The most valuable and famous sports card ever calls the 1909-11 T206 set home. Today, we'll teach you about this iconic set where THE Honus Wagner card is from in our new series: The Set of the Week.
Between 1909 and 1911, various brands of tobacco companies placed a baseball card inside of their products. Rather than opening up a wax pack of cards and finding that delicious stick of gum on top of 15 or cards like when you were a kid, your parents or grandparents would get their baseball cards inside of cigarettes!
In total 16 different brands of tobacco included a baseball card in their products. On the front of each card is a player either in-action or posing for a portrait while the back of each card is an advertisement for the tobacco company. Some of the cards are rarer based on the brand of tobacco advertised on the backs of these cards. A brand like Piedmont was pretty popular while a brand such as Hindu is hard to find. Compare this to a soda - you'll find Coke or Pepsi more often than your local store brand; same thing with tobacco in the early 1900's.
Here is a list of T206 backs in order of scarcity, with the most common backs listed first:
Each card measures 1-17/16" x 2-5/8", much smaller than the standard card size you see today of 2.5" x 3.5'". The complete set tallies up to be 524 cards with 390 featuring major league players and 134 cards of minor league players.
A few key players in the set include:
In total, there are 38 players in the Baseball Hall of Fame that you can find in the T206 set!
THE card of the set is unquestionably the Honus Wager. You can see the "Holy Grail of cards" here:
Nobody knows the reason as that secret stayed with Wagner himself, but he had the companies pull production of his T206 card. Perhaps, a contract dispute was the reason. Wagner may have not wanted kids to purchase cigarettes to get his baseball card. Just 50 to 60 copies of this card are known to exist! Honus Wagner is also a Hall of Famer. Wagner won EIGHT batting titles, led the league in RBI four times and stolen bases five times. Wagner also won a World Series with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1909. In 1936, Wagner, along with other legends including Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb were the first players every to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
How much is a 1909-11 T206 Honus Wanger card worth? A graded SGC 2 was sold for 7.25 MILLION dollars. This card is so rare and valuable, even HALF of a card (yes, half), was sold for $475,960.
With rare backs, famous cards, and many Hall of Fame players, the 1909-11 T206 is highly-sought after by collectors! The cards themselves are beautiful to look at, too. Here are the four Ty Cobb cards from the set:
The first card on the left, "bat off shoulder" has a gorgeous background - look at that sky! The portraits have red and green backgrounds which pop. The "bat on shoulder" has a blazing sun in the sky behind Ty Cobb.
Notice the white border around each T206 card. Often, you'll hear the T206 set referred to as the "white border'" set. Another tobacco set of the time is the 1911 T205 release which has gold borders. The next time you're at a show or convention, you'll pickup when someone says "white borders" or "gold borders" near you!
If you have 1909-11 T206 cards, we are buying! If you have these cards and are interested in selling, reach out for a
The retail stores are focused on selling modern products and simply don't have the time or the knowledge to carefully evaluate vintage collections. This is where we are happy to help you! We have purchased thousands upon thousands of collections and bought and sold over 50 MILLION dollars in cards. Read below to see how easy it is to contact us today!
Make sure to come back next week to learn about our next Set of the Week.
Just Collect is always buying vintage sports and non-sports cards from 1879 to 1979 as well as select modern cards. If you have a collection that you are considering selling, contact us today to discuss or get our industry-leading purchase offer. If you have a collection that you want appraised, please contact us and we would be happy to discuss your collection and help you understand the real cash value of your collection in the current marketplace. Check out the Just Collect Buy List.
We always offer a FREE APPRAISAL for your collection here at the Just Collect site. Just click here:
We offer may ways to evaluate your cards other than or using our website, too.
If you can make the trip here like the son from my hometown did for this collection- we can make a deal at the office. We once met a father-son duo that drove eight hours from Virginia to meet us to sell a Michael Jordan rookie card stored in Tupperware since 1986 - great read here.
We keep a LIST of card shows we'll be attending. Come stop by the Just Collect table and chat.
If you have a valuable collection and want us to come to you, we'll hop on the next plane out.
If you're near New York City and would like to meet in a public place, our owner, Leighton, would be happy to meet you; read all the information here.
If you choose to mail your cards for an appraisal, we will evaluate your cards for FREE still. If you choose not to sell the cards, we'll ship them back shipping fees paid by us! We can offer our FedEx account with 2-day shipping, fully insured, all covered by us. Simply contact the office to set up this option.
We've run into a wide range of people and collections over the last 25 years. Although Just Collect is known for buying vintage sports cards and especially vintage baseball cards, we are also extremely interested in buying non-sports cards, too!
Every collection and every collector is different and we treat EVERY collection with the respect and attention that we show for our own collections. We understand that many have put their heart and souls into building their collections. So when you're ready to sell, we understand the feelings that you're going through and will work with you to help you reach a decision that is a WIN/WIN, because if you're not happy, we're not happy.
Whether you have vintage cards or modern wax you want to sell, you can reach out to us any time!