T206, or not....let's have a continuing conversation....Ty Cobb Smoking Tobacco card

[rats60]

Originally Posted by RCMcKenzie

When did 524 cards become a "set of T206"? Do we know who became the first collector to complete a 524 set? I would think when people started to see a card with a Piedmont 150 back, they thought they were looking for a set of 150 cards. I understand the view that "Burdick catalogued them" argument, but I don't think he called these Cobb Cobb's anything, unlike T213-1.

Larry Fritsch was the first one to complete the 524 set. He discovered the Doyle error, but he kept his hobby discoveries to himself. It wasn't until a second Doyle was discovered in 1987 and auctioned off by Bill Huggins that the hobby became aware of it's existence.

I don't consider Doyle part of the set either. I would consider it part of the master set like the different backs. No Topps set requires you to have every error or variation to have a complete set. 1952 Topps is complete at 407 cards. You don't need the Sain/Page errors, Mantle, Robinson, Thomson variations, etc.

As far as the Cobb back, I believe that it was not issued until after production of the t206 set was complete. The Ty Cobb brand was not owned by ATC until after the break up of the ATC monopoly in 1911. It was a product of the FR Penn tobacco company which ATC had secretly invested in to keep in out of the government's antitrust case against. It seems very unlikely to me that there would be any cross promotion between two companies who were hiding their relationship.