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Stamped T206 Backs Grab Collector’s Interest

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Andy Huntoon doesn’t care if that T206 card doesn’t please the grader. He’s collecting the set in his own way.

For many collectors, condition is the key to happiness. For Andy Huntoon, it’s a big purple ink stamp.

He’s got a passion for pre-War baseball cards and a curiosity about where those old pieces of history have been. Sometimes the backs of the cards provide a clue; other times they just deepen the mystery.

Stamping one’s name or identification on the back of piece of personal property has been a popular thing to do for years. It may have sounded like a good idea at the time, but today, the marks won’t help the value in the collector market, lowering it significantly in most cases. For Huntoon, the stamps give the card character.

The T206 cards he looks for carry a marking on the back, created by someone who collected them long ago. It’s possible the stamping was done in later years, but Huntoon also owns date stamps that do place the card in the hands of a collector during the deadball era. Others simply carry a number or letter.

Huntoon has even started a website and a blog devoted to sharing those stamps with other collectors and hoping to bring others out of the woodwork. We asked him a few questions about his quest.

How many stamped backs have you collected & what made you decide to start looking for these?

I currently have 20 T206s with back stamps. 19 of them are the Purple Number stamps and I’ve picked up one other stamp that is simply the letter H. I first saw the Purple Number stamp about 8 years ago and thought it was very distinctive, but I didn’t buy it at the time. I regretting it for a long time whenever I thought about it, so the next time I saw one several years later it immediately jumped out at me and I had to have it. After that card showed up at my door, I was hooked. It took a while before I saw any more, but when I did, I snatched them up as well. That got me thinking that this could be a very nice way to slowly collect "The Monster"; by only picking up cards that have back stamps on them. So I started to look for other stamps too.

Does the stamping actually match the era of when T206s were produced?

As far as I can tell, yes. Some of the stamps out there are actually dates and they do coincide with the deadball era. I imagine some of them could easily be from as late as the 50’s though, as collecting cards back then wasn’t the same as it is now and people weren’t as hung up on condition so much.

Any idea why people stamped these?

I have to say that I’m finding a lot of names stamped on these cards so I would assume these were stamped to simply claim ownership. I’ve also seen dates, pictures, addresses, numbers, letters, etc. There could be so many reasons for the stamps. I haven’t been able to figure out any definite pattern to the Purple Number stamps that I collect, although I always wanted to believe it was just the order in which the collector originally added the cards to his or her collection. It’s interesting to note that the two Christy Mathewson cards I’ve documented have numbers 100 and 101 on them putting them right next to each other in order. The many designs that I’ve found are a mystery to me as to why they were ever stamped onto the backs.

Have you found others with the same interest?

I do know one other gentleman who is actively collecting cards with a particular stamp on them and I’ll be featuring an interview with him and hopefully being able to showcase his collection on my website and blog very soon. He has so many examples of this particular stamp that it blows me away. I’ve also met several collectors who collect T206 oddities like ghost images, miscuts, printer’s scrap, etc, but only the one other guy collecting a particular stamp.

Most collectors would be pretty upset since a lot of these could potentially be worth a lot more without the stamp.

Oh yes, I’m sure they all would. At this point, the stamps are just considered damage and lower the grade considerably. This in turn helps me out quite a bit as my budget doesn’t allow me to jump on a really nice Cobb or Matty. But with the stamp on it, it would hurt the grade from a grading company and a lot of collectors don’t want this sort of stuff on their cards. It’s tough though when you’re talking about Hall of Famers. If the front is really nice and presentable, the back can look like a kid colored all over it and it can have paper loss and stains and the price is still going to be strong, relatively speaking, as there are so many people in the market for nice looking HOFers. That said, the stamp (or other damage) is still keeping the price the lower than it would be without it.

What’s the most unique stamp you’ve found?

The most unique stamp so far is one with a hand pointing a finger. The stamp takes up the whole back of the card and I just think it’s so cool looking. I’d love to find some more of these and get a collection of them going, either in my personal collection or on my website and feature examples from other people’s collections.

What else have you learned since you started the project?

I’ve learned a new way to enjoy the hobby that I love, collecting pre-War baseball cards. It’s taught me that I can really enjoy these cards without getting caught up in the condition. I’ve been able to look at cards and see the life they had before they got into my hands. I can imagine some kid with a bunch of these cards with an ink pad and his stamper having a great time putting completely random images on his card backs. Or an older collector who might be cataloging what he’s got so far with his purple numbers on the back. And another collector placing his name on the back of his collection, one card at a time. Then all the dinged corners and creases, all the paper loss and pencil marks; all the things that some people don’t want become things that I do want. They tell the story of the cards. Now I’m telling the story of those cards in my way.

T206 on eBay

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About Rich Mueller

Rich is the editor and founder of Sports Collectors Daily. A broadcaster and writer for over 40 years and a collector for even longer than that, he's usually typing something somewhere. Type him back at [email protected]