None of the players in the set are still around some 100 years after they first rolled off the presses, but the T206 tobacco card set just might still be the most valuable and popular baseball card set of all-time. When shopping for T206 cards for sale, you’ll find prices in a wide range depending on condition, but you won’t find anyone who isn’t at least a little curious about baseball’s early stars.



Consisting of 504 different cards, the T206 set includes major and minor leaguers and was the first full-color set which attempted to catalog most of baseball’s most well-known players of the time. Issued through the American Tobacco Company in its various products, the cards were produced from 1909-1911.

There are several options for collecting the T206 set. You can attempt to acquire a card of all of the Hall of Famers in the set. There are 38 including Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Cy Young, Christy Mathewson and Tris Speaker. Several Hall of Famers are pictured with different poses, but if you limit yourself to one when looking at T206 cards for sale, you might be able to afford a run at this set.

You can also collect by teams. There are 58 different major and minor league clubs represented in the T206 set. One card of each team would give a snapshot of baseball in the early 20th century.

You can collect one card of each of the different tobacco products advertised on the back. Theare are 16 different backs scattered throughout the set, with brands like Sweet Caporal and Piedmont among the most prevalent. Some backs are quite rare.

You can collect theme sets such as 20-game winners or batting champions. I went after the famous Cubs double play combination of Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers and Frank Chance. The poem “Tinker to Evers to Chance" is well-known among baseball fans and this was a fun way to capture three of the top players found in the T206 set, all of them Hall of Famers. I even picked up a card of the third baseman, Harry Steinfeldt.

Or, you can try to piece together the entire set by scouring T206 for sale on the internet and at major card shows. Unless you’re really wealthy it will take you awhile, but you’ll enjoy every moment of the attempt to piece together the puzzle that is the T206 set.