1914 Cracker Jack Still Most Expensive Complete Baseball Card Set?

[Old-T206]

Originally Posted by glchen

Here is the thread on the T215 Pirates set (and includes the link to the Legendary auction) that went for nearly 1 million: Linky

He had 96 of the 97 cards in the set? Why wouldn't he just wait until he found the final and last 97th card? And why did he grade all the cards in SGC? Out of the big 4 in grading companies, SGC gets you the least amount of money. So imagine if the guy had the 97th card, and imagine if he had all of the cards graded by PSA. I think the complete set would have gone over 1 million then. Why is this set so valuable? I've never really heard it before. Is it just really scarce?

[Bicem]

Originally Posted by Old-T206

He had 96 of the 97 cards in the set? Why wouldn't he just wait until he found the final and last 97th card? And why did he grade all the cards in SGC? Out of the big 4 in grading companies, SGC gets you the least amount of money. So imagine if the guy had the 97th card, and imagine if he had all of the cards graded by PSA. I think the complete set would have gone over 1 million then. Why is this set so valuable? I've never really heard it before. Is it just really scarce?

all great points, bet the seller is really kicking himself.

[terjung]

Hey, Sean...

In case you don't remember... you asked this exact same thing about 3.5 years ago. The "Search" function works pretty well.

Remember this?
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=86479

I think Joann's response (#18) was probably the most appropriate for answering your question.

If there were a T206 set in the same condition as the CJ set that you so often ask about, you would see that it far outshines the CJs from a value standpoint. That one particular CJ set was exceptional due to the quality of each of the individual cards in that particular set... that is why it ended up commanding the big price. To say that CJ > T206 because of that is not a fair comparison.

[Matthew H]

Go ahead and try to collect the Pirate set. You will be able to buy what ever you want when your older because of all the money you saved not finding any cards to buy.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Old-T206

So imagine if the guy had the 97th card, and imagine if he had all of the cards graded by PSA.

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

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[philliesphan]

surely an N172 Old Judge set would be the most expensive.

If T206 includes all the "variations" -- then an N172 set with all the variations would be so expensive, so incomprehensible, that a specific value would be quite difficult to ascertain.

If you include some sort of arbitrary grading designation [e.g. 6.57 GPA], assuming that it actually takes image clarity into account and does not include NM/MT miscut, faded cards, and you are suddenly talking million(s) of dollars.

[fkw]

An E107 set would make the 1914 Cracker Jack set look cheap... and would rival the overrated T206 set even with the Wagner IMO

T206 is the easiest of all sets of its size until you get to the last 4 cards.

[terjung]

Originally Posted by fkw

An E107 set would make the 1914 Cracker Jack set look cheap... and would rival the overrated T206 set even with the Wagner IMO

T206 is the easiest of all sets of its size until you get to the last 4 cards.

Love the way you think, Frank and I agree with you.

[tiger8mush]

Originally Posted by fkw

T206 is the easiest of all sets of its size until you get to the last 4 cards.

How many pre-war sets are of the size of T206?

[fkw]

Your right there arent many sets as big as the T206 group.... T206 set is really a bunch of sets issued over multiple years collected as a group (individual brands and 150, 350, 460 sub etc). Thats the only reason its so big.

T210 group is bigger than T206 group, for one, and if you just considered 1 year of T206 (ie 150 subjects, 1909), then you have many sets that equal it in size or are bigger.

T209-2 (B&W) is a big set too.


Its actually funny that T206 could ever be thought of as in the same league with a set like E107. Every single card in E107 is 5X+ rarer than the T206 Wagner (not rare), including the E107 Honus Wagner... his rookie, along with other rookies like Mathewson, Plank, Bender, Waddell, Joss, Lajoie, etc. etc. etc.

PS. How many E107 sets are out there?? Ive heard of a couple that are/were close... but dont follow it closely.
Ive only owned 2 individual E107 cards in my life...

[cozmokramer]

Old judge for sure with all poses and calif league cards.

A T206 set can be completed without any problems given enough funds, the same can't even be said for n172

[terjung]

Originally Posted by fkw

Your right there arent many sets as big as the T206 group.... T206 set is really a bunch of sets issued over multiple years collected as a group (individual brands and 150, 350, 460 sub etc). Thats the only reason its so big.

T210 group is bigger than T206 group, for one, and if you just considered 1 year of T206 (ie 150 subjects, 1909), then you have many sets that equal it in size or are bigger.

T209-2 (B&W) is a big set too.


Its actually funny that T206 could ever be thought of as in the same league with a set like E107. Every single card in E107 is 5X+ rarer than the T206 Wagner (not rare), including the E107 Honus Wagner... his rookie, along with other rookies like Mathewson, Plank, Bender, Waddell, Joss, Lajoie, etc. etc. etc.

PS. How many E107 sets are out there?? Ive heard of a couple that are/were close... but dont follow it closely.
Ive only owned 2 individual E107 cards in my life...

Unless I am mistaken, the answer is still zero. I am told that one person is one card away (perhaps a team variation). A couple others are close too... something like 6 away and a dozen or so away. I may be off on those numbers. Scott B. would probably be able to give the correct numbers of how many remain in the "most complete near-sets".

To comment on the scarcity of the E107 Wagner vs. the T206 Wagner, the graded pop of E107 Wagners was 4 at last check (SGC+PSA+GAI). Granted, there are some raw ones out there in a couple of the near sets, but I'd be really surprised if the total surviving exceeded 10. That's probably a pretty conservative number and is higher than what I think is actually out there. Estimates for the population T206 are commonly in the 60 range, but I've also heard numbers higher than that (even on the order of 1.5 times that). I don't have access to PSA pops, so I can't give an apples to apples graded pop comparison, but the scarcity difference is pretty stark.