T206 question

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Posted By: Scot Reader

Dave F.,

Based on the fact that over 1 billion Piedmont cigarettes were sold in 1910 (the equivalent of 100 million 10-stick packs having one card each) and the fact that the Piedmont back appears on about one-half of T206 cards it is possible that over 200 million T206 cards were distribted in 1910 alone. All told, that means almost 400 million T206 cards could have been distributed between August 1909 and April 1911. (The actual numer is probably lower owing to distribution mechanisms other than the 10-stick pack and the insertion of non-baseball subjects in packs. But the 400 million number is probably not a gross overstatement). Of course, only a tiny fraction of these cards would have had the Uzit brand--probably fewer than 100,000. And only a small fraction of these would have survived to the present. You have to consider that, unlike Topps cards, T206 cards were not the item being purchased but an insert. Most people wanted the smokes and threw the cards away often without so much as an initial viewing. You also have to consider that these cards had no economic value until recently so there was no economic incentive to save them, much less pass them down from generation to generation. All this is not to mention accidental loss and World War II paper drives. So the survival rate for T206 could well be 1% or less--with the natural consequence that only a few hundred Uzits are still with us today.

Scot