Q&A -- T207 Cleveland Players

Today's question comes from Paul:

Q:

"Could you provide me with a list of players with the Cleveland Indians from this set? thanks in advance for any help you can provide."

A:

Although they weren't called the "Indians" until 1915, here's a list of the Cleveland players in the 1912 T207 set:

Bert Adams
Neal Ball
Joe Birmingham
Fred Blanding
Hank Butcher
Harry Davis
Ted Easterly
Lefty George
Jack Graney
Vean Gregg
George Kaler
Paddy Livingstone
Willie Mitchell
Ivy Olson
J.B. Ryan
Terry Turner

There are some variations if you're a master set collector. Harry Davis is found with either a brown or blue "C" on his cap. Paddy Livingston has two sizes of the letter "C" on his shirt, as well as an "A" variation because he had been traded from Philadelphia. All the cards have the same back variations found in the set as well. My Website fills in some of the details.

As for the team nickname, in 1912 they were still officially called the Naps in recognition of player/former manager Napoleon Lajoie. Lajoie doesn't appear in the set at all, and neither do a lot of stars, which diminishes the appeal -- though not necessarily the value -- of T207 for some collectors.

For all of the T207 team lists...TeamSets4U is a great reference. And the owner (Jeff) is one of the good guys in the Hobby.

Brown Backgrounds

  Advanced collectors will know the design right away, but these cards are vastly overshadowed by other cards of the era:

But it's not because they're scarcer. Well, they are, but they're not as tough as many of the more regional tobacco issues.

Called "Brown Background" because of the sepia backdrop behind the players on its cards, the T207 set is not as widely collected as many other tobacco issues of its day. This lack of popularity among collectors is due to several factors; compared to other T-series tobacco sets there are fewer stars, less color and an unimaginative design. Despite these negatives, T207 presents a challenge for collectors because it contains several cards that are incredibly scarce.

The cards, measuring the same 2 5/8 inches by 1 1/2 inches as cards in the T205 and T206 sets, feature a somewhat dull front design. They were issued in 1912, at the end of the mainstream T-series tobacco period. Players are featured in sepia and white drawings with a solid brown background. A tan border runs around the card, while a white strip at the bottom contains the player's last name and team city. A thin black line separates the picture and white strip from the outer border. Card backs feature fairly lengthy player biographies below each player's name. Like most T-series issues, an advertisement appears at the bottom. Also like many of its contemporary sets, T207 cards were distributed among several brands. T207 back advertisements include Recruit, Broadleaf, Cycle, Napoleon and (the incredibly hard to find) Red Cross. There is also an "anonymous" back.

(This one isn't mine...but the back is the same as the one I have)

Stars in this set include Walter Johnson and Tris Speaker, as well as a small handful of other Hall of Fame players, but many stars (such as Christy Mathewson and Ty Cobb) do not appear here. There are, however, several degrees of scarcity in this set: Irving Lewis, Louis Lowdermilk and Ward Miller are especially valuable because they are so scarce. Additionally, there are several other cards in the set which are harder to find than others; however, since names like Ralph Works, Victor Saier, Arthur Rasmussen and Morris Rath do not really excite many collectors, they are not the source of much collector interest. For the collector who enjoys a challenge, T207s offer the chase without the price extremes found among more mainstream T-series sets.

Despite the lack of collector interest in this set, it is harder to find T207 cards than T206 or T205 cards, and even its commons are slightly more valuable. Fortunately for collectors of this set, a lack of information about these cards sometimes results in heavily underpriced T207 cards on the market (For instance, I bought the example card shown above for eight dollars at a card shop in 1994 because the proprietor had no idea what he was selling).

Q&A -- T207?

This has been one of my most common questions:

Q:

"I have a card from the T207 set of Lewis, Boston. It's the variation with no patch. I see where it originally had a $700 value, but what is it worth today?"

(Here's an image of the card...I'll identify it in a minute.)

A:

The first thing that looks out of place is the part about how it "originally" had a $700 value. How did that information become available? The answer: "It was written on the back of the card":

First of all, there is no way an authentic T207 card is going to have any information on how the card became rare. Nor will it have any information on how much it was worth. In fact, the mention of "T-207" on the back gives away the fact that it's not real; the T207 designation wasn't even given to the set until the 1930s.

This is one of five cards that were reprinted and included in Hygrade hobby kits during the 1980s. Besides this card, there were three T206 cards (Wagner, Plank, "Magie") and a 1933 Goudey Napoleon LaJoie that were reprinted. They were even found with different-colored blocks on the back: the yellow one above, green or red. They were changed to reflect price increases as the 1980s went on.

An authentic T207 card will feature a writeup about the player and an advertisement of one of teh cigarette brands mentioned above. Any vintage card that has an explanation that it was rare...or has a price given on it...is not a real card.

Today, there are cards with manufactured scarcities (serially numbered, "1-of-1" cards, etc.), but they didn't play those games with cards that long ago.