Posted By:
J LevineScott,
How about a little help here...As many know the T205 set and specifically the back scarcity has been a project of mine for about 10 years. I have seen nearly 6,000 different T205 cards in my research and have kept data on front/back combos, variations, scarcity of ads, scarcity of cards, and sales figures.
Here is what I know. Scott was not far off on the 3% of backs for Cycle. In late 2006 a large grouping of Cycle backs was found and pushed that number to 3.9% of all ad backs I have tracked. Here is the breakdown that I have either personally seen a clear scan of or personally held. I do not include PSA or SGC pop. reports because I know for a fact that they are wrong on T205s (heck, I have broken out my share of cards over the years).
Here is the data I have for Matty (which is the very first T205 I ever bought!).
Advertiser / Color/ Fact. Code/ # of cards seen/ %Total
Piedmont / Blue/ 25/ 30 / 16.9
Polar Bear /Blue/44/24.9
Sweet Cap. /Red/32/18.1
Sweet Cap. /Black/25/0/0.0
Sweet Cap. /Black/42/0/0.0
Hassan / Green/649/0/0.0
Honest L C / Black/23/13.0
Sovereign /Green/19/10.7
Cycle /Black/11/6.2
Hassan / Green/30/12/6.8
Am. Beauty / Black/0/0.0
Am. Beauty / Green/2/1.1
Piedmont /Blue/42/3/1.7
Broadleaf /Black/1/.01
Broadleaf /Khaki/0/0.0
Hindu /Brown/0/0.0
Drum /Brown/0/0.0
Total Mathewsons seen: 177
This data shows a few things. First Matty with the Cycle shows up about double what Scott expected but he is assumed (I think) that Matty was available with all advertising backs. This is not the case. I have yet to see a Matty with a black Sweet Cap. back from either factory or a Hassan 649. I suspect that Matty was not included in these print runs as they are common and popular one would have turned up in the last few years. I do believe that there will be a black American Beauty and a Khaki Broadleaf at some point. I also believe that there might be a Hindu. There is too small a sampling of Drum to extrapolate. Out of all available Matty's, he is found about 6% of the time with a Cycle back.
Just for comparison, Chance has an almost identical profile to Matty. Missing certain backs and found at just under 7% for Cycle. I think that certain other cards will show a similar profile (I knew Chance was similar to Matty already so it was easy to check).
I hope this helps Scott and all other T205 collectors.
Joshua
PS Yes, I own a Cycle as well.