T206 Elberfeld Washington Portait Rare?

[tedzan]

Ken C and Frank W very accurately answered your question. I will add to this, a factor that explains why certain T206's are more
difficult to find than most T206's. T206 rarity is a function of the number of different advertising backs that a given T206 subject
was printed with. The less backs....the rarer that subject is. For example......

Dahlen (Brooklyn) is found with Piedmont 350, Old Mill, Sovereign 350, Sweet Cap 350

Demmitt (St Louis) is found only with Polar Bear

Elberfeld (Wash port.) is found with Piedmont 350, Old Mill, Sweet Cap 350

Lundgren (Cubs) is found with Piedmont 150, Piedmont 350, El Principe de Gales

O'Hara (St Louis) is found only with Polar Bear

While all other T206's (minus Wagner, Plank, Magie & Doyle errors) were printed with anywhere from 7 to 24 different backs.

The Lundgren card is an interesting example, in that it has 3 degrees of scarcity. The Piedmont 150 version of it is as scarce
as the Elberfeld Piedmont 350 card. However, the Lundgren with a Piedmont 350 back is very rare. Furthermore, Lundgren with
an El Principe de Gales back is virtually impossible to find.






To summarize........the Elberfeld (New York portrait) exists with at least 7 different backs and is very available. While the
Elberfeld (Washington portrait) is found with only 3 different backs and is considerably less available.

The basic law of supply vs. demand drives the price of the Washington version 10 times higher than the New York version.



TED Z