840

+1

++++1...show the good stuff

[Saco River Auction]

Originally Posted by bn2cardz

Would love to see a picture of the Tolstoi/Piedmont double stamped back, as I am certain, so would others.

Hope This helps

[brob28]

OMG T206 Porn! That is an incredible sight to see.

[ullmandds]

Originally Posted by saco river auction

hope this helps

that's insane!!!

[brob28]

Troy, in the pictures are the cards stacked by player & pose such that each stack is multiples of each card? Hope that question makes sense.

[asoriano]

Originally Posted by Saco River Auction

Hope This helps

Wait until Johnny sees this...

How did the T205's grade out BTW?

[wolf441]

Incredible stuff!!! Someone please have the heart paddles ready for Johnny V when he sees this thread!!

[mart8081]

Wow!!!!!!!


Quick question. Looking at the graded cards there are some stacks like the Blue Chase (excuse my eyesight if it is not this front) - are these stacks multiples of those cards?

Martin

[Saco River Auction]

The multiple stacks are variations on players. Cards are sorted by player so piled up stacks are one player with many poses/grades and backs.

Troy

[bn2cardz]

Wow it looks like a double strike of Tolstoi on the Piedmont. Very interested to see where that ends up in auction.

[bn2cardz]

Originally Posted by asoriano

How did the T205's grade out BTW?

Also were there any tougher backs in the t205 cards?

[pgellis]

Any of the rare cards?

Demmitt, StL
O'Hara, StL
Magie

[Jantz]

Thank you Troy for the update & posting some photos.

Incredible find!


Jantz

[Matvoo]

Amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!