Why do you collect backs?

[Brian Van Horn]

Just stretching the subject to the M101-4/5s and other back sets. It is simply the fun of finding the backs:

[Rich Falvo]

I like to collect players from the Providence team. There are very few of them in any set. Collecting the different backs is a way to expand my collection. Plus, it's just fun chasing down rarities.

[mybuddyinc]

Back in January 2016 I had finished a 520 T206 set. All Pied. and SC, on purpose. Commons vg; HOF/sl good (Demmitt and O'Hara acceptable). I sold any non-pied/sc back and any high grades from lots I won, so to finance this project. FUN set to put together, based on condition ........... but, when I was done, I was done. Not to sound egotistical, but it had gone as far as it could...... so I sold it.

Now being a T206-ahaolic (I can quit any time I want, I just don't want to ), I still needed my T206 fix. Just after selling old set, I bought a fairly large lot of cards. About 50 with mid-tier backs.............. thought, why not ??!!! My original goal was to get 520 with ~50% backs between PB and Pied.42. After about 6 months I hit 50%............. and said, once again, why not go for more . Now sit at 507/520 .

What I find is the search is a bit more fun, and what I have learned about the T206 set is quite unreal and amazing. The nuances of the set are so much more intricate than I ever thought !!!!!!!!!!!

Also IF I'll ever reach 520, I never really be done. There are always "back upgrades" to be gotten, and more knowledge to be learned.

Fun stuff, Scott

[rats60]

I like the artwork of the t206 backs. That is why I am trying to get one of each back. I am also collecting t205, but I don't collect the different backs on those. It would be a case by case basis for me.

[Ronnie73]

I collect different T206 backs because honestly a basic 520 card Piedmont/Sweet Caporal/Polar Bear set is a simple task if you have the money. Collecting the different front/back combo's is kind of like treasure hunting and needing to be at the right place at the right time to score a rare combo. Also, searching and buying one card at a time kind of brings me back to when I was a kid building a Topps set one pack at a time. I guess the last reason is I needed something that can not be completed. Other sets that I've completed, I lost interest in right after the purchase of the last card and then either sold the set or broke it up which I don't enjoy but also don't want to keep something I've lost interest for.

[Leon]

Back collecting is a lot of fun and adds variety to the common fronts...

From the previous collection...

[orly57]

Makes sense. Chasing rarities, while frustrating, is really fun. I also see the point about how a rare back makes what is usually a readily-available card into something more special.

[KMayUSA6060]

It's a collection of history. Advertising is boring nowadays. The outlets are no longer unique, and it's pretty easy to reach the masses. They had to be creative back then, and the backs are proof.

[SMPEP]

Why? Because it's 50% of the card.

[icollectDCsports]

I don't collect backs, but -- if you think about it -- we call them baseball cards but they are also "advertising cards" and, overall, their function was to market products.

[trdcrdkid]

When I was a kid, I didn't have much money, so it wasn't feasible for me to try to collect sets for any cards other than the current year's Topps set (which I did each year from 1977 through 1981). So as I got into older cards, I became a type collector sort of by default, trying to get examples of as many different sets as I could. That allowed me to see the history of baseball and baseball cards while keeping to my (necessarily) limited budget. See this post with my type checklist from 1980, when I was 14: http://net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=239160

When I got back into collecting in the early 1990s, I was a grad student with a bit more money than I had as a kid, but still not a lot. I was able to pick up more T and E and R cards for my type collection, and I didn't have to limit myself to a single example of each set; I could and did accumulate more of sets I liked. These included some that were relatively tough to find, but not much more expensive than T206s, such as T210s and T212s (and even T211s, which you could get in presentable shape for about $30 in the mid-90s). As I learned more about T206 backs, I saw that as another good way to extend my type collection without busting my collecting budget. In the early to mid-90s, the mid-tier backs (e.g. AB, Cycle, Tolstoi) didn't command much of a premium over common backs, but they were significantly tougher to find, which made them a good collecting challenge for me at the time. See this 1995 article on T206 backs, written by board member Judson Hamlin: http://net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=210404

More broadly, I see my card collection as a window into the past, of baseball as well as the culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. That's why I collect non-sport tobacco cards and trade cards as well as baseball cards. Collecting different backs allows me to see (and show others) the variety of different types of cards that were issued back then, and the variety of products they were issued with.

[orly57]

Originally Posted by SMPEP

Why? Because it's 50% of the card.

That's a good one. But something tells me that if t206s only had images of baseball players with blank backs, they would still be collected today. If the reverse were true, and they were only cardboard advertisements with no images, they would not be. Again, I am totally getting all of your motivations now, but not sure about that 50% argument