T205 - The Elusive Gold Gilded Set

[brianp-beme]

***See post #66 for the final list***

Brian L. (familytoad on here) was the individual who, many years ago, sparked the creation of the E90-1 Kraken thread. Here recently on that thread he threw down a challenge if there was another vintage set that could benefit from the same weighted point scale as seen with the Kraken.

I figured that for a set to qualify for this treatment, it had to be substantial in set size, and offer different levels of scarce/popular cards, just like the E90-1 set does. A few sets that came to mind that fit this bill were the E121 American Caramel Series of 80 set, E254 Colgan's Chips, and the T207 Brown Border tobacco set. However, I believe that these sets have relatively few collectors pursuing them, and I think a thread on any of these sets would suffer from cobweb accumulation. The one set that seemed to offer both size and an assortment of scarce cards AND one that is commonly collected, along the lines of the E90-1 set (though probably even more popular), is the T205 Gold Border set. Ah yes, the T205 set...the Elusive Gold Standard.

So I have come up with a tentative weighting for the cards in the master 221 subject card set. Here is what I have come up with (the Gold Standard value is in parenthesis):

Adkins, Doc (2)

Baker, Home Run (2)

Barger, Cy - partial B on cap (2)

Batch, Emil (2)

Bender, Chief (2)

Bresnahan, Roger - mouth open (3)

Brown, Mordecai (2)

Cady, Hick (2)

Chance, Frank (2)

Chase, Hal - only left ear shows (2)

Cicotte, Eddie (2)

Cobb, Ty (12)

Collins, Eddie - mouth closed (2)

Collins, Eddie - mouth open (3)

Collins, Jimmy (3)

Dahlen, Bill (2)

Donohue, Jiggs (2)

Dunn, Jack (2)

Evers, Johnny (2)

Fisher, Ray (2)

Frick, James (2)

Graham, Peaches - Cubs (2)

Grant, Ed (2)

Gray, Dolly - stats on back (3)

Hanford, Charles (2)

Harmon, Robert - only left ear shows (2)

Hoblitzell, Dick - no stats on back (15)

Hoblitzell, Dick - name incorrect/no Cin. After 1908 (2)

Hoblitzell, Dick - name correct/no Cin. After 1908 (2)

Johnson, Walter (5)

Joss, Addie (8)

Karger, Ed (2)

Kleinow, Red (2)

Latham, Arlie - W.A. Latham on back (2)

Lee, Wyatt (2)

Leifield, Lefty - A.P. Leifield on front (2)

Mathewson, Christy (5)

Mathewson, Christy - Cycle Back, incorrect stats (10)

McAllister, Sport (2)

Merritt, George (2)

Moran, Pat - stray line of type (4)

Nee, John (2)

Phelan, James (2)

Raymond, Bugs (2)

Rowan, John (2)

Scanlan, Doc (2)

Shean, David (2)

Speaker, Tris (4)

Suggs, George (2)

Sweeney, Jeff (2)

Tinker, Joe (2)

Turner, Terry (2)

Vaughn, Hippo (2)

Wagner, Heinie (2)

Wallace, Bobby - no cap - 1 line of 1910 stats (4)

Wallace, Bobby - no cap/2 lines of 1910 stats (3)

Walsh, Ed (3)

Wheat, Zack (2)

White, Kirb (2)

Wilhelm, Kaiser - suffe ed in 18th line of bio (3)

Wilhelm, Kaiser - suffered in 18th line of bio (8)

Wiltse, Hooks - only right ear shows (2)

Young, Cy (6)


There are 221 cards in the master T205 set, and thus all the other 158 cards not listed in the above would have an Elusive Gold Standard value of 1. Thus adding the values of all 221 together the ultimate EGS value for a T205 collection would be 350.

I have tried to weigh the cards based upon their scarcity, while taking into account their popularity (for example Hoblitzell - no stats may be by far the toughest card in the T205 set to come by, but Cobb is one that a wider range of collectors clamor for, and thus Ty's relatively high EGS value in comparison to Hoblitzell's).

Let me know if I have left any card out, shouldn't have included something, a card should have a higher/lower value, my math doesn't add up, or even if you think I am way off base, perhaps you think I am a complete gold bordered nutcase, etc., and I will consider making adjustments to the above. I felt like I had a more intuitive feel for the E90-1 set values than I do with the T205 set, but the Kraken benefited from a fairly substantial amount of input from others, so I imagine this T205 endeavor could end up being just such a collaborative effort. Once it seems like everything is cemented down, I will start up a separate thread, the Elusive Gold Standard thread, that I will maintain to log folks progress on the set.

Brian