Nothing to Spit At: Rare Tobacco Items Featured at Heritage

The second auction of a celebrated collection of tobacco cards is open for bidding through Thursday, Sept. 11 at Heritage Auctions.

Extremely rare Ty Cobb Tobacco tin - the finest example on the planet! This circa 1910 “Ty Cobb Granulated Cut Plug” tin is estimated at $100,000 and up.

Part II of The David Hall T206 Collection features 525 lots containing nearly all of “The Monster’s” most elusive rarities — Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb and Eddie Plank among them — with only the ultra-scarce Joe Doyle NY Nat’l card missing from the impressive assembly. The aggregate GPA of 6.89 ranks the No. 2 T206 set on the PSA Set Registry.

“David is a true hobby legend,” noted Chris Ivy, Director of Sports Auctions for Heritage. “Only the most knowledgeable and resourceful of collectors could piece together a T206 set of this condition and comprehensiveness. This is an event no serious tobacco card collector could ignore.”

An extremely rare Ty Cobb brand tobacco tin is also included among the offerings, representing the finest example of the handful of known examples.

Each card is being sold as an individual lot, without reserve. The sale will close in extended bidding format at 10 p.m. CST, Thursday, Sept. 19.

The accumulation of more than 5,000 cards collected by Hall, founder of Collector’s Universe, will be sold through Heritage Auctions in a series of sales running through 2019 and beyond. The other one for 2019 is in December. The full collection is expected to command nearly $8 million in total.

Other highlights of the September auction include:

Bill O'Hara made just 124 Major League appearances during his career. While there remains a fairly substantial population of T206 cards commemorating his 1909 service to the New York Giants, the census relating to his brief Cardinals tenure is smaller by more than half. Adding to its scarcity is the fact this card is only available with the "Polar Bear" brand reverse. Graded PSA NM 7. Estimate: $80,000 and up.

1909-11 T206 Uzit Sam Crawford (with bat), PSA NM-MT 8, one of the finest Uzit T206 cards known

1909-11 T206 Polar Bear Ty Cobb (red portrait), PSA NM-MT 8, none higher

1909-11 T206 Polar Bear Bill O’Hara (St. Louis), PSA NM 7, highest of two known

1909-11 T206 Sovereign 150 Ty Cobb (green portrait), PSA NM 7, none higher

1909-11 T206 Old Mill Ty Cobb (bat off shoulder), PSA NM-MT 8, highest of two known

1909-11 T206 Sweet Caporal 150/30 Ty Cobb (bat on shoulder), PSA NM+ 7.5

1909-11 T206 Old Mill Christy Mathewson (white cap), PSA NM-MT 8, none higher

1909-11 T206 Sweet Caporal 350/30 Walter Johnson (hands at chest), PSA NM-MT 8

Bill O'Hara Polar Bear Ty Cobb tobacco tin

Paul KennedyAuthor