Most undervalued pre-war baeball card?

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Posted By: Ben

What is the most undervalued pre-war card? I find myself without an answer to this question, but I'm interested as to what you guys think.

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Posted By: Ben

Obviously I meant 'baseball' in the title, but feel free to post your opinions on the most undervalued 'baeball' card as well

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Posted By: runscott

ultra-rare, and fairly attractive.

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

Hmm...how about a middle grade T206? (vg-ex---ex). Anything higher than that, and you tie yourself up in knots trying to figure out how it's been doctored. Yet you can still get a T206 HOFer, ex, for $150...or even less.

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Posted By: David

While some unique cards attract monster prices (Darby, etc), a number of unique to ulra rare but severly obscure cards fall beneath the cracks. This includes the Frederic Photo Babe Ruth (I think 3 known to exist) and a few unique 19th century HOFer trade cards.

Popularity and resulting prices often is an unexplainable (to me at least) proposition. I understand why a 1unique 1912 Boston Garter Walter Johnson would be worth tons, but I have never understood the extraordinary prices for the Darby 'cards.' Then, I never understood the popularity of Ed McMahon either.

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

Darbys, too. They look like firemen in full gear!

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Posted By: jay behrens

Strip card HOFers. The commons seem to comman very high prices relative to the HOFers in the sets. I got a nice w514 Ruth for $160 and vg/ex plus Cobb for $85. commmons in that same auction were going for $20 plus in similar condition

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Posted By: Brian H.

I concur with Julie that the Fan Craze cards used to be among the most undervalued. Additionally, I think that the other game cards (Polo Grounds, Tom Barker etc.) are undervalued. Like the Fan Craze cards, these offer collectors a relatively affordable way to get nice photographic images of the dead ball greats including: Cy Young, Lajoie, Wagner, Cobb, Johnson, Wood, Shoeless Joe and Alexander. These are particularly affordable if you look for "collector grades" rather than the slabbed ones graded from 7 to 9

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Posted By: runscott

and you know I like you so don't take it too personal...

but YOU ARE NUTS!

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Posted By: julian

I've been told that the 1904 Cy Young, Connie Mack, and the 1906 Honus Wagner, are the hardest ones to get of these sets.

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Posted By: Andy Baran

The Fan Craze cards were issued in full sets, so no card is more scarce than the others from a production standpoint. The Young and Wagner are the toughest to aquire because they are the most popular cards in the respective sets. I haven't noticed that the Mack is particularly difficult. However, in my experience, the American League cards are tougher to find than the National League.

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Posted By: jay behrens

how are HOF strip cards not a good long term buy? As cards of Ruth, Cobb, Johnson, etc keep going up in price in the tobacco and gum sets where will the less wealthy collectors go looking for these cards? The only place to find 'cheap' HOFers is in the strip cards. Where else could you find a VG/EX Joe Jackson, Ruth, Cobb etc for under $200?

They may not be the prettiest cards in the world, but if someone wants an affordable card of these top tier players, then they will have to go to strip cards.

Would I like to have a Goudey Ruth for my player set? Sure, but even a crappy one is pretty much out of my budget. One the other hand, a nice VG/EX Ruth cost me $160. Even the 'home plate' Goudey Ruth went for more than double that.

Jay

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Posted By: Jay Miller

If a card is really ugly, which strip cards are, why do you need to buy them at all. If you want images of the players buy a good book with pictures. If something is cheap there is usually a reason. In the case of these cards I fully agree with Scott; the reason is obvious.

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Posted By: jay behrens

but if you are a card collector and don't want picture or books, then strip cards are least expensive option.

Look at caramel cards, they were considered a red headed step child in the hobby for a long time, now they desirable and getting pricey.

Jay

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

aren't ugly at all, and you can still get an Our National Game card, slabbed and graded, of Shoeless, for about $1400. TRhe backs of the Natioanl Game, the Polo grounds, and the E.R. Williams (nice cheap game card from the 19th century) are especially attractive.

For quite a while my only Anson and Ewing was the E.R. Williams that has a color sketch of both of them.

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Posted By: Albie O'Hanian

I would certainly agree on the game cards. The first Hall of Famer pre-1948 cards I ever bought were Tom Barker cards and they were very cheap relative to the players other cards.

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Posted By: brian parker

I believe Jay B. is correct about stip cards. Like he mentioned, our beloved small size E-cards were once somewhat looked down upon. Strip cards are great for the beginning collector looking to pick up the big name players for reasonable amounts of cash. They will always being considered bottom rung collectibles within the vintage market, but in my opinion some of the cards are worth collecting. Others are just plain ugly, and not even squinting helps. As for aesthetics on the most common issues, I would stick to the W514 and W551 sets, and the W502, W572, W573 and W575 on the later photographic issues.

Brian

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Posted By: TBob

Used to be 6x the price of a T206 in the first guides, now look. They are better looking, far, far scarcer, and actually have a high percentage of players who played major league ball. I also think T207s in general are undervalued and ready to move, along with the pre-war caramel cards.

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Posted By: runscott

I don't really think you are nuts - it could very well be that they are under-valued and could be a good buy. Personally, i don't even consider them cards, but that's another debate altogether. Compared to e-cards, they are just plain ugly and inferior in every way: color, composition, resemblance to anything realistic, material made from, handj-cut, blank back....Like Jay Miller asked, why would you want one?

P.S. - I'm mainly dis'ing those color ones that are made from thick newspaper and look like bad comic strip images.