The T206 Set is Still the Gold Standard for Baseball Card Collectors

T206 is actually the name given to a set of tobacco cards issued between the years of 1901 and 1911 by the American Tobacco Company. The cards carried pictures of baseball players on one side and the brand name and information of one of the American Tobacco Company's tobacco brands on the back. It is unknown exactly how many of the cards were ever printed and there is some dispute as to why Honus Wagner cards appear to be among the rarest of that set.

The set of cards was named by Jefferson Burdick in The American Card Catalog, which was an exhaustive list of American collectible cards that had circulated prior to 1951. Burdick's book covered both sports and non-sports trading cards, but it is often referenced as the seminal work in regards to categorizing and identifying early baseball cards.

The Honus Wagner card that has become most popular among the T206 set has been sold for more than $2 million on multiple occasions.

Where to Find One

If only we knew where to look to find treasures such as the cards that are still missing from the T206 set. Experts readily admit that they have no firm handle on exactly how many of these types of cards were produced, nor where they might be. It's safe to assume that most were discarded over time, but it's also safe to assume that - somewhere - there is a box or several of cards that were once simple collectibles and now are virtually priceless in value.

If you're an aspiring treasure hunter, perhaps the most lucrative approach would be to look around in old homes in your area. If you have relatives or friends who live in houses that pre-date the 20th century, it's possible that there may be some remnants of that time period throughout the house. Many times, contractors and other home improvement technicians come across boxes of old keepsakes that turn out to be worth a significant amount of money. Of course, anything that is found in a home is the property of the homeowner, regardless of whether or not they knew it was there.

Another great place to look for such lost treasures is through estate sales and garage sales where people are selling bulk items that have not been completely inventoried. Often times, when a large amount of small items must be sold, the brokers will simply lump all the items into one estate sale and collect a single amount for the lot of belongings to be hauled away. Entrepreneurial opportunities abound for patient individuals willing to explore the details of someone else's worn goods.

Collections that Count

When starting a collection that you wish to one day have value, it's important to note the immediate quality of the item. In today's world, it's difficult to imagine that mass-produced items could ever hold value in the same way as items of the past. But every decade or so, memorabilia collectors and others find themselves surprised at exactly how much a seemingly meaningless collection of items is now worth. If there is a unique aspect to a product or collectible - or if it is of noteworthy quality relative to others that are similar to it - then it is likely that the object will increase in value if it is properly stored and protected. Of course, most of us will have to be fairly selective when it comes to which types of items we want to collect. Even baseball cards start to take up a lot of space after a while.