did you learn any new nugget about the hobby in 2011?

if you've hung around the hobby and these boards the last few years, it seems like the topics and threads is like a memorex reel...t206s, sgc/psa, ebay fakes, t206s, rise/decline of candy cards, etc etc more t206s. the topics get rehashed over and over from the newbies turnovers. seldom any new info or knowledge comes up (intentional or not). anyways let's share what stuck out to you this past year or something that you never knew before?

for me it was tim's excellent article and research on the AWA caramels. that was really fascinating and interesting to me, coming from a caramel background. tim's also done incredible work on the t206-related stuff that culminated with the new site with jim...two top-notch hobby guys imo.

Agreed, the AWA stuff was great. There were also good finds this year. The Middy Bread with 4 uncatalogued cards, a new t231 Fans Cigarettes card of Gardner, a new Tarzan Bread card and probably few others I am forgetting.

cccc wrote:for me it was tim's excellent article and research on the AWA caramels. that was really fascinating and interesting to me, coming from a caramel background. tim's also done incredible work on the t206-related stuff that culminated with the new site with jim...two top-notch hobby guys imo.

+1

Val

I learned that Pete bids large amounts of money on auctions when he's drunk.

I totally with Quan on the AWA Caramels, also the Louisiana Find with the new T207 Red Cross backs.

Lee

The GeorgeD collection showed up in 2010, but the auction was in 2011.

Good to see a number of the cards from that collection are in the hands of board members.

It seems that some people believe the T206 Wagner was never put in cigarette packs...and that all of them are/were hand cut.

I had never heard this theory before...and I don't buy it...but this was new to me?!

The theory holds for the piedmont Wagner, but not the Sweet Cap. There are enough out there that it's highly unlikely that they were all printer scrap or whatever you want to call it.

jay...i agree. All of the SC's I've owned over the years were definitely not hand cut!

I think for me the most interesting thing was learning about the photo of Alexander Cartwright (or, more likely, a close family member). I like a good controversy that isn't cut and dry.

that was a good lively debate jamie. both sides seem to think they're unequivocably correct in their assertions tho.

That Cartwright thing was a very interesting discussion. I probably enjoyed that the most too.

ullmandds wrote:It seems that some people believe the T206 Wagner was never put in cigarette packs...and that all of them are/were hand cut.

I had never heard this theory before...and I don't buy it...but this was new to me?!

Thanks guys for the kind words. I loved the new AWA backs being discovered and the Cartwright controversy was/is fascinating.

I haven't seen anything that would lead me to believe the theory that all of the T206 Wagner's are hand cut and were never issued. At this point what we know is that Wagner, Plank, Crawford (Throwing), Lundgren (Chicago) and Jennings (Portrait) were not part of the original 150 subjects. They were added to the set during the printing of the 150 Series. Wagner, Plank and Crawford were added and printed with Sweet Caporal backs and then the Wagner was pulled prior to being issued with a Piedmont back. All of the printed an undistributed Piedmont Wagner's and Plank's will be hand cut, but the Sweet Caporal's were factory cut and put into packs. If you're interested in more detail's you can read The Big Four.

Learned that Rube Waddell had two poses in the Bregstone set.