There’s a reason the T206 set is known as “The Monster.”
Conquering it — completing the full set of baseball cards from 1909-11 — is the equivalent of slaying a dragon in the collectible world.
Even the most advanced and deep pocketed collectors, upon completing all 524 unique player images from the set, will find they are far from exhaustive in completing the hobby’s greatest project.
Really, it’s not even close.
That’s because the set was printed on 16 different tobacco brand backs. Some common, such as Piedmont or Sweet Caporal, and others less so, such as American Beauty or Drum.
To truly conquer The Monster, it requires more than 5,200 combinations of players and card backs.
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Within the hunt for perfection lies nuance and mystery surrounding production quantities and even back variations (which could raise the number closer to 5,700).
Of course, the most difficult pieces of the T206 puzzle will always be the cost-prohibitive cards such as the T206 Honus Wagner, which, in addition to being incredibly rare (with hardly a few dozen known to exist), but also will generally require a seven-figure expenditure.
But the T206 Wagner is not the rarest card in the set.
Only 10 "Slow Joe" Doyle, N.Y. Nat'l (hands above head) error cards are believed to exist. A recently discovered example sold last year for $1,323,000.
Another rarity comes by virtue of what is believed to be the single rarest card back in the entire T206 set: The Ty Cobb back. Just 30 T206 Ty Cobb cards with backs that read “Ty Cobb — King of the Smoking Tobacco World” appear on the population reports of PSA and SGC combined, around half the total number of Wagner cards believed to exist.
Robert Edward Auctions is currently selling the most recently graded Ty Cobb back, with bidding for the rare gem reaching $100,000 in the first day of bidding.
Graded SGC 2.5, only four examples have received higher numerical grades from either PSA or SGC. Another SGC 2.5 copy sold in March, notching $432,000.
“There are so many layers to the T206 set because of all the different front-back combinations,” REA president Brian Dwyer said. “But this is one of the most elusive pieces.”
The origin of the unique back is unknown — placing it in good company with other mysterious T206 cards such as the Eddie Plank and Wagner. No other player in the set was given his own card back.
“If I was completing the set, and I had infinite resources, I, of course, would want that card,” said Leighton Sheldon, founder of Just Collect. “However, I think that there's an excellent case to be made that the card with that back is a little bit of an outlier, it's almost a variation or an error.”
Error or not, the card’s combination of one of the best players in the history of the game with the immense rarity and mystery of the back has led to prices reaching the stratosphere.
Even a historic find of Ty Cobb backs known as the Lucky 7 Find in 2016, which increased the known population drastically, hasn’t stood in the way of sky-high values.
Cobb’s most expensive card ever sold was a T206 Cobb back from the Lucky 7 Find. Graded PSA 4.5, it fetched $876,000 in 2020.
REA says it was first purchased at a flea market in the 1980s by the consignor’s father, after which point it was featured in his hometown newspaper.
In a profile titled “Serious Collector,” the man explains how he spent his post-retirement life chasing new cards to add to his massive collection. “I usually tell people my son grew up, but I didn’t.”
The article discussing the consignor’s father includes mention of the Cobb card, though nothing relating to the rarity of the back, whether due to a lack of knowledge or writer’s omission. Either way, he clearly knew it was special. “This is the centerpiece of my whole collection,” he said.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.