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About The Set:
The 1911 T205 Gold Border tobacco set is one of the most sought after and collected baseball card sets produced prior to 1950.  The cards were produced by multiple tobacco brands, and used as a marketing scheme to sell cigarettes and tobacco products.  Each individual tobacco company printed their name/insignia on the back of the card.  The rarer backs command a higher value, depending on the rarity of the card/brands printed on the back. 

T205

The tobacco card set known as T205 was issued in 1911 in cigarette and loose tobacco packs through 11 different brands owned by the American Tobacco Company. It is a landmark set in the history of baseball card collecting.

History

The name T205 refers to the catalog designation assigned by Jefferson Burdick in his book The American Card Catalog. It is also known informally as the "Gold Borders" set due to the distinctive gold borders surrounding the lithographs on each card.

The T205 set consists of 220 cards, which includes many variations and short prints. The set consists of three different leagues: the American, National, and Minor Leaguers. The American League can be identified by the baseball diamond surrounding the portrait of the player sporting their team logo near the top. The National League displays a simple colored background with the first-ever use of a facsimile autograph of the player. Minor Leaguers are made up of 12 cards printed with noticeably different and more detailed borders. The cards measure 1-7/16" x 2-5/8" which is considered by many collectors to be the standard tobacco card size.

The T205 set is one of the most popular sets of the tobacco/pre-war era, second only to T206. The large number of variations, number of stars, and colorful artwork give it enormous appeal to collectors. There are 27 Baseball Hall of Fame members in the set (in alphabetical order): Home Run Baker, Chief Bender, Roger Bresnahan, Mordecai Brown, Frank Chance, Fred Clarke, Ty Cobb, Eddie Collins, Hugh Duffy, Johnny Evers, Clark Griffith, Miller Huggins, Hughie Jennings, Walter Johnson, Addie Joss, Rube Marquard, Christy Mathewson, John McGraw, Tris Speaker, Joe Tinker, Bobby Wallace, Zack Wheat, Cy Young.

With a little effort the set can be completed minus the most difficult card to obtain, the elusive Hoblitzell no stats.

Tobacco Brands that Produced T205 Cards

T205 cards were issued with 17 different backs, representing the 11 different brands of cigarettes/tobacco with which the cards were issued. Due to the same card having different backs, there are actually far more than 220 "different" T205 cards.

The 17 backs are:

• American Beauty Black
• American Beauty Green
• Broad Leaf Black
• Broad Leaf Green
• Cycle
• Drum
• Hassan Factory 30
• Hassan Factory 649
• Hindu
• Honest Long Cut
• Piedmont Factory 25
• Piedmont Factory 42
• Polar Bear
• Sovereign
• Sweet Caporal Factory 25 Black
• Sweet Caporal Factory 42 Black
• Sweet Caporal Red

New Error Discovered:

The sports memorabilia community recently discovered an uncorrected error on Cycle brand cards of Hall of Fame pitcher Christy Mathewson. While his pitching record should (and typically does) read 37-11, on Cycle cards it is listed as 37-1. While it is difficult to determine rarity and value due to a lack of market data, the card is expected to be more common and less expensive than the Hoblitzell no-stats variation.

Hooks Wiltse

"Hooks" earned his nickname because of his exceptional curveball and was one of the earliest pitchers to have a curveball regarded as being much more effective than his fastball.

From 1904 to 1914, he pitched for the National League's New York Giants. During that time, he combined with teammate Christy Mathewson for 435 wins, making them one of the best lefty-righty duos in history. Wiltse won five pennants with the Giants and pitched 3+1/3 innings in the 1911 World Series.

On July 4, 1908, Wiltse pitched a perfect game through 26 batters until he hit Philadelphia Phillies pitcher George McQuillan on a 2–2 count in a scoreless game. This was the only occurrence of a pitcher losing a perfect game with two outs in the ninth inning by hitting a batter until Washington Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer did so on June 20, 2015. Like Wiltse, Scherzer eventually completed a no-hitter, but unlike Wiltse, Scherzer had a 6–0 lead and was able to retire the next batter to end the game. Home plate umpire Cy Rigler later admitted he should have called the previous pitch strike three, which would have ended the inning. Wiltse pitched on, winning 1–0 in ten innings, with the hit-batsman the only lapse separating him from a perfect game. Wiltse's ten-inning complete game no-hitter still remains a Major League record.^[1]

"I missed being the only pitcher of all time to pitch a perfect ten inning game because Cy Rigler miscalled a strike. He admitted afterward he could have called it one. It was a tough break for the next pitch struck McQuillan on the shoulder and put him on first base. It had been a perfect game for eight and two-thirds innings."^[1]

As a pitcher, Wiltse was an above average hitter and fielder and was occasionally used as a position player to include playing first base in game two of the 1913 World Series where he cut down two runners at home plate in the ninth inning.^[1] He posted a career .210 batting average (156-for-743) scoring 81 runs with 2 home runs, 79 RBI and drawing 50 bases on balls.

In 1915, he jumped to the Brooklyn Tip-Tops of the Federal League, which is where he ended his major league career. He continued to play minor league baseball on and off until 1926. His last appearance came with the Reading Keystones, where he played in five games at the age of 46.^[1]

Following his retirement from baseball, Hooks returned to his hometown of Syracuse, New York, where he worked in real estate and became involved in local politics, serving as a local alderman and property assessor.^[1]

Wiltse died as a result of emphysema on January 21, 1959, at age 79.^[1]