1921 E121 American Caramel Series of 80

[ls7plus]

As I'm sure many of us already know, the 1921 E121 American Caramel Series of 80 cards come with two different backs: the first, and most common, has a first line on the back of the card that reads "This set consists of eighty of the...," while the scarcer back's first line reads "This set consists of eighty..." Several questions come to mind here:

(1) how rare are the second version backed cards, compared to the first?

(2) is there now or would you expect there to be in the future any significant premium attached to the scarcer version back, as we all know what's happened with rarer T206 back variations?

(3) does the back variation exist with every card in the set? I would think so, as the variation probably reflects a separate and distinct printing of the entire set.

Certain coins with less obvious variations have done quite well over time, value wise, after extended periods where no significant premium was initially attached to the rarer variation.

After visiting his website, I know Rhett is probably one of the most knowledgable collectors on this subject, and it would be interesting to get his imput.

As always, all thoughts are appreciated.

Larry

[sreader3]

Larry,

There are two even scarcer E121-80 back types. See here (Type 3)

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=121457&highlight=e121

and here (Type 4)

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=139598&highlight=e121

Plus, there is the reversed Type 1 back.

My own view is that these backs will never achieve the kind of premiums you see for difficult T206 backs since (1) interest in this set is much less than T206 and (2) the differences between the back types are relatively subtle.

Scot

[old-baseball]

As far as a premium for the type two back, I'd say you could expect to pay from 20% to 50% more for the card - at the higher end for HOF'er. These show up with some frequency. The type three backs as seen even less frequently and I couldn't venture to guess the premium on those. The type four are a relatively new discovery and I believe there are only a couple known cards at this point. There was a Sisler (Throwing - SGC "A") on Ebay several weeks ago and I don't recall if it sold or not. It may still even be there.

I will say that I agree with Scot in that they won't approach the T206 back premiums. Therre are fewer collectors of this set, but we still keep the eagle eye out for certain cards (fronts and backs)!