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1915 T214 Victory Tobacco Ty Cobb

Sold For: $19,975
Year: 1915
Auction: 2010 Spring
Lot #: 8
Auction: Prewar Baseball - T Tobacco Cards
Graded GOOD 30 by SGC. All T214 Victory Tobacco cards are exceedingly rare; even the offering of a common player is an incredibly rare sighting. It has ALWAYS been the case that Victory Tobacco has been one of the key rarities for sample card collectors. An example featuring a Hall of Famer is naturally all the more special, but a Victory Tobacco card of Ty Cobb is a miracle card! Presented is the first example of this incredible rarity that we have ever offered, an extremely attractive T214 of Ty Cobb, the key card to this elusive tobacco set of legendary rarity. The T214 Victory set is the only series of tobacco cards that is dated to 1915, and is believed to have been issued exclusively in the Louisiana area. Because of its date of issue, Victory Tobacco is one of the few sets which features players from the short-lived Federal League, in addition to players from the Major Leagues. Very similar in design and borrowing the same images as the T206 set, the Red Background portrait is the only pose of Cobb known to exist in the T214 series. This is of all the more special note, of course, because the Ty Cobb Red Background pose is also the only pose that is known with an advertisement for Ty Cobb Tobacco on the reverse. The T214 of Ty Cobb, however, is actually considerably rarer than even the legendary T206 Ty Cobb with Ty Cobb Tobacco back! The Ty Cobb card with Ty Cobb back, of course, is one of card collecting's most famous and valuable tobacco cards. One would have a much easier time locating a T206 Ty Cobb with Ty Cobb Tobacco advertising back than a T214 Victory Cobb. To best communicate the scarcity of T214 Victory Tobacco cards: as of this writing only 55 examples have been graded in total by PSA (25) and SGC (30). Of those 55 cards, only three Ty Cobbs have been graded: one is graded PSA GOOD 2, and two examples (including this one) are graded SGC GOOD 30. Incredibly, the T214 Victory Ty Cobb is even rarer than suggested by these modest population report numbers, as the three graded examples represent only two different cards. (It is our understanding that many years ago the PSA GOOD 2 example was crossed over to an SGC GOOD 30 holder, and the old PSA label was never returned to correct the pop report). This is an outstanding and attractive example of this iconic card, with a few creases (none of which are a distraction to Cobb's image), vibrant colors, and evenly rounded corners. The reverse is relatively clean and with bold crisp print, both ideal qualities for a sample of this rare issue. This is an exceptional example of one of Cobb's rarest and most interesting tobacco cards. Over the years Robert Edward Auctions has handled the sale of eight of the approximately twelve known examples of T206 Ty Cobb cards with Ty Cobb backs, and that famous card will always be revered for its mystique and legendary rarity. The T214 Victory Tobacco card of Ty Cobb may not have the same "press credentials" as the T206 Ty Cobb with Ty Cobb back, but it does have much in common with it, and, as noted, is in fact much rarer (just a few examples, two that we have been able to confirm, of the 1915 T214 Ty Cobb Victory Tobacco versus approximately twelve T206 Ty Cobb with Ty Cobb backs). This is the first example of the T214 Ty Cobb card that we have ever offered. Reserve $5,000. Estimate $10,000+.

SOLD FOR $19,975
Robert Edward Auctions
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