T206 Back Stamps

[T206Collector]

Jefferson Burdick himself would stamp the backs of his cards to show ownership and facilitate trades. He would send stacks of cards to fellow collectors, ask them to choose certain ones, and then return the balance to him. My understanding is that this was a fairly standard practice among some of the most dedicated fore-fathers of our hobby. Owning a card once owned by them establishes a connection to them and makes our hobby more fulfilling to many. There are always threads about the original owners of our cards. We are only holding these cards for a short period of time until the next generation gets their hands (and stamps) on them!

[ZachS]

It's funny that you posted this just now. I was digging around in my desk at work this morning and found a T206 Street with an Edward Buckalew back stamp that I forgot I had.

[BruceinGa]

When I was 12 or 13 back in the early 60's it was cool to have a stamp with your name and address. At that time I collected coins and stamps and remember having a stamp with my name and address. For no reason (other than being cool) I would stamp my coin box and the small 2x2 coin envelopes. I didn't think to stamp my bb cards. It would be awesome to run across one today if I had.

[frankbmd]

Provenance



I'm the fourth owner of my Waddell, that I purchased from Soutter who got it from the son of Nelson Tisdel.

[darwinbulldog]

A couple of reasons they might seem more common on T206s:

1) Even if the stamping rate is the same across issues, there are just so damn many T206s out there that there are many thousands of stamped ones and most of us have seen well over 100 of those by now.

2) Many stampers would be more hesitant to stamp a T205, T207 or any other issue that provides a player bio or other reading of interest than a card whose back is blank or otherwise identical to those of many other cards in the same set.

[Sean]

The stamp never bothered me, as long as I wasn't buying the card for the back.


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[Exhibitman]

It is akin to what people did with bookplates in books; just IDs it as from your collection. Heck, I knew some kids who used to write their names on their cards. It isn't like they were worth anything back in the day. I love this card:




To me it is a blank-backed scrap from an OPC sheet but to Carmine 40 years ago it was a valued part of his childhood collection. Or this folk-art card:



Someone took a 1940s Coney Island card of Sullivan and created a custom mount for it. It is part of the charm of collecting old items to see how the wear they accumulated reflects how they were owned and used over the years. Someone went to a lot of effort to make this card; they actually made a whole set like this.