T206 EPDG- - - how rare in your collection?

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Posted By: William Heitmanec

For years before I created the theoretical checklist that was the basis for The Monster, I had been accumulating T206 by backs and series, etc. But because I was the first, I believe, to do it that way, there had never been a checklist, in my view, that "covered all the bases." And I believe that I was probably the only person who had enough T206 to do the job. So I laid out a checklist ala the Monster's, but I didn't have any cards blacked out. Incidentally I laid the brands out alphabetically, which, of course, lead to the weird coincidence in the 350 series brands. I checked off all the cards I had (I had always kept any "new" card I found). And, believe me, I couldn't always remember what varieties I had when I went to a show or did a buy or went on a buying trip. So I checked them all off and noticed that certain patterns had emerged. I sent a copy of the checklist to Larry Fritsch as I knew he had quite a few T206 laying around and asked him to go through his and checklist them for me, which he did just a while later. He said he had gone over every T206 he had and he had no additions (no mention of Doyle, N.Y. National--this was 1979). Every card that Larry checklisted fell into the patterns I had noted. That's when I started x'ing cards out. A little later, Lew Lipset, who had just become a "back" collector went over my checklist with the same results. So then I started doing research on the players to try to understand how these patterns emerged. Demmitt, St.L. Am. and O'Hara, St.L. Nat--how weird, I thought. Only with Polar Bear backs--that made no sense. What I came up with was that the 150's started in 1909. But to give you an example of how dark the ages were back then--virtually every pioneer in the hobby had called T206 a 1910 issue. I believe the 350 series started later in 1909 and continued through most of 1910, but then late in the year the 460's came along.
The primacy of Piedmont. Interesting. You have to remember that all of these companies were run by the American Tobacco Trust. It is pretty clear that Piedmont, Sweet Cap and Sovereign were the Trust's darling brands. Of those three, I suspect Piedmont was the lead brand. Because there were many, many press runs that were done in those two years, it makes sense that the "darling" brands would get the cards first. And, again, it's obvious that those would be the most common backs found. But there are just no records that were kept to show us any of this. And, believe me, before there was an internet, research was tedious, laborious--most didn't do much. And there weren't too many places to go to find information.
When Denny Eckes expressed an interest in publishing a book I had copyrighted called T206 The Monster, I jumped at the chance. What better way to ignite some interest in the backs? Denny asked me to send him examples of all of the variations, all of the different backs and all of the Hall of Famers--he had a good picture of Plank so he didn't need that one. So, yes I boxed up all of the variations, all the backs and Hofers and rare cards and sent them (can you imagine) the 2500 or so miles to Denny so he could take the pictures. And, yes, I got them back when he was done. So Denny did a press run of 5000 copies, sent me 100 so I could take them with me to shows, and he was in charge of selling them. Shortly before his death several boxes showed up at my office. In them were about 2200 copies of The Monster and note from Denny in which he explained that sales had now covered his expenses so he was sending me half of what was left over, hoping I would accept that as a deal done and completed. I called him and thanked him. Neither I, nor this hobby, ever had a better friend than Denny Eckes. But Denny added the cards of Farrah without my knowledge or approval. For years, I gave updates through my Trader Speaks articles of errors that had been made when Denny had to convert my typewritten checklist to the ultimate format for The Monster. If there is interest, I will post all of those errors, in this thread tomorrow. By the way, I once did the addition and found that there were just short of 7000 different T206 and, even though that number has changed, I managed to confirm just under 5000. Getting late.