T206: Southern League players?

[sacentaur]

Just some general questions about T206 Southern Leaguers:

How scarce are they when compared to other regular T206 cards, how much in demand are they, what price percentage premium do they usually command, etc.

I have an opportunity to buy some; thnx in advance-

[stutor]

If you check the PSA population reports, a random southern leaguer will generally have ~300 cards graded. Random non-SL commons would generally be more in the 500 range….maybe a little more. So they are definitely tougher. But I wouldn’t use the word scarce at all. You could jump on eBay on any given day find multiple examples of all 48 southern leaguers.

Having said that, they are quite collectible. Many people (myself included) collect the southern league subset. They definitely carry a premium, but I will leave it for others to try to pin that down for you. Perhaps that would be easier if you were asking about a specific condition in particular.

If you can find them with a Hindu back, those would be the most desirable. Only 34 of the 48 are possible with the Hindu brand. Hindu carries a marked premium. Beyond that, the Old Mill back is definitely preferred over Piedmont. Most guys I know who collect the SLers try to complete the 48 all in Old Mill back. So there is definitely a higher value for Old Mill over Piedmont (assuming the condition is the same).

I hope this helps.

Sonny

[sacentaur]

It does help, thanks Sonny.

[shaunsteig]

Just a word of caution re using pop reports to evaluate scarcity - often times scarcer cards are submitted / graded at a higher rate than less scarce cards because they're more valuable.
--S