Another Antiques Roadshow Tobacco collection.. Wow!

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She is married.

Simeon was speaking a bit figuratively when he said ALL American Beauty Backs, he was referring to the T206s which 105 out of 109 are.

The T205s are a mixture of American Beauty, Hassan, Honest & Sweet Caporal. There are 139 of them all together.

The T202 are obviously Hassan. There are 87 of them and they are all as nice as the ones on the board.

The entire collection consists of these 3 sets and totals 335. Only 2 or 3 cards total would be rated less than Very Good.

They are in GREAT shape as they rarely ever saw the light of day so the colors are not faded at all. They were kept for the better part of 100+ years in a cigar box on a shelf where nobody messed with them.

She has been in possession of them since she was a little girl and her mom had the foresight to keep them on a high shelf where she could not play with them as a child. She loves the artwork on them and has become a student of the dead ball era because of them.

The Tinker, Evers & Chance cards were put in Lucite to represent the poem, "Baseball's Sad Lexicon" by Franklin Pierce Adams

These are the saddest of possible words:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."
Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,
Tinker and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
Making a Giant hit into a double-
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."

They have since been removed and put in individual hard cases (single brass screw) as have ALL of the cards (except the T202s which are in collector currency sleeves).

The collection has been locked in a Bank safe deposit box and insured

She loves her collection and knew they were worth a lot of money so she was not that surprised when Simeon Lipman told her the amount. She went to the Antiques Roadshow to document the collection and get a rough appraisal without having to let the cards out of her sight.

The cards are NOT for sale at this time but she is glad to have them in case of an emergency.

Some tweets from Simeon during the broadcast about the collection;


Jan 19
Amazing things are found in old cigar boxes! #antiquesroadshow @RoadshowPBS

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Jan 19
The corners of those cards were so sharp you could cut yourself #antiquesroadshow @RoadshowPBS

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Jan 19
Magnificent tobacco card collection, a true family treasure #antiquesroadshow @RoadshowPBS

The entire collection as been studio photographed front and back (composite picture made for each card showing front & back in single photo), and indexed by file name which follow the collectors naming protocol so they match the established check lists. These things were all done between the time the actual roadshow filming was done, August 9, 2014 and the airdate of January 19, 2015. The thought was there would be a lot of publicity and she wanted to get this collection locked in a bank vault and insured in case some mutt recognized her and tried to rob her home. The safe deposit box is light tight and in a climate controlled environment so she is happy about that. For those that don't know they are not insured by the bank or the government and very few homeowners policies will cover baseball cards and those that will won't go up to 200 grand. Fortunately there is an insurance company that does nothing but insure safe deposit boxes and they are reasonable.

She is not into the actual hobby of collecting like the folks on this forum but has benefitted from the wisdom found on this site and other Tobacco card sites on the net. She is VERY distrustful of all the scams in this world though and that is why she went to the Roadshow because whatever is told to her becomes a matter of public record and the appraisers can have no vested interest in her collection. She liked Simeon Lipman very much and he was very kind to her and very helpful.


By the way
She got a kick out of being called "Uber-Cute" so thanks to that gentleman for that.

Hope this answers some of your questions about her collection.

BTW I am her husband.