T206 is a
tobacco card
Cigarette cards are trading cards issued by tobacco manufacturers to stiffen cigarette packaging and advertise cigarette brands.
Between 1875 and the 1940s, cigarette companies often included collectible cards with their packages of cigarett ...
set issued from 1909 to 1911 in
cigarette
A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhaled via the opp ...
and loose tobacco packs through 16 different brands owned by the
American Tobacco Company
The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter and Goodwin & Company. The company was one of the original 12 members of ...
. It is a landmark set in the history of
baseball card
A baseball card is a type of trading card relating to baseball, usually printed on cardboard, silk, or plastic. In the 1950s they came with a stick of gum and a limited number of cards. These cards feature one or more baseball players, teams, sta ...
collecting, due to its size and rarity, and the quality of its color
lithograph
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
s. Several of the cards are among the
most expensive sports cards ever sold.
The ''206'' brand was revived by
Topps
The Topps Company, Inc. is an American company that manufactures chewing gum, candy, and collectibles. Formerly based in New York City, Topps is best known as a leading producer of American Football Card, American football, Baseball card, baseb ...
in 2002, having released several collections since then, the last in 2020. Those collection feature current and past players.
[
]
Overview
The name T206 refers to the catalog designation assigned by Jefferson Burdick
Jefferson R. Burdick (1900–1963) was an American electrician and a collector of printed ephemera, including postcards, posters, cigar bands, and other types of printed materials dating from the mid-nineteenth century to the early 1960s. He is ...
in his book ''The American Card Catalog
''The American Card Catalog: The Standard Guide on All Collected Cards and Their Values'' is a reference book for American trading cards produced before 1951, compiled by Jefferson Burdick. Some collectors regard the book as the most important i ...
''. It is also known informally as the "White Border" set due to the distinctive white borders surrounding the lithographs on each card.
The T206 set consists of 524 cards. Over 100 of the cards picture minor league
Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...
players. There are also multiple cards for the same player in different poses, different uniforms, or even with different teams after being traded (since the set was issued over a period of three years). The cards measure which is considered by many collectors to be the standard tobacco card size.
The T206 set is the most popular and widely collected set of the tobacco/pre-war era. The historical significance of the set as well as the large number of variations give it enormous appeal to collectors. In addition, the set features many Baseball Hall of Fame
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...
members including Ty Cobb
Tyrus Raymond Cobb (December 18, 1886 – July 17, 1961), nicknamed "the Georgia Peach", was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) center fielder. He was born in rural Narrows, Georgia. Cobb spent 22 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, the las ...
(who is pictured on four different cards), Walter Johnson
Walter Perry Johnson (November 6, 1887 – December 10, 1946), nicknamed "Barney" and "The Big Train", was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 21-year baseball career in Major League Baseball as a right-ha ...
, Cy Young
Denton True "Cy" Young (March 29, 1867 – November 4, 1955) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher. Born in Gilmore, Ohio, he worked on his family's farm as a youth before starting his professional baseball career. Young entered th ...
, and Christy Mathewson
Christopher Mathewson (August 12, 1880 – October 7, 1925), nicknamed "Big Six", "the Christian Gentleman", "Matty", and "the Gentleman's Hurler", was a Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher, who played 17 seasons with the New York Giant ...
. The value of the cards has led to a great deal of counterfeit
To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...
ing over the years.
''The T206 Collection: The Players & Their Stories'' by Tom and Ellen Zappala and Peter Randall Publishers highlights the personal and professional lives of the players in the collection and discusses the values of the cards as well as the mystique behind the collection.
Honus Wagner card
The T206 Wagner is the most valuable baseball card in existence, and even damaged examples are valued at $100,000 or more.["Onus on Honus owners"]
from "The Score" column, T.J. Quinn & Michael O'Keeffe, ''New York Daily News
The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...
'', November 27, 2005 This is in part because of Wagner's place among baseball's immortals, as he was an original Hall of Fame
A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...
inductee. More importantly, it is one of the scarcest cards from the most prominent of all vintage card sets.
Rarity
While the American Tobacco Trust, over three years and sixteen brands of cigarettes, distributed "tens or hundreds of thousands" of T206 cards for any given player, it is estimated that only between 50 and 200 Wagner cards were ever distributed to the public,[ and fewer still have survived to the present day. Several theories exist as to why the card is so rare. One theory is that the ]printing plate
Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ea ...
used to create Wagner's card broke early on in the production process, but Wagner was a major star at the time and new plates would almost certainly have been created. Another theory is that there was a copyright dispute between the American Tobacco Company and the artist who created the Wagner lithograph.
The most commonly accepted theory is that the card was pulled from production because Wagner himself objected to the production of the card, but his motivation is unclear. Reports at the time indicated Wagner did not wish to associate himself with cigarettes, possibly because he did not want to encourage children to smoke.[ However, some collectors and historians have pointed out that Wagner, a user of ]chewing tobacco
Chewing tobacco is a type of smokeless tobacco product that is placed between the cheek and lower gum to draw out its flavor. Some users chew it, others do not. It consists of coarsely chopped aged tobacco that is flavored and often sweetened; ...
, allowed his image to appear on cigar box
A cigar box is a box container for cigar packaging. Traditionally cigar boxes have been made of wood, cardboard or paper. Spanish cedar has been described as the "best" kind of wood for cigar boxes because of its beautiful grain, fine textu ...
es and other tobacco-related products prior to 1909 and may have objected to the card simply because he wanted more financial compensation for the use of his image.[
]
Value
A high-quality example of the Wagner card was sold at auction on eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...
in 2000 for US$1.265 million.[eBay press release regarding sale of Wagner card]
July 17, 2000 In February 2007, the same card was sold for a record US$2.35 million.
In September 2007, the Wagner card changed hands again when SCP Auctions of Mission Viejo, California, which had bought minority ownership, brokered a new sale—this time for US$2.8 million, to a private collector. On August 1, 2008, noted memorabilia dealer John Rogers of North Little Rock, Arkansas
North Little Rock is a city in Pulaski County, Arkansas, across the Arkansas River, Arkansas from Little Rock, Arkansas, Little Rock in the central part of the state. The population was 64,591 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. In 2 ...
paid US$1.6 million for a Professional Sports Authenticator 5MC (miscut) Wagner. Rogers stated he "was prepared to go much higher and is pleased with his investment." He added "the citizens of Arkansas deserve to see this treasure and I intend to make the card available to the public." In November 2010, a group of nuns from Baltimore sold a Wagner card for $262,000 in auction to Doug Walton, a sporting card store owner.
In April 2013, a T206 "jumbo" Wagner, so-called because it measured slightly larger than most other known examples, sold at auction for $2.1 million, reported to be a record price for the card. That record was broken in October 2016 when the card was sold at auction for $3.12 million.
In May 2021, a Wagner from a private collection sold for $3.75 million at auction, again setting a new sales record for the card.
In August 2022, a Wagner sold for $7.25 million, resetting the record for the card.
The iconic Honus Wagner card was reissued by Topps
The Topps Company, Inc. is an American company that manufactures chewing gum, candy, and collectibles. Formerly based in New York City, Topps is best known as a leading producer of American Football Card, American football, Baseball card, baseb ...
in 2002, with variations on its background color. The card was printed with the original 1909 orange color, and also in blue (#307).
Brands commercialized
T206 cards were issued with 16 different backs, representing the 16 different brands of cigarettes/tobacco with which the cards were issued. Due to the same card having different backs, there are actually far more than 524 "different" T206 cards. The actual number of front/back combination is not fully known as collectors still discover new combinations from time to time. The 16 backs are:
* American Beauty
* Broadleaf
* Carolina Brights
* Cycle
* Drum
* El Principe de Gales
* Hindu
* Lenox
* Old Mill
* Piedmont
* Polar Bear
* Sovereign
* Sweet Caporal
* Tolstoi
* Ty Cobb
* Uzit
* Blank
Topps revival
The ''206'' name has been revived by Topps
The Topps Company, Inc. is an American company that manufactures chewing gum, candy, and collectibles. Formerly based in New York City, Topps is best known as a leading producer of American Football Card, American football, Baseball card, baseb ...
(under the "Topps 206" brand) a total three times, the first in 2002 with a second revival in 2010.[Topps 206 Baseball]
on Topps.com Again in 2020, the company released a new collection divided into five different series, with the first (50 cards) being released in May 2020.[2020 TOPPS 206 BASEBALL CHECKLIST, TEAM SET LISTS AND DETAILS]
by RYAN CRACKNELL at Beckett, Sep 2020 The collection, named "Topps 206", include players from both, Major
Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...
and Minor
Minor may refer to:
* Minor (law), a person under the age of certain legal activities.
** A person who has not reached the age of majority
* Academic minor, a secondary field of study in undergraduate education
Music theory
*Minor chord
** Barb ...
League. The 5th series was released in September 2020.2020 Topps T206 Baseball Cards – Series 5 Checklist
on Card Board Connection
Notes
References
External links
on T206 Museum
2020 Topps checklist - wave 1 to 5
on CardBoardConnection
Complete Set Gallery
on Flickr
{{Topps Sports Card Products By Year
Trading cards
Baseball cards