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Newly Discovered 1909-1911 T206 White Border Ty Cobb Portrait Red Background PSA GOOD+ 2.5 - Broad Leaf 350 Back - The ONLY Confirmed Example!

Sold For: $270,000
Year: 1909
Auction: 2024 Spring
Lot #: 1
Auction: Prewar Baseball - T Tobacco Cards
Presented is one of the most incredible and improbable cards we've ever had the privilege of offering: a newly discovered Ty Cobb portrait red background example from the legendary T206 White Border series featuring a rare Broad Leaf 350 advertising back. This is the first confirmed example of this card, easily one of the most extraordinary of all T206 front-and-back combinations in existence. It is a card that within T206-collecting circles had long been considered possible to exist but had never turned up until now. REA recently accepted on consignment a fresh-to-the-hobby collection of vintage cards, and included within was a 518-card T206 set stored back-to-back in old plastic pages. Upon return to the REA offices for cataloging, a duplicate red background Ty Cobb was removed from the pages and revealed the most surprising and unexpected of advertising backs. Broad Leaf 350 backs are unusual and very rare, though not quite as rare as the rarest T206 advertising backs (such as Broad Leaf 460, Drum, or Uzit). According to T206Resource.com, the Broad Leaf 350 back ranks as the ninth scarcest on its list of thirty-nine different T206 advertising backs. Examples featuring key Hall of Famers are extremely scarce, especially Ty Cobb, who aside from Honus Wagner symbolizes the T206 set for many collectors. Graded GOOD+ 2.5 by PSA, the card boasts a bold red background and near-perfect centering on front along with an ideally crisp advertising reverse, which is well centered and perfectly printed. Honest corner wear, which is slightly more pronounced in the top left, gives the card an endearing charm. The card is free of any creases or wrinkles, and only a virtually imperceptible hint of a pencil mark on the reverse is mentioned for accuracy. The red background portrait is universally recognized as one of Cobb's most striking cards and has long been considered one of the great classics of the T206 set and of all vintage cards. This is an astounding card, one that is missing from any collection of T206s, and one that demonstrates that the unknown can become known at any time, anywhere. It is a great privilege for us to offer this card and properly document its existence for the first time. This is an exceptional example of one of the rarest and most desirable T206 Hall of Famer front and rare advertising-back combinations in existence. Opening Bid $50,000.
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