T206 Print Run?

[mouschi]

Thanks for the link, Steve B! I love it - Admittedly, I have not read through much, but I did find where he talks about how many of each may be still around.

It is amazing to think that our 1/1s, /5s, /10s etc. are absolutely dwarfed by how many T206's are around ... yet, you will be hard pressed to find another card type so rich in history. Amazing that these cards were around 10 years before the black sox scandal, 20 before the depression and 30 before WWII. (NOTE: I am ONLY going by memory on these, so I could be WAY off!)

[2dueces]

There was a thread recently and it had a quote from an old time T206 collector.

He stated that he had handled over 1 million T206's in his life time. Was buying them in blocks of 1000's at a time. I guess there are still a few out there.

[mouschi]

Originally Posted by 2dueces

There was a thread recently and it had a quote from an old time T206 collector.

He stated that he had handled over 1 million T206's in his life time. Was buying them in blocks of 1000's at a time. I guess there are still a few out there.

I couldn't even fathom - wow!

[steve B]

One of the early potential buys that got away was a then small collection of 125 or so, not at all unusual in the late 70's. I was the second caller, and the guy said he'd call me after the first caller, who was 13 and got the first chance at them at $1 each. The other kid bought them all.

Most dealers who had them would have at least 50-100, and all just loose, as there were hardly any supplies.

I hung out at one of the fairly early shops, and the stuff that came in regularly was amazing.

[Brent G.]

I just got into tobacco-era items over the past year and was wondering about T206 print run numbers -- and the report included in this thread said it could've been 370 million.

It also mentions people collecting and X-raying unopened cig packs from the era. Has anyone out there found an unopened pack that contains/contained a T206 or heard of it happening? Would love to hear about it!

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Brent G.

I just got into tobacco-era items over the past year and was wondering about T206 print run numbers -- and the report included in this thread said it could've been 370 million.

It also mentions people collecting and X-raying unopened cig packs from the era. Has anyone out there found an unopened pack that contains/contained a T206? Would love to hear about it!

There is no surviving record of the print run - we do have original records for production figures of some non-baseball T card sets from the American Tobacco Company's spate of sets, from personal ledger journal of one of the printers and some court records, but none for T206. The 370 million comes from an extrapolation that is rooted in an assumption that every pack contained a T206, which we know is not true at all.

[Lindy48]

I am a new member and just discovered net54 while trying to find a cigarette card for a Joseph “Bunny” Laughlin, a catcher in the “minors” in Virginia/Piedmont/Hagerstown area. He taught my Dad to be a catcher in the late 1920’s to 1930’s. The new54 site popped up with someone who had my players name in the thread, so by the time I figured out how to join, got accepted, approved and all that, I could not find the thread that was originally posted. I have Laughlin’s glove and several pictures of him with the Petersburg Goobers. I am wanting to get together a collection of stuff about him for our local museum (Woodstock VA) to give to them about him as he was one of the first baseball guys to play in sny major way around the early 1900’s. I have his obit etc and was wondering if anyone had seen a cigarette card of his from that era? Being female, I was a bit of a tomboy and collected cards with the boys back in the 1950’s and had a cat named Whitey Ford. I am in my 70’s and still love baseball! The net54 site is hard to figure out, so I thought maybe if I posted in this thread, you might give me a hint on how to find that original posting I found, or if such a T206 card exists? I think it would be an Old Mill one? Lindy48