What's the toughest back in the hobby?

[HasselhoffsCheeseburger]

I was thinking about how impossible it is to find Three Bagger and Home Run backs in W502 and it got me wondering what the toughest card back variation is in the hobby.

I think the last time we passed the hat the results were just a few Three Baggers and a few Home Runs. These were redeemable for new baseballs so I think they mostly all got turned in (on top of probably being short printed to begin with). Even the Two Baggers are tough with their sponge baseball redemption.

So what am I missing? How many back variations are there with single-digit examples known to exist?

(if I'm off on any aspect of this please correct me, thanks)

Arthur

[Leon]

Are you talking about only W502s?
If not, I will go with D355.....I have seen either 1 or 2 (I think it was the same one)
.

[HasselhoffsCheeseburger]

Originally Posted by Leon

Are you talking about only W502s?
If not, I will go with D355.....I have seen either 1 or 2 (I think it was the same one)
.

Are you talking about the entire card, in general? I know there are cards that are unique. What I'd like to know is out of a set that has multiple different backs that can be found on all the cards in the set, which backs are the toughest?

Arthur

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by Leon

Are you talking about only W502s?
If not, I will go with D355.....I have seen either 1 or 2 (I think it was the same one)
.

Leon, was that the one missing from your original type collection?

[BobC]

Helmar backed S74-1 white version silks.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by toppcat

Leon, was that the one missing from your original type collection?

Yes.

And DJ, now that you mention it, I remember those D355s. Still very rare at under 5 known...


These are both low pops...

[Al C.risafulli]

. (sorry, posted in wrong thread)

Years ago, I was doing a front/back census on the W502 set and it's amazing how many intricacies there are to it. The "Three Bagger" and "Home Run" backs are deceptively rare. Over the course of a few years I polled Net54 and watched auctions and eBay to try and catalog all the different combinations there were, just to get a feel for relative scarcity.

Ultimately, I think Arthur has a good point about those two backs. We can talk about things like 1921 Herpolsheimer and other E121-related backs, the toughest T206 backs or 19th Century type cards, but when it came to those three bagger and home run backs, there were literally only a handful of examples with either back, after years of watching. About 50% of the W502s out there have blank backs, and a substantial number of the rest were single and double backs, printed with different orientations and messages. But there were only a handful of cards with the triple and home run backs. I'm not talking about a handful of cards with that possible front/back combination, I'm talking about a handful of CARDS, in the entire universe of cards I swept up in my census.

Sadly the whole census got wiped in a hard drive crash, but if I recall, there were single digits of cards with either back. That's pretty tough, relatively speaking.

-Al

[spec]

Originally Posted by Al C.risafulli

. (sorry, posted in wrong thread)

Years ago, I was doing a front/back census on the W502 set and it's amazing how many intricacies there are to it. The "Three Bagger" and "Home Run" backs are deceptively rare. Over the course of a few years I polled Net54 and watched auctions and eBay to try and catalog all the different combinations there were, just to get a feel for relative scarcity.

Ultimately, I think Arthur has a good point about those two backs. We can talk about things like 1921 Herpolsheimer and other E121-related backs, the toughest T206 backs or 19th Century type cards, but when it came to those three bagger and home run backs, there were literally only a handful of examples with either back, after years of watching. About 50% of the W502s out there have blank backs, and a substantial number of the rest were single and double backs, printed with different orientations and messages. But there were only a handful of cards with the triple and home run backs. I'm not talking about a handful of cards with that possible front/back combination, I'm talking about a handful of CARDS, in the entire universe of cards I swept up in my census.

Sadly the whole census got wiped in a hard drive crash, but if I recall, there were single digits of cards with either back. That's pretty tough, relatively speaking.

-Al

Al,
I went through my set, which is an amalgamation of York caramels, Harrington ice cream and W502s, and found only three extra base hit backs. One home run (Rousch), one three bagger (Sam Jones) and one two bagger (Waite Hoyt). The home run and two bagger state that they are exchangable for baseballs, the three bagger says nothing.

[x2drich2000]

Originally Posted by Leon

Are you talking about only W502s?
If not, I will go with D355.....I have seen either 1 or 2 (I think it was the same one)
.

Leon, I think you forgot about the group of d355s posted on the PSA board about a decade ago. I think there were 3 or 4 different including a Cobb.

[fisherboy7]

T208 Cullivan’s Fireside

T216 Mino/Virginia Extra

E107 with Breisch-Williams overprint

D303 Mother’s Bread


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Exhibitman]

Wool's American Maid Bread.

[darwinbulldog]

A back that can be found on every card in a set can't of course have a single digit population unless there are a single digit number of cards in the set, so how about 1869 Peck & Snyder with the advertising text back? I believe the total population is in the low single digits.

[Casey2296]

-
1922 W573 Cafe Du Monde is a tough one too.
-

[EddieP]

W515 Fleer Back.

[HasselhoffsCheeseburger]

Originally Posted by darwinbulldog

A back that can be found on every card in a set can't of course have a single digit population unless there are a single digit number of cards in the set, so how about 1869 Peck & Snyder with the advertising text back? I believe the total population is in the low single digits.

The Three Bagger and Home Run backs were redeemable for baseballs so while I'm sure there was a diverse population of those backs at the time of printing the vast majority got turned in for a baseball. There's a reason that virtually all of the 3B and HR backs that have been found are Gehrig and Ruth -- they're most likely to have been kept despite the prize involved. Finding a "common" with one of those backs is like trying to get a wet noodle up a bobcat's ass in a telephone booth.

Arthur

[darwinbulldog]

Originally Posted by HasselhoffsCheeseburger

The Three Bagger and Home Run backs were redeemable for baseballs so while I'm sure there was a diverse population of those backs at the time of printing the vast majority got turned in for a baseball. There's a reason that virtually all of the 3B and HR backs that have been found are Gehrig and Ruth -- they're most likely to have been kept despite the prize involved. Finding a "common" with one of those backs is like trying to get a wet noodle up a bobcat's ass in a telephone booth.

Arthur

Do you believe that all W502s were printed with the Three Bager and Home Run backs?

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by HasselhoffsCheeseburger

…Finding a "common" with one of those backs is like trying to get a wet noodle up a bobcat's ass in a telephone booth.

Arthur

That’s a hilarious quote right there!

[sb1]

Originally Posted by fisherboy7

T208 Cullivan’s Fireside

T216 Mino/Virginia Extra

E107 with Breisch-Williams overprint

D303 Mother’s Bread


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

All of the E107 Breisch-Williams overprints are one of a kind, no player is know with two OP's. I believe all of the stamps were applied at the same time by the same person.

[frohme]

T207 Red Cross - of the 14 or so players yet found with the back, all but one are at present unique. The other has two.