t204?

[esd10]

i had seen a t204 square port never seen one befor i would guess they are rare by the price tag. does anyone know why they where produced? where they a regional or sub set? what is there value compared to the oval t204

[sb1]

They were produced to honor the six players in the set with Worcester, Mass. ties.

Anderson lived in Worcester.

Bancroft Managed there.

Bransfield was born there.

Burkett Managed there.

Dineen was a Red Sox hero of 1903 and 1904.

Moran was from nearby Fitchburg, Mass.

They can also frequently be found with normal oval fronts with blank backs.

Square frames will bring a substantial premium, up to 10x's normal price would be safe to say, the blank backs only 1.5x's +/-.

[toppcat]

Interesting. I knew about the Worcester connection but not the correlation between blank backs and Square Frames for the, well, square frames. Learn something new here all the time-great stuff.

[sb1]

Almost all of the blank back T204's you will find will be one of the six square frame players. Once in a while you will find a non-square frame player with a blank back. 99% if not 100% of these are early production Ramly cards that were actually two pieces put together, from front and back sheets and then soaked apart(or fell apart in time). I have talked to one of the most revered(sp) old timers and he told me in the early years everyone thought all T204's were two parts. I have also seen one with back adhered upside down. I have a small group that are markedly misaligned and show two edges. Later Timayenis(seller of Ramly and TTT cigarettes) went to a solid card stock which the vast majority of T204's will be found on.

[Vintagecatcher]

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the great information. I did not know of this connection, and I was born in Worcester, MA myself.


Thanks,


Patrick

[Griffins]

Just came across this thread while doing some research, thanks for the informative post Scott.
In another thread it seemed to indicate that some of these square frames were more common (relatively) than other ones. Is this true, and which ones? Any idea why?

[triwak]

Great stuff!

[fkw]

Wow! Great info and photos Scott

PS. Thanks for bumping, I missed the first round of posts...