T213 near set break in REA
 

Some of you may know that I have collected all 3 Coupon sets since the early eighties. I'm one card away from completing T213-1, and need less than a handful of cards to finish 2 and 3.

I made a few upgrades and added 1 to the checklist tonight, Sweeney Richmond. Still have 4 to go. 2 I passed on tonight and was the underbidder.

Was this Steve's near set? I know Rick M has worked T213-2 for a long time also, and Mark M has the whole set from back in the day. I've seen him post that he had a breeze putting it together for a song back in the day.

Any thoughts on this auction? I almost missed it. It went off with little fan-fare, and many tough cards went cheap. Did y'all win any?

I didn’t buy anything in the auction but I cannot believe some of the prices including the t213-2 Murray Chicago… why so high?

https://bid.robertedwardauctions.com...?itemid=125335

Aaron, thanks for asking, it's also why I'm asking who all is collecting this set. I was the under-bidder, and I think if I had skipped the auction, it would have sold for around $500.

The market cannot absorb a T213-2 set break. For example, for $96 all in with juice, I picked up an upgrade to my avatar, Murray KC. A collection sold by HA earlier this year in BVG holders had 5 or so KC's, but it's a tough card, or was. Murray Chicago has 3 on sgc pop and 1 on psa. A difficult card that I needed to complete a set that the general public has no value on.

Just noticed Rob's post above mine. I basically said the same thing about the Murray KC version, so now I made an edit so it is just these words that seemingly intend to go on forever and ever and ever....

Brian

Brian, put your original post back, :) I thought you had me on mute, or were just trying to translate my William Carlos Williams style of modernist, stream-of-consciousness posting.

Here's another example of a card that went very cheap. Baker Phila--13 graded on psa and sgc. SGC 10 went for $108. I did not bid because I have a higher grade example. Baker NY also has 13 combined pop. I don't have it, and was underbidder to $1110 for a PSA 1.

I'm almost finished with the set, so I'm glad other collectors like it.

Was able to win the Schlei batting. My first T213! I was excited when it came up, and was ecstatic to be able to snag it with what was going to be my final bid. Grateful to be able to add it to my Memphis collection!

Congrats, Nick. That's a nice one. PSA 2 is high grade for this set. What I like about the set are all the possible team captions. It's incredible how important baseball was at the time, that the printers went to the trouble to update the teams for a cigarette prize insert.

That was quite a group and it is nice to see what an auction brings on Coupons given their scarcity. That Cobb was really rough but it still went for over $2200. Lots of strength in prewar.

Congratulations Nick!

I have a modest collection of Memphis stuff. Mainly memorabilia, but a couple of cards, including a Babb Red Sun that I picked up years ago.

Prices seemed quite low for the most part.

I'm puzzled about the Tinker that went for $85+20%. Rough, sure, but it's not like it was torn in half or anything. I only picked up the nice looking Summers because I merely wanted a type card from this set. Might be a missed flipping opportunity there.

I agree that one seems low. I wonder if the backs on many of the T213 may have turned people off a bit....many with paper loss/staining/etc

I wanted the Chase portrait. Often overlooked PCL card.

There were some nice, and tough, cards for sure. Here's my Bender no trees Philadelphia Natl (not from the REA sale - they had an SGC 10) which is a PSA pop of 3.

Theory
 

Rob, I think you are right...not enough people collecting that set to get fair value for everything on a near set break...nice Sweeney...Jerry

Thanks for the kind words Rob and James!

James - I love those T211s. I was able to pick up a Babb myself a few months ago, making it the second T211 in my collection. Would love to see some of your memorabilia if you ever get a chance to post it!

Thanks, Jerry, I was glad to get the Sweeney Richmond. If were bidding on an OJ hofer, then I'd be okay with overbidding, because at least I could recoup some money later on. With T213-2, I often get an incredible bargain, or wildly overpay.

I bought a group lot of T213-2’s in an REA auction a few years ago and some other big name individual cards, and i love the colors on these and find the set terrific. However, it is hard to get to know them as they are sold so infrequently and I was just not ready for the auction to get my bids in and decide what to go for. I was focusing on the t205s more! All of the small lots of individual cards are hard to manage when i need so many still. Wish i would have focused more, a lot of them went cheap and i am not too picky on condition on these.

+1. Nice set but not a ton of collectors are doing the whole set.
Here is my type(s) :)

https://luckeycards.com/t213jen.jpg

In the other REA thread, a poster mentioned that prices would have been higher if the auction were curated. For T213-2 it would have helped a great deal to have descriptions that highlighted the rare cards, like Tinker bat on Nat, or Schmidt Mobile, and so on.

Rob, besides Rhodes, whom are you missing.

Sean, thanks for asking. For 1910 T213-1, I only need Bob Rhoades. (It looks like the T206 with the glove at chest).Around 12 years ago, I posted my want-list of the final dozen or so that I needed, and the board helped me find every card except Rhoades. I've only needed the Rhoades to finish the set for about 8 years. I know there should be at least 3-5 examples out there, maybe more.

For T213-2, I need 4 cards and for T213-3, I need 3. I'd rather not say which ones I need on these 2 sets, but I have probably talked about most of them before. Rob

I'm completely confused
 

As to why the T213's get so little love - they seem to have everything one would want in a nice prewar set - Low populations - even for the "common" cards - I don't think any have a combined PSA and SGC pop over 100 - Many with single digit pops. tons of variations - a great group of HOFers led by 2 Cobb's and count me in the group that loves the blue names and glossy sheen on the card fronts! I grabbed the group from Heritage recently with tons of rarities and felt like I stole a bunch of the Pirates from REA.

Maybe they're just an undiscovered set that will explode in value in the next few years when the market finally wakes up to them, and they become the next "in" set.

Chases
 

was happy to pick up all the Prince Hal T213-2 cards in the sale

I just ran across this post now because I’ve started collecting T213s again. As a few of you know, I was one of the people involved in ‘The Southern Find’ back in the mid to late 80’s. I was able to end up with an entire set of type 3s including 3 or 4 of all the HOFers and a nearly complete set of type 2s. The cards were all VG+ or better with most around Ex. I sold all the type 2s to move the cash to complying other sets like M116 and T207. A few years later I sold my complete set of type 3s to Bill Mastro in EX (including the first ever addition to the set, can’t remember the player but Lew Lipsett would not believe me until I faxed him a copy of the front and back lol). I sold them for peanuts when I see what 3s are selling for these days. Luckily I held on to the 3 Cobb bat off OPs. I ended up trading one for a beautiful high grade E94 Wagner and sold one to a guy on Net 54 and put one in my safe. I used to cringe every time my type 3s would pop up in Mastro/Legenday or REA auctions through the years. I’ve always had a up strong pull to the T213s so now I am going for the type 2 set again and picking
Up type 3s here and there. Sorry for the long story.

Sounds good, TBOB. Enjoy the T213 chase again. I've had fun collecting T213's. I remember reading about that find on here years ago.

I never did learn whose collection that was in REA. They had a nice one, and almost found all 185 cards.

Rob, how close to completion are you now?

Only 3 left to go, Sean, thanks. From that Collect auction of 550 cards, the only one they had that I didn't already have was a very low grade Baker NY. I was able to get it cheap, but still need to upgrade some cards like the Baker NY and Thomas Phila.

Looking for an Owen Wilson Type 1
 

Does anyone have one of those available? Please Pm me.

I ran across this thread again. It's amazing how much the prices for the T213-2 set have climbed in value just over the last 2 years. I still can't believe I somehow missed this auction from November 2022 and shake my head over how low the prices were compared to what the cards in this scarce set sell for in February 2025. I know that because of the basically same artwork as the much more prevalent T206s and the fact the T213-2s have a glossy front which makes them condition sensitive, that the demand is not nearly as strong for these cards but the chase is everything. The scarce to rare team variations make it a maddening set to complete.

If Steve or TBob can't complete the t213-2 set, it's not really do-able. I learned recently that Andy T213 came close, but no cigars.

I'm not giving up, but I'm also not optimistic about all 3 types. I need Rhodes for type 1 and Cobb red for Type 3. I don't want to say what I need for type 2, but some of you know. GL