Rankings of the rarest T206 Cards (NOT BACKS!)

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by Blunder19

I would tend to say the tough variations come next..

Dahlen Brooklyn
Elberfeld Washington Port
Lundgren Chicago
Brown Washington

Then I'd say the 2 toughest SLer's...Shag and Foster

Then maybe
Smith Chicago and Boston
Kleinow Catching Boston
Evers Cubs on shirt


Jamie

Jamie, if you check out the PSA pop reports on the 'other half' of the variations, I think you would be surprised (e.g.: Lundgren KC, Dahlen Boston, etc.)

[FrankWakefield]

The 150 series card of Ed Reulbach needs to be jammed in there above Evers and below Klienow, I think.

[T206Collector]

As far as I'm concerned, the most definitive research on this topic was accomplished by Scot Reader in his book, "Inside T206". You can read it here:

http://www.oldcardboard.com/t/t206/I...al-edition.pdf

Unfortunately, it seems his "Difficulty Rankings" from earlier editions is no longer in print. Not sure if that's because his data on this front changed. But here is where he listed the difficulty in the top 50 in 2006. (The first number after the names is the ranking, the second number is irrelevant for these purposes.)

Cobb (Ty Cobb Back) 1 1
J. Doyle (N.Y. Nat.l) 2 2
Wagner (Pittsburg) 3 3
Plank 4 4
O.Hara (St. Louis) 5 5
Demmitt (St. Louis) 6 6
Magie 7 7
Elberfeld (Wash. Port.) 8 1
Lundgren (Chicago) 9 1
Smith (Chicago & Boston) 10 1
Persons 11 1
Cranston 12 2
Foster 13 3
Mullaney 14 4
Revelle 15 5
Hart (Little Rock) 16 6
Manion 17
Ellam 18 8
Smith (Shreveport) 19 1
Ryan 20 9
Lafitte 21 10
Howard (Savannah) 22 11
Shaughnessy 23 12
Smith (Atlanta) 24 13
Fritz 25 14
Molesworth 26 15
Coles 27 16
Paige 28 17
Bay 29 18
Reagan 30 19
Dahlen (Brooklyn) 31 2
Kiernan 32 20
Stark 33 2
Lipe 34 21
Otey 35 22
Breitenstein 36 23
Jordan (Atlanta) 37 24
Hickman 38 25
J. Doyle (N.Y.) 39 3
Lentz 40 26
Perdue 41 27
Brown (Washington) 42 4
Bastian 43 3
Thronton 44 28
Bernhard 45 29
Violat 46 30
Guiheen 47 31
Helm 48 32
Greminger 49 33
Hooker 50

[DixieBaseball]

So from the list the SLer's dominate the Top 50 list. With that being said, I can pick up anywhere from 2-5 of any of these players on ebay right now. I even noticed there are 4 Kid Elberfeld Portraits on ebay as well. I am not too sure scarcity matters with respect to T206's outside that top 6-7 cards.

[bbcard1]

Under the big assumption that money is no object, you could probably pick up a 520 set today a card at a time. That does not, imo, make it less interesting or impressive to complete a set, it is just the residue of the internet. There are a lot of BIN prices that indicate those cards are still in someone's collection.

[t206blogcom]

I'm surprised that so far nobody has listed Ganley or Tenney. Both, especially Ganley, were a little difficult for me.

SLers can be troublesome at times, especially if you're looking for good examples of the Old Mill back (Piedmonts seem to be everywhere). And of course the Hindu versions, especially in good condition, are the most difficult of the SLers. I didn't see the backs being a considering factor in the aforementioned list.

As someone who's nearly completed the monster, I must say most of the cards listed are easily found on eBay or Net54, sans the big 4. Perhaps it was more difficult putting together the monster pre-Internet, but I've found it relatively easy. Ridiculous BIN prices, finding extra cash and dealing with a nagging wife has been my biggest hurdles.

[bbcard1]

For what it's worth, these are the few left on my list. Some such as Schmidt, Jones and Bridwell I have seen a dozen times but just haven't had the right condition/fair price combo come up. Others such as Paige and (recently acquired) Sid Smith have been hard to come by. Some "commons" such as Rucker Portrait don't seem to com up as much.

53. Al Bridwell (Portrait No Cap)

206. Gordon Hickman

234. Tom Jones (St Louis)

261. James Lafitte 

295. Rube Marquard (Follow Through)
355bv. Bill O'Hara (St. Louis) 

367. George Paige

418. Boss Schmidt (Throwing)

511. Cy Young (Cleveland) (Bare Hand)

I thought there were more wagners than planks? Wouldn't that put Plank and possibly Magie above Wagner in actuall card scarcity??