Washington T206 Mini-Set Comparison to High-Grade Competitor

[GeoPoto]

Card 6: James C. "Jim" Delahanty. Second baseman for the Washington Senators in 1907-1909. 1,159 hits, 19 home runs and 151 stolen bases in 13 MLB seasons. Debuted with the Chicago Orphans in 1901. His best season was 1911 as he posted a .411 OBP with 15 stolen bases for the Detroit Tigers in 628 plate appearances. In all he had 5 MLB seasons with more than 500 plate appearances. His final years in MLB were with the Brooklyn Tip-Tops in 1914-1915.

Jim Delahanty Piedmont 350: Jim Delahanty T206 cards are fairly common (PSA-517). Jim Delahanty Washington is generally used to differentiate between Jim's cards and Frank Delahanty Louisville cards, which feature his brother. PSA has graded six Jim Delahanty T206 cards at the PSA 8 level. There are none graded higher. The Jim Delahanty T206 card is in Print Group 1.

Heritage/Rounders Entry: The edges and corners of this PSA-graded 8 are spectacular. And the surface is unblemished. But the image clarity is degraded by poor registration. The card is very well-centered, although the top and bottom borders look tight at first glance. The back is clean with only minor fading.

My Entry: Graded 4 by PSA this card presents a clear image but also significant evidence of handling, with soft corners and edges and visible surface wear. The centering is a little high and right. The borders are outstanding. The back is centered left and shows moderate fading and minor surface wear and staining.

Comparison: The H/R card presents like a PSA 8 but suffers from two unsightly flaws: the image is not clear, and the borders are tight. My card, on the other hand shows its weaknesses readily enough, but also presents a clear image and has generous top-to-bottom borders, well in excess of the H/R card, particularly the bottom border. The H/R card has the cleaner, better centered, and nicer of the two backs.

My conclusion: I like my card. A lot. The H/R card delivers a lot of advantages for the higher grade -- corners, edges, and surfaces are all noticeably superior to those of my card. Those advantages, however, are far outweighed by my card's superior image and borders. I don't see it as close.

The bottom line: If we ignore resale value, I would not trade my card for the H/R card. I like my card better. Period.

Additional Jim Delahanty Fun Fact: He was dubbed the “Yellow Kid” after an American comic-strip character that appeared from 1895 to 1898 in Joseph Pulitzer's New York World, and later William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. Created and drawn by Richard F. Outcault in the comic strip Hogan's Alley (and later under other names as well), the strip was one of the first Sunday supplement comic strips in an American newspaper.