[Tao_Moko]

I went on a 2 month long search and purchase of the following:

Group #1:

Ames (HAC) - 3 Piedmont 150 ebay, 1 Sweet Cap 150 other; Total 4 avg $25
Ganley - 3 (2 Piedmont 150, 1 Sweet Cap 150) ebay; Total 3 avg $35
Tenney - 1 Piedmont 350 ebay, 2 other Piedmont 350; Total 3 avg $44

All three of these subjects seemed to lack a selection of mid grade cards. There were beaters and then a few examples of higher grades for each. In my very short research period I would conclude that Ganley is the toughest to find in high grade with Tenney coming in second and Ames last.

Group #2:

Foster - 1 Old Mill other $100
Hooker - 1 Piedmont 350 ebay $45

I passed on many others of each card. Foster was definitely more difficult than Hooker by a ratio of 3 to 1 and not easily attainable for under $100.

Group #3:

Dahlen Brooklyn - 1 board member pending sale Sweet Cap 350
Elberfeld Washington - 1 Piedmont 350 b/s/t $260
Brown Washington - 0
Lundgren Chicago - 1 Piedmont 150 friend $125

I could have bought several examples of each subject without any issue but it would have been costly to do so. I did buy one Brown/Chicago variation for $90 w/ a Sweet Cap 150 back.

This was a sampling of some of the tougher common player cards to find(based on fronts only) but I think I'll expand it to another grouping in June which I've already selected. My conclusion for the first grouping is that they were all attainable without much effort. Low grades in group #1 and #2 were very affordable while the higher grades demanded higher than average prices for common players. Group $3 had higher than average prices for low grades. If there's any interest in this then I'll post my next round of results.

*disclaimer - for the sake of this original post, I am not seeking any front/back combinations specifically even though the back has almost everything to do with the cards rarity/scarcity.