Jeannette Tolstoi

[Exhibitman]

Finding them...that's the rub. My want list is more like a unicorn hunting list at this point.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Finding them...that's the rub. My want list is more like a unicorn hunting list at this point.

The unicorn hunting is what makes it fun. It's a lot more satisfying to find a card that's been on my want list for 15 years because it rarely ever appears, and tracking one down is a challenge, than because it costs a lot of $$$.

Or maybe, this is how my poor a@@ rationalizes it....

[G1911]

So who got the PSA 4 with the F***ed up case that hammered at $280 today?

I picked up another copy as the result of this thread, probably the most Tolstoi Jeannette's in circulation at once ever.

[RCMcKenzie]

I didn't see it. I have searched "T218" and "newly listed" a few times in the last week, and it did not show up. I just searched "T218 Tolstoi" "Sold Listings" and I saw the sale. I guess 'T218' didn't pull it up because they called it "T-218". I guess no one contacted me because I said I wanted to pay $77. I can go to $200 if anyone has one for sale. It makes me think that more T218 Tolstoi will pop-up for sale at these prices.

[G1911]

Odd, I thought it might have been you. "T218" pulls up "T-218" listings as well, I got it through my several times daily "T218" search.

I bid $207 just as a placer before I got the other one, and never retract a bid, so I'm glad I didn't win it. $77 will be hard to do. I sure hope more come out of the woodwork, I've never seen more than maybe 10 of any one front. No clue how many there are actually are or how many are 'known' to the hobby instead of being squirreled away somewhere. 2 of these 3 at least aren't "new"

[RCMcKenzie]

Maybe I didn't scroll back far enough on the newly listed setting, or maybe I just scrolled past it. It was almost certainly listed because of the price of the first sale.

I looked to see if I could tell anything from the bid history of the 2 sales, and it seems that the under-bidder of the first auction won the second auction. I'm sure I will find one eventually.

I bought this Steinert in 2018 on eBay. I don't remember what I paid, but I think it was around $20. A few days later, another Steinert turned up in a group of 3 Track Tolstoi, and I won that group for around $60. A week later another Steinert turned up, but I did not bid. Then, another turned up and I wish I had bid on the third, to have four in 2 weeks. I still have this one, and an upgrade.

[G1911]

I’ve owned 2 Steinerts as well. I think T218-2 was probably produced on 2 sheets (possibly a separate run of Johnson’s, I’m pretty confident Johnson Green with him facing the opposite way was it’s own sheet in the late series 1 production), and one of them is notably more common in Tolstoi (these same cards do not appear to be super printed in other backs). I’m pretty sure the Tolstoi scarcity disparity is a big clue to the sheet layouts but the lack of a single miscut (at least I’ve never seen a T218-2 that one can tell what the adjacent card is) is a pain for figuring much out.


I’ve got rid of all the dupes I’ve come into over the last few years, and sitting at 41 uniques. Even the more common half is darn tough. There’s a group of them that just seem to change hands every couple years and come up for sale over and over. I don’t think I've seen more than ten unique examples of any card, though there’s surely much more than that. I often wonder if we see 5% of the extant examples crop up on the forums and in sales venues, or if it’s 50%. Relative scarcity is a lot easier than true scarcity. The T218 Tolstoi’s have an entry in the ATC journal but must have had a very brief print run. Tolstoi is not that tough of a back in all the other sets it produced (T79, T206, T220, probably forgetting some), and fairly common for some (T80).