1911 M116 Sporting Life....

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Posted By: Mark T

Hello all, i am new to this board and would like to give my opinion about the M116 cards. I think they are a magnificent looking set and appear more real than the t206 tobacco cards to me. Just look at the poses of Hans Wagner, Johnson, eddie collins, cobb. I noticed in the PSA pop report that the total population for all graded cards by psa are 3007. I'm sure the wagner and cobb cards have been submitted numerous times but that is very low for a set. Thats all i collect right now, it would be too expensive to try and get pre-war cards and complete sets. I do own a beautiful 1952 PSA 6 bowman Mickey Mantle that i treasure, that card is a true work of art in my opinion. Well, i'm looking for M116 graded cards to buy at reasonable prices if anyone wants to sell. Also, i talked to Leon and he seems to be a very Knowledgeable guy, hope to do buisness in the future. thanks

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Posted By: leon

It was indeed nice speaking with you too. You will be able to learn a lot from this board if you want to. The M116's used Carl Horner photo's that are on some other pre-war sets too. They are very nice looking cards and have caught on quite well in the last few years. Once again, welcome to our board....regards

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Posted By: T206Collector

...I think the M116's are quite beautiful. Especially in counter-distinction to the T206 portraits of the same players. But as a stand-alone set, on its own merits, I find it a little pastey and boring. As I have said before, when you show them to people that are not intimately familiar with Hal Chase, let alone Honus Wagner and Christy Mathewson, they just appear to be a series of portraits of men from 100 years ago -- as exciting as flipping through the family album of another family at an antique store. What makes the T206 set so compelling, to me, is that you often get the player's baseball pose -- with bat, fielding, one glove showing, etc. -- plus a nice close up of the player's face on another card. That brings a certain context to the portrait as well as a vibrancy that is sorely lacking in the M116 set.

But, if you're going to go with a portrait set, I think M116 takes the cake above and beyond the T-205 cards which I find quite ugly.

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Posted By: leon

I think the T205 set might be the most beautiful set ever made. This is another thing that makes collecting so fun. Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder. (I like T206 too but not as much as T205, from an aesthetic view point)....regards

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Posted By: T206Collector

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder (subjectively speaking), but to me its a matter of taste (objectively speaking). As I've written numerous times before, I compare the gold borders of the T205 to Aunt Betsy's antique yellow gold necklace that hasn't been cleaned since the 1940's. Whereas, the snow white borders of a clean T206 card sparkle like white gold or even platinum.

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Posted By: Jeff P

Very underrated set in my opinion. Especially when comparing prices to the t206 portraits. A PSA 8 Matty and Johnson just sold on ebay for under 8k for the pair, very cheap relatively speaking.

The blue background variation cards are very attractive too, nice little subset if you don't want to do the entire set.

Great choice!

ps - I personally think the t205's are not very attractive cards either. I don't like the gold and think the cards look much better with the white borders like in the t202's.

Just my 2 cents.