T206 Ty Cobb back - Fresh to the Hobby - SGC-2.5 sold for $432,000

Heritage Auctions (March 22, 2024)

Lot # 57076: 1909-11 T206 Ty Cobb Smoking Tobacco Ty Cobb (Portrait-Red) SGC Good+ 2.5 - Fresh to the Hobby!

Soon after his Detroit Tigers fell to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1909 World Series, the only meeting between these two Dead Ball era legends, Cobb lamented of Honus Wagner, "That god damned Dutchman is the only man in the game I can't scare." It was around that time that two of the most famous baseball cards in the collecting hobby were born, each a member of the fabled T206 set that has fascinated hobbyists for a century and beyond. Today, over one hundred years after Cobb and Wagner battled for supremacy in the sixth edition of the Fall Classic, their rivalry continues.

While there's little dispute that the Wagner T206 inhabits the throne as king of the card collecting world, the presented Cobb variety makes the Dutchman seem downright common by comparison. Though the red background portrait is the most plentiful of the four Cobb variants within the set, it is the extraordinarily scarce "Ty Cobb, King of the Smoking Tobacco World" advertising back that elevates the presented specimen into the most rarified of collecting air.

The prominent position of these two inaugural class Hall of Famers atop the T206 endangered species list results from very limited original print runs, though the reasons for the shortages differ. The most popular theory for Wagner, perhaps tainted by folklore, is that the superstar shortstop believed tobacco cards effectively encouraged children to smoke and as such he wished to play no role. Inability to come to a contractual agreement over use of his likeness is the more likely reason for the quick removal of Wagner from the set. The scarcity of Cobb with a Cobb back, however, has a simpler explanation. Cards featuring the rare back we find here were included only within tins of Ty Cobb brand smoking tobacco, a product enjoying just a fraction of the distribution of such titans of the industry as Piedmont, Sweet Caporal and Old Mill.

Today it is estimated that fewer than thirty examples of the Cobb with Cobb back exist in the world, compared with fifty to one hundred Wagner cards from the T206 set. This exceptionally scarce, fresh to the hobby treasure touts tremendous eye appeal that should stop you in your proverbial tracks. The lower left corner fell victim to creasing at some point in the last century, but every other aspect of the card would land it comfortably in the EX-NM to NM-MT range. Graded SGC Good+ 2.5. This is the only example graded Good+ by SGC with only one higher!

Final Bid with Buyer's Premium (20%): $432,000