I surveyed close to 25,000 graded T205 cards, here are the results (full data added)

[Musashi]

Well at least this seems to confirm my theory that I should jump on Piedmont 42's whenever I get the chance -especially when they're buried in group lots. Someday, the market will catch up.

[53toppscollector]

Originally Posted by Musashi

Well at least this seems to confirm my theory that I should jump on Piedmont 42's whenever I get the chance -especially when they're buried in group lots. Someday, the market will catch up.

Even here, it really comes down to relative scarcity, which is a topic Luke talked about a lot on his site for T206s. If you look at the grouping of cards above with 5 backs, you see this grouping (not short prints but less commons, whatever you want to call them) are all much more populous when it comes to Piedmont 42s. For those cards, the average number of Piedmont 42s per subject is around 10. If you remove those 11 subjects and look at the other 63 subjects that have a Piedmont 42 back, the average per card is only 5 per subject. I found that 28 of the 63 had between 1-3 copies of the P42. Why are those 11 fronts so unique with having an outsized portion of their backs being Piedmont 42s? I'm not sure.

[Leon]

Great research. Thanks for sharing!
.

[brianp-beme]

Even though my preferred way of collecting, T205 cards included, is ungraded, I love seeing the results of all the work you have done. Thanks for sharing!

Zack "Broadleaf" Wheat came to see what all the fuss was about, and even 3 of his friends stopped by and were blown away by all the T205 information available.


Brian

[Misunderestimated]

Thanks So Much For Sharing Your Results !

[notfast]

This thread is a great read. Thanks for posting.

Now I just wish I could find someone wanting to move a low grade p42 Cobb.

[53toppscollector]

Couple of random thoughts I had while looking through the charts again

* There are 56 subjects that have the Sweet Cap Black Fac 25 and 42 backs. Of those 56, 55 of them also contain the Sweet Cap Red back. The only one that does not is the Leifield A In Signature front. Of course, his second card, the "AP In Signature" front comes in the Sweet Cap Red back, but not the Sweet Cap Black backs. This would indicate that the Sweet Cap Red back was printed after the Black backs maybe? If they decided to change his card and add the AP in the signature on the front, presumably they did that before printing the Sweet Cap Red backs?

* Honest Long Cut was the third most prevalent back, with 174 fronts, coming in behind Polar Bear (191) and Piedmont (192). If you remove the 12 minor leaguers (printed with only Polar Bear and Hassan 649 backs), you get a list of 22 fronts without the Honest back. They are a pretty interesting sampling. You have the 13 short prints, then Chase Frame Ends, Dougherty White Sock, Graham (Both versions), Hoffman White Base, Wallace No Cap 2 Lines, and Wilhelm Suff ed. I would assume, looking at this, that Piedmont, Polar Bear and Honest were meant to be the 3 "flagship" printings of the T205 set. There is a big dropoff from Piedmont, Polar Bear and Honest down to the next most populous backs: Sovereign 119, Sweet Cap Red 117, and Hassan 30 at 112.

* There are 23 fronts that have an American Beauty back but no Cycle back. There are 20 fronts that have a Cycle back but no American Beauty back, with 13 of those being the short prints. The non shortprints with a Cycle back but no American Beauty back are: Chase Frame Ends, Fletcher, Graham Rustlers, Hemphill, Davy Jones, Harry McIntyre, and Overall. None of those cards stands out in any way, so, I wonder if the AB back does exist, because I can't see a reason why it wouldn't. The Chase example can be explained, because his "Frame Extends" copy does have an American Beauty back, they likely just never bothered to print it with an AB back when printing the Frame Ends front. The others, I don't know.