1909-1911 T206 Ty Cobb (Ty Cobb Back)
The landmark T206 set has four Cobb cards, but only one variation is rarer than the Wagner card. Ty Cobb’s red portrait advertises his own tobacco brand. The back of the card reads, “Ty Cobb, King of the Smoking Tobacco World.” The card is so rare that only 19 “Cobb-Cobb” variations have been graded by PSA, as opposed to 34 Wagner cards. In 2018, a copy of the T206 “Cobb-Cobb” that received a PSA 3.5 sold for $408,000.
1956 Topps (Mickey Mantle)
To put it simply, this is one of the most popular Mickey Mantle cards. Here we see the player smiling from ear to ear – for good reason because that year (1956), his 52 home runs and .353 batting average enabled him to capture the elusive Triple Crown. That year, Mantle became a true baseball superstar. This card has two variations, one with a grey back and one with a white back. The white backs may be tougher to find and worth more, but the grey backs have superior eye-appeal. A copy of the 1956 Topps Mantle with PSA 10 sold for $382,400 in August 2016.