Finding Value in the Ty Cobb T205 Issue

 Triple SSS Sports Cards is a Detroit company with a nationwide presence at card shows and an inventory of graded rookies and stars spanning the major professional sports. Maintaining an extensive selection of vintage cards, the Triple SSS Sports Cards team is knowledgeable about baseball legends such as Ty Cobb.

A Sports Collectors’ Daily article brought focus to seemingly minor distinctions between Ty Cobb’s T205 and T206 cards that can have an outsized impact on value. The T206 is a classic tobacco card set, with single cards distributed as freebies with early 20th century packs of tobacco, similar to Cracker Jack toys. Cobb cards from the set in any kind of gradable condition fetch at least a couple thousand dollars. The 524-card T206 set, printed between 1909 and 1911, actually has four Cobb card variations. The T206 Cobb card with the most-desired green background variation starts at $5,000 or more.

With only 208 cards, the 1911 T205 set has fewer Cobbs. This relative rarity is reflected in the grading “pop” report. Although more than 1,000 of the green-background Cobb cards are graded by PSA (a sports card grading company that assigns numerical grades from 1 to 10, depending on card condition), fewer than 700 of the T205 have been PSA graded. This does not reflect in the price, with T205s selling in the moderate $2,000 range. Collectors, who may remember a few years back when T206 Cobbs were available for under $1,000, could potentially profit by seeking out this less-heralded classic Ty Cobb tobacco issue.