Imagine how high Cobb prices would be if this trend had continued

[Pat R]

Apparently when they were first distributed Cobb cards were pretty scarce.

Charlotte News July 19 1909

Cobb Ad July 19 1909.jpg

Concord Tribune July 17 1909

Cobb Ad July 17 1909.jpg

and in this clip Mr. Boyd, Mr. Murphy and the paper are asking for "pictures" of Cobb while Mr. Smith
is rewarding people for throwing them away.

Charlotte Evening Chronicle May 15 1909

Cobb Ad May 15 1909.jpg

[Jay Wolt]

Pat that's fascinating, thanks for posting the newspaper clippings

[Fred]

That was a fun read.

[T206Collector]

Wonderful, thanks for sharing!

[deeg23]

I love seeing these old newspaper clippings... thanks for sharing!

[AGuinness]

Great stuff, thanks for sharing.
Did an inflation calculator, which said $10 in 1909 is equivalent to $276.96 today. I actually thought it might have been higher...


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[insidethewrapper]

Here's a few clippings about the collectors of the T206's :

[silvor]

Originally Posted by AGuinness

Great stuff, thanks for sharing.
Did an inflation calculator, which said $10 in 1909 is equivalent to $276.96 today. I actually thought it might have been higher...


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$234,297.40 if that $10 was put into the S&P 500.

According to this....
https://dqydj.com/sp-500-dividend-re...nt-calculator/

No taxes, inflation, reinvesting dividends, but still...

[frankbmd]

Does anyone else see the analogy between the ATC and PSA business models?

“If we grab ‘em by the short hairs, we’ll have an endless revenue stream as a monopoly.”

[jerrys]

cigpostcard.jpg

t206article5.jpg

[mrvster]

reads....just incredible!

[Rhotchkiss]

Very very cool, thanks for posting. I like how they are referred to as "baseball men". That is what the daughters in Field of Dreams calls the players.

[Peter_Spaeth]

So Cobb was scarce but Wagner wasn't???

[Ricky]

These old newspaper clippings are awesome! Thanks for posting.

[Brian Weisner]

This is one of my favorites

[Pat R]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

So Cobb was scarce but Wagner wasn't???

Peter, all the ads are in the timeframe of the initial printing so Wagner
wouldn't have been among the available subjects yet.

Here is some interesting information on a couple of the sporting life ads.

http://t206resource.com/Sporting%20Life%20Ads.html

Brian, your image isn't showing up on my computer for some reason.

[RedsFan1941]

always fun to see what real research turns up

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Pat R

Peter, all the ads are in the timeframe of the initial printing so Wagner
wouldn't have been among the available subjects yet.

Here is some interesting information on a couple of the sporting life ads.

http://t206resource.com/Sporting%20Life%20Ads.html

Brian, your image isn't showing up on my computer for some reason.

Oh I see so the reference to him was just a general one as among the two greatest players.

[The Nasty Nati]

Originally Posted by Pat R

Apparently when they were first distributed Cobb cards were pretty scarce.

Charlotte News July 19 1909

Attachment 339894

Concord Tribune July 17 1909

Attachment 339895

and in this clip Mr. Boyd, Mr. Murphy and the paper are asking for "pictures" of Cobb while Mr. Smith
is rewarding people for throwing them away.

Charlotte Evening Chronicle May 15 1909

Attachment 339896

I wonder which Cobb the kids were after, the Cobb Portrait Green or the Cobb Bat On Shoulder? Both came out the same time. You'd think it would be relatively easy to find at least one example of a Cobb if there were 2 different Cobbs available to pull during the early Piedmont 150 series.

[rats60]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

So Cobb was scarce but Wagner wasn't???

The clip that jerrys posted mentions both Cobb and Wagner being desired but only mentions a few Cobb cards being found. I would guess in the first clip the person didn't know that Wagner was in the set. I believe the first publicized Wagner wasn't until 1930. I have never seen anything before that, so most people probably didn't know the card even existed.

[Pat R]

I might have posted this before but I don't remember.

June 14 1911 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

img849.jpg

img850.jpg

[rats60]

Originally Posted by Pat R

I might have posted this before but I don't remember.

June 14 1911 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Attachment 339936

Attachment 339937

I have always wondered if the rarest cards, Wagner and Doyle in particular, ever came in packs.

[DeanH3]

These are great reads. Thanks for posting. Gets the T206 juices flowing for sure.

[RedsFan1941]

Originally Posted by The Nasty Nati

I wonder which Cobb the kids were after, the Cobb Portrait Green or the Cobb Bat On Shoulder? Both came out the same time. You'd think it would be relatively easy to find at least one example of a Cobb if there were 2 different Cobbs available to pull during the early Piedmont 150 series.

^^^^^^^^^^

interesting points

[mrvster]

that proved Wagner never approved cased closed!


What about Plank???

exactly like Wagner....you don't see any in tobacco issues so case closed on both!

[sreader3]

Pat that is awesome. Had not seen that particular article before.

Would love to get my hands on that reply letter from American Tobacco to Congressman Calder!

[insidethewrapper]

If any card is not included in a package ( tobacco or bubble gum , candy etc ) is it part of the set ?

[mantlefan]

I do enjoy reading those clippings. Thanks for posting them.

[MVSNYC]

Very cool. Thanks for posting.

[Stampsfan]

Apparently there was considerable interest in these cards for over 100 years now.

Cue the folks who think this is just a passing fad, and values will soon plummet.

[trdcrdkid]

This isn't from 1911, but the following article from the October 1, 1941 Card Collectors Bulletin is relevant for the Wagner question. The "Ed." commentary is by Jefferson Burdick.

[Pat R]

Indianapolis Star December 24 1912

Wagner Check Clip.jpg

[Rhotchkiss]

Great stuff. Any idea then why Plank is so rare??

[CobbSpikedMe]

Pat, that's awesome. How do you find these snippets from old papers?

[mrvster]

it has to be the same as wagner I would assume(you know about assuming lol)

Plank is also missing in the same era tobacco cards, but like wagner, is in the candy/caramels......

his cards were halted like wagner- same exact scenario with both.....close to the same count almost.....same backs available.....

broken printing plate is one of the dumbest things that I heard out there

[ullmandds]

That is fantastic stuff I can’t believe this has been a mystery with such concrete evidence??

[Rhotchkiss]

Johnny, remember that Plank is in the T204 set (and both plank and Wags are in t216 sets, but we know (I think) those were pirated). But I agree, it must be that Plank pulled his pic from tobacco cards as well. I believe Plank was a real straight-laced guy. I wonder if either Wagner or Plank would have agreed to be distributed in Vape boxes!

[mrvster]

hahaha true!!

that is classic

[Sean]

Originally Posted by Rhotchkiss

Great stuff. Any idea then why Plank is so rare??

The reason for the shortage of Planks may be the same as Wagner, but there is a difference: Plank is also in the 350 Series.

My best guess is that his plate was included by mistake early in the run. Then, when the error was noticed, that plate was replaced with someone else.

[Leon]

Those are great reads. Thanks to all who posted those articles.

[BeanTown]

Couple more

[Piratedogcardshows]

I enjoyed reading the articles thanks for posting them!

[mrvster]

what a badass!!

sounds like he didn't take any shit....


I wonder if boss Schmidt did kick his ass???

[JLange]

Did the American Tobacco Company deliberately target minors with T206 and other tobacco cards, or was this just an unintended consequence of a successful marketing campaign that was targeted at adults? It seems at best this craze resulted in children hounding smokers for their cards, and even buying cigarettes themselves just for the cards, but at worst it may have resulted in many kids buying and trying tobacco for the first time and becoming life long smokers themselves.

Maybe Wagner saw this as deliberate targeting of minors and wanted no part of it?

[rats60]

I think it was targeted at adults, but the kids wanted the cards. Companies had been using cards to promote cigarettes for years (Old Judge, Allen & Ginter, etc.) without this problem, or at least to this degree. My impression has always been that baseball in the 19th century wasn't that popular. It was dominated by players gambling and drinking heavily. It had a very negative public image. By 1909, the game was "cleaning" itself up and was much more popular with the public in general and kids specifically. Parents would have been more accepting of their children following the game. Local players would be looked up to as well as the legends, Wagner and Cobb. So, when these cards were released, it was natural for kids to chase cards of their heroes.

Also, remember at this time we saw a bunch of candy card sets released. I think that the candy manufacturers saw that kids were chasing after t206 baseball cards and saw a new market. The followed ATC's lead and started issuing cards with their products. If t206 was targeting kids, then why hadn't candy manufacturers recognized this market and exploited it? I think the explosion of t206 was something that took everyone by surprise. Like any other fad or new hobby, it comes out of no where. t206 is the beginning of the baseball card collecting hobby that we have today.

[Pat R]

Originally Posted by JLange

Did the American Tobacco Company deliberately target minors with T206 and other tobacco cards, or was this just an unintended consequence of a successful marketing campaign that was targeted at adults? It seems at best this craze resulted in children hounding smokers for their cards, and even buying cigarettes themselves just for the cards, but at worst it may have resulted in many kids buying and trying tobacco for the first time and becoming life long smokers themselves.

Maybe Wagner saw this as deliberate targeting of minors and wanted no part of it?

This was happening in the 1880's but maybe not to the same degree.

Old Judge and kids collecting them 1a.jpg
Old Judge and kids collecting them 1b.jpg

[JLange]

Those are some spectacular hobby stories! Thanks for sharing!

[Leon]

Some more that Patrick found..the first ones were sort of small, sorry about that.

[Pat R]

Here's another nice Cobb article

Cobb part 1.jpg
Cobb part 2.jpg

[GasHouseGang]

I was surprised this Old Mill ad said that you get two cards per pack. It seems that it was usually only 1 per pack in most of the examples I've seen for other brands.