Second 1916 Tango Eggs Ty Cobb Card Finally Proven

Posted on June 6, 2019 by Pre-War Cards

A second pose of Ty Cobb in the rare 1916 Tango Eggs set has finally been proven to exist

The 1916 Tango Eggs set is an incredibly rare food issue from the pre-war era. While the cards are somewhat tough to find, the pictures on the fronts are very recognizable as they were used in other sets — primarily candy issues. Save for a major find of approximately 800 of them in the early 1990s, they were nearly invisible to the collecting community.

The set seems to parallel the 1915 E106 American Caramel issue with the same poses found in that one. But while 48 cards are known in that set, we really had only 22 in the Tango Eggs set that were confirmed.

We can now state there is definitively a 23rd.

Ty Cobb is found in the Tango Eggs set with a front-facing pose but a second pose of Cobb had been rumored for years to exist. Now, Cobb had a second pose (a batting one) in the E106 set so it definitely wasn’t inconceivable that a second one existed in the Tango Eggs issue. But while a collector had mentioned he had heard of one, definitive photographic proof was not known.

Interestingly enough, a user on the Net54 site showed a photograph of the rare second pose Cobb card with little initial fanfare. But someone quickly pointed out this was the pose that had not been seen before. Well, at least not seen by very many people.

A quick check on the PSA website also now shows the card here.

You don’t need me to tell you this is a pretty incredible find. And one that features a pretty valuable card. How valuable? Only one other Cobb in the other pose exists and that one is in pretty rough shape, graded an SGC 10. In 2017, that card sold by REA for $15,600. Safe to say, this one is in much better shape and would almost certainly top that one in terms of value, even if it isn’t necessarily any more rare.

Shifting the discussion to the Tango Eggs set in general, a second Cobb really does make the likelihood of the set mirroring E106 entirely more believable. Only about half of the E106 set has been found with Tango Eggs backs but that only proves the Tango Eggs cards are very rare. Even the other Cobb, which had been known in the set, has only one known example. It is quite possible that the other missing cards existing in similarly low quantities. And it is also possible that many (or even most) Tango Eggs cards were never even distributed based on the large find of them in incredible condition in the early 1990s.

Plus, keep in mind that this is hardly the only new discovery in the set in recent years. Eddie Plank was just discovered in 2012. This Cobb is very important but not the only one that should be considered scarce.

Of course, there is no guarantee that the two sets mirror each other. But with every new discovery of a Tango Eggs card, it makes it more and more likely.