Another Ty Cobb-Backed Tobacco Card Discovered

Posted on April 23, 2018 by Pre-War Cards

Wham, a homer! Wham, another homer! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham!

This is my general mood these days when it comes to the Ty Cobb-backed tobacco cards.

To be fair, these cards are incredibly rare, despite the fact that they are starting to pop up quite a bit lately. They are, for example, still much rarer than the Honus Wagner T206 cards. But another one was recently found and that marks the ninth one discovered since 2016.

Forbes mentions that another Ty Cobb card with the Ty Cobb Tobacco brand advertisement on the back has been recently found by Just Collect. The other eight were found by the same family – seven were discovered in 2016 and an eighth was found by them this year.

The latest Cobb card is in low-grade condition, found in a binder of a retired gentleman who kept his father’s old card collection. Even in that condition (A PSA 1), the card was estimated at about $150,000.

It’s going to be interesting to see what kind of effect these latest finds have on the market. Despite the discovery of eight more recently, the Forbes article still says only 24 are known to exist. Sure, eight is 1/3 of that population and it’s much less scarce than it was before. But 24 is still a very small amount.

This may sound odd but I actually expect the Cobb cards to increase rather than decrease even though there are more of them around. The reason is because Cobb cards are hitting record highs these days. Just look at what the green-background Cobb T206 card is doing despite a relatively high population by comparison of other pre-war cards. Until a significantly higher amount of the Ty Cobb-backed cards are found, I’m not sure the price is coming down despite recent discoveries.