Despite winning 326 games and three World Series in 17 major-league seasons, Hall of Fame pitcher Eddie Plank is far from a household name.
Yet the left-hander's impact remains strong among card collectors. His T206 card is known as one of “The Big Three,” along with the T206 Honus Wagner and 1933 Goudey Nap Lajoie, representing a trio of unspeakably rare and coveted vintage cards.
The Wagner’s tale is well-known and often told, frequently on the heels of a record-setting sale or historic find. However, the parallels between the two tobacco cards run deep — and the story behind the T206 Plank is just as fascinating.
Much like the cause of the Wagner’s extraordinary rarity, the T206 Plank’s origins are a mystery. Between PSA and SGC, less than 120 examples have been authenticated.
Compare that to other cards from the famed set, such as Ty Cobb, whose four variations of cards in the set can be found thousands of times in the PSA census alone, and the discrepancy is obvious.
In card collecting pioneer Jefferson Burdick’s landmark 1953 publication, The American Card Catalog, the T206 Wagner was listed as the most expensive card in the world at $50. Second place? The T206 Eddie Plank at $10.
Some believe the reason for Plank’s incredibly low production numbers in the T206 set come from his aversion from being associated with cigarettes, with which the cards (released by the American Tobacco Company) were packaged. If this seems familiar, it should, as it sounds a lot like the popular story of fellow “Big Three” member Wagner.
There is some circumstantial evidence to support this, as Norman L. Macht wrote in his 2007 book, “Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball,” that the secret to Plank’s pitching is “a good strong arm, a powerful constitution to back it, and neither drinks, smokes, chews nor swears."
Leighton Sheldon, founder of Just Collect, isn’t swayed by that theory.
“I don't know what his morals were,” Sheldon said.
Despite Plank’s stellar career, he simply was not nearly as covered in contemporaneous news media as a player like Wagner, leaving conjecture over his personal opinions to be less trustworthy.
Others argue a broken printing plate halted production for the card. This theory, while widely cited as a plausible cause for the Plank’s scarcity, is dismissed by many experts as implausible.
“I don't believe it because they produced so many other cards in the set. It's not as if the printing plate didn't produce any Plank cards,” Sheldon said. “In other words, they weren't produced with a ghost image. If you know anything about 'The Monster,' as it's affectionately known, the set has lots of printing issues throughout it. But I would say, out of all the things I've heard, it actually has the least support to me.”
Additional evidence to the contrary comes in the form of the Plank’s existence in both the 150 and the 350 series, which were printed over a period of years.
Truthfully, nobody knows the reason for one of the most remarkable rarities in the history of card collecting.
“I don't think anybody knows the true reason as to why it is so scarce. I mean, frankly, I don't think there's even consensus to this day about why the Wagner is as scarce as it is, and the Wagner is much more well-known and researched than the Plank,” said Brian Dwyer, president of Robert Edward Auctions.
That doesn’t stop some from speculating, however.
“If you had to say to me, there's a gun in my head, what I would say? I would say it’s because they weren't getting paid or weren't getting paid enough,” Sheldon said.
Of all the various hypotheses, this seems to carry the most weight, particularly given a piece of documentation known as the “Neal Ball letter.” In this 1909 letter written to the New York Highlanders by shortstop Neal Ball, there appeared to be evidence of a proposed agreement between the American Lithograph Company, which was believed to have printed the original cards for distribution by the American Tobacco Company.
The letter asked Ball to sign an agreement to allow the company to gain permission to use his likeness. Another article found in a 1912 edition of The Sporting News explained, "Not long ago a firm of tobacco manufacturers wrote to a local newspaper man and asked him to secure a picture of Hans Wagner to be given away with cigarettes together with the written permission of the big Dutchman to use it. The writer was promised a liberal fee for his work,” going on to say Wagner replied he "did not care to have his picture in a package of cigarettes."
This lends credence to both theories of inadequate compensation as well as the objection over use of likeness in tobacco brands, at least on behalf of Wagner — which, given the previously mentioned description of Plank as a non-smoker, could carry some weight in the case of the Plank card as well.
Further evidence was cited by Scot A. Reader in his comprehensive guide to the T206 set titled, “Inside T206: A Collector’s Guide to the Classic Baseball Card Set.”
Reader included an excerpt from a 1914 article in the San Jose Mercury News, which recounted Wagner’s roommate, Erv Kantlehaner, saying “Wagner’s only bad habit is his love of chewing tobacco, but he detests cigarettes, and does not smoke in any form. I have seen him refuse several checks of $1,000 by cigarette companies who want to use his name.”
Once again, this is a piece of evidence squarely to do with the mystery of the Wagner.
However, the intertwined history of both cards is undeniable, and therefore, they likely share origins.
“If there was no Honus Wagner, Eddie Plank would be the Honus Wagner,” Sheldon said, referencing Plank’s Hall of Fame career and the card’s scarcity leading it to emerge as the holy grail in place of a Wagner.
The two also share another similarity: Value.
While the T206 Plank is still miles behind the multi-million dollar sales of Wagner cards, it remains one of the most valuable of the set and the hobby writ large.
“The more notoriety, the more attention that the T206 gets, and the Wagner get, the Plank is obviously going to benefit from that as well,” Dwyer said.
In its highest grade to sell publicly, a PSA 7 (population of three, with one higher), a T206 Eddie Plank Sweet Caporal 350/30 sold for $690,000 in 2018. That remains the top sale for the card, however, the last time a copy graded higher than a PSA 3 came to market was 2020, when a PSA 6 example sold for $312,000.
Dwyer, who has dealt with dozens of Plank cards and multiple T206 Wagners, believes the mystery is the reason for its value.
“It's almost the type of thing where you don't want to know the secrets. You want to just keep believing whatever it is that you believe.”
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.