One of the drawbacks to having won a month visit from Cy Seymour is that now I want one. I mean, I’ve always in the back of my head wanted an original T206 (as well as a T201, T202, T204, T205, etc.) but having held one in my hands and gotten to look at it up close everyday, that urge has moved from the back of my head to front and center.

To go along with that goal being in the back of my head, I had periodically searched eBay for good deals on slightly banged up specimens, but alas, to no avail. I figure this is surely a job for eBay. I highly doubt finding a cheap T206 on any other card selling venue.

Well, after quite a long while, my efforts paid off. I tracked down an original T206 in not too terrible shape that was only up to $0.99 with about 5 minutes to go. So I plunked down a $3 bid and sat and waited, feverishly hitting the refresh button to see if some punk was going to try and snipe me. Five minutes and $4.36 with shipping later, I was the proud owner of a Dick Egan T206 card, at least according to eBay.

Fast forward about a week, and I was the proud owner of a Dick Egan T206 card for real.

After I received the card, I decided to do a little bit more research into the set, and one of the best resources I stumbled across was a booklet called Inside T206: A Collector’s Guide to the Classic Baseball Card Set. by a fellow named Scot Reader, which is available as a free PDF download here (scroll down to the bottom of the page for the PDF link). After reading it, it seems to me one of the more interesting aspects of the T206 set is how little is actually known about it. There’s different viewpoints on what cards should actually be included in the checklist, which ad backs should be included and even references to “the enigmatic Factory 33 in North Carolina”. Mystery and conjecture aside, it’s an interesting read just for the history of the set and pretty well detailed explanation of the actual printing process used to make the cards.

One of the first things I look at when I get old cards, especially pre-war cards is precisely what year the card in question was produced. Most sets are easy in that aspect. A 1933 Goudey couldn’t really be confused with a 1934 Goudey. All the different Play Ball sets are pretty distinct as well.

T206 are a little different because the cards were apparently distributed over the course of a few years, from 1909 to 1911. So how can I say if this is a 1909 T206 or a 1910 T206? Well, according to the guide, and thanks to tireless research on the part of collectors, it all comes down to the backs. Most of the backs will identify the card as being one of 150 Subjects, 350 Subjects or 460 Subjects. This will tell you if the card was from 1909, 1910 or 1911, respectively.

What throws a monkey wrench into the works is that certain backs, including this Polar Bear back, don’t specify a specific number of subjects. They just say “Assorted Designs” or “Large Assortment” or something equally vague. What helps is that the book has checklists which have been broken down into players that only appeared on the 150 Subjects cards, players that were on both the 150 or 350 Subject cards, and so on. As luck would have it, Dick Egan only appeared on 350 Subject cards, so he was pretty easy to pin down to being released during the winter of 1910, thus making it a 100 year old baseball card.

Of course those are just a general rules, and very much simplified from the information presented in the booklet. What I just told you in a few sentences takes up about 8 pages in the guide.

The back also tells us that this card was distributed from Factory No. 6  in Ohio, which when you consider that Mr. Egan played for Cincinnati, makes me wonder if the card distribution was blatantly based on where the tobacco would be sold. As it turns out Polar Bear backed cards were only distributed from that factory and that factory only distributed Polar Bear backs. Another sort of interesting note is that out of all the cigarette brands that included T206 cards, everyone except for Polar Bear were rolled cigarettes, whereas Polar Bear was scrap tobacco that was sold in pouches. Because of that, many examples of Polar Bear back T206 cards show stains from being in direct contact with the tobacco. Allegedly, Polar Bear pouches also had multiple cards in them as compared to the one or two cards that came in other brands. That seems to be unconfirmed, however.

Overall, it proved to be easier to find information on the card itself than it did to find info on Dick Egan. He broke into the Majors in 1908 with the Red Legs, where he played until 1914, when he was sold to the Brooklyn Superbas for $5,000. He played there the full 1914 season plus 3 games in 1915, when he was sold to the Boston Braves. In a career spanning 9 seasons, Egan was a .249 hitter with 4 home runs and 292 RBI in 917 games played, including 374 runs, 87 doubles, 29 triples and 167 stolen bases, while playing every position but pitcher and catcher. Egan died in Oakland, California on July 7, 1947, at the age of 63.

By the way, if you haven’t done so yet, there’s still a few days left to get in on the Cy Seymour giveaway. Go here to see the details.

Tags: Dick Egan, T206
Filed Under: It Came from the 'Bay by slangon
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