t205 vs t206...Which Do You Like Best?

riggs336 · #1 12-18-2021, 10:29 PM

If I were into collecting back variations I'd probably prefer T206. But I'm not so I like T205's more.

3-2-count · #2 12-18-2021, 11:08 PM

Being a portrait collector, its not even close in my opinion.

T206 by a landslide!

DeanH3 · #3 12-18-2021, 11:40 PM

Tough choice. I do like the biographical info on the back of T205's. But the T206's have such an allure to me, especially the portraits. I'll go with a split decision win for the T206.

MVSNYC · #4 12-19-2021, 12:15 AM

I appreciate and really like T205's...but IMO, nothing holds a candle to T206...

BobC · #5 12-19-2021, 02:38 AM

I'm for the T205s myself. Besides the beautiful design, colors, and artwork, as others have already said, they include player bios and stats. You can love T206s all you want, but the T205 cards are truly the forerunner and very first appearance/example of what we think of as modern baseball cards today, in regards to including player information and statistics. In fact, it could be argued that T205s were also the model for all other modern cards for all other sports that now include player and statistical information as well.

T206 cards do not have any such similar historical significance in regards to card issues as they were preceded by the Old Judge cards from a few decades earlier, so they are certainly not the first major baseball set ever produced. Plus, the OJ cards used actual photos and not drawn images, making the OJs a forerunner of, and more akin to, what eventually became modern cards as well, and thus more historically significant than T206 cards ever were also.

I've wondered what it is that actually seems to have made the T206s so popular as a vintage card set though, and have theorized that it is mostly due to the sheer number of T206 cards produced that survived and are still in circulation today. More people were aware of T206 cards over the years because there are more of them out there than anything else, and pretty much anyone wanting one could find one. So my thinking is it would be familiarity that helped to make T206s so popular as opposed to anything special or groundbreaking about the cards themselves.

It has been discussed on the forum before how some cards/card sets can be too rare for their own good. Since no one can really ever find them, fewer people care or are ever attracted to collecting them, and thus demand (and value) can be extremely low. When discussing real vintage cards though, virtually anyone could come across T206s, and because they were known by most vintage collectors and somewhat more easily obtainable, new vintage collectors would most likely start with T206 cards as well due to their overall familiarity and availability. Familiarity and availability breeding more demand in an expanding marketplace. Of course, once computers and markets like Ebay arrived, the T206 familiarity and volume factors driving the set's appeal and demand among collectors was mitigated, but the set's popularity and appeal had already become firmly ingrained in vintage collector's minds and was here to stay. Along with the fact there are still so many T206s out there that anyone looking can pretty easily find them, and thus further fueled collector desire and satisfaction.

And that is a huge reason I'm not really interested in T206s, because they are so common and chased by everyone else. I find more satisfaction in other and more obscure and maybe not so popular issues as a collector. Why collect something everyone else collects when there are so many other more obscure, interesting, and significant sets and cards out there.

Piratedogcardshows · #6 12-19-2021, 03:51 AM

I go T206 as well. I like the simple ad backs.

Leon · #7 12-19-2021, 07:49 AM

I am evenly divided.... I still think the T205 Cobby is one of the very best looking cards in the hobby but I love me some T206 HOFers also....

G1911 · #8 12-19-2021, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobC

You can love T206s all you want, but the T205 cards are truly the forerunner and very first appearance/example of what we think of as modern baseball cards today, in regards to including player information and statistics. In fact, it could be argued that T205s were also the model for all other modern cards for all other sports that now include player and statistical information as well.

Do we know T205�s first cards preceded T201? T201 doesn�t have the write ups but it does have the stats. I don�t know the answer here, they are probably very close.

As for all sports in general, T205 wasn�t the first. There are some British sets with write ups of athletes that pre date it, there are some cabinet cards that aren�t really a full set, but even without them, T205 isn�t the first American sports card set with bios or stats. T218 (Q2 1910 for series 1) and T220 (late 1910) both precede it. The boxers include a write up and usually a list of fight results, the track athletes and swimmers a write up.

In the late 1880�s the N269 set included a biography of card back of all 50 pugilists, but not statistics.

Not saying these are the first either, can anyone think of earlier?

atx840 · #9 12-19-2021, 12:25 PM

I like both but early on in my collecting days I gravitated more towards the T206s as I liked how bright and bold the colors were.

Later on I became hooked on the rarity of tough backs, combinations and the many print errors out there.

BobC · #10 12-19-2021, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by G1911

Do we know T205�s first cards preceded T201? T201 doesn�t have the write ups but it does have the stats. I don�t know the answer here, they are probably very close.

As for all sports in general, T205 wasn�t the first. There are some British sets with write ups of athletes that pre date it, there are some cabinet cards that aren�t really a full set, but even without them, T205 isn�t the first American sports card set with bios or stats. T218 (Q2 1910 for series 1) and T220 (late 1910) both precede it. The boxers include a write up and usually a list of fight results, the track athletes and swimmers a write up.

In the late 1880�s the N269 set included a biography of card back of all 50 pugilists, but not statistics.

Not saying these are the first either, can anyone think of earlier?

Don't disagree at all, but was thinking of the combining of the bios AND stats as what was a precursor of modern cards, and why they may be more historically significant that way. The T218 and T220 sets you referenced include athletes from multiple other sports, such as golf, boxing, track and field, and so on. And while some of these cards do include references to some fight results and such, my T205 reference was also referring to the way the stats were formatted as well, where they show annual stats of the player for past seasons, listed chronologically by year. Which is exactly how modern cards tend to be portrayed for the major U.S. sports of baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. I didn't think I'd have to expand my explanation as the listing of some fight results on the back of a boxing card doesn't really correlate to modern sports cards and how the seasonal stats of players are shown, along with their bio information. But if you really think those boxing cards were the examples and forerunners used in the creation of modern U.S. cards for major sports and how a player's stats are shown and listed, be my guest. To my eye though, you're trying to fit a round peg into a square hole, and using a sport that doesn't exactly correlate to modern sports that have huge issues of modern cards. I know they still produce boxing cards today, but they are certainly nowhere near as popular, nor produced in quantities evenly remotely close to the volume of cards produced annually for the more popular and mainstream sports. And though not all-inclusive, I did a quick search of some modern boxing cards and didn't really see anything like the listed fights on some T218 cards. So if those T218 cards aren't really the inspiration for design and stat reporting on modern boxing cards, I would seriously doubt they were a forerunner and precursor for stat reporting on other modern major sport cards.

Now if there does somehow turn out to be another set of earlier, major sports cards than the T205 cards that list bios and statistics like they do on modern major sport cards, I'll be surprised. But the fact that we have to ask others for input and help in discovering if any such earlier sets exists underscores how rare and obscure such a set must be. And to me at least, would make such other set(s) all the more unlikely to be a model and inspiration for how stats are portrayed and shown on most modern major sport cards today.

GasHouseGang · #11 12-18-2021, 11:19 PM

I have always preferred the T205's over the T206's, especially when I was buying them. I especially like having the biography on the back of the card.

familytoad · #12 12-18-2021, 11:31 PM

O5 for me.
I have never started the T206 but have some HOFers.
I have close to two base sets of T205 one of which is most of a master set.
I guess that means I like the gold borders best.

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