T207 Recruit Ink
 

I need to hear from the T207 gurus. As we all know, these little beauties came with several reverses, the most common by far being Recruit. But as I discovered when winning a T207 on offer on Ebay, which had been listed by David Bryan, there was a difference with the normal Recruit print I don't recall the player, but the card had been graded by BVG and noted on the label that it was a brown ink Recruit.
My first thought, after I had examined it closely and determined, yes, it was definitely brown ink as opposed to the normal black print, was that this was just like the T206 brown Lenox. Eureeka!
I then decided to consign it, along with other stuff, in the last Mile High auction and it received very indifferent treatment by bidders. I was more than
a little surprised. Maybe the different inks has long been known in the hobby, but it was new to me. I wonder if BVG is the only tpg noting the difference.
I have another T207 with this anomaly: Ed Ruelbach BVG 5 clearly stating brown Recruit back. Can anybody help? Please

this variation has been known for a long time. additionally you will find that errors...upside down backs...severe miscuts...blank backs...variations in general do not mean much to most...unless we're talking t206!

I have a Brown ink background myself as part of my Cubs T207 back run. Can't remember what player so will check this evening. They are not real common but do exist as there was a lot of 4 brown print T207 cards in the last REA auction. Are you looking to sell the card? Do you have some scans of the Reulbach card you have? Mine is Leonard Cole factory 240 back.

I also have a brown ink Recruit T207, one of the T207s I collected 15-20 years ago. I didn't even notice the brown ink until I was examining all my T207 backs earlier this year. I did a search on this board and found some threads on them. They seem to be somewhat scarce but not super rare, and as others have noted here (and as you experienced), they don't command a significant premium because there just isn't the demand. As with all century-old pieces of cardboard, they don't have any significant inherent value; they're worth only what somebody is willing to pay for them.

What they said.
 

These "brown ink Recruit backs" have been known for a number of years, and may have been first noticed/recorded as such by Jay Behrens. There seems to be little premium for them, as they're not of much interest to most folks. If I recall, ones in VG/Ex quality were going for somewhere around 100-150 a while back. Every so often they get hyped and there's a flurry of activity ... then it quickly settles down - like most things T207.

It has been said that they're found with both Factory 606 and Factory 240 backs, but I've never seen images of any other than Fac 240 - at least not ones that were clearly brown. There's usually a discussion about it not really being brown, but faded black or some other nonsense as its blindingly clear in person. Once you've seen one, you can usually pick them out accurately from scans ... those that have them should know exactly what I'm referring to. There are likely lots more out there to be identified.

Someone (Jeff L?) responded to a question about whether a specific T206 Old Mill was a brown back: "If you have to ask, its not" - it applies equally here.

One of the threads David K refers to has a side-by-side of a black and brown ink back.

--
Mike

I'm curious, anyone know of a Cleveland Naps example?

T207s are the red-headed step children of the major tobacco card sets. Personally, I love them and have put together 3 sets over the years but a lot of collectors don't like the smaller % of star players or the brown and tan colors which they describe as drab. If you get ahold of an exmt or better T207, there are no cards better, they are beautiful IMHO.

As far as the brown ink backed T207s, I have one also in my set as a "type" but unfortunately their value is not correspondingly great because of a lack of demand. The same can be said of the blank backed T207s which are rather scarce but their value isn't what you would think. I have a few of these as "types" also. Finally even the "wrong back" T207s don't carry the kind of sticker price you would think for cards that border on rare. Maybe some day...

I won this lot of 4 T207 cards with the brown-ink printing on the back in the recent REA auction:
http://www.robertedwardauctions.com/..._fall/235.html

Interestingly, SGC has noted "Brown Back" on the flips on only 2 of these 4 cards. I plan to ask SGC at the upcoming Philly Show to re-holder the other 2 with this notation. The only card I'm keeping for my collection is the WaJo card - the other 3 cards are available FS/FT.
Val

I love T207s for their basic brown designs. The brown backs are scarce but as mentioned the demand isn't too great hence values aren't affected too much, generally speaking. We need to rename them T206 and they would be all the rage.