Posted By:
Art M.Here is the background on the T206 Cobb, red portrait, with Drum back currently residing in the PSA 1 holder, serial number 90660562:
April 2000 - Ron Oser holds his regular auction. Lot 47 and 48 contain several tough back T206 cards (each lot has Drum, Lenox, Uzit, etc.) Lot 47 contains a T206 Donovan, throwing pose, Detroit, with Drum back. As a collector of T206 Detroit players with tough backs I am very interested in lot 47 and bid strongly. I do not win. I do keep a scan of the Donovan Drum back for my records.
May 2000 - Many of the same cards from the Ron Oser auction lot 47 and lot 48 begin showing up on Ebay. All are sold by the same seller. All show up on Ebay except the T206 Donovan, throwing, with Drum back. I email the Ebay seller asking if there is any way to buy/trade etc. for the Donovan card but receive no reply.
November 2000 - Mastro Fine Sports Auctions is offering a T206 Cobb, red portrait, with Drum back as lot 561. The card is graded PSA 2 and the back seems to be the SAME as the Donovan, Drum back from the April Ron Oser auction. Bill Mastro examines the Cobb in the PSA holder and can tell it is rebacked. The card is taken to a PSA representative (I recall this was at the Fort Washington show in PA.) where the card is cracked out and revealed to be rebacked. Lot 561 is withdrawn from the Mastro auction. The lot was consigned by the SAME person who was selling the other cards on Ebay in May.
It was my understanding that the rebacked Cobb, red portrait with Drum back was destroyed by PSA and/or Mastro but it now appears again seven years later as Ebay auction 220142267373.
From the scans below you can see from the 2000 Ron Oser auction Donovan, Drum back scan that this is the SAME back which appears on the Cobb card. The crease in the upper right is identical, but also there is the printing dot in the left margin below "D" in Drum and above "C" in cigarettes that makes the perfect match.
Maybe some other board members can show better scans from the 2000 Oser auction lot 47 and/or the November 2000 Mastro auction lot 561.
I wish the Cobb with Drum back was real, but it is not.
Art M.