T206 Print Groups-A Quick Overview
 

This information is a little deeper than some collectors wish to go, but I thought I would start this thread for those that may wish to discuss this topic. For the time being I’ll try and keep it general and we can break anything specific down into more detail if anyone would like to.

The six print groups that make up the T206 set are the foundation for understanding how the set was produced and which subjects are possible with which backs.

There are four main print groups.

Print Group 1
Originally 150 subjects
5 subjects were added during production of this group.
3 subjects had a team change during this groups production. (Brown, Dahlen,Elberfeld)
1 error (Magie) was corrected.

This group was used to print all of the 150 Series backs. After the printing of that series was completed, the same group was printed with 350 Series backs. This group was then discontinued and printing for the next group began.

Print Group 2
Originally 200 subjects
2 subjects had a team change during this groups production. (Demmitt,O’Hara)

This group completed the expansion of the set to the advertised 350 subjects. At the conclusion of their production, this group was discontinued and printing of the next group began.

Print Group 3
Originally 60 subjects
2 subjects had a team change during this groups production. (Klienow, F. Smith)
1 error (Doyle N.Y. Nat’l) was corrected.

This group was the beginning of the expansion to the sets advertised 460 subjects. However, prior to the other 460 subjects being added, this group was printed with 350 series backs. After these 350 series printings the next group was added for the sets final expansion.

Print group 4
46 subjects
No errors or team changes.

This group was added with group 3 and together printed with 460 Series backs. This completed the sets expansion to the advertised 460 subjects.

There are two groups that are classified as supplemental. This because a close look shows that they are groups in their own right and don’t follow the series progression like the other four groups.

Print Group 5
6 subjects

This is a group of six subjects referred to as the super prints. They were first printed with print group 2 and continued being supplements for the remainder of the set with groups 3 and 4.

Print Group 6
48 subjects

This is the group known as the southern leaguers. This group was printed during the production of group 1, but not part of that print group.

Again, this is just a general overview, if anyone would like to discuss something in more detail it would be great.

Nice thread Tim. While I am not a specific T206 Collector I have been going through 500 or so T206s the last few days. I have seen quite a few Southern Leaguers. I have a couple questions, and the first one might be stupid.

1. Is the Southern Association the same thing as the Southern League? (I know, stupid question)

2. How scarce are the SL'ers in relation to other players? I think in this 500'ish grouping there is an inordinately high percentage. I don't know what that is right now but it seems like there are quite a few. Any thoughts?

And btw, most of the grouping is Piedmont (around 300), Old Mill (around 120), Hindu (around 20), Red Hindu (1) Sweep Caporal (around 20), EPDG 3-4......as well as there are around 50 T210s (almost all from series 3 but some from 2) and about 30-40 T205s......I think all with Piedmont backs. These were found in Irving TX....

shall i get my checkbook out now or is this going to be strictly a cash transaction?? :)

great thread. i have it bookmarked. i'm sure there will be tons of other good info added as well.

Great post, Tim! can you attach some dates to the various print groups?

Leon, i am sure Tim will jump in here, but SLers are definitely rarer then commons and even most HOFers. they were simply printed over a much shorter period of time, and available only regionally (the south). i am sure the high number of SLers in your group is due to where they were found (Texas).

Leon-

The southern league subjects were from four leagues.

Southern Association
Virginia League
South Atlantic League
Texas League

And Mike answered your second question in the post above.

Definitive dates of when one group stopped and another began aren't known. Below is a general timeline based on what we do know, but it's by no means meant to be exact.

Tim - Great post, thanks.

Leon - Keep me in mind if you have T206 Southern Leaguers for sale, especially Hindu backs! :)

These will all be offered in the next auction. lots of SL's and many of them are Hindu backs, Stay tuned for details.

T206 Printing
 

Nice summary Tim. This helped answer some of my questions after my first time through Inside T206

Tim, that chart really paints a clear picture, awesome, thanks!

Tim,

As I have written elsewhere, I would split the southern leaguers into two print groups: the 34 that are available with Hindu (150/350) and the 14 that are not (350-only). As Jamie Hull discovered, 34 southern league subjects have essentially equivalent back distribution split between Hindu, Piedmont 350 and Old Mill Southern and the other 14 have essentially equivalent back distribution split between only Piedmont 350 and Old Mill Southern. (Footnote: I miss Jamie Hull--he was a truly great T206 researcher).

Scot

Tim, Scot, Mike, and the rest....
 

Great input...I love the summation Tim!!:)
I have always wondered about the super prints with sov 460 backs since i'm attempting the sub- set...the general "rarity" is disputed amongst collectors, but I have trouble finding these super prints...I know there are other sov 460 combos just as tuf, but the superprints in this paticuliar sub set seem to get alot of attention in regard to the apparent rarity...any thoughts on this?? the rarity of the super-prints in sov 460???:confused:

Scot!!- Where has Jamie BEEN??!!! :confused: I love his Ford Tolstoi Scrap and the split front top to bottom different player Phillipe and engle:confused:

mrvster,

I know Ted is of the view that the six superprints are harder to find with Sovereign 460 than the 460-only subjects are to find with that back. I'm not inclined to question that--especially since Ted is the only person I know to have put together a complete Sovereign-only T206 set.

Jamie was a very cool and humble guy and extremely knowledgeable about T206. He was an asset to the hobby and I hope he returns to this board some day.

Scot

Scot - Each of the print groups, with exception to the super prints, can be broken down into additional subsets. But when looking at the sets composition, all 48 of the southern league subjects fit into a single print group. Had it not been for something unforeseen, all 48 would have been printed and distributed with Hindu backs as ATC intended. And population variances, that demonstrate subsets within a print group for the same back, is something we see throughout the set.

Johnny-Some Sovereign 460's are much easier to find than others. There is a definitive difference in the numbers between two subsets printed with that back. But the six super prints do not stand alone as being the toughest. Yes they are tough, but there are a number of other Sovereign 460's I believe are just as tough.

He was on the board 3 weeks ago and posted a couple months ago. Did something happen to him?

Tim,

You and I can agree to disagree about the southern leaguer breakdown.

I don't think the 14 southern leaguers that weren't printed with Hindu were "ready for print" at the time of the summer-fall 1909 Hindu printing--and even if they were "ready for print" the fact remains that they were not printed with Hindu.

I will continue to regard these 14 as a distinct 350-only southern league print group until proof to the contrary is presented (e.g., 1909 advertising).

Scot

Footnote: What is the "something unforeseen" that you are referring to?

That's good to hear, Leon. Maybe it's me who needs to frequent the board more often.:)

Scot - I'm always up for agreeing to disagree but I'll continue to make my case as long as you would like to discuss it.

All 48 southern league subjects were planned with Hindu backs. The 1909 Hindu advertisements included the Texas league in its description, but none were printed.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-7...2520PM.bmp.jpg

The important thing the print groups do is to place the right subjects, into the proper production timelines. All 48 southern league subjects began production at the same time, and were discontinued at the same time. This is what makes them a single print group.

The fact that 14 southern league subjects were absent from the printing of a certain back isn't reason enough to split them into two separate groups. Within other print groups we see many subjects printed with backs others in the same group were not.

Tim,

Have to disagree. The 34 SLers that were printed with Hindu are tougher with Pied 350 than the 14 SLers that were not printed with Hindu, just as the 150/350 major leaguers are tougher with Pied 350 than the 350-only major leaguers. It is in fact a paradox that the 34 SLers that are possible with THREE backs (Hindu, Pied 350, OMS) are more difficult than the 14 SLers that are only possible with TWO backs (Pied 350, OMS). The explanation for this seeming paradox is that the 14 are, like the 350-only major leaguers, much more plentiful with Pied 350 and this trumps the small Hindu production from which the 14 were excluded.

The 14 SLers that are not possible with Hindu were launched with the 350-only major leaguers and comprise a separate print group in my opinion. Not sure what your Hindu ad proves as we both know the Texas leaguers were not printed with Hindu.

Scot

Scot - Is it your opinion that the 14 southern league subjects, not printed with Hindu, were printed with the print group 2 subjects?

I'm just trying to get on the same page.

The ad shows that ATC intended for them to be printed with Hindu. They included the Texas League in the advertisements, but for whatever reason they weren't printed. Still part of the same print group in my opinion.

The same thing happened with the major-league subjects. The Hindu ads stated 150 Subjects would be included, but only 102 were. The subjects that were not printed don't belong in a different print group, they just were not printed with this back.

Tim,

I'm still struggling to come to grips with your nomenclature but if by "print group 2" you mean 350-only subjects then I think so.

In essence, the 34 SLers that were printed with Hindu were printed WITH THE PIED 350 BACK in similar numbers to the 150/350 major league subjects whereas the other 14 SLers that were not printed with Hindu were printed WITH THE PIED 350 BACK in similar numbers to the 350-only major league subjects. This, combined with the fact that Hindu is a 150 series back, suggests to me that the 14 SLers comprise a distinct 350-only southern league print group. This is Jamie Hull's discovery circa 2009 but convinced me.

A corollary is that the scarcity of the 34 SLers relative to 150/350 major leaguers is attributable to the former's unavailability with Pied 150 as well as the Sweet Caporal, Sovereign and EPDG brands whereas the scarcity of the remaining 14 SLers relative to the 350-only major (and minor) leaguers is attributable to the former's unavailability with Sweet Caporal, Sovereign and other brands with which 350-only major (and minor) league subjects were printed. Of course, this scarcity is offset somewhat by the Old Mill Southern printing.

Scot

OK, I understand what you're saying and we will have to agree to disagree. I do not think that any of the southern league subjects were extended into the print group 2 (350 Only) production. I believe based on everything I have seen that the 48 southern league subjects were printed during the production of print group 1 (150/350) as one supplemental group. I believe all 48 were discontinued prior to print group 2 (350 Only) beginning.

The variances in numbers of some subjects with a given back does not imply to me that they were printed at different times. As I stated before, we see this in other print groups with certain backs.

Tim,

At least we have clarity as to the reasons for our disagreement. That is progress.:)

Scot

Scot - Anything positive is good.

So let's look at it this way. Brown (Washington), Dahlen (Brooklyn) and Elberfeld (Washington) are only possible with 350 backs. But a close look at the confirmed backs of these subjects show they are not part of print group 2 (350 Only) but continuations of their print group 1 subject. A team change was made during the production of print group 1 and combing the backs of the two variations shows this to be true.

Except the 14 southern leaguers not printed with Hindu were not team variation cards. They were new subjects.

No they were not new team variatiosn and forgive me for further confusioning the issue.

They were part of the 48 subject group at the time of the Hindu printing, they just weren't printed at that time.

Tim. Takes some time to wrap your head around these groupings.

Do you think they printed the P150 with 150 subjects with one being the Magie, then this was fixed and a print of the Sov 150 series was run and discontinued? then a second new P150 and introduction SC150s series with the 3 additions (Plank, Wagner, Crawford) printed?

Lots of questions around why add these three then, why pull Wagner after a short run? Why was Plank pulled before any other 350 series backs were printed other then SC f30..we may never know the answers.

What I am interested in is could Planks sheet mates have been reduced in production numbers on, say, sc350f25 by having the entire sheet thrown out vs replacing his plate? Do we see any scarce f25 backed players out there like Plank?

Thoughts on the elite eight/nine and why they only have a P350 series back? Sheetmates for a wrongly printed back and pulled early?

Fun stuff..thanks for sharing!

Tim and Scot,
It is great to be a fly on the wall of this conversation. Thank you for all your hard work in trying to make sense of this set(s).
JimB

This is not true. The 34 southern subjects that come with Hindu are much tougher than any Piedmont or Old Mill subject, the same 34 or the other 14.

My belief is the reason it is 34 is that is the number of subjects that compose a sheet.

There are 102 major league subjects printed with Hindu and to put 14 subjects in their own group you would have to put the 102 in their own group. That is not the case.

For some unknown reason they stopped printing Hindu. That is clear by the ads. Dooin and Waddell and Nicholls are pictured on ads and do not exist with Hindu.

Southern Leaguer or Southern Associationer !?
 

I have seen quite a few Southern Leaguers. I have a couple questions, and the first one might be stupid.

1. Is the Southern Association the same thing as the Southern League? (I know, stupid question)

Leon - Definitely not a stupid question-actually a very good question. The answer is yes and no. I think the reverse of the Old Mill T206 SL card is the reason for the confusion. It cleary states on the reverse of any of the T206 SLer card "Baseball Series Selection from Texas, South Atlantic, Virginia, and Southern Leagues." The Southern League started in 1885 and ended around 1900, and the Southern Association was officially formed around 1900. Essentially many of the same Southern cities/teams were represented in both leagues, and this is where the confusion comes in.... Although they are referred to as Southern Leaguer's (1909-11 time frame), they are technically Southern Association players/teams. Due to verbiage on the reverse of the OM card, and the ease of the words Southern Leaguer as opposed to Southern Association player, we collector's call them Southern Leaguer's, but technically they are Southern Associationer's ! (See 1908 Southern Association Champions PC which includes Harry Bay, Bill Bernhard, and Hub Perdue, 3 of the "SLer's" from the T206 OM group) - So, technically they are not SLer's, but this is what the collecting universe calls them.

Thanks Jeremy. I have seen the 2 names used almost interchangeably and that is why I asked. It was a question that sounded like I should have known though :). I appreciate your very good explanation. And I should mention, I also appreciate the very in depth discussion of something I happen to be sorting through at this moment (Piedmonts, Hindu's, SL'ers, T210s etc...)

It does take time. I've had the pleasure of discussing these groups at length with several long time collectors of the set. It wasn't something that made sense to them right away, but once everything was understood I believe the sets composition became easier to understand.

Yes. The Magie error was corrected during the first printing of the Piedmont 150 backs, prior to the printing of the Sovereign 150. The Sovereign 150 back was only printed with the original 150 subjects that began the set. The five subjects that were added later were not printed with Sovereign 150, but were included with later printings of either Piedmont, Sweet Caporal or both.

34 Is almost certainly not the number of subjects on a sheet. That there are 34 with Hindu and 14 without is an extremely strong argument against 34 being the number of subjects.

If there were 34 on a sheet then there would have to have been some way of having the 14 that weren't printed with Hindu as part of another sheet.
And that wouldn't work unless you picture them as part of an old mill sheet that had 14 SL and 20 regular cards. OR that ALC had two color presses and was able to print multiple backs in one pass.

I just don't see either scenario as being likely. And so far there's no eveidence of either. No miscuts with both SL and regualr cards on the same card, nor anything I can see that would indicate the use of multi color presses. One of the principal partners did invent the multi color press, but I haven't found a date yet.

There are several other groups of cards that indicate fewer than 34 subjects on a sheet, with a number closer to 12 or 14 possibly as small as 6 more likely.

Steve B

Steve

I do not have 100% proof that a sheet consisted of 34 subjects, it is just my belief after studying the set for many years. 102 could also be 3 sheets of 34.

There may even be a couple different number of subjects per sheet. Hopefully a sheet shows up and we can learn from it.

There were different configurations of subjects on sheets. The Lundgren with a miscut with 2 different names at top proves that. The 34 number appears so many times when studying the sets composition it has led me to believe that is the number of subjects per sheet but certainly you are entitled to your conclusions/beliefs.

cool thread:)

Excellent thread !!!

Great breakdown Tim, thank you.

I've always wondered why the only corrected errors were Magie to Magee (print group 1) and Doyle N.Y. Nat'l to Doyle N.Y. (print group 3) when there were other spelling errors. Any theories on this?

Also, I believe they caught the Magie error pretty quick into the first print run due to the low population of the error cards, but is there any way to guage how early~ like, by how many Piedmont 150 Magee cards are out there? I know population reports by TPG's don't cover all cards out there, but is there any known ratio other than the population reports?

Thanks-

Sincerely, Clayton

how many magee or magie ?

Yes :D I guess that would've been an easier way to say it ;):)

Sincerely, Clayton

Hey Steve

Don't waste your time arguing this subject. They have only 2 examples that makes them think that "34" is the sheet size. When you inform them (and you are certainly
informed in printing practices) that 34 subjects were printed on a 36-card sheet which included 2 double-prints....they scoff at you.

For example, the 36-card sheet in which the SWEET CAP 150 factory #649 (overprint) group of 34 subjects were printed on included Powers; and either the Davis, or
Johnson , or Mathewson cards were double-printed.

Furthermore, the 46 subjects in the 460-only Series were printed on a 48-card sheet which included double prints of Duffy and Ford.

Why these two guys....Duffy was popular since he became Manager of the White Sox for the 1910 season. And, Russ Ford was a rookie sensation in New York in 1910,
winning 26 games while losing only 6 games.

Thru out the T206 series subject construction, the numbers are invariably factors of 6 or 12. It does not take a math major to understand this. American Lithographic's
printing presses for this type of litho printing were designed to accommodated sheets of cards that were 36, 48, 72, etc. (12 cards horizontally x N number of rows
vertically).


T-Rex TED

furthermore............

Hey Scot

Although somewhat anecdotal, the following real data supports your thesis......

The Russell collection has 22 - T206 Southern Leaguer's (SL) with OLD MILL backs. This includes 12 of the 14 No-HINDU subjects. And, only 10 of the 34 HINDU subjects.

I started in the 1980's to complete my first (521 cards) T206 set (hybrid backs). Certain SL cards were considerably tougher (Foster, Hickman, Paige, Shaughnessy, etc.),
while other SL cards were easily found in multiples (either Hart, King, Thebo, Westlake, etc.). The later subjects being in the No-HINDU group.

DITTO goes for my 2nd set (hybrid backs) of T206's (520 cards) that I completed in 2005.

In 2006, I broke up my 2nd set in order to put together an all-PIEDMONT set. I completed this challenge in 11 months. Most challenging in this undertaking was acquiring
all the SL cards with PIEDMONT 350 backs. And again, the toughest were in the group of the 34 subjects that were originally printed with the HINDU backs (my records indicate that guys like Foster, Hickman, Manion, Paige, Shaughnessy were some of the last cards I acquired).

Finally, as a dealer, I have been selling T206's since the mid-1980's; and, I've seen many collector's wantlists at the Willow Grove, Ft. Washington, and National Shows.
And, in most cases T206 collectors needed the SL subjects that were printed in the HINDU group of 34 cards to complete their T206 sets.

Scot....your analysis is right on.


T-Rex TED

Tim,

Which 5 subjects were added to the first 150 during production?

Tony

Wagner
Plank
Crawford (Throwing)
Jennings (Portrait)
Lundgren (Chicago)

I think this point is getting lost in the southern league group discussion.

Just because some subjects might be more difficult with a certain back, does not necessarily mean they were in a different print group. The Sovereign 460 subset is a perfect example of that.

34
 

Number of Subjects in Print Group 2 with Polar Bear backs = 136

136 / 4 = 34 :cool:

Best Regards and Happy Collecting :)
Craig

Any other informations about the adition os these 5 subject?

Why these specific 5?

The point here is to get the cards in their correct group. Putting the 14 southern league subjects in the 350 only or a second group from the other 34 southern league subjects is one way of looking at it.

Just try to look at it where the 48 southern league subjects are in print group 6.

Try to look at it where the team changes that only have a 350 back are in print group 1.

Putting these subjects into print groups the way ATC distributed them will help understand the composition of this set.

Double prints, sheet numbers aside for now, just try to get the subjects into the proper print groups

Hey Craig......try looking at the big picture


Subjects........Series

..12..............150-only

144..............150/350

204..............350-only

..60..............350/460

..46..............460-only (+ 2 double-prints)

..48..............Southern Lgrs.

...6...............Super-Prints

...2...............Demmitt and O'Hara St Louis variations
____
522 = total subjects


T-Rex TED

T206 Magee Portrait, Magie Error Populations
 

I'm still in the early stages of attempting to calculate estimated populations for all T206, T206 Backs, and each T206 Subject. For what it's worth, my very preliminary calcs for these are:

T206 Magee Portrait: 700 in circulation*

T206 Magie Error: 240 in circulation*

* I define in circulation as the # of PSA graded + the # of SGC graded + the # of raw and other third party graded that occasional show up on ebay, bst, auction houses, shows. It does not include the # of raw that are in long time collections that never show up for sale.

Keep in mind that these are very preliminary population estimates and I am still collecting data and refining calculations. I do not yet have enough information to determine statistical confidence intervals (which could show my estimates to be statistically worthless). Also, my population calculation of the Magie Error is probably skewed high because, in my opinion, the ratio of raw to graded for Magie Error is probably lower than for the average T206 subject due to it being a rare card and more likely to be graded. I have not yet gotten to the point of taking this factor into account.

Best Regards and Happy Collecting :)
Craig

There have been a lot of theories proposed, more so for Wagner and Plank, but no one knows for certain.