T206 John Titus Price Bubble
 

Hi everyone,

The price of a T206 John Titus seems to be getting crazy. Common back PSA 1's have sold for over $100 recently! Why the run up on price for this card? Its not uncommon 3 sold on ebay last night alone. Just wondering if this has happened in the T206 set before? If so does the bubble typically bust on these cards? Thank you everyone!

Actually I was wondering the same thing can't just be the mustache....lolll!!!!

Post # 9

If you mustache, methinks it's the facial foliage.

For a while one boardmember was going after every example, last I heard (6 months ago) he was up to 120.

I prefer the rare Kawika variation.

That would be tough to do with a common t206 card, make it tough to find and drive prices up, even if it was semi-tough to begin with. He should have tried with a set that was more rare to begin with, like collecting all Old Judge cards of a player, not that I condone that stuff.

Titus
 

Perhaps the Hunt brothers are involved?

It's gotta be the mustache, and the fact that's MILDLY tough. It's also arguably the best T206 portrait in the set. This card is definitely not as common as a lot of other T206s. When I was searching for my example last year there was almost never more than 2 or 3 for sale on Ebay at any particular time. Prices have definitely been surging for the past year now which is probably tied into the whole surge in T206 prices as a whole.

I still check the current prices every now and then on ebay for the Titus card. Even if you search the BST section here, they even somewhat rarely show up here for sale. Of course as I type this there's one for sale right now, but it is few and far between.

This card is unique within the set due to the stache and has had interest as far back as I can remember. Between being held in collections and hoarding, it's less common and probably comparable to Tenney and Ganley but typically in better shape. $100 is not that inflated unless a slew of them become available from a hoarding scenario.

Buying up a common T206.

This (MAY) work only if you keep it to yourself and are completely smart about it. Once word gets out that you are doing it to a particular card, everyone will start asking 5 - 10x the value for that card knowing that you are trying to buy all of them up.

Has anybody suspected a certain T206 common besides the Titus example that this was being done to?

My thoughts are that if one person holds an estimated 10% of any given common card that it would impact the value. However, if they are not being destroyed, it shouldn't drive the value up beyond the percent being held. Not very smart to try this on a set as abundant as T206 unless you're going to hoard a Demmitt, O'hara or one of the other scarcer cards. Could be more easily accomplished with a front/back combo if you are trying to control price.

I have heard it for Rocky Colavito rookies. I believe his family was buying them up. I think once ebay came around though, it made it so much easier to find, that a newer card like that would be impossible to hoard and drive up prices on, or would really take an extremely long time.

There is a person on the board who collects cards of his great-grandfather from the Obak set and that really drove up the price once he had a lot. Miller I believe. I'll try to find it...

Found it, the player is Frank Miller. While looking for it, I found out another player I heard about and it happens to be a t206 card. Someone has a huge Hans Lobert collection, I believe it was 50+ back in 2006. Not sure if he kept on going with it

in my opinion...buying a common card in mass qty trying to corner the market is a foolish endeavor...UNLESS...the card is more desirable than just a common for some reason. for example...there have been hoarders of shaugnessy cards as well as the aforementioned titus...both of which are more desirable than just any common for apparent reasons. still...there are so many out there that it is still a common card...just the only moustached one!

Thank you for eveyone's input.

Coming from our background in eTopps this is an interesting discussion. Most eTopps cards had a print run of 1000-5000 which has to be somewhere close to the known number of T206 cards? Anyway, eTopps cards can be bought and sold on eBay without ever having to take possession of the cards.

So accumulation of the cards was a very interesting concept that many many people tried.

In 2002 a user attempted to purchase every Bret Boone card and he got over 800 out of the 2000 before he had pushed the price beyond reason (I think it was about $40 then). He started selling some and now the card is basically less than $1. Because there is absolutely no reason to have 2000 Bret Boone cards.

Now, T206 is a little different in that it is kinda cool to have that many of one player and compare them, etc. But it's still going to have the same drawbacks. There is an unknown number of cards out there. If he has 200 of the Titus card, there could be 5000 more out there. It's a long term "play" that will get out of hand quickly if he starts paying $100+ for each card. The supply will come out to take advantage of the market and people will bid him up just to make him pay more.

I'm almost done with my Philly T206 set (subbing a E95 Plank) so, I needed to get a Titus anyway. Ended up paying not too terrible a price, it's just going to sit in my collection for 30 years until my daughters consign it. :)

in order to be successfulll you need to buy quickly and sell slowly after holding for a long period of time. the longer the better.

if the quantities are to great for you to buy quickly you will be diminishing your returns by paying high prices....aka averaging up.

anything is doable.

kevin

wasn't it mentioned in a thread a while back as being a "hard" to find common. I think the Tenney card was also in the same thread along with some others

The SABR profile of Titus makes him sound as fascinating as the mustache makes him look. LOL. Titus was seldom seen without his trademark toothpick, and its mere presence in his mouth served to infuriate other players. Opposing pitchers soon noticed a "tell" when Titus was about to swing at a pitch by how he would move the toothpick around in his mouth. Despite being at a disadvantage while batting due to the "tell," Titus steadfastly refused to ditch the toothpick.

If the T-206 card would have included a toothpick in Titus' mouth, the coolness factor would have been impossible to measure. :D

Titus was also derisively known as "Tight Ass" for his spending habits and his policy of saving every paycheck from the entire season, then cashing them all at once. Titus also married his 17-year-old neighbor when he was 39 years old.

Check out the SABR profile of Titus; it's an interesting read.

http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/edd1ff06

Titus is one of my favorites. He really was a fine player as well as being quite eccentric. I read somewhere that he went to sign a new contract one day. Rather than spend a nickle on a trolley ride, he walked about 4 miles to the team office and then walked back.

Impeccable...........
 

His T206 is probably increasing in price because I sold my nice PSA 5 several weeks ago. You can blame me......my timing is impeccable, as usual. :)

that is a killer picture of Titus ... very cool!

one of my absolute favorite cards in the set ... it just has "a look" about it

x 2

That is a cool picture and it brings to mind a question I've wanted to ask for awhile. What was the reason for having a belt loop directly in the middle front of the pants. I know they used to wear buckles ont he side of the pant but that loop directly itn the middle seems very awkward and uncomfortable. Anyone know the reason for this, sliding perhaps?

I was trying to find a site with profiles of more obscurce players. That SABR site is perfect! Thanks.

Didn't something similar happen with Shag Shaughnessy? There have been other cards as well, that have had temporary bubbles that eventually faded - Rhoades (arm extended) was really high for a while.

I won't go into detail, but I'm personally responsible for the stock market doing so well lately :(

So I guess its time to sell Titus?

Most of the time something like this happens, it is family-related. The grandson of Frank Miller has just about cornered the market on his Obaks and Zeenut cards. Ditto the families of Lindsey and Fullerton in the 1911 Zeenut set. To a lesser extent a relative of Jack Coombs was about 5-6 years ago buying up as many of Coombs' E98 cards as possible but I don't think he is still doing this.
For a while the T206 Burch batting and Lindaman, especially in higher grade, were being scooped up and had high price tags for commons but these two cards seem to have come back to earth and are accessible again.

RE : Titus T206
 

It's a nice card with a lot of eye-appeal . Reminding us of other cards that go for tons more .

Glad to help. SABR is definitely an awesome source for learning about obscure players. I have used the site often to read up on some of the obscure players with notable cards from various pre-war sets.

X3

Love that cold stare....

I've got a nice
 

Titus Carolina Brights PSA 5 card -- wonder what that might go for, as it's the only one graded. [I also have the only graded T206 Titus American Beauty card]. But, honestly, they're nothing, as I know the collector who owns the Drum Titus card, which is a screamer!

Ever try sliding belly first on a belt buckle. Offset the buckle to make for a less painful slide.

He contacted me about my Miller, telling me how important it was for him to get that card, but he didn't mention that he had a stack of them already. I figured it out by searching the board archives, and...

I passed on selling it to him and instead sold it to a board member who needed it as the final card in his set. I hate that the Miller descendant drove up the price by hoarding, but it is what it is.

Titus
 

I think the Titus E254 is one of the cooler cards in the set.

I love the Titus card! Here's the Old Mill everyone has seen 100 times by now, but I don't get tired of showing. I just wish the back was as nice as the front. It's got "pack lines" on it.

http://www.t206.org/misc/scan0001titus.jpg

What are "pack lines"?

These very light diagonal lines of slight paperloss on the backs of some cards.

My theory is that it had something to do with the foil or the other cardboard in the cigarette pack being pressed up against the back of the card for prolonged periods of time, so when it was finally removed, some damage had been done.

I took a photo but couldn't get it to properly highlight what I'm talking about in Photoshop. There are a couple of pieces where the paper loss flaked off more than others, but if you look at it just right there's a definite distinct diagonal pattern to it.

Anyone else know what I'm talking about and perhaps have a card that shows it well in a scan?

Those diagonal lines are from old time 1950's??/60's photo albums which had a series of diagonal adhesive lines to hold the photo's in place, usually with a plastic inner sheet. Which is why the card survived in such nice shape.

I think that Barry S. once referred to it as "slatting" IIRC.

You guys are spot on - It's so obvious now that you say it and that's totally where I've seen it before... photos! Thanks a lot for settling that one.

Lines
 

I agree with sb1. I still have a couple of photo albums from the 60's and even the 1970's where they were popular. The thin lines of adhesive tended to make stain lines on the soft paper backs of T206's and sometimes paper loss.

I've never seen one where I thought the T206 pack's foil created the damage.

My wife calls them stretch marks. Now I can tell her they're pack lines. :D

p.s. If you don't hear from me in a while, you'll know why.

Here is a high grade example that finishes in about 9 hours:

T206 John Titus Philadelphia SGC 80 Piedmont Back

Ebay link:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/T206-John-Tit...-/330924662702

Post # 6

That Titus is at $355.00 with 7 hours to go. Easy there Adrian, don't do anything rash...............:DDave.

Adrian is about to attempt to break the record for highest bid on a Titus :D

Cardboard Junkie

Hahahaha no I am not a fan of that card the only T206 cards I still want are the O'Hara variation the Magie variation, the Mathewson white cap and maybe a Plank....I will most likely never focus on that set I will be busy for many years with the 52 Topps master set including the gray backs.

Post # 8

Wow, going after all big dog T206s huh? That's certainly a who's who list of T206 stars.

Deja vu all over again
 

Is this a consignment? It looks familiar to me and the asking price for it was almost $500.00. Then it disappeared from eBay. Could this be it? :confused: