[DixieBaseball]

Scott - Interesting perspective, as I once looked at these the same way as you did many years ago when all I collected were HOF players. A few things that strikes me interesting about these cards is their true scarcity. A collector can wait years for any number of players to surface and for me that adds to the allure as opposed to getting a common T206 HOFer or even Southern Leaguer. Besides the scarcity, the T210 set has in my humble opinion some of the most unique poses of any tobbacco set in the world. (All tobbaco sets have a handful of neat poses, but this set seems to have buckets of them...) Thirdly, this set seems to hold many stories behind the story if you know what I mean. (It takes a little digging, but a lot of these guys mixed it up in the Major Leagues... Especially the Southern League Series 8 guys)

As far as your comments about rarity, I think many would disagree, but that is up for debate on the "What is rare" thread. If you consider a few dozen or less examples rare, then I believe that there are plenty of cards in this set that may qualify.

Of course desirability is in the eye of the beholder, and to each his own. I think I have seen several advanced collectors get into this set once they bought their 9th Cobb, finished an E sub-set, etc... This set has a certain charm about it...

As for the no name minor leaguers, there are actually several minor leaguers who played in the Big's, and some that actually chose to play careers in the Minor's and there are a bunch that were very good ball players.

As for just a few rarities, sure the Stengel and Jackson get mentioned all the time, but players like Moxie Manuel, Ted Breitenstein, Bill Bernhard, Hub Perdue, Everett Hornsby, Gowdy, Cross, and Benton among many have their own stories. I think that adds to the fun of collecting this set - the history and the minor research one can do to find more out about these dudes.

Lastly, this set can be collected by the most advanced collector and the beginner. So many different ways to collect it. Collect a town, a series, or the whole set.

Finally, as a collector, I like the fact that not everyone wants to collect this set. It not being mainstream is probably one of the major reasons, why I do collect it.

Take care,

Jeremy