T205 Gold Border Education: How important are the Backs???

[Jobu]

I think Hindu and Drum bring big premiums, with Broadleaf bringing a big premium but a bit less of one. Then Cycle, Piedmont 42, and American Beauty can bring small to medium premiums - medium if two people need it or it is a very nice example. Then the rest all sell about the same.

[brianp-beme]

Something that hasn't been mentioned but is part of the 'T205 backs are less pursued than T206 backs' equation are the back designs themselves. For T206 cards, the cigarette ads encompass the entire back, and not considering the tiny factory designations on the bottom for certain brands, each brand has a completely different design that makes it visually distinct and memorable. In comparison, I find that when briefly glancing at a T205 my mind barely registers the brand name on the bottom, and only the Sweet Caporal and Sovereign brands, due to their use of different ink color, and the Cycle brand, with its stylistically prominent 'Cycle' name, stand out at all. I think the prominence of the back design, coupled with the larger design variety is a small, but not insignificant, factor in the larger emphasis placed on T206 back brand collecting.

Having said this, being a collector typically more interested in the fronts of cards, overall I prefer the T205 backs because of their biographical writeups. They just give you more to read.

Brian