Posted By:
JimBYour observation is absolutely correct. E cards are infinitely more difficult to find in high grade than mainstream T cards like T-206. Some T sets also have factors that make them difficult in high grade like T204 and T205 with their gold borders (T204s are also very thin). There are several factors that account for this. One is just that E cards are a lot less plentiful that T206s. I would imagine there are close to 100x as many examples of any given T206 than any E card. If this rough approximation is anywhere near correct, then statistically there would one high-grade E card for every 100 high grade T206. The other major factor is that E cards were packaged with caramel. Aside from producing stains, E cards were mostly handled by kids who were a lot less careful with their cards in general than the adults who got cards out of cigarette packs. When an e-card survives in high grade, it is a near miracle.
As somebody who has been working on putting together a high-grade E93 set for more than a decade, it is both frustrating most of the time and extremely gratifying when I find a nice example. I just picked up a nm/mt Wagner about a month ago and I can't say how thrilled I was to finally get ahold of that. Overall, I would say my set is about nm on average, but there are definately a few that I would still like to upgrade. The challenge is a lot of fun and very rewarding.
JimB