Tuesday, May 26, 2015

T207 - The Red-Headed Stepchild to the T206

Any baseball card collector with even a mild, passing interest in vintage is aware of the T206 tobacco cards.  I'm no expert, but I'd say the average collector is more familiar with T206s than any other pre-war set.  But, how about the T207 set?

I don't recall ever seeing any of these myself until stumbling across this one a while back.  They're easy to identify because of the plain brown backgrounds behind each player.  There's also a box drawn around the player and team names along the bottom, further differentiating them from their T206 brethren.

There seem to be much fewer of these out there than some of the other tobacco sets, but I could be wrong about that, or perhaps fewer are listed online because collectors aren't as interested in these.  Either way, given how infrequently I see them in my price range I felt like this was a big win for my Red Sox collection for less than $30.

There are just a couple of problems with this card that I could find.  First, Stanley Yerkes retired years before this set was printed which seems odd.  Secondly, and more importantly, he never played for the Red Sox.

Despite the back of the card identifying the subject as Stanley Yerkes, I believe (it's pretty obvious) that this is actually Steve Yerkes.  He had played for Chattanooga as referenced in the writeup, as well as debuted with Boston not long before these were printed up.  I found one guy out there who agrees with me.  It seems his rally cry has gone unanswered, but I agree with him that this is actually an uncorrected error of sorts.

These came in a variety of backs depending on what tobacco product they were packaged with, just like the T206s.  Apparently the Broadleaf backs are the most rare, but this Recruit Little Cigars back is kind of cool too.

So there's a T207 for you.  What do you think of these?  A little more unique than T206, or on the flip side maybe under appreciated or ignored with good reason?

6 comments:

Tony L. said...

The T206 benefits from the buzz around the Wagner card. The different colors in the backgrounds help that one over T207 too. That said, I would not be turning down cards like that one for $30!

shoeboxlegends said...

Yeah there are some big names missing from the T207 checklist (Cobb, Mathewson, etc) which doesn't help it either. Thanks for reading and for your comment Tony!

Commishbob said...

You hardly ever see these. I have just one. I posted it here. The subject on mine was involved in a mix up with a brother as well!

Brian said...

Reminds me, in a way, of the 1985 Topps Gary Pettis card. Can't say I've ever seen a T207 in the wild. That's awesome! There are several sets from the teens and twenties that are largely overlooked, I bet there are some really good deals to be had for a patient and informed collector.

Mark Hoyle said...

Beautiful card

Greg Zakwin said...

congrats on a sweet pickup!

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