S74 Silks: Up, Down, or Who Cares?

[BobC]

Have collected the S74 silks for quite some time now and have always liked the images and fact they shared those images with both the T205 and T202 cards. You're correct in that Old Mill and Turkey Red are the most common backs. I'm not really aware of one being more rare than the other, and there's definitely no pricing premium for one or the other. The silks also came with Red Sun or Helmar backs, both of which are extremely rare in my opinion to find and should command a premium. Of the two, Helmar is definitely the rarer. I've seen pictures of Helmar backed silks but, never even held one in hand.

As to why so few are graded, there's probably several good reasons. First, the grading companies set up criteria to grade cards. The silks aren't really cards, were supposedly folded when put into cigarette packs, and don't get nicked or dinged corners, they just fray. So the grading companies probably didn't have any consistent grading criteria to apply and thus, didn't originally bother to grade them. (Of course that probably changed when they finally realized they'd still make money off of grading them.) Secondly, people like the graded cards because they're protected form further damage. If you accidently drop a silk on the ground, you're not going to ding a corner. Third, graded cards are supposed to assure authenticity and with all the internet sales and activity in cards, third party grading is almost considered a requirement, especially as the card values increase. Meanwhile, I've never heard of or seen any faked S74 silks. I know Topps has done some silk type modern cards in recent years but, they don't even compare to the original silks from 100 years ago. I question if the material and technology to try to reprint the silks as they were originally done even exists today. And then the fact that the silks are relatively inexpensive when compared to their T205 and T202 counterparts would probably make it financially not worth it to try to create a fake or reprinted silk. Lastly, someone already mentioned the inconsistency of grading the silks. Other than the silks with paper backing that got folded when put into the packs, unbacked white silks or colored silks are just material, you can iron them nice and flat if you like. Every time I see a graded silk with all kinds of folds and bend marks in it that doesn't have the paper backing attached, I just roll my eyes and laugh. For whatever reason, there isn't a huge collector base for the silks so those that do collect them don't necessarily worry about getting them graded. especially if they don't have the paper backing attached.

Not sure if people want to feel the silks and actually, they aren't even silk. If you read the description on the paper backing attached to a white silk they note they are a satin material. Never heard exactly where their designation as a "silk" came from unless it was because most of the similar premiums being placed in cigarette packs in that day were of silk and so the generic term "silks" was just applied to all such tobacco insert premiums of a material nature.

The silks were never overly expensive to begin with and haven't really gone up or down in value much in recent years. Surprisingly, the high grade colored silks seem to have a higher value or worth to collectors than comparable white silks with the paper backing still attached. Since it is rarer to find the silks with the paper backing still attached you would think the opposite would be true but, strangely not.

Hope this helps you out.


Bob C