A ton of T-206 and other tobacco cards

SCook85

Hello all,

I had the pleasure today of handling 100's of tobacco cards. There were all kinds of cards including military, many pictures of females, boxing and the coveted baseball cards.

I didn't spend much time looking at anything other then the baseball cards. There were about 170 different cards. They were offered to me for sale and I'd love to buy them, however it's extremely difficult to put a fair offer on them.

There were about 30-40 cards that I would say were in a condition that may very good. The rest would grade poor. Many of these cards were at one point pasted to postcards. In fact, 64 of the cards are still pasted to a post card. Because the postcards were mailed to different people and from different senders, it seems like this may have been a common practice. I made color copies of 92 other cards that were not attached to postcards to take the time to evaluate them. Many have paper loss or additional paper stuck to the back of them from having been pasted to a postcard in the past. There were 40-50 cards that had never been pasted to anything in the past.

There were two cards that looked just like t-206's but one had a red border, and one had an orange border. What are these?

There were 2 T-205's. One was Mordecai Brown, it actually was missing a portion of the card and this was probably the card in the worst condition.

There were some caramel cards, but I can't tell what kind or year they were. Walter Johnson was a recognizable name. This card was completely intact and seemed like it was in decent shape except for a very thin layer of paper that came off of the postcard it was previously attached to. I believe that can be taken off with some gentle rubbing.

So here are some questions that I have:

A card that books at $800 but is attached to a postcard (4 T-206's per postcad) and would grade in good condition. Does it have any value?

How about a $250 bookvalue card with some paper loss from being removed from a postcard?

Would anyone have an interest in doing something with this collection? I feel as though if I offered $2000 that it would be fun to play with them, but I also feel like that it may be too much money. I believe that the high Beckett book value of these cards is about $25,000, maybe a little higher, and that doesn't include the 200+ other non baseball cards.

Let me know your thoughts. If these are of interest to you and you are more equipped to deal with these cards then maybe I can help to facilitate the sale in trade for ???

Blessings,

Steve

storm888

"...it would be fun to play with them,..."

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It would be.

Sounds like alot of repair work, though.

The picture-cards can often be soaked off of the postcards.

If you can get them SUPER cheap, you can likely make money
on them over an extended time. OR, maybe you could mark
them up a little and move them as is.

If I was looking at such a lot being offered by an individual, I
would likely think in terms of ten-cents on the low-book dollar.
I would ONLY buy them if I thought I could resell them after a
reasonable amount of work.

blacksoxfan

Hey Steve,
Rarity and condition are everything. Without having a really good idea of what you had - it is hard to advise you as to the value of these items. As you already know - the baseball cards are more likely to be valuable than non-baseball cards. There could easily be some value in the others, but again - without more information, it is hard to advise you.

The T205 Brown is probably worth about $10-15 in that condition.

The Orange and Red borders are *probably* both T210s. The cards were issued in 1910 by the ATC under the old mill brand. The borders for these cards are supposed to be red; however, from time to time they appear more orange. Here is the link to our image browser. You can compare the copy you have to the examples there. If they both have Old Mill advertisements on the back, then they are indeed T210s.

If you can provide me with the information found on the back of your caramel cards and/or the player names, i can easily provide you with information on them. Johnson will have some value, maybe a lot.

It is very hard to advise you as to the value of the cards without knowing exactly what you have. The condition of the cards will ultimately determine their value. However, with T206s there are a number of back advertisers that are particularly rare. If you are lucky enough to have one of these (Broad Leaf, Uzit, Red Hindu, etc...), the value of said card will be very strong, even if the condition is poor.

Regardless, it sounds to me like the value of this collection is closer to $1250, but that is a very "rough" estimate.

If you provide more information, i will be glad to comment further. You are welcome to email me (see below).

Ted

fkw

The 2 cards you asked about are most likely T210's. The borders are almost always red, but there are orange and even yellow variations out there. Look under "Old Mill" in your guides for the T210 set (there are 640+ cards in the complete series, including Joe Jackson and Casey Stengel's Minor League cards).

If they arent T210's..... there are 3 other sets they could be from, 1918 E137 Zeenut, 1910 E-Unc. Orange Border, or 1911 E-Unc. Base-Ball Bats. If they are from one of these 3 sets, your in luck, because these cards sell for far more than a common T205, T206, or T210 card.

To answer your other questions, most T206 cards with back damage from being removed from something will sell in the $5-$20 range ea.

PS T206 cards are common, its the oddball cards that will bring the big $$. Was there only T205, T206 and the 2 red bordered cards, or was there any others? Did you see any of the ones that look like T206 but with a blue ink caption on front (name/team)?

Scans or players names will help in IDing anything else you have, including the nonsport cards.

Bosox1976

There are lots of "soakers" who know hot to get all of the residue off of the cards - they would see Dollar $igns bigtime on these. I'd focus on a price around 50% of what you can turn the baseball for, and consider the others the icing on the cake. Best of Luck!

SCook85

Here is what I have discovered. The orange bordered cards are T210's. The two cards are Thebo and Moye and from what I've seen online for graded cards, they would grade a 2-3.

There are a number of 1911 t207's. The Walter Johnson with some paper on the back is this. Without the paper on the back this would easily grade a 4.

Some of the T206's which are listed in the guides not as commons are:

G Brown
Kelley
Gandil
Bresnahan
Reulbach
Phillipe
Lundgren
Evers
Tinker
Johnson
G Davis
Chance
Duffy
Stainfeldt
G Brown
Willis
Waddell
Wallace
Willis
Willis

The Caramel cards are white bordered. They are the same size as the T206's. They have the player name with the position in the bottom left and the team name below the name. Any help?

blacksoxfan

T207 Johnson's with a basic back sell for about 400-450 in that condition (without paper). The paper can probably be removed, if you are not comfortable doing this yourself, there are probably professional art restoration specialists that can assist you.

Those T206s could be valuable - again - it depends on the condition. Johnson has two poses - hands at chest and portrait. The portrait is worth about 400-450 in a 2 holder, the HAC is closer to 350 in a 2 holder. Tinker, Evers, and Chance all have multiple poses (as do a few others). As FKW said, (hi frank!), images would go a long way with this group.

For the Caramel cards - let us know what the backs say - that will be the easiest way to tell.

An example is the E95 set - the backs say:
"This card is one of a set of 25 Ball Players / Cards, as follows:"
the set list follows, and the bottom of the cards say:
"Made by Philadelphia Caramel, Co. Camden, New Jersey"

Ted