Help on an old T218 mystery...
 

T218 has been my pet set for a long time, and as I close in on completing the master set, I'm going back through some of my old research notes and files. Alongside my set I collect anything weird or unusual, and try to document what I don't own for the research angle, all the clues I can get that might one day help piece together better information on its distribution, sheets, etc.

Sometime c. 2004-2006 the attached card appeared for sale on eBay. It was identified as being on a very thick cardboard stock. The sellers name I didn't note, but he used to list a lot of c. 1910 boxing around then, with a yellow backdrop to low-quality pictures like this. Note that Goodman's background appears teal here, is usually blue before any fading/alteration.

A couple years ago, I found a batch of T29 Hassan African Animals cards on super thick, cruddy cardboard (https://forum.vintagenonsports.com/p...pid=1309367428). Similar to how the Goodman was described. In hand, these cards appear to be old items made up this way, not a skinned card pasted to crude cardboard. T68 and T227 suggest the ATC used paper posters to advertise, they may have also used thick cardboard display stands or such to advertise in stores or something. Lends some credence to their possibly being a T218 like this.

Obviously I'm in the market to buy this, but mostly interested in seeing if anyone knows about it, has seen another, or knows who has it. I'd love to get a better quality image and confirm if it is or is not what it was described as ~15 years ago. Shot in the dark, but I've had shots in the dark here pay off before...


EDIT: It sold for like $12 or something; which at the time, when I was ~13 and a $ was hard to come by, was just over my risk bid.

It looks factory cut to me. Very cool.

Possible that it's missing a color pass? To someone who didn't have good comparisons a "thick" stock could just be normal stock. Would love to see the back of this one. I'm sure you've looked harder than me, but there's no ad pieces I've found that have the cards images on them. Good luck solving this.

It looks like a regular T218 to me from the scan. Is it possible that the seller was not very familiar with the set, and wrote-up a misleading listing? Did the Goodman have a blank back, or just a scan of the front? Here's a sharp Goodman that I bought in Sterling a few years ago. T218's are generally on a fairly sturdy, or thick stock.

I have to agree, it's a crappy picture, but the stock doesn't look unusual to me.

It may well not be what it was described as. The terrible photo makes it hard to tell, as depth is normally the most difficult to tell element of a card even when photographed properly. This guy used to sell a lot of c. 1910 boxing and I got some T218's from him; he surely knew what a normal T218 was, but then again many sellers are completely dishonest. The distinctive tealish shade (missing a color pass? faded? chemical damage? I haven't successfully altered blue to this shade in tests) should help identify if anyone had it. Figured there was a decent chance someone here would remember or have it, as most of the active buyers of T218 oddities seem to post here.