The T206 White Border Set

The T206 is the most popular set of cards that there has ever  been.  It was the first large set of cards that were produced in color, and it was the first set in the twentieth century that seems to contain just about all of the players of the era.  It is a set that is famous for its rarities and mysteries.  The cards were distributed in packs of cigarettes put out by the brands of the American Tobacco Trust in the early part of 1909.   The pictures were distinctive in design and all bore an advertisement of one of the companies on the rear of each picture.  At first, there were six brands that distributed cards: Piedmont, Sovereign, Sweet Caporal, El Principe De Gales, Hindu, and Old Mill.  Piedmont, Sovereign, and Sweet Caporal bore the legend "150 Subjects" on the rear of the cards.  El Principe De Gales, Hindu, and Old Mill didn't tell how many different pictures there would be.  There are 156 different fronts known with "150 Subjects" on the backs.  These brands continued to issue these cards for only several months in 1909.

At that point, several other brands began distributing the cards: American Beauty, Cycle, Drum, Broadleaf, Carolina Brights, Polar Bear, and Tolstoi.  Minor league players were added. Piedmont, Sovereign, Sweet Caporal, American Beauty, Cycle, Drum, and Broadleaf told on their backs there were "350 Subjects".   460 fronts with "350 Subjects" backs are known.

Production continued this way, until the early part of 1910, then Drum and Hindu left the market and Lenox, Uzit, and Ty Cobb entered.  The minor league players were then dropped.  Piedmont, Sweet Caporal, Sovereign, American Beauty, Broadleaf, Cycle intimated on the reverse that there were going to be from "350-460 Subjects".  112 fronts with "350-460 Subjects" backs are known.  Distribution ended in the early part of 1911.

Getting Started!

About 20 years ago, a friend of mine said his dad had some old cards that he would like to sell.  Not knowing what he had, I said I would take a look at them.  There were about 400 different T206's.  Most of the cards were in Good to Very Good condition, but I loved the look of the cards.  I bought the cards and immediately started filling in missing cards, by trading or buying cards at shows.  My set began to grow, until I only needed 6 cards.  The condition wasn't the best, but it was a beautiful collection.

In 1998, a co-worker told me about Ebay, so I decided to check it out.  I never had a graded card before, and thought it would be nice to have one in my collection.  I placed a bid on a  SGC 80 Dots Miller and ended up being the successful bidder.  I loved the look of the white border against the black insert.

After receiving the Miller in the mail, I thought it would be nice to have the whole set in SGC holders.  I knew this would be a monumental task, but I was up for the challenge.  My first step was gradually sending my better conditioned cards and Hall of Famers to SGC for grading.  The rest of the cards I started upgrading by using Ebay and card shows.  Once I upgraded a card, I would auction the duplicate on Ebay. 

I see why they say this set is addictive.  Currently, I have 97% of the set graded by SGC.  My set can be viewed on the SGC Set Registry, www.sgccardregistry.com.  If you have any questions about my set or would like to discuss T206's, you can email me at b.brownbaseball@verizon.net.

 

T206 is known for the abundance of Hall of Fame players contained in the set.  There are 38 different Hall of Famers.  Many of the players have more than one pose.  The great Ty Cobb is pictured on 4 different cards.   T206 is famous for the rare cards that exist in the set, and the existence of these rare cards is one of the factors contributing to the mystery of T206 and the special place the set occupies in the hobby.  The Honus Wagner is the most famous card, but there are other scarce and tough cards.  The Plank and Magie cards are just as rare as the Wagner.  

Some other tough cards are the O'Hara St. Louis, Demmitt St. Louis, Elberfeld Wash, Lundgren Chicago, G. Brown Wash, and Dahlen Brooklyn.  All these players were traded during production. 

All of the minor leagues are generally tougher than the major leaguers because they were issued by fewer brands and for a shorter period of time and only in the various localities of the teams.  The four Southern Leagues are the toughest.

Please view my other pages to see some Hall of Fame players and my collection of different backs.  Currently my set consists of many different backs, including some of the harder to find backs: 21 American Beauty 350, 1 American Beauty 460, 1 Broadleaf 350, 4 Cycle 350, 1 Cycle 460, 10 El Principe De Gales, 1 Hindu, 44 Old Mill, 1 Piedmont 350-460 Fac. 42, 14 Polar Bear, 21 Sovereign 150, 59 Sovereign 350, 11 Sovereign 460, 4 Sweet Caporal 150 Fac. 649, and 7 Tolstoi.

 

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T206 Variations

Southern Leaguers