Polar Bears--How I Will Collect T206 Cards

Since there is so much variation in these cards, any collector should first decide how they will approach their collection.

My initial thought is to choose a card back--a tobacco company--to collect. Piedmont and Sweet Caporal are all over the place and are usually cheaper because of that.

Some of the other sets are very rare and thus very expensive per card.

Polar Bear cards sticks out to me. Mostly because I was a fan of the TV show Lost. There was a polar bear on a jungle island! No way! How weird is that? Plus, a polar bear on an island with a "smoke" monster! Coincidence? I think not!

I have seen some of these cards and I like the way the backs look. Polar Bear is the only company that wasn't a cigarette maker, but rather a seller of loose tobacco. They are not as common as Piedmont and Sweet Caporal, but still not hard to come across.

I like that midrange target.

In trying to find information on who Polar Bear Tobacco was, I came across this.

"In 1901 the Luhrman and Wilbern Tobacco Company of Cincinnati was moved into part of the Sorg Tobacco Company's plant by The American Tobacco Company. It was the manufacturer of what came to be called "Polar Bear Chewing and Smoking Tobacco." By 1909 the Middletown Branch of The American Tobacco Company employed 1700 people, with a payroll of over $15,000 per week, and a daily capacity of 150,000 pounds of manufactured product."

This is a poorly worded paragraph! "It was the manufacturer" of Polar Bear. Presumably, the "It" is Luhrman and Wilbern Tobacco Company.

 An old pack confirms that Luhrman and Wilbern produced Polar Bear Tobacco.

 Herbert Fall, an artist around the early 1900's, did drawings of scenes in Middletown, OH, including one of the Polar Bear Tobacco Factory.

"One of the most common smoking and chewing tobacco brands in the United States was Polar Bear, manufactured in Middletown by the Paul J. Sorg Company and later the P. Lorillard Company. For years Polar Bear was painted on the corner of the plant that covered a full city block and employed 1800 workers. Prospective laborers bound for the plant climbed off the train when the conductor yelled "Polar Bear" making the call of Middletown unnecessary, c. 1900."

 So, Middletown, Ohio is the home of Polar Bear Tobacco around the time the T206 cards were being produced.

Good to know. I'm good with my Polar Bear history now!

The Tobacco Companies of T-206

T-206 cards are somewhat confusing. These cards were put out over three years (1909-1911), so some players have more than one card, set apart by new teams or new poses.

On top of that, the backs of the cards are different based on what company put them out and what printing.

Some of the larger sets include Sweet Caporal and Piedmont, which you will see most commonly.

A complete T206 set is assumed to be 524 cards, but within that there is tremendous variation based on what player pose or card back.

That being the case, some collectors just try to get all the Hall of Famers, others collect card backs--trying to get cards from just one tobacco company, and others try to get as many individual players as possible.

Here is a list from T206 Resource of the tobacco companies.

• American Beauty
• Broad Leaf
• Carolina Brights
• Cycle
• Drum
• El Principe De Gales
• Hindu
• Lenox
• Old Mill
• Piedmont
• Polar Bear
• Sovereign
• Sweet Caporal
• Tolstoi
• Uzit

What Does T-206 Mean?

One of the cool things about collecting T-206 cards is that you can call them "T-206 cards."

How cool does that sound?

"Ebay? Yeah, I do Ebay. I buy and sell T-206 cards."

Watch the immediate respect and awe you receive by casually dropping references to T-206 cards in your daily conversation.

Actually, it's neither respect nor awe, it's confusion.

Where does the T-206 name come from?

It's a good question, one I think few people who know about these cards would know the answer to.

The T-206 designation is from The American Card Catalog put together by Jefferson Burdick. It catalogs American trade cards published before 1951. It includes Cards put out by tobacco companies as well as bakeries, cabinet makers, caramel and candy makers, Cracker Jacks, and even egg and ice cream distributors.

T-206 cards are known for their white borders.
 

There are other similar sized baseball cards of the time, but the white borders set the T-206 set apart.

T-205 have gold borders and were put out in 1911.

T-207 cards all have brown backgrounds and were put out in 1912.

Most of these independent issued cards came to an end when Topps more or less took over the industry. Topps, incidentally, was a candy maker, which is why many fine, fine old Topps baseball cards have gum stains on them. Topps was originally a tobacco company known as American Leaf Tobacco.

Huh, you learn something new every day.

Introduction to T-206 Cards

T206 cards were produced from 1901-1911 by a handful of tobacco companies.

I bought a couple of these cards years ago and later sold them to get some cash. Although I no longer have the cards, they intrigue me.

There is something cool about these cards, I don't know what resonates with me about them, other than, they're cool!

I enjoy history and baseball has always been a favorite pastime. These cards capture both. They not only have history on them, but the story of each card, how they survived all those years, is fun to think about.

The number of people produced when these cards were is declining. How could a piece of cardboard survive better than some people?!

My first goal is to educate myself on these cards. Then move on to the players and the stories about the game from 1909-1911.

I am a novice to this niche hobby, but find myself drawn in. I look forward to what I will learn.