Info on T227, Series of Champions cards (hey Don!)

[Belfast1933]

Good morning all

I wondered if collectors can fill me in a bit on a set that I am not that familiar with - I was at a local show yesterday and saw (and almost bought) a great looking card of Home Run Baker called Series of Champions (set T227).

I wish I had pulled the trigger but I do like to know a bit about the set, availability, value, etc before purchasing.

The Baker is a great looking card! Love the slightly oversized size, his pillbox hat and the big follow through pose.

Can any experienced T227 collectors fill me in a bit on what they know about the cards?

Thx!

Jeff

[puckpaul]

Great set of cards from 1911. 24 cards in the set from multiple sports (checklists available online) with four baseball, Cobb, Baker, Bender and Marquard. Set was indicated as having 25 cards but 25th never issued as far as we know(no example ever found). Two cards are quite difficult to find, CP Rodgers and Bruce Brown, each of which died around the time the set was produced with the theory that production was stopped. Boxer Jack Johnson is another key card.

Cards were large sized and issued in soft tobacco pouches, I believe, and are thus rarely found in top condition.

There are complete sets around in collectors hands. The baseball cards are not plentiful but do come up for auction and sale fairly regularly. The cards can be “Honest Long Cut” or “Miners Extra” backs.

[G1911]

Brown is a real pain to find. Rodgers is really tough, but seems to exist in greater quantity. I have not seen either with a Miners Extra back and suspect they do not suspect.

It is said they were pulled from production because of their deaths; but this does not appear to stand up to inquiry. Rodgers mentions his death on the back, it was clearly designed after his death was known to the makers and thus makes little sense that they pulled it because of his sudden death - this was known before it was designed, much less issued. The cards of Rodgers and Brown, reading the text of all the backs, mention dates far after the back texts end for the other 22 known subjects. They may have been a later addition not pulled or intended to be SP'd; some T sets have evidence of wave printing within a series and this may reflect that, with SP's resulting because T227 was among the last of the sets as the ATC breakup and redistribution of brands was killing off the lithography partnership here.

If there was a 25th subject actually printed, it has never surfaced publicly.

Miners backs are tougher than HLC, but they are not difficult and readily available for the 22 commons.

Honest Long Cut appears to have 2 back types, a dark black ink and one with a purpley tint. This appears to be a genuine variation from production, albeit one nobody cares about at all.

The Johnson now seems to outsell the non-Cobb baseball players in low grade condition. It gained a lot of value in the Covid runup and after his presidential pardon.

Outside of the baseball players and Jack Johnson, the rest of the non-SP'd cards are all fairly cheap (under $150 in lower grade). Abe Attell is probably the next biggest card, and of interest to some baseball collectors since he helped fix the World Series and was by some accounts the point man of the operation.

They are usually found in low grade as puckpaul said; because many of the cards have a crease at the bottom that seems to come from how some were made to fit into the packaging. This distinctive crease in the same spot is present on a high percentage of examples.

[Steve D]

Here's a previous thread on the set:

https://www.net54baseball.com/showth...ht=t227+wagner

Steve

[jsfriedm]

Memory Lane has a really nice Cobb up for auction this week.

I was at the show yesterday too, and bought a 1915 CJ Grover Cleveland Alexander PSA 4 from Don. Thanks!

[Kidnapped18]

T227 is a fun set to collect!!
The cards are large in size and the keys to the set are Cobb, Johnson, Baker, Bender and Marquard. Attell is also a notable one. The rest are boxers, golfers, pool players, racers, runners, swimmers, throwers and wrestlers.

~2 out of 3 (66.74%) are graded PSA 1-2 and the cards are easily distinguishable by the different creases on the individual cards so it is easy to tell if a card has been crossed over

de Oro has the fewest graded cards outside of Brown and Rodgers

SGC distinguishes between the Honest Long Cut v Miner Extra backs on the flips
PSA simply lists T227 Series of Champ. so you would have to look at the actual backs to see the brand