T206 REFERENCE....."you can check out any time you like. But, you can never leave !"

[Rhotchkiss]

Great thread Ted.

I acquired my first T206 (Bresnahan w/ Bat), by trade from a guy named Matt, sometime in the mid-late 1980's, when I was somewhere around the age of 12 or 13. My brother and I were assembling a collection - my brother liked the new stuff (Gooden, Strawberry, Mattingly 1987 Fller basketball, etc), and I liked the old stuff. Until I got the Bresnahan, my favorite card was a decent-looking 1949 Bowman Musial. Regarding the Bresnahan, I thought the little card of this funny-looking man was so cool. I could tell it was old. I knew this was from when my grandparents were kids, and I loved it.

Soon thereafter I traded for a T206 Cy Young w/ Glove, which was the pride and joy of my (our) collection, until I "sold" everything to my brother for $100 (beer money) and I got to keep the Clemente rookie (later sold for $1,500). A year or so later my brother sold the whole collection at a show for $11,000! I guess I got the short end of that stick. This was all in the early 1990's... off to University of Wisconsin (go Badgers!), and my collecting days had ended.

I graduated law school in the spring of 2000. I discovered ebay that summer (while studying for the bar); and more importantly, I discovered they sold baseball cards on ebay. Bam.... off to the races. The first card I acquired was a T206 Cy Young w/ Glove. I dabbled some in T206s, but was mostly into HOF rookies - I would buy them raw and send them to PSA. About two years later I sold the collection to pay for an LLM in Tax Law, and my collecting days ended again.

About 6 years ago, John Elway came to the Chantilly Show to sign autographs. I am a die hard Broncos fan and John Elway is my #1 hero, so my wife, three kids and I all dressed in Broncos jersey's and attended the Chantilly Show. While walking toward the autograph area, I stopped at a table and purchased a raw, T206 Johnson throwing (which later was graded "A" with evidence of trimming), and again I was off to the races!

The next card I bought was my good'ol T206 Cy Young w/ Glove. This time, while I did focus some on HOF rookies, my collecting tended to the very old, and T206s were the cards that peeked my interest the most. This interest took off exponentially when I found Net54, Scot Reader's book on T206, and I learned about the backs and back-rarity; in my prior two runs, nobody really looked at, or cared for, the backs. But now I was addicted -- i loved the backs more than the fronts, and that remains mostly the case today.

I have been collecting again now for about 6 years, but more aggressively over the past 4 years, and T206s, especially rare backs and HOFers, are the constant. While I spend serious effort on Cobb, Wagner, and to a lesser degree Plank, Ruth, and Jackson, I love me some T206. And I do not think that will change. Today, the monster provides plenty of collecting entertainment:

I have a master back run (an example of every backs with a T206 front, except a T215-2); here is a link to that: https://www.flickr.com/photos/156271...57676773830297

I am working on a few player back runs: Here are links to two of those:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/156271...57703248205622
https://www.flickr.com/photos/156271...57707110439454

I love Brown Old Mills and Brown Lenox: https://www.flickr.com/photos/156271...57679539932638

I eventually want a nice example of each HOF pose.

Here is a link to my T206 collection: https://www.flickr.com/photos/156271...57676375209007

And, here is a picture of me and my family and John Elway!!!