T206 Nap Lajoie
 

Ok, thumbing through some of these old threads and I found were some of you are collecting a singular player by their backs. Walter Johnson seems to be the most popular. I would like to do the same the Nap Lajoie Portrait. My question is how many backs are there for this particular card? PSA Population Reports only shows: Hindu, Old Mill, Piedmont, Sovereign and Sweet Caporal. Are there any others out there I should look for?

There are actually 10 backs if you include four different Sweet Caporal, two Piedmont and two Sovereign.

Sounds like a fun challenge.

If you are starting to seriously get into T206, this site will be one of your best friends:

http://t206resource.com/Checklist.ht...ToDetails=True

I'm a long time fan a have been actively buying since 2011. I just never paid much attention to most Backs. This is my first foray into this type of collecting. Thanks for the website. I went to 15 sites trying to get a correct number. 5 will be the first magic number and once reached. I will go for the other five. I already have two.

Ok, after doing a good bit of research and a few purchases, I have a few questions for some of the T206 Aficionados on this board. The population reports for two hardest to find cards (HINDU and OLE MILL) are slim. There are only 4 total graded Old Mill back Nap Lajoie Portrait cards recorded yet any type of valuation on the card is still low for what it is. The Hindu back shows 15 in total population yet garners a very respectable premium.

Why is there such disparity between the two?
How many folks on this board have either in raw form?
Do you see many of them out in the marketplace?

Jay is correct. As far as confirmed backs go he has 10 confirmed out of the possibility of 12 for the 150-350 series.

His confirmed backs are as follows:

Piedmont 150
Sweet Caporal 150/25
Sweet Caporal 150/30
Sovereign 150
Piedmont 350
Sweet Caporal 350/25
Sweet Caporal 350/30
Sovereign 350 (Green Forest)
Brown Hindu
Old Mill

His throwing card has 11/12 confirmed

Piedmont 150
Sweet Caporal 150/25
Sweet Caporal 150/30
Sweet Caporal 150/649
Sovereign 150
Piedmont 350
Sweet Caporal 350/25
Sweet Caporal 350/30
El Principe De Gales
Brown Hindu
Old Mill

Nap Portrait is apart of the 150/350 series...which is a tough series to find an Old Mill. Surprisingly tougher than Hindu. The Old Mill will definitely be the toughest back to pick up if you're going for a Nap Portrait back run.

Old Mill for that series is particularly tough to get. Add in the factor of it being a Lajoie and it's probably going to make it tougher. I could be wrong but I think they were short prints for that series.

You should PM Luke Lyon about Old Mills for the 150-350 series it's his bread and butter.

Where are you getting the valuation from? SMR reports from PSA? If so don't follow those they're always a lot lower than the actual market. A Cobb Red Portrait PSA 1 for $365................ I'll take that price any day of the week.

In my opinion the reason that Old Mills from the 150-350 series don't approach Hindu prices is that Old Mill is a common back overall. I think people just don't care to delve into the minutiae of which series is tougher with which backs, etc.

There just isn't much of a market for them. When I try to sell them at a 2 or 3x premium, I often am met with crickets. It's a good example of supply and demand. If people don't really care, then scarcity won't equal higher prices.

The same thing is true for SC 350/25 but to a larger extent. 150-350 players are tough, but nobody cares to pay even a 1.1x premium it seems. It makes them fun to collect though.

I bought a Old Mill Lajoie Portrait Last night because of the pop report. That's puts me currently at three with a 150 SC, 150 Sovereign and the Old Mill. I figured that it was there, I couldn't find any others out there so there was a distinct chance I would be waiting a while for another. I'm gonna be far more particular with the Piedmont and othe Sweet Caporal backs given that they aren't hard to find.

That's an excellent start. With the two toughest out of the way, you shouldn't have to take long to finish your project.

I also want to thank some of you guys on the board for helping me with the research. A couple posters have PMed me with links to threads and websites I probably would have never found. Thank You

I see what you are saying and think you are right, however you would think that there are enough collectors who have attempted to complete a back run on Lajoie to give it some value about the regular 1.3x premium. I just started venturing out from the Piedmonts/Sweet Caporals into other backs and find that on Ebay, Old Mill cards have a substantial premium above common backs. The exception being that HOFers don't bump up much in price. You can find an Ty Cobb with an Old Mill back for about the same price at the Piedmont or Sweet Caporal. It almost seems logical to just wait for one than jump at a Piedmont Back.