Sports Market Report

Mastro to Offer Highest Graded T205 Cards

While even people outside of the sportscard hobby are familiar with the famous T206 cards, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone other than dedicated card collectors who know much about the T205 set. The T205 "gold border" set is considered by many collectors to be the most attractive of the tobacco-era sets ever manufactured. Issued in 1911 by the American Tobacco Company, it is believed to be the first card set to include player bios on the back. Each offering carries a detailed portrait printed with sharp detail and vivid colors surrounded by a frame of gilded gold. The T205 cards measure 1 ½" x 2 5/8" and were issued by Piedmont, Sweet Caporal, Sovereign, Honest Long Cut, Hassan, Polar Bear, Cycle, Broad Leaf, American Beauty, Drum and Hindu.

Today, these cards are considered to be some of the most condition sensitive ever produced, which in turn makes them extremely difficult to find in high grades. The main reason for the sensitivity of their condition is their gold borders. While the metal on current day offerings is achieved with modern printing technology, the borders on the T-205 cards were created by employing the craft of gilding. This process does not age well and is extremely prone to flaking and chipping.

It is an accepted fact within the hobby that it is almost impossible to find T205s in EX/MT condition. That is why it is such big news that super-collector Wendell Smith, who has compiled the number one set of T205s on the PSA Set Registry, has decided to part with his beloved set that has been two decades in the making. Mastro Auctions has been enlisted to coordinate the sale of this collection that will take place incrementally through next Spring.

Over the years, Wendell has worked tirelessly to assemble multiple T205 sets and has ultimately accomplished a feat that few others will ever be able to match – compiling an overall NM to NM/MT conditioned set of these gold gilded treasures. His philosophy in putting this set together was to get all of the Hall of Famers and the rare variations in the highest grades possible. He would then pick up the commons in PSA 8 whenever they became available.

The cards that will be offered include PSA 8 examples of some of the top Hall of Famer’s in the set such as Ty Cobb, Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson and Tris Speaker. While the big names are the ones that will assuredly get the most notice, the most scarce cards in the set are not necessarily the ones with the big name Hall of Fame players. Instead, it is the Dick Hoblitzell "no stat" card that is considered to be the holy grail of the set with another rarity being the Bobby Wallace "no cap" card with one line of 1910 stats. To give you a better understanding of just how difficult the Wallace card is to find in high grade, take into consideration that an EX example recently sold at auction for nearly $20,000.

Sports Market Report recently caught up with Smith at his home on the outskirts of Detroit and asked him about these precious gems he has decided to part with. He said that he believes that these cards will be some of the most important cards ever made available in the open market. "These cards are very special to the hobby and to collectors who know about them," he said. "They were the first cards from that era that included player bios. The T206 cards, of course, had advertisements on them, but the T205’s had bios and statistics. They are beautiful cards and extremely hard to find in high grades due to the fragile nature of the gold borders."

And so why, after being so passionately involved with these beauties for such a log time, has Wendell decided to part with them? He laughs when that query is made. "That’s a loaded question," he sighs. "I guess the answer comes down to this – I’ve taken the set as far as I can and, to be honest, my interest in the sports collectibles hobby has begun to roll into game-worn and game-used memorabilia."

Smith went on to say that being as that this is the number one set of T205s on the PSA Set Registry, it gives collectors the chance to get their hands on some of the highest graded T205s ever found and offered. "This is a significant opportunity for collectors who have mid-grade T205 sets to upgrade, or for collectors who want to begin a really high grade T205 set with a bang."

Doug Allen, the president of Mastro Auctions (who will be representing Smith in the sale of these cards) said that they are extremely proud to have been given the opportunity to make this set available. He also shared some of his personal feelings and insights on these magnificent cards and the significance of the offering.

Doug Allen: Unlike most of the sets that you find on the PSA Set Registry, if you go to the T205 set, you will see that the gap between number one and two is just monstrous. Wendell Smith, who compiled this collection, has put together the most significant collection of these cards ever assembled. The overall grade point average of these cards is 7.56. It has been the number one T205 set since PSA began the Registry. And here’s the most salient point about these cards – there are only 25 cards in existence that can be purchased that could upgrade this set. That means that other than those 25 cards, Smith has put together a collection of the single very best examples of every one of the T205 cards known to exist. This isn’t a guy who just shopped for cards to make up a set. This is a guy who was in every way passionate about the set, and every time there was a T205 find he made sure he was the first guy to get his foot in the door to make sure he got it. He began this collection 20 years ago when Bill Mastro had made a find of raw T205s. If you went to the National and played the word association game with every knowledgeable dealer, asking them to say the first thing to come to mind when you say a word, if you said "T205", they would say "Wendell Smith."

SMR: You will be selling the cards incrementally instead of as a set. Why did you decide against offering them as a set?

Doug Allen: This is a seven-figure set. If we were to sell this as a complete set, it would set the new world record for the most a set has ever sold for. We know that it is hard to make an offering like that so we have decided to break it down.

SMR: And when will you begin to make them available?

Doug Allen: The first offering of these cards begins this August.

SMR: Doug, everybody knows about the T206 cards. For those who are not that familiar with the T205s, how would you best describe them?

Doug Allen: Well, the T205s will never be as popular as the T206 set. But they are absolutely beautiful cards that were not distributed in a very significant quantity. They are really like the little brother to the T206 set. What is interesting about the T205s is that, unlike the T206 cards, they did not do duplicate poses of any of the players. The player representation in the T205 is rather similar to that of the T206 but there is only one subject of each player. I would say that the T205 is the set that collectors go for the most after the T206 set. These two sets are the most popular tobacco card sets ever produced. Because of the ornate gold borders on the T205s, they are very popular because they are so beautiful. However, it is those borders that also make them so incredibly difficult to find in good condition. With some of these cards, all you have to do it touch a corner and some of the gold will fleck off. This is perhaps the most condition sensitive set ever produced. Just look at the PSA Population Report and see how many PSA 8s are in the T206 set as opposed to T205s that grade that high. Let me put this in some sort of real perspective for you – there are only five T205 cards that have ever gotten a PSA grade of 9. By the way, there were three different designs used in creating this set of cards – one design for the American League, one for the National League, and ironically, perhaps the most beautiful cards in the set were designed for the Minor Leagues, which have artistic borders. Aesthetically, this is one of the most beautiful sets of cards ever produced.

SMR: You don’t have to be a card collector to know about the famous Honus Wagner T206 card. What about the T205 set, does it have any holy grails like the Wagner?

Doug Allen: The T206 set has the big five cards that are the most difficult to find and a few others that are considered to be in the second tier of toughness. But, with the T205 set, there are a ton of rarities. They’re less pronounced than say the Honus Wagner, but there are a number of cards in this set that are categorized as major rarities. I think as people get to know more about the T205s, they will be amazed. When I look at the list of rarities in this set, I see about 30 of them that are in a far more difficult category than the other cards in the set. If you were to call out the ones in this set that would be considered to be the top cards, it would be the Bobby Wallace "no cap" card and the Dick Hoblitzell "no stats" card. The Hoblitzell is a card that was produced in extremely limited quantities and when you turn it over, it is blank with no stats. That is by far the most scarce card in the set. We will be offering a Hoblitzell "no stats" that has graded a PSA 6, which is the highest graded Hoblitzell that exists. This card, graded, as a PSA 3 would be valued at between $8,000 to $10,000. We once represented the sale of a Hoblitzell that graded a PSA 5 and it sold for close to $20,000. So that gives you an idea of the value of this card.

SMR: Is every card you will be offering graded by PSA?

Doug Allen: Every one! Every card in this offering is a PSA graded card that will be made available through Mastro Premium Auctions. We will begin the offering in August and then we will also include them in our December and April ’08 Auctions.

SMR: In your line of work, you see some pretty incredible stuff. What makes this so special?

Doug Allen: This particular set has been put together by a man who I think is the most tenacious collector in the sportscard hobby. Wendell has been totally focused on this set for the past two decades and has continuality worked to improve it and improve it until it was impossible to further improve it. I believe that, card-by-card, this is one of the most significant sets in the hobby because it has everything going for it. It’s an early tobacco issue, which is hugely popular. It is condition sensitive, and this one is just leaps and bounds above the second set example on the PSA Set Registry. This is a highly significant set and a rare opportunity for collectors who are interested in assembling a T205 set in high grade to jump in and be able to start the process.

If you would like more information on this offering, Doug would be happy to personally answer any questions. You may reach him at (630) 472-1200. You can also find out more information about these cards and all of Mastro’s quality offerings by logging on to their Web site at www.mastronet.com