Sunday, January 8, 2012

old tobacco is good for the PC

Bill Abstein was a member of the 1909 World Series Champions Pittsburgh Pirates.  He finished a career in which he played 170 games over the parts of 3 seasons professionally (1906 & 1909 Pittsburgh Pirates, 1910 St. Louis Browns).  His 1909 numbers at the age of 26 were very respectable for that era as he hit 10 triples, 20 doubles, 1 home run, and drove in 70 runs (6th best in the league).  He also stole 16 bases, batted .260 and had 1,402 put outs (3rd best in league) at first base that year.  Unfortunately he also committed 27 fielding errors which was the 2nd most in the league.  I really want to research more about him, partially because I want to find out what made him retire at such an early stage in his career.



Here's the very first authentic T206 tobacco card in the collection.  It's a Piedmont 350 series from 1910 of Bill Abstein.  It's not a perfect specimen of any stretch of the imagination as you can tell by the multiple creases on the card, but it's over 100 years old now.  From what I've seen of these cards, there was an orange tint "variant" and the "red" variant. I believe the red is the harder version to find. 

What do you guys think of my girlfriend's $20 splurge on this item?  Worth it? I think so, if for nothing else to say we now have a T206 in our collection.

3 comments:

  1. I LOVE T 206 cards! I feel they are an essential part of a collection. Everyone should have one! Congrats on the awesome pick up, always cool to see bloggers come across them.

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  2. Very nice! Well worth the price of a blaster!

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  3. Completely worth it! Everyone needs a T206 in their collection, especially from a favorite team.

    Great card!

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