Vintage Baseball Card Rarities: T206 Tobacco Cards with Broadleaf 460 Backs

Among vintage card collectors, one of the most collectible sets is the "monster" T206 series baseball cards produced for cigarette packs in 1909 to 1911. One of the most famous of all baseball cards, the T206 Honus Wagner, recently sold for more than $2 million.

Some collectors of this premier set, however, estimate that even rarer than a T206 Honus Wagner card is a T206 card with a rare back known as "Broadleaf 460." Amazingly, despite the rarity of T206 baseball cards with the Broadleaf 460 back, a collection of 6 of these cards are available to participants in CardTarget.com's partial share market.

T206 Set Has Multiple Back Variations

In addition to the many different baseball players from the early 1900s pictured on the fronts of the T206 cards, there are many variations in the backs of the cards representing the brand of cigarette with which the card was originally sold. About 40 different variations of these backs exist, but four are so rare that they are not generally considered for collectors of the set.

Among the remaining 36 backs, the rarest is the Broadleaf 460 back, named for the Broadleaf brand of cigarettes and in the series of "460 subjects." More commonly available is the Broadleaf 350 back, part of the series of "350 subjects' with the Broadleaf brand of cigarettes. One expert web site (T206museum.com) estimates that a T206 tobacco card with a Broadleaf 460 back is worth 30 to 70 times as much as one with a common back, whereas a card with a Broadleaf 350 back is worth 4 to 8 times as much as one with a common back.

Fewer Than 40 T206 Cards with Broadleaf 460 Backs are Known to Exist

A discussion among experts in the Net54 Vintage Baseball Card Forum identified only about 35 T206 cards known with the Broadleaf 460 back representing 26 different players. Several hall-of-fame players are included in this list, including Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, and Cy Young. .

CardTarget Participants Own 6 of these Rare Cards

While only a few vintage baseball card collectors are likely to ever own one of these rare T206 cards with a Broadleaf 460 back, an impressive collection of 6 of these cards with the Broadleaf 460 back are co-owned by the community at CardTarget.com. CardTarget provides a "Partial Share Market" whereby shares of high-end vintage sports cards are bought and sold with the actual card kept securely in a safe-deposit box. Thus, a community of participants co-owns the cards and can accumulate shares or buy and sell shares.

The most valuable T206 card with the rare Broadleaf 460 back in the CardTarget collection is hall-of-fame pitcher Christy Mathewson. The 375 shares of this card are currently about $19 each, with a total value of more than $7,000. Another hall-of-fame player on a T206 cards with Broadleaf 460 backs in the CardTarget collection is Frank "Home Run" Baker, worth nearly $3,000.

Even more valuable is the Red Kleinow Broadleaf 460 in the Cardtarget collection, worth more than $4,000 because not only is the Broadleaf 460 back rare but the Kleinow front is uncommon. Finally, the CardTarget collection of T206 cards with Broadleaf 460 backs is rounded out with cards of Danny Murphy, Gabby Street, and Ed Konetchy.

The Konetchy Broadleaf 460 is part of a unique collection of all 36 backs available for T206 cards, each card graded with the back displayed.

Learning about the history of these old-time players, card sets, and back variations is one of the many enjoyable facets of collecting vintage cards, regardless of whether it is a personal collection or a share of a high-end card available at CardTarget.