Now that the dust has settled, I wanted to discuss the absolute flurry of signed T206 cards that have been popping up in different recent auctions -- a whopping three of which poses had never been publicly identified before (Baker, Tannehill, and Murray). I believe this to be the first time a heretofore unknown signed T206 pose has been publicized since I started tracking these wonderful little marvels back in April 2007. To have three all in the same month or so really amazed me, and hopefully is a portent of good things to come in this regard.
The cream of the crop, Tris Speaker, went for $32,310 --
-- the highest price ever recorded for an autographed T206 card at auction by thousands, exceeding the $27,600 a signed red background Cobb sold for in 2010. This beauty went in the last Goodwin Auction:
https://goodwinandco.com/LotDetail.a...entoryid=30988
An absolute steal by comparison, this beautiful Frank "Home Run" Baker went for a relatively inexpensive $9,000 to the same buyer in Robert Edward Auctions last weekend:
http://bid.robertedwardauctions.com/...x?itemid=38416
REA also had this sweet Jess Tannehill, which went for $6,600:
http://bid.robertedwardauctions.com/...x?itemid=38417
Tannehill, who died in 1956 -- the earliest of each of these five -- surpassed the highest prior sale of another signed T206 common by over $1,000, a sale which coincidentally happened three weeks ago when Hunt Auctions listed this gorgeous Red Murray:
http://huntauctions.com/phone/imagev...135&lot_num=48
But perhaps the most surprising sale of all was this signed T206 of Bill Carrigan for $2,742 in Clean Sweep Auctions. Surprising because two additional Carrigans were sold from The Great Pittsburgh Find of Signed T206 Cards that hit eBay in 2007, so this was at least the third one identified in that time, and I believe I have seen or owned one or two others.
http://www.cleansweepauctions.com/it...0519504#images
Carrigan died in 1969, which gave him three years after the publication of The Glory of Their Times to sign TTM autographs. Although Carrigan was not featured in Larry Ritter's book, the book generated substantial interest in the Deadball Era, and triggered the pursuit of many autograph collectors who were similarly inspired to track down Rube Marquard, Fred Snodgrass, and others.
This Fall has indeed been a very exciting time to be collecting autographed tobacco cards. It has also caused my wallet to hemorrhage money, as I added the Tannehill and Murray to my collection, which now includes 40 unique signed poses of T206 cards.
Scans of all five of the cards described in the above listings are shown here: