[53toppscollector]

Is this the thread for general T206 discussion/questions? Because I wanted to talk about Hindu Browns.

As I put together my Excel master tracker for my portraits project, and as I did my research on the different backs, I obviously came to understand that Hindu Brown was the toughest back for the 150 series, and I'd have to track down a lot of tough HoF in the Hindu back. However, I don't think I appreciated just how scarce some of these backs actually are.

Today I was taking a look through ebay just to see what was listed and what has been sold in the last 3 months in the Hindu Brown department, and let me tell you, its not a lot at all.

21 total sales in the last 3 months
12 cards currently listed for sale

They are still more populous than Carolina Brights, Broad Leaf, Lenox, Drum, and Uzit, but not that much more. Of the 21 sales noted above, it was actually less than 21 unique subjects, because there were multiple Griffith and Clarkes sold.

For the purposes of my master portrait project, I created 3 groups of backs: All Piedmonts + SweetCaps (except Piedmont 42), then AB, Cycle, EPDG, Old Mill, Polar Bear, Sovereign, Tolstoi and P42, and the third group of Hindu Brown/Red, Carolina Brights, Broad Leaf, Drum, Lenox and Uzit. I initially thought it might have been wrong to group the Brown Hindu in with that 3rd "ultra rare" group, but the more I think about it, the more I think that is appropriate at this point, given their availability.

I put together a combined PSA + SGC Pop report for the portraits back in June/July, and the combined populations of Hindu Brown range from 9 (O'Leary) to 38 (WaJo) with an average of about 20.

What is interesting is that if you compare the Hindu Brown totals to a back that is perceived to be less scarce like Tolstoi, it is quite interesting. There are currently 93 Tolstois listed on ebay (I didnt check each one, but it looks like this count is close), and there were 54 Tolstois sold in the last 3 months. When you dig into pop reports, I have 54 possible portraits in a Tolstoi back, with pops ranging from 1 (Rossman) to 44 (Chance Yellow and Crandall w/Cap), with an average population of 14. So on average, a Tolstoi back will be more rare than a Brown Hindu for the portrait subjects, but there are more Tolstois on the market than Brown Hindus. Using the old multipliers for pricing, if I remember right the Tolstoi was around 3x and the Brown Hindu was around 14x in Scot Reader's 2012 update.

As of now, I believe the complete Tolstoi checklist is 255 cards, with another 59 that are possible/probable. The Hindu Brown checklist is 136 cards. There is no way to directly compare them, since no subject with a Brown Hindu back also appears with a Tolstoi back.

Curious to hear thoughts on this