REA reveals a 24 year mystery....the PIEDMONT Plank

[benjulmag]

"with all due respect to Mr. Hughes, as much as i love T206s, i must say that
avoiding telling the truth about this card so as to avoid being sacrilegious
is specious at best. furthermore, telling the truth would never devalue the card, much in the same vein TRex spoke of the 150 Pied. Plank. Its inestimable value, even priceless value, is known in the hearts of collectors
for its rarity and aesthetics. "

The Gretzky Wagner last changed hands for a reported $2.8 million. I'm having a hard time believing that if the grade was changed to an "A" it would transact for anything close to that.

BTW, in the same manner that I got a quick lesson how to display my name, can somebody tell me how to use the quote feature so as to show a quote set off in its own box with the person who said it identified?

[barrysloate]

For point of reference, the Conlon Plank that was just sold visually looks to be about a 7 (subjective of course). But based on the selling price, it went in the range of about a 4.5 or 5.0. Clearly, the Authentic grade greatly affected the selling price.

[Peter_Spaeth]

In my opinion, if the card is sheet cut, trimmed, or sheet cut AND trimmed (one version of the story goes this way), and it initially was rejected by PSA and eventually slabbed Authentic when they started doing that, there is not a chance it would have sold anywhere near where it sold. And I very much doubt it would have its current iconic status.

[Jim VB]

Originally Posted by benjulmag

BTW, in the same manner that I got a quick lesson how to display my name, can somebody tell me how to use the quote feature so as to show a quote set off in its own box with the person who said it identified?

On the lower, right hand side of every post is a "Quote" icon. Click it and it puts the entire post in your reply. You can edit out the parts you don't want. Just leave the leading and trailing bracketed info.

[jimonym]

I believe Plank, Wagner, or any other card, for that matter, could have easily been pulled from production without having any effect to the other subjects who were also printed from that same sheet.

We know from the commonly seen miscut T206s that have part of a name at the top of the card that the overwhelmingly common sheet configuration was to have the same subject running repeatedly in a vertical column. So, as a simple example, a typical sheet may have looked something like this:



It’s kind of a Printing 101 question, but how did a sheet come to have, in this example, eight perfect copies of the same subject in a column? They certainly were not hand-drawn on the printing plate eight times. If that were the case, we’d see minute differences in the appearance of clouds and trees and facial features between examples of the same subject. The answer is that the image must have been drawn once on a separate small plate and then transferred to the printing plate multiple times. This was in fact very commonly done in commercial lithography 100 years ago. If anyone’s interested, I’ll try to dig out my litho books tonight and give a deeper description of the process.

If this was indeed the process used for producing T206 sheets, then plates could be reconfigured with ease. If Wagner (call him example B in the image above) complained about his likeness being used, American Litho could have simply scrapped the printing plate and made a new one with players A, C, D, E, F, and a replacement for Hans. Since the original artwork was on a separate smaller plate, any card could be added to a new production plate at any time. The process would be very quick and flexible, as it absolutely had to be if you’re printing millions of T206 cards.

Jamie

[canjond]

Ted - have you ever given any thought as to whether your "same sheet" theory is reversed... and that Wagner is short printed due to Plank being pulled, as opposed to Plank being short printed due to Wagner being pulled?

Let me explain. You theorize that that there may have been an ATC & caramel "war." Well, what if Plank had to be pulled by the ATC because of this "war" over A's players. Wagner and Plank were on the same sheet. As a direct result of Plank being pulled, Wagner also had to be pulled.

[wonkaticket]

I too have never seen a SC150 Factory #25 card....

Was this card in SCP a few years back?

[toppcat]

Here is a question, apologies if I missed earlier discussion on this point but if there was an uncut sheet with the (Gretzky) Wagner and Plank, why are there not other cards of them in pristine sheet cut form?

[E93]

Since nobody seemed to notice my mention that Wagner explicitly stated that he did not want his picture included with cigarettes as the reason for his inclusion in the set, here is a copy of the Sporting News article from October 24, 1912 entitled, "Wagner a Wonder: One Player in the Game Who Is Not Mad About Money". Wagner explained his absence from the ATC set by writing that he, "did not care to have his picture in a package of cigarettes." Apparently he was offered more money than anybody else in the league, but he stuck to his convictions.

This information has been circulating in the hobby for years. Can we put the issue regarding Wagner to rest now?
JimB

http://explorepahistory.com/~expa/cm...b9s7-a_514.pdf

[wonkaticket]

I've seen that article a few times...these convictions always made me scratch my head anyone else?




Perhaps he had a contract with another tobacco company at the time with the smokes above...what ever inspired his convictions we will most likely never know. I for one don't buy the it's for the good of the children story....clearly Wagner didn't mind those young kids enjoying a good cigar.