This auction on eBay is for an unopened T206 cigarette pack.  I was under the impression that there was no way of knowing if these packs contained a baseball card or a card with a flag or bird or one of the other series of premiums but GAI has labled this unopened pack as a T206 Baseball card pack...   am I wrong?  Does this pack actually contain a T206 baseball card or is it just misleading lable...?

http://tinyurl.com/6ko3nc

martyOgelvie
nyyankeecards.com

Marty - besides not truly knowing, this pack cannot date before 1917 as it is a 12 cigarette configuration. GAI is very bad at identifying these correctly.

- Jon

Thanks Jon,

That's good info.  Does GAI just take the submitters word for it?  I am sure the submitter of this box noted on the submission form that this was a a Cigarrette pack from teh 1909-1911 era that contained a T206 card and GAI just said sure, why not!?!?

That's seems a bit insane to me..

martyOgelvie
nyyankeecards.com

GAI either takes the submitter's word for it or they make the mistake themselves. Same outcome many times...wrong. I think over the years they have gotten better at the dating. When they first started slabbing them they did a horrible job. I was in the elevator with some GAI folks at the National (a few years ago) and asked them about the erroneuous dating of the packs and they were very nonchalant about it......Packs have to have the overstamp on the stamp, and it be readable, to properly date them ....regards

edited to add- I just looked at this pack and it's in a new holder and very wrong....I guess they haven't learned from their mistakes......what a shame...I WONDER WHO AUTHENTICATED IT AT GAI?

They haven't learned or they don't care, slab, slab, slab in volume means $$$$$$$$$.

Maybe Giddings heads up pack authentication as well? All kidding aside, if GAI invested $40.00 in a copy of Springer's guide to revenue stamps, they could certainly increase their accuracy in correctly identifying these packs. This was the same issue we discussed with the REA Piedmont pack. All evidence (including revenue codes) says that 12 count configurations were first produced in 1917.

They don't care about right, they care about volume. Welcome to grading.